Choose Jesus in 2017

by Barrett Vanlandingham

January 2, 2017

    As happy as I am to begin the New Year, I have one more story to relate from the holidays.  

    It happened while I was chauffeuring my wife, kids, and in-laws in the minivan looking at Christmas lights in Tulsa. We had turned into a brightly decorated neighborhood. Up one street, down another, winding around corners this way and that, all in hopes of seeing more colorful holiday scenes.  

    Problem is, I changed direction so many times I didn't know which way to turn when I wanted to go back home. I had been focused more on the lights than on direction.

    It occurred to me that this scenario is not unlike some of Satan's strategies he uses on us in spiritual warfare.  He or possibly his demon helpers study and know our weaknesses. They set traps for us disguised as things that appeal to our senses: things that on the surface might look good, feel good, sound good, or taste good.

    Remember the mean old “Child Catcher” in the classic movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”?  His horse-drawn cage was disguised as a candy wagon. It's driver dressed in bright colors as he drove through town, then danced around and called out to children, offering “free candy today.” But after the children were lured inside the wagon, the decorations disguising the mobile cage fell to the ground revealing the two helplessly captured kids.

    God’s children and anyone else are also vulnerable to being spiritually captured by dark forces when we take our eyes off Jesus in exchange for the bright lights, earthly lures that appeal to us like money, power, hobbies, or even relationships. Eventually, we lose our way home.

    The writer of Hebrews stresses the importance of “fixing your eyes on Jesus” in order to successfully run the Christian race (Hebrews. 12:1-2). The apostle Peter took his eyes off Jesus while walking on water. His fear of the storm caused him to pay more attention to the strong winds than to Jesus. He sank until Jesus responded to Peter’s cry for help (Matthew 14:29-30).

    In 2017, let's strive to replace spiritual distractions with all things Jesus and the assurance of our heavenly home. Have a blessed week!

Jesus grew, and we should too

by Barrett Vanlandingham

December 27, 2016

          Now that the Christian world has celebrated Jesus’ birth, where do we go from here? The answer is easy. Just do what Jesus did. 

          “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).”

          It’s perfectly natural for a child to grow physically (or in stature), and Jesus was no exception. It’s the other ways Jesus grew that we could all use a little help with. Have you ever met someone who had a whole lotta smarts, but was dumber than a bag of hammers? It is possible to have more knowledge than wisdom. We’ve all met that person who has a plethora of academic credentials attached to the end of their name (just after the comma). But depending on whether that person also made the choice to grow in wisdom (as well as knowledge), they may always be in a state of “not getting it” when it comes to the important things in life.

          To become a Jewish Rabbi, Jesus would have had to memorize vast amounts of scripture and commentary even as a boy, and understand how to apply them to real life. Luke writes that Jesus (at age 12) was found by his parents in the temple courts listening to the teachers and asking them questions. “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers (Luke 2:47).”  At age 30, Jesus used scripture to combat the temptations Satan presented him in the wilderness at the beginning of His official ministry (Luke 4).

          None of us will know and understand scripture like Jesus did. But that doesn’t relieve us of our Christian duty to grow in our faith, and to become more Christ-like.

          Peter said it is important to add into our lives the divine qualities of faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Peter even says that if we grow in these qualities, “they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:8).”

          Peter says this way we can be sure of our destiny. “And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:11).”

          Have a blessed week!

They gave special gifts for a special King

December 20, 2016

by Barrett Vanlandingham

We may not know how many wise men (aka: kings, magi) there were who came to deliver gifts to the young Christ and King, but we do know they chose carefully three things of great value to present to this very special family on behalf of Jesus’ birth.

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1).”  “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifs of gold, frankincense and myrrh (2:11).”

The wise men presented the gift of gold as a tribute to the One who was born to be King. Israel’s leaders gave and received gold as a symbol of their position. The Queen of Sheba once gave King Solomon four tons of gold because she was so impressed with his God-given wisdom (ref: 1 Kings 10). Since Jesus was never known for his earthly wealth, the amount of gold given to Jesus was probably not a lot.

The wise men’s second gift was frankincense. It is an aromatic resin from the bark of the Boswellia tree. It is still used in perfumes, oils, and incense. The aroma of burning incense represents the prayers of God’s people. Priests burned incense at an altar in the tabernacle in the morning and again in the evening. The gift of frankincense was appropriate because it represented the future work of Christ as priest as He related to God the Father on our behalf.

The wise men’s third gift was myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies. This gift symbolized that Jesus would die for the sake of others. This must have seemed like a strange baby gift for these young parents. But considering the fact that Joseph and Mary had already had conversations with the angel Gabriel before Jesus was born, the gift of myrrh likely reinforced the idea that this was no ordinary child. This Jesus, born of a virgin, was theirs to raise for a much greater purpose than just to be a good citizen or even a wise rabbi. He was sent to save you and me!

Merry Christmas!

Alone time with God can cure holiday stress

December 13, 2016

by Barrett Vanlandingham

Have the holidays turned your mind every which way but loose? Sometimes, we just need a mental break, don’t we?

I was working on my computer this past week when I noticed I had no access to the Internet. I asked everyone else in the office if they had Internet service. They all did. It was just my computer, bogged down.  So, I turned it off and back on again. IT WORKED.  All it needed was a little time to re-set.

    People sometimes need to unplug, and a little time to reset emotionally, spiritually, and prioritize thoughts. This was the case for God’s prophets. Habakkuk is the eighth of twelve Minor Prophets (starting with Hosea and ending with Malachi) listed in the Old Testament.  

He said, “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint (Habakkuk 2:1).”

Habakkuk just needed some time alone with God. He needed to listen for instructions from God, and he also needed to get some things off his chest. It is still important for us to spend time with God today. We must make time for the One who can help us reset our priorities, and help us unload stress both from outside and from within.

In Luke 5, crowds of people had heard about the miraculous healings that had been taking place in the presence of Jesus. They sought him out to ask him to heal them, too. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16).” What the writer, Luke, is saying here is that even though Jesus’ work as Healer was important, it was also important for him to unplug from those around him, spend time alone with God, and reset so that he could be more effective for the long haul.

The apostle Paul spells out the benefits of making time to be alone with God in prayer. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).”

Have a blessed week!

Make time to remember the greatest gift

by Barrett Vanlandingham

December 6, 2016

          “1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them (Luke 2:1-7).”

          Luke makes it painfully obvious in his account of the birth of Jesus that if anyone had reason to be distracted from the joy of the coming of the Christ child, it would be Joseph and Mary.

          For starters, everyone in the Roman controlled world was dealing with the interruption of their daily routine. This foreign government was requiring its subjects to temporarily leave their homes and businesses, go back to their hometowns to register, and be counted in a census. This also probably resulted in higher taxes. What stress! Even an almost due Mary had to make the 80 mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

          Next, Joseph probably was not looking forward to a family reunion that would likely take place at the census site. After all, his wife-to-be was expecting, and it wasn’t his baby. Yes, he knew it was the Christ child, but the thought of having to explain this over and over to his relatives had to have been emotionally draining!

          Finally, there were so many people in town, there was no place to stay. So, the baby Jesus was born in a cattle stall.

          This story is important because it reminds us that just like Joseph and Mary, we too must remain steadfast in our mission to bring Jesus to the world. Have a blessed week!