Ole’ Scrooge certainly had his chances in life to ‘become a different man’, yet at every place along the way, he took a different route, until that Christmas Eve years ago. Like Scrooge, each of us is faced with choices every day. Sometimes we make good ones. Sometimes we don’t. Always we serve a God who loves us, forgives us and gives us second chances.

This year we are thinking about how Scrooge (as well as the rest of us) are being reminded of what is really important.

This is your time and place to share stories, feelings, events that have helped you to realize what the truly important things are in life.

Whether you are a veteran ‘Carol Cast Member’ or a ‘newby’, we invite you to share about your journey via the comment box below or, if you want your own post, send it to: thecarol@centurytel.net and I’ll edit and post it for you (security reasons on that one).

God Bless Us, Everyone.

Bob

For those of you who may not have heard, Sue Tennis (Marcia Carlsons’ sister) has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of Brain Cancer and the prognosis is not good. In fact, as I write this she may be walking the streets of Gold with her Savior.

Please feel free to share memories of Sue, Roxanne or Ron in the Carol as we join together as a family to honor Sue during this time.

Please use this post as a chance to share your stories about how ’The Carol’ changed you this year.

After this production, now more than ever I say, ’THANKS BE UNTO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT!”

While Paul’s reference was to a financial gift, his intent, I believe was to remind each of us that our giving to others, whether it be a gift of finances or of time and abilities is really a blessing to God himself.

Next week we, as a cast present ‘The Carol’ to our Heavenly Father as an act of worship. We invite those who attend to join in that worship, but our presentation is to Him. Each line, each dance step, each song has been committed to Him. While we hope many will leave ‘better’ than when they came, our ultimate goal is goal is to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

In the Old Testament, the way to God was through a list of over 600 rules and regulations referred to as ‘The Law.’ A problem that came with the law is that it was performance based and we, as humans, could never fully reach the potential needed to be perfect. We simply were too weak.

God, in His great love saw that the only way we could be rescued from our sinful lives was for His one and only Son to live among us and show us the way to the Father. The sin question would once and for all be settled through Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross and His resurrection three days later. This would be the only way we could have relationship with the Father God, creator of heaven and earth.

In a nutshell, that is what grace is about; Relationship with God. The apostle Paul knew about this relationship. He’d been steeped in the law and knew its harshness. One day, on a dusty country road he found new life when the light of the world literally blinded him and then healed both his physical and spiritual blindness. From that point on, Paul lived in relationship with God through Jesus.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s wisdom and vision was instrumental in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the Mediterranean world. His letters and teachings became the foundation on which many of our church doctrines are founded.

All of this to say that it is intriguing to find, tucked away in his second letter to the church in Corinth, a struggle Paul had with some unidentified ‘thorn in the flesh’. We aren’t told what this thorn was. It may be that we are not told what the thorn was because it doesn’t matter. We all have thorns. What we told is that even the mighty Paul was not able to overcome whatever it was that hindered him. 

After three times of fervent prayer and petition, Paul gets the answer none of us really want to hear from God. Paul writes it very eloquently, with a touch of political correctness, but what God really said to him was: “NO”. No is never easy to take, especially from one that has promised to meet all of our needs and protect us. But that was the answer.

Rather than granting his request, God gave him a truth that each of us needs to grasp during those time when all of life seems to be going into the trash. HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. Sufficient means enough. It means it’s adequate to meet whatever struggles we have in our lives.

The strength of our relationships is measured by the amount of trust we have in that person. If I trust you, then your ‘no’s’ are easier to take because I know that what you say is true. Grace is a trusting relationship with God the Father which says that when things don’t go as I hope, He will give me all I need to conquer or endure whatever cards I am dealt in life.

Father God, during those times when I can’t understand the ‘no answers’ of life, and during those times when my weakness overwhelms my will to go on, help me to grow in Grace. Amen.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if a candidate went on TV to say, “I’m really weak in foreign policy and economics has always been hard for me. But please vote for me. I’ll do my best and I have good friends to help me.”

I’m thinking that wouldn’t get anyone very far. It’s not cool to boast about being weak. Yet, that is exactly what Paul is doing in 2 Corinthians 12:10 where he says “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

While weakness is looked down upon in society, within the life of the Jesus follower it is a benefit. When we realize our inability to live the way God wants us to, we can more easily rely on Him to help us through the difficulties of life.

The Carol speaks of a man named Scrooge who built his entire life and fortune on being strong. The weak were those who were poor in wealth and power. Those who had failed in life were destined to the treadmill and the poor law.

Yet, when Scrooge became weak. When he realized his own inadequacy. Then the Grace of God could reach out to him and show him the true meaning of Christmas. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

This Grace we speak of is completely undeserved and makes us strong even in our weakness. That is why we can say, “thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”

The Holy Man stood and faced the men in the circle. She heard him say, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Her heart sank. The men in the circle around her were surely innocent. THEY were the religious elite. They were the ones that held her life, her future in their hands. Again he knelt and wrote in the sand.

How could she have allowed herself to be in this position? She knew better. She’d seen many people stoned to death for adultery. Why didn’t she learn from all that? Why didn’t the pain of shattered or shallow relationships teach her a lesson?

