The Bible of an elderly saint is often a particular treasure. You can see which verses they went back to over and over, see a record of their growth in the margins, and hear words from preachers long since deceased.  Sometimes the front and back pages of  bible are filled with verses, promises, or truths from Scripture that grabbed their heart for some reason. 

Close to my desk sits my Granny’s bible. She’s one of those faithful church members that studied, taught, and never stopped learning. The pages from her bible both inspire and give me some questions too.  

• “If he plows, it’s because He has a purpose for a crop.”

• “We don’t live by explanations but by promises.”

• The mailing address for the White House

• “God’s will. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.”

• “SBO Standard Baptist Order”

•  A recipe for microwave cake

• “God puts up with me, why can’t I put up with others.”

• Prayer for Baby Ford, a promise and backup promise. 

What does my Granny’s Bible teach me?  What can we learn when we look through the Bibles of those that followed faithfully after God for decades?

We find that life isn’t always easy

I have a particular view of my Granny as a kind grey headed old lady who always had ice cream. But the verses and scribblings in her Bible showed that her life had it’s hardships too.  There were multiple promises about sufferings, doubts, and hardships.  I don’t think of her in that way, but this intimate look reminds me that all Christians will face hardships in their life.  No one can escape them. Sometimes you’ll find a verse underlined with different pens, or circled, highlighted, and underlined. You know that verse meant something, and it’s often those that promise us hope in the midst of sufferings.  Through God we have the promise that in Him we have everything that we need, no matter what we need.  The promise that God provides was clung to by those who went before us, and we will need those same promises.  

Quantity and Perseverance Matters

I don’t know who said it first but it still holds true.  “A bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”  The accumulations and notes in my Granny’s Bible weren’t all done in one sitting, or just a particular dedicated stretch of Bible reading. The notes and highlights show her lifelong dedication to God and to God’s word.  Many people turn to God’s word in times of desperation or depression. It’s wonderful anytime we pick up God’s word and take it into our hearts and minds. But only the life that is regularly and daily dedicated to God’s Word will be shaped and formed by it. The heart that turns to the Bible in tough times is like a soft cushion that leaves an imprint of whatever pressed on it, but will soon return to its original form. 

But the heart of a person who regularly and consistently sits under God’s word is like a stone that endures constant drips of water. Even the smallest drip of water will change the hardest stone with enough time. How much more so will the heart change when it is regularly put under the life giving water of God’s word? The heart that daily sits under the drip of God’s Word will be changed by it forever.   There is no substitution for a lifetime of sitting under God’s Word, both preached to you and reading it yourself.  

Our Prayers last long after we do.

Sprinkled through the pages of the Bible are the names of people and places.  Some are family members I recognize, some are names I’ve never seen. Some are prayers for healing of people who later died.  Other are promises claimed on behalf of other people.  Even though my granny has passed her prayers live on.  Revelation says that the prayers of the saints are kept in bowls and are poured out at the last days as sweet smelling incense. Even the prayers she prayed that she forgot are still held by God, and someday we will all see their fulfillment.  

There’s something more about these old family Bibles. It reminds me that someday someone might go through my Bible in the same way.  Don’t be afraid to mark it up, to keep a record of your prayers and of God’s goodness to you.  God’s faithfulness will be celebrated by all generations.  Work to live such a life what when the day your body finally falls apart, your Bible does too.  

The office of Recording Secretary began at the first meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845. Initially the convention elected two secretaries, Jesse Hartwell and James C Crane. They were charged with duties like keeping accurate records, supervising the printing and distribution of minutes, and maintaining official documents. They were instructed to “keep a fair record of their proceedings, and of such other documents as may be committed to them for the purpose. “ Thus the SBC Recording Secretary was an officer of the convention whose scope of work mainly focused on recording the work of the Convention as a whole at it’s annual meeting, and producing reports on its work throughout the year.

