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This year I actually read the Book- Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol.” Did you know there has never been a MOVIE yet that has stayed totally true to the original story? I also learned what “Bah Humbug” really means. In Dickens’ Day, it means referring to a person- or an event- as a fraud, imposter, implying an element of hypocrisy! When Scrooge called Christmas a “Humbug,” he didn’t believe that people were sincere when it came to keeping Christmas as it was meant to be kep…t. He saw his society using it as more show than substance and at least he felt there was nothing fake about him. He was a Man of Business all 365 days a year! It wasn’t until Scrooge literally “Got the Spirit” and allowed his cold heart to engage with all that Christmas really means! Maybe even in our own day- we have become guilty of making Christmas more about fluff than faith! God says, “You’ve heard my story and many of you have read it over and over again- but it isn’t until you taste and see that the Lord is good will you ever understand the power of its impact!” You can’t just hear the word- the Word must enter into you. You can’t just play a Christmas Carol- you need to allow the Christ of the Day to sing his song in you! It takes much more than a menu to quiet a hungry tummy and it takes you and i to have the courage and guts to not judt know about the Way- but to walk God’s Way right behind him! His Light will launch His Leadership in you! Will you make room for the real Author of Christmas?

This Advent season, I have chosen the theme “Be Christmas Lights” for our Weekend Services at The Lighthouse Church. I have reiterated over and over again that you can’t be something that you haven’t been properly equipped to pull off. There is no power for your light to shine if you are not currently plugged in to the proper source! It takes a personal relationship with the God who made you for you to reach your maximum brightness index. And the reason Jesus came to invade our space in the first place was so that he could ignite the true light inside each and every one of us who were designed in the image of our Creator.

   If statistics hold true, it is a pretty good guess that you have some difficult people in your life. I think they come out of the woodwork in droves during the Holiday Season. Once again, how can we possibly love others if our own tank is always running on empty? You need to be filled if you are expecting to be spilled. Only the Lord can supply you with the unconditional grace and mercy that gives you the ability to pour out kindness when you are squeezed by life.     

 If there’s anybody in your world that you would admit it’s hard for you to connect with or they might tend to hang on the sarcastic side of the highway, I have hopeful thoughts for you. If somebody is always spicing their sentences with words barbed with hot sauce so that your countenance transform into a beet red face, then I have good news for you. We don’t have to pretend to make life work because if that was the case how could anything be real? We all know individuals who talk too much, drink too much, smoke too much, brags too much or become way too opinionated for anyone’s good?

In the Home Alone Movies, ten year old Kevin McAlister twice wishes that his family would just disappear and when he gets what he longs for, he realizes that life as a solo member isn’t what he expected it to be. He gets lonely and he realizes that as imperfect as his family is, he isn’t complete without them. We need to learn the same lesson! The evidence weighs heavily in favor of the fact that people were created for community. And as much as we might get on each other’s nerves at times, we can’t live without the company. Even if you love somebody, if you just go up to them and say, “I know how you ought to change and I stayed up all last night writing a list of all the specific ways that you can improve,” chances are pretty good that they won’t always receive your corrections really well.”  However, if we allow the Holy Spirit to do his work, his way through us, amazing endings come to those whose stories had a pretty bumpy beginning!

 Christmas reveals to mankind that in the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth, we all have been given the invitation to be rescued. Christmas proves to us that our Lord didn’t make a promise that he wasn’t committed to deliver upon. Christmas is more than just superficial words that melt away like snow when heat is applied. Christmas is God’s time to prove that his people represent him well!

I have been to Churches that advertised themselves as “Friendly,” and “Relational.” Unfortunately, just having it written in their Mission Statement did not result in it being believably behaved. What good is it to advertise a product that you don’t even carry in stock?

 If I had a dime for every time I have heard the statement that, “People are so much friendlier in the Midwest,” I’d be a rich man. I lived in Omaha, Nebraska. They took the Jersey Boy out of the Garden State but they couldn’t remove the Garden State out of the Jersey Boy! I tasted first hand of how the label doesn’t always guarantee the ingredients!

One day while I was at work at the Church, a blizzard hit. White Out conditions can cause death. I rarely wear a coat, even in the winter and I didn’t have one with me when the snow came at us like a rushing wave. I drove a Ford Festiva at the time and the car was so tiny, I used to joke that I could put it in my pocket and take it into the building with me. I should have stayed put but I jumped in my vehicle with the goal of getting to my house so I could be with Terri and the kids! Long story short, I ended up stuck in a snowdrift. I got out into the storm with only my short sleeved shirt and attempted to flag somebody down so they could help me in my predicament. Not one person slowed down never mind stopped to assist me. I waved my arms frantically but nobody responded. It finally reached the point that I had to literally walk back to the Church with the whipping wind pelting my face! Don’t give me how friendly everybody is when I could have died out there that day and nobody would have known because I would have been buried under 20 plus inches of the white stuff! We East Coast people might get a bad rap but I am here to tell you, we go way deeper than just a passing wave in a warm car.

 Christmas is no time for pretending. Either God has filled our lives with his Spirit or he hasn’t! This is the Season for Believers in Jesus to turn on the lights bright for our family, friends and neighbors who are stumbling in the dark. If all we have is a reputation for loving others but have nothing concrete to show for it, we fail miserably. The Lord is ready to move in us so that he can pour through us. We should have no excuse for coming up small. We’ve been given the equipment but just owning it without properly using it changes absolutely nothing.

