The Holidays: A time to come home

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

In a perfect world home is the place where you feel safe, loved, welcomed, nurtured, and where you have fond memories.  It is also that place where you can feel a little less like an adult and get rid of some of the stress that goes with being 'responsible'.  There is a comic strip in the newspaper(I forget its name) that shows the adults(a mom and dad) becoming little kids whenever they touch, hear, smell, see, or taste something that takes them back to their childhood.  It is really cute and resonates with me because there are times that I want to resign from being an adult.  Yes, I know, at times I act like a kid, but, hey, it is fun!  I like to put a smile on people's faces even if it means being silly on occassion. During the holidays lots of folks travel home to be with friends and family so they can reminisce and be a kid even if only for a moment or two.  It feels good.  Everyone wants to feel safe and secure, loved and nurtured, appreciated and happy.  But I know that in the real world many people do not have that kind of home to go to.  In fact, they did not come from that kind of home.  There is a lot of brokeness in the world for a large variety of reasons.  Rather than look for someone or something to blame I would encourage you to come 'home' for the holidays.  Come to a place where you are loved, wanted, safe, appreciated, and can be at peace.  That place is church.  Yes, I know, even some churches are broken and have hypocrites in them.  The place that our souls cry out for is in the arms of a loving God, our Creator.  Come to church to worship God and to praise Jesus.  I promise you that you will find joy and peace in the presence of God.  Jesus said to cast all our cares upon him because He cares for us(1 Peter 5:7).  Dont make excuses like 'I have already tried that" or 'bunch of hypocrites' or 'too tired' or 'my day off', etc.  You have tried everything else and it hasnt helped.  You know something is still missing in your life. You are tired, frustrated, angry, and sad.  Come home!  Come back to the place where you can be a child and 'cast your cares upon Jesus'.  Yes, you still have to deal with people, but you also deal with God who loves you very much and wants you to come home.  It doesn't matter what anybody else says about you.  All that matters is your relationship with Jesus.  Make it personal, intimate, and safe by totally surrendering your life to the One who can make sense out of it and give you a purpose, peace, and joy.  It is fun being a child of God!  Even when things dont go my way and the world is falling apart around me I can still have the peace and joy that noone else seems to understand.  It is a great place to be, in the arms of God.  Come home. 

Smell the covered dish dinner, hear the laughter of children, the chatter of happy people, the music, the prayers, the Scripture readings, the sermons. Come home and relax.  Be at peace.  Give it a shot.  What have you got to lose except for a whole lot of emotional baggage that is weighing you down and making you old.  Lets have fun together and enjoy life.  After all, it doesn't matter what life throws at us because this world isn't our home anyways.  Because we have Jesus in our hearts we are headed for Heaven therefore we can deal with the small stuff because we know how it will all turn out in the end.  Do you?  You can have the joy of being a child in God's kingdom. Come home.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Blessed New Year.  God loves you and so do I,

Pastor Bruce

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