The office of Recording Secretary shifted to annual elections after the constitutional revisions in 1867. In the early years of the Convention, long tenures of service were not uncommon for all SBC officers. From 1845 to 1904, PH Mell served as SBC President for 15 total years, Jonathan Harralson as president for 10 years, and JP Boyce as president for 9 years. During that time at least 20 different men served in the office of Recording Secretary, often two at time, and usually referred to as the “Senior” and “Junior” Secretaries. When Lansing Burrows was elected in 1882 he would serve as RS for the next 32 years until 1913.

By the time of Burrows first election, the duties of the RS had expanded to include gathering denominational statistics, and there was much discussion about the way the work was to be carried out. In 1855 there was a lengthy debate about whether the recording secretary should omit failed motions from the official journal record. At least 15(!) men spoke in this debate, and it was finally decided by a vote of 69-78 not to strike out any portions of the proceedings. (Which we only know because his motion failed. )

The growing workload of the secretary led to clerical help and small stipends for supervising the printing and distribution of the annual meeting record. The SBC had explicit trust in the office as they instructed them in 1903 to print ten thousand copies, and even voted to dispense with the reading of the Journals and left the verification of the minutes to the secretaries.

By the early 20th century, the role took on a more institutional approach, as the secretary handled distributing convention publications, and much of the denominational statistical work. Most of that was finally transferred to the Sunday school board in 1919, as it was no small task for one person to be in charge of all of that work. In 1905, the compensation was formally set at $100, and the secretary began serving as an official representative for the convention in legal matters.

After the long service of Lansing Boroughs, a few men filled the gap until Hight C. Moore was elected. He served for over 30 years, recording minutes of 31 sessions and preparing 33 Convention Annuals. Upon retirement the Convention formally acknowledged his “monumental” service.

In 1954, the bylaws officially changed the title from “Secretaries” to “Recording Secretaries” to better reflect the nature of the convention. The function of the office stayed mostly the same for many years, but in 1967 changes were made for the administration of the SBC that placed overall Convention operations, including the annual meeting and the Convention Annual, under the administrative oversight of the Executive Committee. The recording secretary continued to prepare the Annual but now did so with the assistance of the Executive Committee staff. The Convention continued to show plenty of trust in this position, such as in a 1974 amendment, when the RS was granted specific authority to make necessary changes to the Proceedings as printed in the daily Convention Bulletin to ensure “clarity of meaning, accuracy in facts, and consistent form” before they become the official record.

The formalization of its duties in the Convention’s bylaws illustrates that the role is both administrative and structurally significant to the life of the SBC, chief among these responsibilities being the management of the Convention’s reports and records. To this day the entities and committees of the SBC are required to submit their reports and recommendations to the recording secretary by March 1 to ensure that the business of the Convention is compiled and prepared in advance of the annual meeting. From this material, the secretary also facilitates the distribution of recommendations that require Convention action, providing copies to Baptist Press and other interested parties upon request.

The office also carries important responsibilities in maintaining the organizational structure of the Convention. Following each annual meeting, the recording secretary is tasked with notifying all committee members, trustees, and board members of their appointments within thirty days of adjournment. These notifications include not only the appointment itself, but also a full listing of committee membership for the benefit of each chairperson. In addition to these duties, the secretary reviews the Convention Annual, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the official record of proceedings.

Beyond these defined responsibilities, the recording secretary also serves as an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee, a role that places the office within the broader governance structure of the Convention. This position stands as an exception to the usual qualifications for committee membership, allowing the recording secretary to participate in the work of the Executive Committee by virtue of the office itself. In recent years, however, the nature of this participation has been more clearly defined. In 2023, the Executive Committee adopted internal bylaw changes restricting the recording secretary, along with other ex-officio members, from serving as officers of the board or participating in presidential search committees. Today most of these duties are defined by Bylaws 5 and 22, and by the Business and Financial Plan.