 For God so loved that he gave. He didn’t do what he did just for the popular crowd or those of means! He made his gift available to anyone and everyone. If Jesus is alive in my heart, then there should be a beacon light beaming from my soul. And the same is true for you! Light the fire Lord Jesus in us! And in the warmth of our unconditional love, may those who need shelter from the storm find life lights that will lead them safely home this December.  

I truly get a kick out of looking at Nativity Scenes because I don’t think I have ever seen a realistic one yet. Mary is always presented much too put together for a woman who just gave birth! As beautiful as my wife Terri is to me, I saw what she looked like right after our children were born and let’s just say I’m not thinking she would have wanted her picture taken. And Joseph looks like a comatose spectator rather than a young guy whose world has just been turned upside down by the divine assignment of becoming stepfather to the Son of God! In my humble opinion, nobody has nailed Joseph yet! And for being just a newborn, Jesus looks much too content to suddenly be thrust within the context of human flesh! Do you think that this baby never cried? I would say, “Guess again!”  

 For some strange reason, we seem to like to make the Christmas Story look more like a fairy tale than a factual event of history. I don’t think there was anything easy about the Birth of Christ. Not for Mary, nor for Joseph and especially not for Jesus!  This is not a “Once Upon a Time” bedtime fantasy. This is a legal Birth Certificate. The Angel didn’t say, “Behold I tell you a legend,” but “Behold I give you good news!” News points to happenings that actually occurred in history. We aren’t being sold a bunch of fiction but are receiving just the facts. We can be sure that when it comes to Jesus, his story is an important component of history. And the closer look that we dare to take, the more honest connections we are likely to make.

 Mary is suddenly a pregnant teenager and Joseph is a God-fearing man who has just been excommunicated from the local Synagogue in Nazareth ironically for obeying the Lord. Galilee is not the big city. It is more rural Cape May County than it ever would be San Francisco where lovers go wearing flowers in their hair. The old neighborhood gossips would be whispering nasty rumors and sloppy slanderous statements for the rest of Joe and Mary’s natural lives. Nobody would ever believe what really happened, so they tainted two good people with outright lies. You can be certain that anxiety and stress would follow this famous family wherever they attempted to put roots down this side of heaven. Just because God had a plan never meant that the road would be easy!

 Did you know that legally Mary was not required to go to Bethlehem to report in for the Census? If she would have been welcomed in by her family, Joseph would not have had to take her on this perilous journey for anyone, never mind someone who was 9 months pregnant! But because she was literally not safe out of his sight, off they went together to Bethlehem! And when they finally get to the City of David, they soon discover quite quickly that nobody is reaching out with open arms there either. Bethlehem had no Holiday Inns or Red Roof Inns. What the Bible actually says is that there wasn’t one old friend or family member in Joe’s hometown willing to allow the outlaw renegades into their dwelling places. Nobody had room for the very somebody’s God called to guard his greatest gift to mankind. Puts a whole new spin on things doesn’t it? Any friends or family stop reaching out to you because of your faith? You are not alone!

 To add to the crazy cycle of that original Christmas menagerie, you can throw in an insecure tyrannical egomaniac King who wanted to wipe Jesus off the face of the planet and visitors from a faraway land who were more magicians than royalty. You might call them Houdini, David Copperfield and Doug Henning more than “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” As a matter of fact, if Mary and Joseph were legalistic when it came to their faith, they might have objected to these visitors getting near Jesus at all since they practiced the forbidden to the Hebrews art of astrology. But the only barriers to getting to the Lord are more man-made than heaven endorsed. If your church doors are not wide open to others who may be different than you, how are they ever going to come to know Emmanuel? Did you know that loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean you condone their behavior? I know too many so called Christians who not only despise sin, but they harbor hatred towards the sinners themselves and that attitude doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the only noted visitors of Baby Jesus were the pagan magi and the uncouth shepherds. The religious rulers were too busy caught up in their own issues that they didn’t even realize God had come to town. This can’t be the same shame today! Believers are the light to lead those who are lost safely home but how can they shine, if they never venture out into the dark?

Living in a world that is crying out for peace is not something we invented. There are going to be different people crowding into your world this December! Will they see your love or will they push you to the limit?

 If you observe the first Christmas closely, it is not the good people who are in and the bad people who are out. Everyone who comes to God is in only by the grace of Jesus Christ. It is only what Jesus has done for you that can give you standing before God. How about you? Have you come to Jesus, regardless of who you are and what you have done? No matter how disappointed, stressed, different, unsafe or embarrassing, you may have been before, in the light of Jesus, you can be given hope, meaning, faith and a future. If it has been too long since you have come to church, I want to invite you to a place where no perfect people are allowed. I would consider it a privilege to have you at The Lighthouse Church. What is a Lighthouse all about? Its main call is to be looking out for those who are about to be shipwrecked. I want to invite you to the manger, which leads to the cross which lands at an empty tomb! Christmas must be about celebrating Jesus or else we are stuck looking for eggnog and cookies to accomplish what they are not able to pull off! In Bethlehem, The House of Bread, you will find the Bread of Life that was born into a hungry world to satisfy the deepest yearnings of the soul. Please stop looking to the Mall, for only the Manger will do! I’ll meet you there and we will both fill our empty hearts with amazing grace!

