A confession: I behaved like a Scrooge. It was Dec. 24, the Saturday before Christmas, and I had a few last-minute things to pick up from the store — and I anticipated a chaos, beginning in the parking lot.

I was right. As I searched in vain for a parking space, I was certain that a lady stopped halfway down a row of the parking lot with her blinker flashing was waiting for another driver to vacate a space — honestly.

Mildly irritated that she was holding up a whole line of traffic, I pulled around her, just as a spot at the end of the row opened up. “How perfect,” I thought to myself, a spot even closer to the entrance than that line-clogger was waiting for. Quickly, I pulled into the spot and went to retrieve a shopping cart.

It gets better — or worse?

The woman who I believed was clogging traffic jumped out of her car, upset with me for taking her spot. Ahh, the crossroads of decision-making. Common sense — painfully absent in a Winco parking lot on the best of Christmas Eves — would dictate a sincere apology and an offer to move, allowing her to take the space she so patiently had waited for. Regrettably, I chose another option.

“You were waiting for that spot, not this one,” I insisted, pointing at a space near where she had parked.

Indignant — and rightfully so — she jumped back in her car and sped off.

Did I win? Of course not.

Moments later, another shopper explained what really happened. I was wrong.

Looking back, I’m disappointed in myself, embarrassed that I instinctively insisted on my view of events. If I could, I would apologize in person for playing Scrooge — and if you’re reading this, dear shopper, please accept my apologies; I was in the wrong. Since I can’t do that, maybe I can mine this experience for a nugget or two of personal reflection.

What bothered me most about this whole incident was how natural it was for me, in the moment, to do the wrong thing.

Maybe this isn’t a unique experience. In the heat of the moment, isn’t it remarkable how quickly we revert to doing the wrong thing?

We dig in our heels and argue with our spouse, rather than own up to our mistakes and admit our fault. We get swept up with the gossiping and backstabbing about what others are doing rather than quietly walking away — or better, defending the one being slandered. We naturally cover for our actions by telling a lie rather than speaking the truth and facing the music. Entertaining lustful thoughts comes to us as second nature, while guarding our minds takes such effort.

In his book “After You Believe,” N.T. Wright suggests that Christian character is the result of habits that are rehearsed time and time again, until they become second nature.

It involves telling the truth in hundreds of ordinary, daily instances so that it’s natural to speak the truth when it will be very costly and difficult. It’s about disciplining yourself to speak encouragingly in hundreds of day-to-day moments so that you can be a great encourager when it counts. It’s about developing the habit of listening before speaking so that you don’t snap at someone in the Winco parking lot.

It’s all motivated by grace, of course. As Bryan Chapell, another Christian writer observes, we are “holy from God’s acceptance, not for his acceptance.”

Developing Christian character is a habit that happens as we recognize the depth of God’s love for us, and the price he paid to forgive us — not a way to earn God’s love, acceptance or blessings.

Early in a new year comes the time when we make resolutions to change — to exercise more, to weigh less, to stop smoking, to spend more time at home, to spend less time complaining.

How about resolving to discipline yourself in developing Christian character? What habits do you need to develop in your relationship with God?

Make a commitment to cultivating habits that will lead you to look more like Jesus. I will — and next time I’m in a Winco parking lot, my words will be words of grace.

Rob Toornstra is pastor of Sunnyslope Christian Reformed Church. You can contact him at artoornstra@comcast.net or (503) 363-5159.

No I did not hermit myself in the mountains or even refuse to go to the mall. But what I did do was unashamedly speak my faith when asked. It was refreshing to feel comfortable to say Merry Christmas and just not care if someone got mad. Or to say ” No, we do not do Santa Clause”. and to my surprise there was very little if any negative remarks.  I did get a few looks as people somehow cannot think of kids, and Christmas with out Santa. But My response was just that we are trying to teach him (our son) the true meaning of the Holiday and most peoples responses were good.

Christmas does not have to be a holiday where Christians loose all good senses and succumb to the hoopla around them.  It is still possible to hold onto the true meaning of Christmas.  That is why I titled this post the Mass of Christ. The one mass a year when the Church remembers the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Is it that anyone believes that is really his birthday? No, but it is the day that was chosen log ago (yes because of an existing pagan holiday) but never the less it is the day chosen to remember the ultimate humbleness of our King.