Although the central duties of the office have remained largely stable, messengers to the Convention have proposed changes to its structure and function. In 2019, a motion was introduced to make the recording secretary a non-voting member of the Executive Committee, although this was not adopted. A similar effort in 2022 proposed removing the office entirely from Executive Committee membership, but this too was declined, with the Convention instead opting for the more limited restrictions adopted the following year.

The increasing complexity of Convention operations has also led to a more formalized relationship between the recording secretary and Executive Committee staff. In 2020, guidelines were adopted establishing staff liaisons who work on behalf of the recording secretary in carrying out key responsibilities, including notifying trustees of their appointments and compiling the official record for the Convention Annual. This development reflects a continuation of the long-standing pattern in which the office retains its constitutional responsibilities while relying on structured administrative support to fulfill them.

The office of Recording Secretary has never been the most visible role of the SBC, but it remains essential to it’s work. It’s only because of the faithful work of volunteers in this position in the past that we can know about the history of Baptist work across the world. Without the men who held the position, much of what the Convention has said, decided, argued about, and enacted would be lost.

The systems are more complex today, and in some ways the work is both easier and harder. But the importance of this role has not diminished, and the trust placed in the office remains much the same. The Southern Baptist Convention still depends on the careful and consistent work of the Recording Secretary to ensure that the work it does today is preserved for generations to come.

The methods and structures have changed of course, and as the SBC itself grew in size the work of the Recording Secretary became even more important. Even so, the task of the SBC Recording Secretary is essentially the same as it was in 1845: keep a fair record of the proceedings. Whether by handwritten journals or digital records, the Recording Secretary is one of the guardians of the institutional memory of the Southern Baptist Convention.

He spoke that night with all the pathos and logic he was famous for, and his sermon helped sway the outcome of the next day’s meeting that ended in the election of Charles Stanley as Convention President. Although the CR lasted over a decade, there were a few seminal moments that shaped its direction and his sermon that night was one of those moments. WA Criswell’s, “Whether We Live or Die,” was a key moment in the life of the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention in that it illustrated the present from the past, gave an imperative for the present, and a promise for the future.

I don’t doubt that there are more than a few who will read this were in Dallas that year. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to that was there said it was a sermon they will never forget. Even decades after the fact the video is still powerful and moving.

By this time in his life Criswell had been preaching for 58 years in total and had preached many times at the Pastors Conference of the SBC. Nevertheless, Criswell stated that he had never been more meticulous in the preparation of a sermon than this one. Criswell was known for his clear preaching, and his sermon “Whether We Live or Die” was simple and easy to follow. The message covered the pattern of death for a congregation and used the example of CH Spurgeon and the Downgrade Controversy as an example. Next, he explained the pattern of death for an institution, using the advent of critical theory and higher criticism in the life of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago to illustrate his points. His third point covered the pattern of death for a preacher and used the story of CH Toy as an example. Lastly, Criswell showed a way to avoid death and decline by staying true to God’s word and taking the gospel of Christ to the nations.

Criswell doesn’t just give bad examples though. The closing paragraphs of his sermon remind his hearers that there is hope for those who are willing to stand firm on the Word of God. There are forces that seek to have us stray from God’s Word. It will be a battle to stay committed to the truth of God and Jesus Christ, and a battle to take that truth to the nations. The battle belongs to the one who is willing to take it, to put their hand to the sword and stand for the truth of God’s word. Criswell promises his hearers that the fight will be hard, but it will be worth it. Someday we will see the mission Christ gave at the Mount of Olives fulfilled. The promise is not from a wise and persuasive preacher, but from Christ himself.

Criswell’s sermon archives demonstrate the breadth and width of his skill as a preacher. But this is one of his greatest, and it came at an important time in the SBC. Take the time to watch or read it below.

Whether we live or die lies in the imponderables of Almighty God. Will God not judge atheistic, communistic Russia? Will He not also judge secularistic, heathenistic, humanistic, materialistic America? What is the difference at the judgment bar of Christ between a God-denying Russian communist atheist and a God-denying American liberal humanist? Can God judge Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Nineveh, and Babylon, and not judge Moscow, and Peking, and San Francisco, and Dallas?