This coming Sunday, my beloved wife Terri and I will be celebrating our 34^th Wedding Anniversary. Getting married in December, one of our first purchases together was a Christmas tree. Getting ready to decorate our tiny little apartment, our strong opinions of how to get it done led to our first disagreement as husband and wife. Our spat was over the same battle that is played out in families across the nation at this time of year and it all boils down to this simple little question: “White lights or Colored lights?” Terri is a white light kind of gal and I am the bigger, the better and the more gaudy, the greater! I even have my own antique silver tree complete with shiny bright ornaments and the color wheel! Last night I sat in my chair staring for hours enthralled by the colors and mesmerized by the magic.

 Today, I am challenging us to “Be Christmas Lights!” We Christians should be the brightest bulbs blinking up and down the blocks that we live upon! Jesus came from Heaven to Earth bringing the gift of light with the goal of shining it boldly in the midst of a dark place! The Scriptures tell us that the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14 The Message). Advent is a season of anticipation. Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus” meaning arrival, and traditionally is the 4 week period prior to Christmas. Advent is the expectation that the Lord will come again to us in the present day and his purpose is to birth inside each and every one of us God’s Laser Light Show that allows us to shine our spots courageously on Jesus Christ.

 We know that Jesus’ resurrection from the grave is the foundation of Christianity.  It clearly was the event that forever changed the trajectory of human history and it is the greatest and most powerful miracle of all time. Without the Resurrection, Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Without the Resurrection, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that we are to be pitied as fools! But there would have been no Resurrection without the Birth of Jesus! Christmas is the celebration that God Almighty willingly chose to become God incarnate, literally God in the flesh. His Birth was one like no man had expected! Jesus came as Lord of the Universe in the fragile posture of a vulnerable baby! He came on the scene and was not exempt from the struggles of humankind. If Jesus sliced his finger, he bled. If he was hungry, he needed to be fed. If he walked too far during the day, his feet hurt! If God had chosen to be just “Our Father who art in heaven,” then he might always have remained a distant deity. To those who have never met Jesus personally, God can still appear to be a harsh, non-emotional, authoritarian figure that dishes out rewards or punishments at will. But encountering a God who looked and acted like Jesus blew all the stereotypes straight to kingdom come. In Jesus, we have the picture of a God who intentionally positions himself as a mere servant, identifying with the lowest of lows, the least, and the lost. Jesus is the down-to-earth God, demonstrating inside human flesh, the full extent of the love, humility, obedience, and sacrificial lifestyle that we as followers of the Lord are also in turn called to live out and embrace.

 When Believers allow God to ignite the light inside of us, it results in us walking, talking, living, and loving like Jesus. Many of us right now may be struggling to feel any sense of Advent anticipation. How many of you can honestly say at this point of your life, that this is exactly what you’d thought your adventure would be when you dreamed of it as a child so long ago? If you’re that person, congratulations! I’m not sure I would have signed up for this if I knew what was going to come!

Perhaps this Advent you’re battling the pain of discouragement and depression. You may be experiencing the devastating effects of betrayal and broken trust. You could be in the midst of a transition in employment. Maybe the doctor has informed you about the result of a biopsy, and it has sabotaged your hope and shredded your faith. Take heart! Immanuel, God is with us, and via the Holy Spirit, he is actively moving within us and if he is with us and in us, then the creative power of God can use our weakness to highlight His strength! We don’t have to wait until we are dead to see the glory of God exploding in vibrant arrays through every ounce of us. His creative juices are churning and maybe, if we’d expect it, what is about to arrive on the scene this December is the miracle that the Lord is about to birth in and through you.

 God can light up the night with whatever is placed within his might! Take heart because with the Lord there is always real hope! Jesus longs to ignite the light in his church. How bright do you want to burn this week? How many of you still decorate the outside of your houses with lights? Anybody go to the lengths that Chevy Chase did in the Movie, “Christmas Vacation?” I kind of wish we would keep the lights up all year! Lights on trees, candles in windows, radiance everywhere delights even blasé residents. And it is at night; when you move away from the man-made manufactured artificial lights can you truly see the God decorated Universe with its millions and millions of stars. How many never see the true lights of the Holy because they have plugged in way too many man made appliances that only get in the way of human beings catching the eternal light of day? Sometimes, it has been the darkest days of my journey that has allowed me to see the brightest side of my God!

 It is only God’s Light that gives us the possibility for us to discover our light which keeps us from crashing and burning on the highway.  Do you ever try to drive your car at night without the headlights on? Have you ever noticed somebody driving without their lights on? Do you know that the only reason they can do that and get away with it is because they are benefiting from the lights of others? If you drive a car at night without your headlights on, in the middle of nowhere, you will probably crash. Why? It takes the light to reveals the truth of the things that are smack dab in our paths waiting for us to crash right into them. In the dark, you will not have enough truth to steer the car safely. I believe that God has us Christians strategically planted along the parkway to give hope to those who are presently driving at 1000 MPH on the highway to hell! Christmas allowed the rising of the Son so that we could be aware of the difference between night and day! Jesus came to show us the way and that in his dazzling light, he gives joy. That is true literally. In places where there are only a few hours of daylight at certain times of the year, many suffer from depression. We need light for joy. God is the source of all beauty and joy. God alone has the life, truth, and joy that we lack and can’t generate ourselves. God loved us so much that he allowed his light to go out on the cross so that in the end, our lights never would! Our colors now are illuminated forever! Even when we lose the game, the light still shines. Even when we let down our guard, the light still shines. Even when we lack the gifts, the light still shines. Even when we leave the graveyard, the light still shines. The promises of Christmas cannot be discerned unless you first admit that you can’t save yourself or even know yourself without the light of his unmerited grace in your life. This is the foundational truth from which we can proceed to learn the hidden meanings of Christmas. When we allow our hearts to become ignited with God’s love, the light generated by that union has the power to change lives. Your light can lead somebody safely home this Christmas.