This year we attended Catholic Mass on Christmas eve. For my liking it was a bit dry perhaps but while I sat there I got to thinking of Catholicism. I started to marvel at the millions around the world celebrating, “CONFESSING”, the birth of Christ, on the same day, with the same Mass. It felt for perhaps the first time that yes Christians are all one body. The Body of Christ. As I continued to think I recalled the many Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, and other services I attended over the years as part of the Christmas celebration, and that yes, some where more “entertaining” than others but they all had one thing in common. They all in their own unique way were confessing the birth of Christ. God with us. Immanuel.

It was at this point in my thinking that all the trouble in the church started to fade into the background. I prayed to God that one day again reunite the Church and call together His people into the new Heaven and new Earth. I confess that this is the Lords will as recorded in Revelation.  I confess that I do not understand it all. I confess that I have no clue which church is the correct Church (maybe none of them, maybe all of them as a whole).

and above all I confess that God came to earth through the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, God with us. Fully human and at the same time fully God. The only begotten son of God. To die on the cross some 33 years later and save the world from its sin.

I hope that as you celebrated this Christmas that this above all was the reason for your celebration. I hope that this one deed 2000+ years ago was the reason you got together with friends and loved ones, exchanged gifts.

May the love God has for us be given to those in need. Amen.

3 John: ¹⁰ So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.  ¹¹ Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Do you know anyone like this? What it looks like to me is that John is talking about loving all brother and sisters in Christ and welcoming them. We as a Church must head the warning of John here and welcome other believers. Note what John calls evil.

1) Not welcoming other belivers

2) Trying to stop others from welcoming them.

When I read this it looks as though John will expose this evil when he visits the place of his friend Gaius. So, this morning I hope you will join me in confessing that the practice of exclusion fellow believers is evil. Encouraging other to also exclude them is evil. And that we should welcome fellow believers in the name of the Lord whenever we get the opportunity.

Lord may we confess to you today our thankfulness. For leaving your heavenly home and coming to us. Thank you for giving all so that our relationship would be reconciled. Thank you for the abundance you give to each of us.

Lord there are so many who are going hungry, or homeless or without love and compassion. Lord let us see these people with your eye and show us the opportunity to reach out our hand and give. Even if silver and gold is not what we can give let us freely give of what we do have.

Between now and Christmas I encourage each of us to give thanks to the Lord for who He is.

A few weeks ago my family and I took a drive through a sleepy little town in the middle of Kansas. We took this drive specifically to pray there and see what the Lord would say to us about that area. Well maybe I should back up a bit more.

It has been dry in south central Kansas ever since we arrived in the middle of June. The crops that are not irrigated are suffering from the heat in excess of 105 day after day and little to no rain fall. One day in mid mid July my family and I had to drive out to a family reunion. This drive took us though some of the area of the state hardest hit by the drought. As we through the flint hills, partly because of the worship music we were listening to, we decided to pray for rain for that area.  We could almost feel the land crying out for the rain. Then not too many days after that the area we drove through that area did receive a small amount of rain.  We felt like the Lord said I have heard the cry of my people and the land and am answering their prayer.

So, fast forward a few weeks. We went back up to this area to pray again to see what else the Lord might show us about this area. Was there something about this area that He wanted to have us see or do? As we drove through one small community in that area we noticed how “normal” everything looked. There was nothing particularly fancy about it. Nothing that to our eye said it was particularly wealthy or poor. Just your average sleepy mid Kansas town, or so we thought.  That was when our son from the back seat pipes in with, “This place is beautiful, can’t you see it?”

Well honestly, no not really. We had been looking around with our natural eyes hoping to see, well something that stuck out. So, we prayed that the Lord would show us what was beautiful about this little town.  We opened the Word, as we often do while praying, and there we read a passage out of the book of Numbers. At first it was hard to understand what the Lord was telling us.