Our mission frontiers run down every street and village, through every house, home, and classroom. The whole globe today is small, compact, and shrunken. We see, hear, watch, read, follow what happens moment by moment around the world. The interdependence and the interlinking of all mankind is an actual modern fact. We all ride this planet together. Our nation is one in a dependent family of nations. Romans 14:7 avows, “For none of us lives to himself, and not one of us dieth to himself.”

As Baptist churches, and as a Baptist people, we need each other. One segment of our community cannot do our work, our task, alone. Our strength lies in a common determination and a common dedication. One church can build a Sunday school, but a Sunday school movement must be launched by an association of churches through a Sunday school board. One church can send a missionary, but a vast missionary movement must be engineered by a denomination of churches through a foreign mission board. One church can have a revival, but a revival movement must be prayed for, and prayed down, and lifted up by a community of churches through an evangelistic director.

In reflecting on Criswell’s sermon 35 years later, there are still many lessons for us today. Some of the names could be changed to reflect current trends and the sermon be preached again today. Criswell couldn’t imagine how linked our world is today. He called it small, compact, and shrunken, but he would be amazed to see how much smaller it has become. This means that every church’s chance to impact the nations is even greater.

Criswell also used the death of institutions in the past to warn the SBC about their own future.

An institution can be like a great tree which in times past withstood the rain, and the wind, and the storm, and the lightning, but finally fell because the heart had rotted out. Insects, termites destroyed the great monarch of the woods. This is the unspeakably tragic thing that happens to many of our Christian institutions, and eventually threatens them all. They are delivered to secularism and infidelity, not because of a bitter frontal attack from without, but because of a slow, gradual permeation of the rot and curse of unbelief from within.

His warning about the danger of internal rot still holds true today. Internal rot often comes from the place you least expect it. This means that no matter what side you find yourself on current SBC events, we all need to check our own hearts. Criswell’s warning means that we all must continually work to bring to stoke the fire of the gospel in our hearts. The illustrations Criswell uses are proof that everyone is capable of straying from the gospel, no matter how close we find ourselves to God today.

As it relates to institutions and churches, Criswell states that we need each other. The SBC in 1985 was focused on who was out, and who was in, much in the same way it is today. Some of the same labels and insults are used as they were then. But Criswell’s point remains the same. “Our strength lies in a common determination and a common dedication.” The strength of the SBC is not that we all believe exactly the same way, but in that we all share the common goal of taking the gospel to the nations. The future of our denomination is in the hands of God as he said. But our future as a denomination also lies in our willingness to overcome and differences and put the gospel above all else.

Read or watch the full sermon at the Criswell Sermon Archive.

How often are our lives like that? There are times we can see clearly everything around us and know it’s going to happen, but they’re also many times it feels like we’re just on the road alone at night. But if we can see the light in front of us, then it becomes our guide to make it there. Often in life we are just trying to make it to the next bit of light. The light doesn’t illuminate everything we want to see, but it gives us assurance that God is there with us.

The light could be as simple as our Bible reading in the morning, or weekly church attendance, or a word from a friend. The light gives us hope and reminds us that we are going in the right direction, and gives us strength to keep going.

Many people are in need of light while on their dark road of life. Who will you offer light in the darkness to today? Offer a kind word, share a Bible verse, give someone a hug at church. By God’s grace we can be a light in their darkness, pointing them to the one light that never fades: the presence of God in our hearts

This is a sign of the tree that has looked dead for so long but still has life in it. It’s a beautiful reminder that we should never judge things by their appearances. If it’s true about trees and plants, how much more so about those made in the image of God?

I love springtime when everything blooms, but I love the moments right before spring too. It reminds us that God is working in those moments even when we don’t see it. You might be tempted to give up on someone or some thing in your life, but we should remember that God is always working.

God is working in the lives of people even when we can’t see the fruit right now. But if you look closely, you might see a bud. And that bud is a promise of life to come.