Whether you are the white lights type or the big bubble bulb variety, you need to allow God to use your light to showcase his arrival this Advent.  One act of love can change the atmosphere in any environment. The frenzied pace of the contemporary Christmas season that includes buying gifts, hosting parties, cooking, and more can cause us to miss the most important gift: relationships. Let’s all take time in this season to be lights by being fully present to any of those men and women driving in darkness. Be Christmas lights and lead someone safely home to life.

Faith is first listening to God before you venture out to serve him. Too many times we Christians have a tendency to slap God’s name on our own plans. Before we go out onto the field of play, we must make sure that we have spent the proper time hearing the Lord’s instructions in the locker room. In many ways, Jesus is like our Head Coach carefully drawing the x’s and the o’s out for us so that we move gracefully and intelligently through the challenges of life. Too many of us are calling too many “audibles” at the line of scrimmage and changing the play at the last minute because we don’t like what God has called us to do.  But listening to heaven comes first at every stage of life, and in every circumstance if we want to live meaningful days here on earth.

 Did you know that Jesus didn’t just love us enough to rescue us, but also made sure that we would submit to his ruling us? Our Lord didn’t just save us from our past sins so we could go off and stay stuck in the rut of doing our own thing in the days to come. This is why I believe that if Jesus is going to be your Savior, then he must also be your Lord. What was his common invitation to his disciples? It was, “Follow Me!” It wasn’t, “Go your own way and I’ll catch up with you when we get to eternity.” Are you missing out on the fullness of faith because you are refusing to let God lead?

 This is why Christianity is really more about relationship than just another religion. A foundational word that should define our walk with God is “Together!” Let’s face facts; the Lord could have accomplished his will much quicker without us. Even the angels would not have given him as great a hard time as we do. We hem and haw and kick the ground and roll our eyes and put off the inevitable as long as we can. How much more fruitful might it all be if we would just stay true to what God wants us to do not really for him as much as with him. Every time you fall in line behind the Lord and accompany him into the great wide open, there will always be many tales to tell at the end of the day. Could it be that we have fallen into the trap of making faith a solo act rather than a team performance?  

 Fighting faith is showing courage in the face of humanly overwhelming odds. The Bible is filled with story after story of how God defied the odds and orchestrated overcoming the impossible through the most unlikely of characters. Are there Giants populating the Promised Land? No problem! The enemy is sporting chariots and wearing under armor and you’re guys are wearing sandals? Who cares? Famine in the land and your cupboards are bear? Jehovah Jireh is on the move! The bigger the task, the more we need the Lord and that is a good thing because it leads us to the God thing! Nobody grows in their devotion if the heart is never engaged in the process. Could it be that the Church is dying on the vine because she refuses to fuse with the Branch? Apart from Jesus we can do nothing and unfortunately, we are becoming experts in that realm of the journey.    

 Faith is humble and not honor-seeking. If we need our name in the spotlight, the chances are good that we will end up in the dark. If God knows what you are doing, is that enough? If it isn’t, then we must ask ourselves, why not? If all the honor, glory, praise and applause are supposed to end up in the lap of our Lord, why are we whining when we are not credited on the program? If I get to be the literal stage that my Jesus performs upon, is there any higher privilege in life? If we are using God to pad our own resume, then it is safe to say that we have the flow chart upside down. Prayer is the engine that drives the vehicle and the Holy Spirit is the fuel. If there is an oil leak under our hood, it is because we aren’t deflecting the light as we should. Reflections of our Savior are to allow God to use us to magnify him. When that happens, mankind wins big. When it doesn’t, we begin to sink in the selfish sin we get stuck in.

 We can, and should, live our lives and order our legacy not only historically but theologically. Life is not just simply collecting data and recollecting what happened! The real secret is to open the eyes of our hearts and look to see how God was with us all the way. If there has been anything good that has happened in life, it is because God didn’t abandon us when we needed him most. Thanksgiving is totally dependent upon us finding God. He will never leave us nor forsake us no matter how difficult the days have been. He is a promise keeper in a promise breaking culture. He is the one who assures a phenomenal future no matter how bleak yesterday might have been. A healthy walk with God keeps us from over-honoring ourselves in success, or despairing in our struggles.  And it never leaves us empty hearted when life results in empty handed situations.

 So what is the lesson for God’s people this Thanksgiving? God wins! So blessing is to be found in fighting for and with him; it is sacrificially putting us in his service whatever the odds or likely cost. Conversely, there are consequences for those who do the opposite, who stay inactive when God needs his children to step up their service. Remember, it is not that the Lord requires help but that the Lord allows his people to “help.” Knowing that you and I are always loved and daily wanted may be our biggest and best blessing of all. Happy Thanksgiving! If gratitude is the key to heaven, then today is the day for faith to unlock the door. God is on the move and is always cooking something amazing and that is one meal you don’t want to miss. 

I can’t lie to you all. I went to bed Tuesday night ready to accept the fact that Hillary Clinton would be our next President. I guess the media had me fooled too. Not that I was ever that fond of Donald Trump. In my opinion, he never impressed me as a man with much substance. As the Bible says, sometimes the more you talk; the less it proves to others that you are that wise at all. I woke up Wednesday morning in shock and awe by much more than just the news of who had won the election. I was quite taken back by the venom flying everywhere in the air on the day after!