She closed her eyes and hung her head. She braced herself for the first stone to be thrown. The wait was agonizing and long. The silence was deafening. Then a voice spoke.

“Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” She slowly looked up and realized that she was alone. The circle of men had disappeared.

Her voice was barely audible, “No one sir.” Then she looked at the Holy Man for the first time and saw something that she had never seen before. In those eyes she saw acceptance, love and understanding. There was no condemnation. There was no ridicule.

Jesus looked into her eyes. “Then neither do I condemn thee. Go…and sin no more.”

The woman left that day with a new outlook on life. She left with hope for a new tomorrow and a second chance.

The story about the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) isn’t about adultery. It’s about bad choices. It’s about not living up to your potential. It’s about failing. But more than that, this story is about GRACE. Jesus offers each of us the same release he gave to the woman.

We are NOT condemned. We are guilty. But through Him we can receive forgiveness and a new life.

When the seizures struck, the boy would convulse, grind his teeth and his young defenseless body become as stiff as a board. At times the child’s body would come dangerously close to writhing into the fire, or the nearby sea. Both would mean certain death.

The father is the one who does the speaking in the story, but mom in probably very close by. We aren’t told in Mark if the parents were religious, but indications are that they had performed all the sacrifices needed for healing and were faithful Hebrews. The very fact that they sought out the new Holy Man in the area must mean something.

They finally came upon a crowd that had gathered at the foot of a mountain. The Holy Man (Jesus of Nazareth) had gone into the hills with a few of His closest friends.  The crowd anxiously awaited his return. The plight of the family finally reached the ears of Jesus’ disciples. The man came to them begging  them to heal his son.

Similar passages in the New Testament indicate that very likely, these same disciples had just returned from a successful missions trip in which they were empowered to cast out demons, heal the sick and give sight to the blind. One can imagine the suspense as the parents look on, the crowd watches in anxious anticipation and the disciples prepare to heal the young man.

Something went terribly wrong in the process however. There seemed to be nothing that the disciples could do to rescue the boy from the terrible seizures. The crowd scoffed. The parents hung thier heads. This, thier last chance had met with failure as well. There was no hope.

Then, as they turned to leave, Jesus returns. He questions the parents, and asks them if  they believe! What a question. While they may have believed at one time, It’s not surprising that the father professes his belief in a God that can do all things, while at the same time admitting that his faith was weak and dwindling.

Jesus spoke. The demon left the boy as a corpse. Then Jesus raised him up and gave the healthy young man back to his parents.

That’s grace! We serve a God that at times can seem agonizingly silent, or distant. His actions are not as we’d like. But, like the distraught parents we can come to him when we doubt and know He will listen and reach out His hands towards us.

The Carol tells the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge. A man long ago hardened by a God he no longer believed in. Yet, on that mysterious Christmas Eve, Scrooge was awakened to the reality that God does exist and reaches out to all who are in need, whether that be the physical need of the street urchins, or the spiritual void of the rich.

As Tiny Tim would say…”God Bless us, Everyone.”

Then Jesus came.

The disciples asked the question everyone wondered back then. Why did adversity come? What made him blind? Did he sin, or was it the sin of his parents. Those were the only two options on the minds of people back then. Adversity was a result of sin. Someone had to pay and God sat up there on His throne dealing out tragedy to those who dared step out of line. The same mindset prevails today. Blessing=right living. Tragedy=sinful rebellion.

Jesus’ answer to the disciples then is the same to us today. Neither. We think finite. We think black and white. Sometimes, as in the case of the man born blind, adversity comes so that God can be glorified. Not easy to understand. But later, the man ONCE blind, could see.

The organized church questioned him. They couldn’t accept his new sight. Their god didn’t work that way. To their accusations and questions, his answer was simple. “I don’t know about all the theology and doctrine. All I know is that once I was blind, but now I see.” The blind [man] left seeing, the seeing [the organized church leaders] were left blind.

Still today, there are many who have come on hard times. Some as a result of bad choices, some as a result of others. Those who are touched by Jesus may not be free of adversity, but they know his touch and are strengthened by it. Let us never put our God in a box and limit His power in the lives of those who struggle.

I think I can speak for DirectorDude when I say thanks for a great night of rehearsal. Your patience and quietness makes our time go much easier.

I still get a lump in my throat when I watch the scene where Belle and Ebeneezer end their ‘engagement’. Although it’s just a play, thinking about the pain of broken relationships is very real, as all of us know. Life sometimes deals some pretty hard and painful blows. How we react to them is the most important thing, and many times how others react to us makes a difference on how we react to pain. When others come along side us in support and not in an effort to ‘fix everything’ it helps the healing process.

I think that is what Paul was talking about in Galatians 6:1. When we see someone who is struggling in their spiritual journey, gentle restoration is the key to healthy healing. This week as we pray for the ‘empty pew people’ pray for an awareness of the pain others are feeling. Often, when people lash out at us it is because of their own pain and not our actions.

Blessings on your week! See  you Sunday.

Bob