I knew that road like the back of my hand. I know which houses had friendly animals in which did not, and which intersections were busy. I knew if I pedaled fast I could get a little air on the dip in the road, and that when I got to the school I was getting close. I knew that road so well because I walked it and rode my bike. There are somethings you can only see by going slow. When I started driving and going by it faster, I didn’t see all that I did before.

Most of us travel quickly where ever we are going. We are focused on the destination not the journey and want to get there as quick as we can. We can be this way in our walk with God too. We know we need to read our bible, pray, and whatever else is on our spiritual list for the day. But often in our rush to get through them we miss the most important part.

The most important part of course is spending time with Jesus. For a Christian, our end destination of heaven is important. But our daily journey with Christ is important too. We should not take anytime we spend with Christ for granted. I encourage you this week to take your time with Christ slow. Don’t drive quickly through your Bible reading, learn to walk slowly across the pages. It’s difficult to do this because the whole world wants us to hurry up. But if you work at it you can learn to take your time to look around you and see what God is doing.

This week, take it slow. Especially in your walk with God. Look around for something you haven’t seen before. Learn those roads of the spiritual disciplines like the back of your hand. Don’t be in a hurry when you get to spend time with Jesus. Walk. Look around. Smell the roses. Enjoy the journey. More than anything, learn to love spending time with Jesus. You won’t regret it.

Born in Huntsville, TX and then moving to Lufkin when still an infant, Cauthen grew up in Texas and was always ready to speak hs mind. His older brother told the story that when they were young they visited the Methodist church in nearby Nacogdoches, TX. After observing a “sprinkling” the young boy, who the family called Bake, stood up on his pew and said “That’s not the way that Jesus was baptized!”

He had felt a call to ministry at the age of 8 and soon ordered his life around that prospect. In 1926 he graduated from Lufkin High School at age 16 and as class president. He planned to commute each day to Stephen F. Austin College in Nacogdoches and begin to prepare himself for ministry. As the Lord led him though, he prepared for ministry while doing ministry himself. While still 16 years old, at only five feet ten inches and 110 pounds his biography records, he filled the pulpit at Providence Church. The following Wednesday they invited him back, and to his surprise after the service they called the church to business meeting and called him as pastor. Two weeks later, a week shy of his 17th birthday, the wife of the oldest deacon passed away and young Bake preached his first funeral message. He quickly found himself in the throes of pastoral ministry as he also pursued his education.

His older brother also told the story of when baptizing new believers in the river, and a man named Red Conditt came down. The future county sheriff towered over the young Cauthen and weighed more than twice he did. Cauthen showed no hesitation and and proceeded to baptize the man. His method, however, might have been questionable. His brother said that “What Bake did was climb on a man and sink him, and then let him get out the best way he could.” The young preachers reputation spread in the community and surrounding areas.

He graduated from Stephen F. Austin and earned a masters degree from Baylor. While there he first met Eloise Glass, a daughter of missionary parents who would later became Cauthen’s wife. After earning a Masters and Doctoral degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Baker and Eloise journeyed to Richmond for appointment by the Foreign Mission Board as missionaries to China. In 1939, Dr. Cauthen and Eloise went to China as missionaries, not long before the country fell to the Japanese. It was a difficult time to be a missionary in Asia. Both of his children became very ill and his wife too, facing polio, fever, and more They faced famine, disease, and often had to flee to crowded mountain caves during Japanese air strikes.

The family returned home when Cauthen became the Secretary for the Orient in 1945. When FMB Executive Director and President MT Rankin passed away suddenly in 1953, Cauthen was the obvious choice to become the Board’s next leader.

While President of the FMB, Cauthen led the mission organization to unprecedented growth. The biography of his life titled Cauthen as the “A Man for All Nations,” and Advance was the key word of his ministry. The obituary of his life that ran in newspapers across the country recorded that

Under Cauthen’s leadership, the number of Southern Baptist missionaries increased from 908 to nearly 3,000, and the number of countries in which they served grew from 32 to 95. Mission financing increased from $6.7 million in 1954 to $76.7 million in 1979.

