Let’s Begin
Christmas preparation in any home begins with a newness in the atmosphere and the ambience. Each one is super excited about it and therefore, they start with planning. Today let’s begin our church preparation for Christmas. Like any other important day, we begin with Christmas. When anyone plans for an event, they first start with jotting down what is required. Some people do a backward planning. What are the requirements for this day? Why is this day so significant for me? Or how do I make this day ‘The Most memorable moment’ of our lives.
Christmas comes and it passes on. But surprisingly it is the most awaited season of the year. Everyone waits so eagerly for it. I have never heard anyone getting bored of it. The very name December brings a smile on our faces. We can already feel something bubbling within us. What is the cause of this? How do we make this Christmas more meaningful?
Planning
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Proverbs 21: 5
During WWII General McArthur asked an engineer how long it would take to build a bridge across a certain river. “About three days.” The engineer was told to go ahead and draw up the plans.
Three days later McArthur asked for the plans. The engineer seemed surprised. “Oh, the bridge is ready. You can cross it now. If you want plans, you’ll have to wait a little longer, we haven’t finished those yet.”
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house. Proverbs 24: 27
Some years ago a young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. “That depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you fell this tree.”
The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, “Start Monday!”
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by, and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today.”
Startled, he replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.”
“Normally we do,” answered the foreman, “but we’re letting you go today because you’ve fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you’ve dropped from first place on Monday to last on Wednesday.”
“But I’m a hard worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!”
The foreman, sensing the boy’s integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your ax?” The young man replied, “I’ve been working too hard to take the time.”
- Mind map
It’s organizing my life. I need to understand where I am in my life. How is this Christmas going to make a difference anyway? God had a plan right from day one of Adam and Eve’s sin. He told Eve, that the seed of your womb will crush the head of the serpent.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16: 9
- Reflection
I need to reflect on my actions, my words, my attitude, my thinking, how am I and the way I have been throughout. It’s good to pray and ask God to show us our mistakes, our folly and also the way we have dealt with people and situations. Eg. Mirror. Question myself on my Faith. Did it grow or is it still stagnant? Is still God telling me that I love you or is God saying go ahead my child for you will be hated on preaching the good news but I am with
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Luke 14:28
James 1:22-24 — “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
- Introspection
Introspection is a deep conversation within yourself. How am I hurting others and why am I doing what I am doing? It’s good to rechannelize my thinking patterns. We ought to introspect. Am I becoming defensive or aggressive.
2 Corinthians 13:5 — “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
All the above will enable us to prepare our hearts for coming of our saviour. It would be great to spare a couple of hours on the above concerns.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1: 5
Basically a good planning session will help us to get into the actual job of cleansing. We can involve our leaders, mentors, family, and a trusted friend to plan our life or to help us walk in the plan of God.
Key Question: Am I in the centre of God’s will? My plan for Christmas is to have a good time and get back into that miserable life again or take this as yet another opportunity to unwind myself.
Cleansing
A woman once wrote that at a garage sale she had spotted a handsome antique copper kettle for only $2.50. It was badly tarnished, so she asked the woman running the sale if the discoloration would come out. She cheerfully offered to try some copper cleaner on it and disappeared with it into the house. Reappearing with the gleaming kettle, she handed it to the buyer for inspection. It was indeed a more attractive item, plus it also had a new tag attached. It read: “Like new-$10.” This is interesting. When the copper kettle first went on sale, it’s owner practically gave it away. But something changed its worth. What made the kettle more valuable? A simple cleansing. When the owner took the trouble to clean away the grime/ removed the discoloration and stains it was worth 4 times as much Almost everything IS more valuable once it has been washed and cleaned up, and so it is with us (Source Unknown).
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
- Dusting off the wrong
Dusting is basically wiping off the layers that can be seen. It’s very evident that we need to cleanse our small wrongs (according to us it is small but for God it’s the same). We need to forgive those people who have gossiped about us, we need to forgive those who are not related to us and their actions have hurt us but not so much that I am bothered about it. It’s only a quick cleansing.