My first thought was that today and the days to come would test to the core how tolerant those who preach the importance of tolerance really are! Is tolerance a privilege given only to those who agree with you? Must you be politically correct to be socially accepted? Do you have to shut your heart down to make your body matter? Are you confusing uniformity with unity? I don’t expect you to have to agree with me to like me. I love very dearly many who have differing belief systems. I have always asked God to help me love those who l may philosophically disagree with.

Loving another does not mean you must applaud everything that person does! Loving doesn’t guarantee a blanket condoning from you of all of their behavior! Just look at the relationship between Parents and Children! Just look at how God loves us in spite of what we do at times! I am saddened by the many rigid and non-negotiable conditions that those who claim to operate from such big and wide open hearts make upon those who don’t necessarily see eye to eye with them. How does name calling and rampant and radical over-generalizations communicate love? What happened to live like you are loved and give the same courtesy to others? Didn’t Jesus say that we needed to go so far as to even love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Where is this love hiding?

I have read lots of words of rage and discontent spread all over social media since Tuesday. If I can offer any word of counsel, it is simply this: Outside circumstances should never interfere with an internal conviction! Here is one to chew on! Jesus never allowed the government of his day, as crooked as it was, to keep him from living a life of love and single-minded purpose! Come on people! It is ultimately always up to you and me and the decisions that we make which will result in the positive differences that America needs. Whoever is President will not amount to a hill of beans if good men and women don’t pick up the slack and shine their lights bright.

As I shared, I woke up Wednesday morning ready to be the man that God is calling me to be no matter what Politically Party occupied the White House. As for me and my heart, I have chosen that Jesus will always come first when it comes to my uncompromised allegiance. That purpose doesn’t change from President to President. Neither should your mission be so messed with because of a candidate not winning office. We all need to continue to unwrap each and every day God gives us as the precious gift that it is and be fully available to bring such treasures such as love, grace, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, patience, kindness and truth to everyone we meet no matter what creed, color or category they may be. Bitterness, hatred, cruelty, name calling, bullying and intimidation only leads to causing further damage to the fragile foundation of brotherhood and community that we already are experiencing in our crazy world today! I have always believed that if you sow seeds of hatred, you will reap a harvest that has you becoming the very thing you say that you loathe.

Paul wrote that the greatest of these is love to a church that couldn’t stand him at times. They were always challenging his authority. They were cocky and stubborn and thought that they were above the very words that God was trying to lead them by. If Paul could still be an example of light in the midst of darkness and the same Holy Spirit that enabled him is available to us, do we really have an excuse to harbor such vengeance?

And let’s look at Jesus! Caesar Augustus forced people to worship him as a deity. The Herods  were as corrupt as a swimming pool filled with sewage. The Pharisees had turned the work of God into a marketing venture and Jesus didn’t miss a beat. He was a citizen of a kingdom not of this world. The last I looked, our Lord’s followers were also called to be sojourners and visitors of this planet! And who did Jesus spend the majority of his earthly time with? It wasn’t the Who’s Who list of Jerusalem. It was the outcasts, the blue collar workers, the tax collectors and the labeled “losers” of society! Jesus never condoned the sin they were in but neither did he condemn them. Jesus rescued, redeemed and renewed the very ones that culture had written off. Now there is an example worth voting for!

Republican, Democrat, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Black, White, Red, Jew, Greek, Gentile, Rich, Poor, Educated, Homeless, North Jersey, South Jersey, Mets Fan, Phillies Fan are all man-made categories! When God looks at our hearts, he shows no impartiality. I challenge you to practice that kind of looking so nothing will stunt your powerful way of living. Shine on with your eyes fixed on a much higher prize than anything this world could offer. Let heaven ignite the fire in your soul and pray to leave a legacy of life in every stand you take and every path you walk. Crowds make lousy leaders! Dare to be the man or woman God wired you to be and go full steam ahead! Nothing and nobody can ever take that away from you!

There is an individual who has a bumper sticker on his car that reads: “I poke badgers with spoons.” Its significance is not self-evident to everybody who reads it, so let me tell you the story. It comes from a British stand-up named Eddie Izzard. Eddie grew up in the church, and heard early on about the doctrine of original sin, but was a little fuzzy on the concept. He assumed that it meant that priests get tired of hearing the same old boring confessions time after time. Things like greed, lust, gluttony, and lying to the tax man. Eddie thought the priests wanted to hear some truly original sins. So he came up with something he figured no one had ever confessed before: “I poke badgers with spoons.” He thought it was so funny that he had it printed on a bumper sticker and placed it on his car.

 The Vatican recently published a new list of sins that included some “hot off the presses” transgressions such as the mistreatment of the environment which, if not completely original, at least gave an updated twist to those of the old seven deadly varieties. The one common thread with all of the trespasses of humanity is the fact that pride is at the root of it all. Pride makes the declaration that no outside help is necessary or invited. “I can do it all by myself” is the mantra of the messed up that miss out on all that humility has to offer. Surrender and submission to the God who made us is not a death wish but the wide open door to discovering what life is really all about. But if we don’t give God room then we are doomed to the gloom that results when my way trumps the Lord’s way on life’s highway!

 Here are some common mishaps of the modern man. There is the sin of believing that an earthly system can bring what only a heavenly Savior could provide. There is the sin of rationalizing your behavior to reinforce whatever attitude you feel like holding. There is the sin of believing the worst about another just so you can give yourself permission to harbor a grudge rather than building a bridge. “Love is patient, love is kind,” Paul said. “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.” Selfishness will suffocate selflessness in every area that the egocentricity of the flesh is left to run rampant and out of control of the holy.