Cauthen urgently preached the need for more missionaries everywhere he went. The board members of the FMB increasing heard the story from new missionaries that they had surrendered to the field while hearing Dr. Cauthen preach. They heard him at the convention, at Ridgecrest, at their church during Lottie Moon emphasis, at an evangelism conference, associational meetings, summer camps, chapels at Baptist colleges, and anywhere they would have him. You can listen to one such message he gave at Falls Creek Baptist Assembly in OK in 1969.

Cauthen served as leader of the Foreign Mission Board through one of it’s greatest periods of growth in it’s history. Before his retirement in 1979 he led in a program called “Bold Mission Thrust,” a 25-year plan for sharing the message of Jesus Christ with all the people of the world by the year 2000. After his retirement he still preached of the need for missionaries and taught at Golden Gate Seminary and later Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He not only led in the area of missions. Upon his death Baptist Press reported that

In the late 1950’s, he courageously began to call Southern Baptists to put on “some sackcloth and ashes” regarding civil rights. Missionary work is tarnished, he said, “when any story goes out of people of any race being refused admittance into a house of worship.”

In his last sermon to the Southern Baptist Convention, he said in 1979, “Let us pray, give, go, send, preach, teach, bear witness to the lost, the hungry, the poor, the broken, the distressed, and, if need be, suffer and die that the name of Jesus Christ be made known to every human being on the face of the earth.”

Baker James Cauthen passed away at home on April 15, 1985.

Further Resources

Baker James Cauthen, A Man for All Nations

Sermon Audio, 1969

Find the sermon audio on the SBC History Podcast on iTunes or other providers.

Baptist Press release on his death (Scroll down to page 5)

As Jesus passed through the city, it was here that the tax collectors Zachheus climbed a sycamore tree to get a better view of him. Jesus called him down, went to his house, and ate with him. It scandalized many of those watching, how could Jesus offer kindness to such a man is this?

In one of Jesus's most famous parables, he talks about a man traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which would've been somewhere beyond these hills in this picture . The traveler is beaten and robbed, and left for dead. There were religious men who passed by him, but it was the Samaritan who showed him kindness and took care of him.

Both of these New Testament stories happen in this old city. Both of them remind us of God's grace. He offers kindness to those who don't deserve it. One is just a story, but the other one actually happened, showing us that Jesus was not just about good ideas but about action.

There's undoubtedly someone in your life who needs Grace. Give it to them. They don't deserve it. They might not even appreciate it. But God has given grace and kindness to us, and so we give it to others. Some people might even demand grace from you. Give it to them anyways.

Most of us typically think of Jericho as a place where the walls came tumbling down. But the gospels remind us that it's a place of grace and mercy too. Thank goodness had mercy available to all, no matter where you are. Show people grace today, and tomorrow, and as much as you can for the rest of your life. Do for others what Christ has done for you.

The New Year's is a time lots of people think about making better choices. They're going to be healthy, save money, read the Bible,or go back to school. There's certainly nothing wrong with New Year's resolutions or attempts to do better. But the truth is it always comes to a choice. Which way are you going to go?

No where is that more evident than in the Christian life. We can have all sorts of grand schemes and plans to read our Bible through, to go to church, or whatever our resolve might be. But the fact is it's just simply a choice. Elijah told the people of Israel to "choose this day whom you will serve." Serving God is a choice that we make, but it's one that we have to make every day. Each morning we are faced with opportunities to go the other way, do things for ourselves, to take the easy way out.

Like any choice, the more we make it the easier it gets. Resolve this year to choose the ways of God and not the ways of the world. The choices in front of you every day, as clear as this picture is, but the consequences are far greater. If you make the hard choice to choose God, then the rest of your life will fall into place. God today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. The choices you make affect not only this life, but your next one too, not only yours, but the eternal life of all those around you.