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
- Scrubbing of the deep
Some issues in our life need deep cleansing. There are baggages, emotional hurts, our hampered relationships that need cleansing. That needs to be resolved. It may not go very easily but it does need a lot of detergents, strong cleansing formulas, it takes all our strength. This cleansing may drain us out. We may want to ask some other professionals to help us out with these kind of issues. Yes it’s a lot of scrubbing. May be there are some places we have never looked at, we want to look at those areas. We may have never looked into our financial sins, into our relational, into our prayer life. We may have a face that people see but there is another person living in me. Let’s scrub it off.1 Corinthians 6:1-20
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers
- Decluttering
At times, our life is so messy, it needs decluttering. It needs some things sorted. Lot of misunderstandings need an explanation. Sometimes we need to sit down with the confusion and rewind everything. Apologise, get everything right. We need to pour our heart to the Lord. Ask him to help us declutter our messed up lives. Get rid of all the bitterness and hurts. Asking God for healing from within.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1: 9
Those who refuse to make New Years resolutions because they always break them anyway are missing the point. Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. (Source Unknown).
Restructuring
After all the cleansing we need to restructure our lives. Put things in the right order.
Matthew 7:3-5 — “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
- Discard
We need to discard all that is not bearing fruit. Or it doesn’t matter any more. Some things are no longer required. We need to make decisions to let go. These are the most difficult decisions, to let go. Sometimes we also have to let go of toxic relationships, habits, Jobs, etc. vs If a hand causes you to sin gauge it out.
So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Mathew 5: 29 – 30
Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways, for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. Prov 3: 31 – 32
- New
So as we are cleaning, we figure out that there are lot of things that we need to buy. While we are reflecting, introspecting, we understand that only God can make things new. We need to form new habits, get a new job, so that we get rid of old habits and rituals, get a new schedule, so that we can have our personal life with God in place.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Phil 4: 19
- Renew
We need to relook at what we are intending to go. Start analysing God’s plan. We need to renew certain decisions. Sometimes renewing of stuff simply works well.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me Psalm 51: 10
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Rom 12: 2
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90: 12
My life is controlled by a clock. School begins at 8:00 a.m., and I am there at 7:30 to work with students. First period ends at 9:30, and new students arrive. And so on, through the day. Then, when school is over, I have my first music student at 3:00. My first math tutoring session is at 3:30. And on it goes.
On Sundays, I preach at 8:00 a.m. at a nearby church that is pastorless, and I’m expected to be there on time, ready to go. Some Sundays I preach at two churches, and then I have to leave the first church at 9:00 a.m. in order to get to the next church by 10:00 a.m.
Day after day, week after week.
The strange thing is, I never realized just how regimented my schedule is. I never gave it a thought. It was simply part of how life works.
Then I went to Argentina. And I discovered that not everyone operates the way we do here in the United States. When does church start? When everyone gets there, and has had a chance to greet everyone. When is supper? Sometime in the evening when it’s ready.
We’re doing an after-school program? Great! What time is that? 3:00. Or maybe 3:20? Or 4:00? Well, no, not everyone is here yet, so we’ll get started around 4:15.
And all of a sudden, for the first time, I realized just how much my life centered around the ticking of a clock.
Now, my point in sharing this is not that one way of approaching life is better or worse than the other (there are positives and negatives to both approaches). My point is: centering my life’s activities around the movement of gears and clock hands is something I was virtually unaware of, to the point that it never occurred to me that there was another way to approach life.
The same was true of how I greet people. I grew up in a culture where a greeting goes (almost without fail) like this:
Me: Hi, how ya doing?
Them: Fine, you?
Me: Good.
And that’s it. Fast forward to the time I spent in northern Africa, and discovered that every greeting involves a plethora of questions like “How is your wife?” “Is business going well?” “Are you parents well?” and you are actually expected to answer these questions, instead of just saying, “Oh, fine.”
I was never aware of how shallow our greetings are until I went somewhere that they did something very different, and suddenly I became very conscious of the manner in which I greet people!
Sandra wife of Virjil .The New Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that New Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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