 We must be intentional about deepening our relationship with God if we want it to rise above a random behavioral happenstance. The important issues of life never really go away, but we’re tempted to only give them our undivided attention when they threaten the comfort zones we long to hide in. Sustained attention to the vital organs that make our heart strong and true is not our best suit. We need a little divine intervention to call attention to our secret indiscretions that need to be taken out into the great wide open. It is only when we are honest with our weaknesses will we ever be ready to entertain the transformation God offers when we surrender our wills fully to him. If it is ultimately our desperate struggle for power combined with our obsessive need to control that short circuits our ability to live and be free then how might it all change if we would finally come clean before God with a humble and repentant spirit?

 Human Beings have always struggled with their egos and pride problems. We all know by now that our species has a tendency to muddy the waters of morality especially when we long to justify doing what we want when we really should be about doing what we need! I have to be honest. I don’t really poke badgers with spoons but I do have a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve and say what I believe and I do believe that as the church we need to be less creative about inventing new sins and more energetic about practicing God’s presence. The kingdom that Jesus came to institute wasn’t about of us being consumed with our own control and coercion. He came to turn his bride into a glowing and attractive “city on a hill.” We would be marked by our service and our love, and not by intimidation and legislation. It is an organism that is willing to suffer on behalf of others, unlike earthly organizations that are driven to use the population for their own political gain.

 Christians, it is time to spend less of our days becoming embroiled in “civilian affairs” so much so that we forget why we are still here. You know you’re too tangled in “civilian affairs” when you begin to hate or vilify people who disagree with your opinions. You also believe that bullying others into buying your values is your basic right and obligation. You find yourself in discussions where your need of being right trumps being reconciled. The kingdom Christ came to institute is a holy dwelling where only Jesus is the true ruler. But “holy” simply means that it is set apart for God’s use. It denotes every individual has submitted their hearts to follow after the Christ. The true and holy kingdom of God exists within submitted hearts who have hung all of their hope on Christ for impending peace and reconciliation.

 The enemy wants us to fear our vulnerability and turn us into wolves. It wants us to grow fangs and claws and learn to hunt in packs. The brokenness of the ones that make up the kingdom of God is its strength. When we become wolves, we may gain power, control and influence, but we lose the distinct comparative value of the Kingdom.  We stop being devoted sheep to our Great Shepherd and we become compromised and confused citizens dwelling in a dark valley where our biggest claim to fame is to poke badgers with spoons. It is time to pray. It is a season to take your faith seriously. Today is the day to make sure that we are wholly committed to the right king. Let your behavior reflect your highest beliefs. And rather than original sins, Christians need to become more sincere about following him and leave the badger poking days behind. 

Now more than ever in our present day culture; people need responsible leadership. Unfortunately the kinds of individuals that are fully willing to allow God to use them are coming up in short supply!  A selfish spirit will always short circuit selfless disciples. How can a Christian shine bright if there is faulty wiring within their connection to Christ? Because Christians aren’t consistently walking between the lines of Scripture, they are falling like flies to the lies of Society!  When Christians don’t behave their beliefs properly, it results in a mixed up morally and hypocritical church! How can we reverse the curse and aspire to inspire once again?

 What does it mean to be a Christian leader?   A very general definition within the context of spirituality would be: Someone who commits their all to the Lord’s call and wholeheartedly guides a group of people towards a godly goal.  For that to occur, ego and pride must be put aside.  One of the reasons that I believe neither presidential candidate is a good Leader is because both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton are so pompously inflated by their own accomplishments, they don’t know the first thing about humility!  Rather than sacrificially serve their constituents, they both tend to use people to exaggerate their own statistics.  

 We must allow God to lead and shape our lives as he sees fit if we ever hope to leave an eternal impact upon our world. If the Lord proceeds to direct our paths, then we succeed in positioning ourselves right smack dab behind him. We must go beyond just a casual verbal acknowledgement of biblical doctrine with our lips and begin to fervently devote our committed hearts to answering the call with our lives. What we end up choosing, we have no worries about losing. We need to be reminded often of what we claim we already know.  Truths may resonate with our minds, but if they don’t capture our hearts, our affection will be superficial and shallow.

 Desperate times demand a desperate cry!  It’s simple enough; God resists the proud because the proud resist God. If you aren’t willing to make room in your life for the Lord to dwell, then don’t whine and complain when you get stuck in hell. Today is the day to allow the Holy Spirit to give you a check-up from the neck up. This is the hour to examine genuinely the source of your power.  Just like you can get a cavity in your tooth by chomping on a bit too many sweets; you can develop a hole in your soul by filling your plate with only the delectable delights of earth. When the Lord asks us to open up our mouths so he may feed us from the delicacies on his banqueting table, it is no time to lose your appetite. Like the old hymn says, “Feed us until we want no more Lord!”    

 What begins with gross idolatry can end with a godly influence. What began with grave sin can climax in a glorious salvation. What seems impossible to change can still become drastically different when a child of God refuses to douse the light and is willing to house the power and might Heaven provides especially for the here and now! Rise up and reach out, repent of yesterday and rely on the Lord today! What if the church once again became a conduit of renewal and revival?

