January 2020 Newsletter

 

Newsletter January 2020

 

Robert Lindenberger

3325 3rd Avenue

Mims, FL 32754

321-368-7184

Expas65@yahoo.com

 

                 God is good all the time; all the time, God is good! Amen?

 

BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT

 

From Shepherds Press

New gifts for you

the day after Christmas does not mark the end of gift-giving. Each morning the gift of Christ awaits. Each morning new guests low from the hand of your Savior. No, these new guests may not come wrapped in special paper. Sometimes the gifts may not even look like anything special. But you have the promises of God that he will give you new ways to know him more deeply each day.

      God is relentless in his pursuit of bringing joy to your needy soul. It cannot be out given. No matter what the circumstances you face, the unfailing love of God is constant. This love transcends the difficulties of temporal life. Each morning the wonder of Christmas is yours again. This is not a gift that you have earned. Therefore, be like Christ. Don’t require others to make your love and your favor.

      Give this gift that is freely given to you to your spouse, to your children, to those God brings your way. May you and I rejoice that the Lord is our portion, now and forever.

      Because of the Lord’s great love, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faith in us. I say to myself, “the Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:22 – 24

      When I am down emotionally, you know, Pilgrim falls into the slough of despond, God always sends a messenger with his message to and for me. This from the most excellent writer ever, Dr. James Watson:

 

I’M A MESS.  YOU’RE A MESS.


At a conference, I shared that this “award-winning author” and “globe-trotting speaker” is a great, big, slobbering MESS. I have clinical depression, OCD, ADD and . . . what was I saying? Oh, yes, I’m on the Autistic Spectrum: I don’t like having my rigid routine disrupted (I need a 24-hour notice to be spontaneous), I hate traveling and being in new situations plus, although I love people, being around them drains my emotional batteries (I’m an off-the-chart introvert on the Myers-Briggs assessment). And so this outgoing, outspoken, outrageous author/speaker is, in reality, an Oscar-worthy performance by an introverted, inadequate and insecure actor.

 

      So, I asked the people in the audience to turn to the person on their right and say, “I’m a mess.” Then, I asked them to turn to the person on their left and say, “You’re a mess.” After the keynote, a woman came up to me in tears, gave me a hug (more like the Heimlich maneuver), and sobbed, “I’m so glad someone besides me is a mess.”

      It is liberating to realize, “I’m a mess. You’re a mess.” In fact, that should come as no surprise.

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

All our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

We are unworthy servants (Luke 17:10).

But here’s the wonderful mess-age for all of us messes:

 

We have a Mess-iah!

 

      Just look at the messes that God has chosen to use: Moses wasn’t a speaker. Gideon was the least of his tribe. David was a shepherd boy when he squared off with Goliath. Daniel was a POW. Jeremiah was suicidal with depression. Peter had a severe case of “hoof in the mouth” disease. James and John were hotheads nick-named “Sons of Thunder.” A little boy’s lunch could never feed five thousand hungry men. The woman at the well was the original “Desperate Housewife.” Paul had a “thorn in the flesh.” Mark was a quitter. Timothy was timid and sickly.

So, be encouraged. The Messiah can empower and use messes like you and me for His purposes. Paul writes: When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. . .. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

 

      So, repeat after me and say, “I’m a mess. You’re a mess.” And then proclaim, “That’s why we have a Messiah.”

Copyright © 2001, 2014 James N. Watkins USED WITH PERMISSION

 

      Yes, Dr. Watson, I am a MESS, and I am also thankful that God can make a MESSenger out of us.  I love to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

 

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