Enjoy Your Hot Chocolate

Dear Worshippers,

Our second son Isaac has a sweet tooth. The other night after the Christmas musical as I watched him enjoy a cup of scalding hot chocolate, I marveled at his ability to enjoy it even though it was so hot. His eyes lit up with every sip. I realized that once again I could learn something from my children, this time Isaac teaching me to enjoy the simple things in life. [By the way, this is the same Isaac who said Sunday morning that what he is looking forward to about Christmas is a new Bible.]

A dear friend forwarded this story to me last week. Many of you may have read it before, but in this season that can be so easily overshadowed with materialism I wanted to share it with those of you who haven’t.

The Wisdom in Hot Chocolate
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.
Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.”
Now consider this:
Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.
The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!!

Enjoy your Christmas, whatever it is!

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

The Mystery of Christmas

Dear Worshippers,

A little over a week ago I was holding our six-month Aiden. He was looking at his newly discovered hands half wondering if they were connected to him. As he marveled in that possibility, I found myself surprised by an awakening to a different reality. It struck me in that moment that my Savior became helpless, like my little guy, because I was hopeless. Revelation and response, a life of worship. It is amazing that our Redeemer came as an infant! WOW!

As amazing as the incarnation is, Christ coming in the flesh, it is possibly surpassed by this. That God not only sent His Son, but graciously revealed that to us. That which was a mystery hidden since ages past, has now been revealed.

When I think of mystery, my first thought is, “I have got to solve this.” That is not at all what is going with the mystery of Christmas. God is not saying, “I sent my Son. Now, figure out why.” No, this is not a mystery that we have to solve, but one that has been revealed to us. John 1 explains that very well.

The Word Became Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. (NIV)

I am so thankful that God revealed and keeps revealing His mystery to us, because if He had not, I would never have figured it out. I probably would not have even tried, and if I had, I would have gotten tied up in the realities that did not make sense. Thank you Lord.

I want to encourage you to go through these last few days before Christmas with you eyes wide open. It is very easy to miss the things that God is trying to reveal to us, especially when our eyes are so fixed on the things of this world that we forget they are pointing to greater possibilities and realities way beyond them. I pray the Father would reveal the mystery of Christmas to you again, in some new, fresh way today.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

Living the Call-Apart

Dear Worshippers,

Here is the text on my resignation as read on Sunday morning, December 7. 2008.

God’s Revealing

Our Worship Ministries exist
to nurture worship as a lifestyle
characterized by sincere responses to God’s self-revelations.

That is the vision the Lord gave for this ministry upon my arrival early in 2003. I have endeavored to live that before you and with you over the last nearly six years. The Lord has shown Himself on numerous occasions and we have responded together. What a privilege it has been to lead you in each of those moments.

These last few months the Lord has shown me something about Himself and His purposes for me. Those of you who have been reading my Tuesday Tunings know that I have been thinking about talents and investments. I said that if we make investments into our talents they become strengths. I challenged the readers to discover their talents and invest in them.

As I was talking and teaching about this, I was experiencing it as well. The Lord was leading me into some new and different challenge for me to serve with the talents He has given me and to grow further in the journey He has laid out for me. He began stirring within me a desire for some change, either internally or externally.

The Lord was cultivating in me a desire to be exceptional in the exercising of my talents for His glory. He began this work in me through a number of different circumstances, as He often does, but it took me a while to perceive what He was doing. I even denied it for a time, trying to ignore it or at least its implications, but once I was willing to open my eyes to see the hand of the Lord, I had to respond in obedience.

My Response

I have accepted the call to serve as the Pastor of Worship of North Mar Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Warren, Ohio. This letter serves as my resignation of my duties here effective January 15, 2009. Though sad about leaving Morgantown, I am excited about the prospects for ministry in a place I believe the Lord has prepared me for and prepared for me. I believe the next set of good works prepared in advance for me to do [Ephesians 2:10] are in another place.

As the Lord wills, I plan to begin in Ohio the beginning of February. I appreciate your prayers through this time of transition as I anticipate that it will not be easy to leave a place and a people that are so dear to me. Though not always easy, when the Lord shows Himself, His purposes and His ways we must then choose to respond. A life of worship is made up of many choices to respond in ways that allow the Lord to reveal Himself. I pray He has and will continue to enable me to make such choices to characterize my life.

In closing, I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you and this body for the glory of Christ. I pray God’s clear leading as you move forward through this transition. I trust Him for kingdom advance through the church that sent me once, and now must release me again.

Thank you and may the Lord Jesus Christ continue to reveal Himself to you, and give you the grace, wisdom and courage to respond…in worship.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

Advent: The Cost

Dear Worshippers,

We have now come to my favorite time in the church year, with possibly the exception of Easter. Advent is a time preceding Christmas when we anticipate the arrival of the Lord Jesus, both the remembrance of His first and the expectation of His second. This sense of anticipation is seen in the face of children as they wait to open those gifts under the tree.

As I spoke with Pastor Miller about his focus through this coming season he mentioned he will be focusing on Christ’s Second Advent. Then He asked if we could do something special on December 21, the last Sunday before Christmas. He would like to have all the children come up front and have Pastor Etris randomly ask them wait they are anticipating about Christmas. I am sure this will be a precious time as we hear their perspectives on “arrival”. The thing we probably will not hear is a sensitivity to the cost of those things which they are anticipating.

How often do we approach this season with a similar sense of expectation which is void of a deep sense of the sacrifice of our Lord to come? Our family tries to gather around our Advent wreath at home each night and read Scripture, sing and pray that we would be mindful of every aspect of our Lord’s coming in the flesh. One part of that is the cost to Him.

I do not know what the traditions or habits are for each of your families, but I want to offer you a resource I discovered recently. Below you will find a link that will take you to a pdf file from what I believe to be a trustworthy source. It examines through Scripture, a brief reading and a couple of questions the cost of this season, from the perspectives of many of the characters. I hope you will find it a useful tool as you prepare your hearts once again to worship the Christ this Christmas.

The Cost: Christmas Devotional

Though I have not read every word on every page, I recommend this resource to you and your families as a tool to aid you in your worship through this Advent season. I pray for you that your encounter with the Christ through this will heighten your anticipation of the coming of our Lord. Whether you use this tool or some other one, be sure to take some time during this busy season to stop and celebrate the One who has come in the flesh.

Merry Christmas to you! [I love being one of the first people to send that greeting every year.]

In Christ,

Pastor Scott