Spiritually gifted leaders live in such a way that when God ignites them, they light up and begin pouring holy lighter fluid on the wicks of their people! God gives a vision and a leader starts thinking about it, praying about it, and preaching about it. Pretty soon, the fire spreads and the parade begins! There is so much power released when Spirit filled ministers start casting a godly vision. It draws people out of the woodwork. It gets bored spectators onto the playing field. It wakes up the church to be the church so the idols don’t interest them! Leaders don’t use people; they place them in the proper positions! Leaders take the time to know their teammates. Leaders find out strengths and weaknesses of those around them. They then develop those individuals and together create God’s dream team! That kind of synergy and unity and teamwork is powerful. Leaders motivate and don’t manipulate their people. Motivation makes work fun. It can make thankless tasks exciting. It can make beaten-down people feel renewed and rejuvenated. People with the spiritual gift of leadership have a God-given ability to know what to say and how to inspire different people. And they keep it real!

 A leader will step up and into his or her God given shoes for the journey! The enemy wants to deceive Christians into thinking that the church’s best days are behind her. It is way too easy to throw in the towel when we should be blowing the trumpet calling all believers to run to the battle. If we still have a pulse, God still has a purpose for us! Don’t be playing those funeral dirges because we are not dead yet! Rushing wind come to your people and remind us anew what we can do when we properly connected to you. We will never know if we are a no show. Put the coffin back in the closet because the church triumphant is alive and well.    

 Haiti has a history of being hammered. Their latest foe has been a hurricane that ripped through and wreaked havoc on their side of the island. Many committed Christians have showed up to offer assistance and hope. As one of the rescue workers was passing through a make-shift morgue, she was overwhelmed by witnessing a pile of dead bodies. She was even more unhinged when she heard a voice crying out from a place where nobody should be making a peep. An older man had been brought there to die by his family because they could no longer care for him, so they put him where he would eventually end up. Except he was there prematurely! The woman got help and they rescued the man and nurtured him back to health.  

 Many think that there are no heroes left to save the day. Jesus thinks differently. Jesus rescued us from certain death. Jesus pulled us out of the pile. And now as his church, we gather with other people who were rescued! We sing and we pray and we study the word in preparation to step into our “Good News Shoes!” Shoes that Jesus is looking for you to wear! Church on Sunday is the dress rehearsal, yet so many people have gotten in the habit of skipping it.  “I love Jesus but hate the church,” many say. If someone said, “Rudy, I love you, but I hate your bride, Terri,” I would have a problem with that person. Terri and I are one and the same. Jesus and His bride, the church, are inseparable. Anyone who says they hate the church hates the Jesus who died on the cross! Jesus didn’t just die to save people-but to lead them to life! Who’s going to wear those shoes of leadership? It all starts with feet that follow! It is time for believers to be on their toes! 

What is our world coming to? Well, I have been teaching the Book of Revelation every Tuesday afternoon over the last year at The Lighthouse Church and I can pretty much assure you that the Bible is very relevant when it comes to nailing the signs of our times! Human Beings have always struggled with their egos and pride problems. Even though it is pure logic to admit that we have all been designed by a Designer and created by a Creator simply because the question, “How does pure order flow from chaos?” has never been intelligently answered by evolutionary means; this does not prevent the pot informing the Potter that we are better off without him! People function at their best when they submit to the strong conscience and keen awareness of right and wrong given to them at no extra cost with their birth. But we all know by now that our Species has a tendency to muddy the waters of morality especially when going one’s own way serves one’s own selfish appetites so much more conveniently than choosing to sacrifice a want over a need for the best of all those involved.

 I have to be honest. I have likened this year’s Presidential Election to a bad skit from the satirical world of television’s Saturday Night Live. If we could somehow recall and regather our brave Men and Women from the Greatest Generation who heroically and valiantly served and fought for our Country in World War II and point blank ask them; “Is this the world you envisioned when you did what you did so many years ago? What do you think their answer might be? Remember what Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini tried to do to their Countries with their dictatorial and diabolical agendas? Those Rulers fervently held to their dark dogma that people were nothing more than stupid and mindless animals that needed to be conquered rather than led! Do you understand that those who did not fall in line with these maniacal movements and literally surrender their personal freedoms to espouse their own convictions found themselves prisoners in gulags, concentration camps and cemeteries? Do we ever learn from history? Do you know that in many parts of our world today, Christians are being tortured and executed daily because their only crime is that they won’t denounce their faith? Are we that blind that we still refuse to see?     

 We have two adults running for the highest office in our Land who are noted liars, non-respecter of persons, stubbornly proud to a fault, brash individuals who have already shown a legacy of living beyond the law rather than obeying it and daily poorly portray themselves as Leaders when they have done nothing but use others rather than ever properly tend to what might be best for the flock! Do you sincerely believe that either of these two Candidates would humbly lay their life down for the sheep if it came down to protecting us or them? Can anybody who is not drinking Campaign Kool-Aid with a straight face and a clear soul convince an unbiased crowd that either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton have ever cared for anybody else more than they do for their own reputations and careers? This Election is not about choosing the more qualified politician as much as it is about the citizens of the these great United States waking up and start standing up for what they believe in!

