The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the thing I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is; not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

It's Christmas Time

You and your family are invited to join us this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of God’s Son, Jesus.

Schedule of Services

December 6th, 11am - Christmas is a time for celebration.

December 13th, 11am - Christmas is a time for singing. Christmas Musical

December 20th, 11am - Christmas is a time for salvation.

December 20th, 6pm - Christmas Caroling and Hot Chocolate

December 24th, 5pm - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.

December 27th, 11am - Christmas is a time for reconciliation.

First Baptist Church, Lipan, Texas; www.fbclipan.net

Christmas Lights and the Light of Christmas

This past Saturday morning I did something that I had never done before. I pulled out the ladder, pulled myself onto our carport, then courageously climb up the roof of our home. I say courageously because the incline of my roof is much steeper from on top then it appears from the ground! From there, I began to hang Christmas lights. One of the things Sunshine and I love about Christmas is driving through neighborhoods with Christmas lights and seeing the expression of our girls. Still, Sunshine and I had never hung up outdoor Christmas lights on our home, nor, as far as we can remember, did we ever have outdoor lights growing up. Saturday afternoon we headed to the metroplex for our final Thanksgiving gathering, then as we returned Saturday, we saw it: Our home all lit up for Christmas! The girls were all excited. Sunshine spoke of our home's beauty. And I must admit, I was pretty proud. It is truly beautiful to see lights during the Christmas season!

Still, let's remember that the most beautiful illumination of Christmas is not the lights hung from roof lines, but the Light of Christmas Himself: Jesus! Isaiah 9:2, 6 reads, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. . . For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." In John 8:12, Jesus Himself said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life!." Jesus is the light of Christmas Who, as the Son of God, perfectly reveals the Father. As the light, Jesus is perfect in holiness, goodness, truth. He grants joy and salvation. And not only is He the light, He illuminates the lives of those who embrace Him so they may shine His light throughout the world. He is truly the most beautiful light of Christmas! And He is the light we can admire year around!

May God bless you this Christmas season and you celebrate and admire the Light!

Please Show Me Your Glory!

Many times we see prayers in Scripture that seem typical of our prayers. "Heal my son." "Help me to see." "Provide for my needs." "Let my brother live." "Heal my marriage." You know, the kind of things we pray all the time. Then every now and then we see a prayer that seems to be on a completely different level than most of us reside in. "Lord, teach us to prayer." "Thank You for allowing me to suffer for Your Name." "To live is Christ; to die is gain."

One of those other level prayers is found in Exodus 33. It is a very simple prayer. Moses says, "Lord, show me Your glory!" Think about for a moment. Moses was God's man for that generation. God already spoke to Him through a burning bush! Shouldn't that be enough, Moses? No! How about the fact God miraculously worked through you forcing the hand of the most powerful man in the world to let you go! Still not enough? OK, what if God were to meet you on a mountain personally and say. . . give you 10 rules that will govern human morality. Would that satisfy you? Oh, He has already done that, too. What about this. What if God were to meet you face to face, like a man does to a friend. Doing that now, hmmmm.

You get the picture. This was not a man who had no knowledge of God asking God to show Him something about Himself. This was man who knew God intimately - possibly more intimately than anyone else alive. And then Moses says, "I want more!" Sounds selfish. It's not. It's love! It is allowing your heart to be so vulnerable to God to cry out to Him, "the more of you I know (not intellectually but relationally) the more of you I want to know". It is saying "Your holiness, love, and grace, is beyond me! But, I want to see that!"

So what did God do? God told Moses that if I show you my full glory you will die. But I will answer your prayer. I will show you as much of my glory as you can handle.

God, would you do that for us! For me! For those who read this! Show us as much of your glory today as we can handle. And then show us a little more tomorrow. We ask because we love You!

How To Beat the Doldrums and Survive Depression

Psalm 42-43

1. Seek God with all your heart. 42:1-2

2. Don't believe the lies. 42:3, 10

3. Remember God's past faithfulness. 42:4-6

4. Honestly open your heart up to God, while trusting in His perfect plan. 42:9, 43:2

5. Let God's love flow over you. 42:7-8

6. Make God your Rock and Refuge. 42:9, 43:2

7. Trust God to make things right in His time. 43:1

8. Immerse yourself in God's truth. 43:3

9. Preach to yourself! 42:5, 11; 43:5

10. Remember, with God, there is always hope! 42:5, 11; 43:4, 5

Men, be intoxicated by your wife.

Scripture exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Such love is sacrificial and sanctifying. Proverbs 5:19 tells us to be intoxicated always in the love of our wife. The word translated intoxicated in the ESV is variously translated as follows:
Captivated, NIV
Exhilarated, NAS
Take delight in, The Message
Transported by delight, Amplified
Ravished, KJV
Enraptured, NKJV
Lost in her love, infatuated, HCSB

The Hebrew word which merits such various translations carries the idea of being led away by. I get the picture of having your affections carried away and mesmerized by the love of your wife. I see a parallel in Paul saying the love of Christ controls us.

Husbands, may God raise the level of our affections and may they be harnessed and carried away by "the wife of our youth." She is the only one who can be and must be the object of our heart's affections.

As for me, I'm intoxicated by Sunshine!

Keep Moving Forward

Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious. . . and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

The Narrow Road

The words of Christian in John Bunyan's "The Piligrim's Progress" as he us facing the decision to take the easier roads to the left or right or the narrow road that God had called him to take:

This hill, though high, I covet to ascend,
The Difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the Way to Life lies here:
Come pluck up, Heart; let's neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the Right Way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the End is Woe.

Toplady's Poem

Poem By Toplady:

A sovereign protector I have,
Unseen, yet for ever at hand;
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command.
He smiles, and my comforts abound;
His grace as the dew shall descend,
And walls of salvation surround
The soul to defend.

Spirit Quenchers

In considering what the Spirit of God has done and will continue to do among us, I have been meditating on 1 Thessalonians 5:19, "Do not quench the Spirit." A question that arises is, what are some "Spirit Quenchers?" I'm sure this is not an exhaustive list, but the context of the verse seems to identify at least the following:

1. A lack of joy - Sounds strange but joy is not an option but an expectation of the Christian life.

2. A lack of prayer - The opposite is also true, Prayerfullness fuels the work of the Spirit.

3. A lack of thankfulness - Do we grumble or give God glory?

4. An attitude of judgement towards the message - I don't like it, We have never done it. Do not let "I" and "We" stand in the way of God!

5. The test of personal preference - Do we test whether things are of God based upon what is comfortable to us or upon the revealed truth of God's Word?

6. Evil - This could be bad doctrine or bad action or bad attitude.

God has and is working in a way that is uncharted territory for me. Let us not quench the Spirit but allow Him to do that which is beyond anything we can image!