In Number 22 is the story of Balaam and Balak. To sum it up Balak wanted Balaam to curse the people but through an interesting encounter with his Donkey Balaam knew he had to speak only what the Lord told him to say. Three different times Balak hoped Balaam would speak against the people and each time Balaam did just the opposite. So much so that on the third time he said.

Numbers 24:

 ⁵ “How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
   your dwelling places, Israel!

 ⁶ “Like valleys they spread out,
   like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
   like cedars beside the waters.
⁷ Water will flow from their buckets;
   their seed will have abundant water.

   “Their king will be greater than Agag;
   their kingdom will be exalted.

 ⁸ “God brought them out of Egypt;
   they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
   and break their bones in pieces;
   with their arrows they pierce them.
⁹ Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
   like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?

   “May those who bless you be blessed
   and those who curse you be cursed!”

You see Balaam was not swayed by the pressure of a king. He spoke only as God spoke it. He in essence saw it with God’s eye and spoke what he saw. I wonder how often we look at circumstances, surroundings, situations, even people and see only with our natural eyes and with what is in our hearts and not with the eyes of God. How often do we speak the heart of God over our situation instead of what the “kings” of this world want us to say?

James 1:19 says “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, “

We need to be quicker to listen to the Lord and slower to speak our minds and take care not to curse what God the Father has blessed.

As many of you know I am currently on mission in New England, the last 3 day in Baltimore, MD, at our meeting last night we encountered the sweet aroma of the Lord. It is hard to describe and even harder to believe unless you were there. But there was a fragrance of fine flowers that filled the room during our worship. It was a small group an to our knowledge no one had opened any perfume. Though this is not the first time this has happened in one of our meeting there was something special about this event.

At the risk of sounding like the miraculous is routine I may not have thought much more about it beyond the rejoicing in the Lord that He would reveal Himself to us in such a way that we might sense Him with one of our physical senses. Then today I was reading one of my favorite short daily devotionals by Kristi Burchfiel in today’s devotional she says, “This relationship should be easily seen and recognized by everyone we come into contact with as as sweet aroma.”  And I confess I was hit as one struck by the majesty of the sunset.

Lord how awe-some you are that you would manifest yourself one way then confirm yourself  by a releasing of your word though a person completely unconnected to our mission activities.  I confess that Lord you love is better than wine. I confess that you want to be in covenant relationship with us. Lord give me the grace to fall in love with you more. To find the time to spend with you. Lord I so love your provision, your safety, your hand in our life. But Lord. I want to know you more. I want to the capacity to spend such time with you that I would emerge with your sweet, expensive perfume on me. I want people to know I am yours.

I confess Lord that in my intellect is seems impossible to find the time, to pay the price. Lord bring increase to the divine provision so that I might be free from the mundane in order seek your miraculous.  Lord help me to find your miraculous in the situations I now call mundane that I may give you credit for all good things you bring to me, my family, and my business.

I wanted to update you on the Deeper Life Gathering Mission Trip we are taking to New England in a few days. We will be starting in Baltimore MD, and continue from there. Most of the team is starting the drive on the 13th. I will be joining them a few days later. Please continue to pray for this trip, as always you can sow into the work of the Lord by giving to this mission trip. Your donations are greatly appreciated. All I ask is that you would ask the Lord if your part is to just pray or if you part is to sow financially.

Also there are possibilities for us to come a minister in your small church or home. If you feel a call to a deeper relationship with Christ feel free to contact me and we will pray about visiting you in the near future. Should you live in New England we have meeting currently scheduled in Baltimore, Philly, Albany NY, and a few other places. Check back for updates as date and location get more firm.

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²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Today I was listing to a song called highly favored one. It is about God with us. And I started to wonder why was Mary a favored one of God? What had she done to deserve such a special place? Well the scriptures don’t say. We know she was Elizabeth (mother of John) was a relative but other than that not much is said.

Could this be because she was highly favored not because what she had done but because she was will to be used by the Lord for His purposes. Paul also had not “earned” a position but Jesus did encounter Him along the road and revealed Himself to him.

If this is the qualification then there is great hope for those who will allow God to rearrange their life. As we make ourselves available to Him for His purpose we too may become highly favored, not for what we have done, but for what we are allowing Him to do.

just a thought.