 I don’t want nor do I need a Government taking care of me financially and telling me what I can believe spiritually and how I need to behave morally if I want to continue to have rights. I love people! I don’t hate anybody. But that doesn’t mean I have to approve of what I tolerate because I can’t and won’t legislate my faith upon another. I will share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ until I take my last breath, but I won’t bully an unbeliever. I held our last Baby Sheptock born in 2005 at Cape Regional Hospital at 21 weeks old as Terri did deliver this precious child even though the infant did not survive and you will never convince me that abortion is right or that I have to pay for somebody else to have one. But neither will I stand on a street corner and yell hate language at young women who are confused and scared and need more love than lectures at that moment. I will help the unborn. I will pray for those who claim to be atheists. I will treat those who don’t believe like me with respect. But can I genuinely say that if I vote for a certain Party I will be given the same courtesy? Who is anybody trying to kid? I am not paranoid but I don’t think that I am that off base when I predict that in the days to come, it will be Christians that will have the most to lose when it comes the law of the land attempting to dictate the boundaries of faith that will be permitted and outlawed. And I will ask it now and then, “Does toleration only apply to those who follow blindly and behave in the way that they are told to?”

 I shake my head in disbelief when I see Donald Trump running for President. I get a deep ache in my gut when others try to argue that Hillary Clinton is a much better person never mind candidate. They are both so far from the kind of Leader that I believe this Country needs at such a time as this.

I am tempted to just go and smack a bucket of golf balls on November 8^th! But I know that is not what a Citizen of America and its democracy is called to do. I pray for both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton daily. I pray that one of them would humble themselves to the point that they stop talking and finally start listening so maybe they could learn something like humility for starters! I was told years ago; when you can’t support the Person, you must choose the Party that gives the Land the best chance to keep its freedoms. Just for the record, I am not a registered Democrat or Republican but I am a Believer and I won’t zip my lip while the very freedoms our forefathers and mothers fought for are cleverly being ripped away. I would challenge you to do the very same thing. If you don’t, then you will be without excuse when history repeats itself all over again. As for me, I love America and I invite you to do the same. God has blessed America. Maybe it is time America starts blessing God. If ever was the time to get that party started- it is now!

Things are not always what they seem. We may notice somebody who comes across as bright, spunky and full of life and little do we know that this individual is deeply struggling with internal issues that make living each day a true challenge! We encounter a crotchety and miserable person who complains constantly while standing in line at the local convenience store and we quickly assume them to just be a total jerk who is wearing their underwear bunched up way too tight. Could there be a story behind those glaring eyes that we purposely try to avoid making any contact with? I propose that it doesn’t take a Colombo or Sherlock Holmes for that matter to dig deeper to get to the actual tale that might be discovered just a notch below the surface. Maybe it is just that the Human Race is a tad too busy running at about a 100 MPH that makes us settle for the sloppy circumstantial evidence presented and forces us to  report a final verdict that just begged us to do a little bit more. If we just did our due diligence alone, we could have eliminated any shadow of doubts that remain in a number too big to ignore.

 You might conclude that this is the most connected generation that ever graced Planet Earth and I would argue that you would be very wrong. Social Media does not take the place of heart to heart communication. Do you know how much you can learn about another by simply looking in their eyes alone? When you ask the obligatory question, “How Are You?” do you ever sense your radar kicking in when you hear a reply of, “I’m Fine,” that doesn’t quite add up? I think the problem might be that not enough people care to stick around for the actual answer anyway. Truth gets buried in a masquerade of polite texts that dance through the minefield without ever having to acknowledge the big old elephant that is stark naked in the room!

 I have the privilege and honor to Pastor a wonderful church. The Lighthouse has become way more than a job for me. Those who attend there are truly my family! But I know that there are still so many that hardly know me and I them. Name tags aren’t enough. Exchanging e-mail addresses won’t do it. If I had my way, I would freeze frame time and stop the clock so that we could be able to go around the sanctuary and share stories that mean something. I would want to know what makes you tick and hear a few of those life changing experiences that helped make and mold who you are today. I long for those around me to know who I really am! I laugh when I hear somebody refer to me using terms that couldn’t be more wrong! I want to educate them but I don’t think they have enough patience for me to set the record straight. The Bible challenges us to, “Love One Another!” But, how can you love somebody you hardly know? The Lord must have more in store for those willing to excavate the mine for pure gold and not just settle for the Dollar Store trinkets!

 I guess I never heard anyone say, “Let’s Kill Them with Ignorance!”  I believe the right phrase that finishes that sentence is the word “Kindness.” In the original language the word means: goodness, excellence and uprightness. It begins with respect. It leads with love. It makes the priority the relationship over the selfish need to use another for your own personal gain. Its foundation is to respond with an unconditional reply of grace no matter how terse the grenade of displeasure may be tossed at you. It is to operate in the big picture without getting sideswiped by an uncomplimentary painter. It is to stay focused on the horizon without getting swallowed by the unfair immediate. It is all about a commitment to going the distance to receive an accurate understanding of what is really going on when the temptation to settle for the shady shortcut is all too easy to do. How well do you know who you say you know? What have you used as the main source of information? Have you come upon it honestly or via the tainted grapevine of gossip? How would things be different if you took the lead and set the pace of this Human Race rather than made another excuse to become the victim of circumstances?

 Here’s your assignment. Make the first move to build another up before life tears them down. Go out of your way today to open the door to kindness. Weigh your words carefully and make sure your sentences are dripping with life verbs and not critical adjectives. Keep it real as nobody needs another phony. But how might things actually change if you allowed God to fill your heart first so that he may spill you later to bless the others who cross your path the rest of the day? Initiate positive action rather than just contemplating later what you could have done earlier. It’s the time of the season for love and if society is going to hear the music of heaven, then you must volunteer yourself as an instrument in God’s orchestra! It is about time we kick the same old song out of the number one spot! But if it is to be, it’s got to begin with you and me and I’m game. How about you?