It's a great privilege that the church supports me to do this work. I try to work hard and be worthy of the honor. But I also know that if you asked people who sat in the sermons what they were about, many of them would be hard pressed to remember. Maybe they’d remember big topics like going through Galatians, Psalms, or Jude, or could guess on Christmas and Easter passages. But I understand that even a week after the fact most people won't remember what the sermon was about.

Most of us would be hard-pressed to remember what we had for lunch last Sunday, but it fulfilled us for that moment. We surely couldn't remember what we had for lunch last January, but that meal we had in the moment sustained us for the day. In the same way the weekly “meal” of God Word sustains us for that moment.

God's word is greater of course, and has the power to change lives. The food we eat is quickly gone, but scripture tells us that the word of God abides forever. These words of mine will pass away, these manuscripts will be forgotten. But the word of God they contain continues to take root and grow in people's lives. It's the cumulative effect of the nourishment of God's word that makes a difference in their lives. If you want to grow close to God there's no better way than to be daily in his word, and to sit under godly teaching as often as you can. I worked hard on the sermons, and they will be forgotten, and that's OK. Because God's word lasts forever.

But Christmas is more than a feeling of course. Christmas is a fact, the truth about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God who has come to earth to be with us. Facts don't care about our feelings, they just are what they are. And the facts of Christmas are some of the greatest truths that mankind has ever known. The Word put on flesh and dwelld among us. He comes to spread the joy and eternal life as far as the curse is found.

You might not feel like celebrating Christmas this year for all sorts of reasons. Maybe it's the weather, or maybe it's that sorrow you're still holding onto, or that loneliness, or that disappointment at the way life has turned out. The good news is the facts of Christmas are true no matter how we feel. The truth of God is not dependent on our circumstances, but on the unchanging nature and character of God.

We are not gonna have a white Christmas this year, but that's OK, because Christmas Day is still worth celebrating. The circumstances of your life might not change, but the truth of Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection are still true. No matter what has happened in your life over the past year, there is good news for us! In the city of David there has been born to us Savior who is Christ the Lord. Immanuel, God with us. Glory To God In The Highest!

One of the most famous stories of all time is the Odyssey, Homer’s story of a man trying to make his way back home to his wife. Along the way there are cyclops and wars and battles and all sorts of crazy things. But one of the things that almost kills him is the song of the sirens. The sirens were these beautiful half women creatures who would sing their song so beautifully that sailors would bring their ships over to see them. It’s said that “They sit beside the ocean, combing their long golden hair and singing to passing sailors. But anyone who hears their song is bewitched by its sweetness, and they are drawn to that island like iron to a magnet. And their ship smashes upon rocks as sharp as spears. And those sailors join the many victims of the Sirens in a meadow filled with skeletons.”

Their song seemed sweet but only led to danger. That’s the call of the world, telling us to look in ourselves, to think about ourselves, to focus on what we want and what we can do. But at Christmas time the song of Mary calls us to something different. To think upon God, to dwell on his work, to make him larger and greater in our hearts and minds. Her song seems simple but contains the power to raise the dead, the power to break addictions, the power to restore families.

Listening to her sing won’t shipwreck your life, instead it pulls you closer to Christ. You weren’t supposed to look or listen to the sirens, their beauty was a disguise for their danger. But the song of Mary’s beauty that gives life. Listen to her as she sings about the goodness of God, about his kindness to mankind, about the salvation that is promised. This is the song we need to know, a song we need to hear, a song we need to have on repeat in our hearts and in our minds. It’s a song with a power to change mankind, a song with a power of dynamite. Ignoring the truth of this song, not making enough of Christ, means your life will be a wreck. But when you enlarge God, when you make him bigger and see him for who he is, then your life will be changed by the goodness of God.

Listen to her song today. See Christ and his glory. Join her in praise.

This was the conclusion from my sermon last Sunday as we go through the “Carols of Christmas” from the book of Luke. You can watch the whole thing here. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ALFN2RV2D/

When I first started to drive in high school I didn’t always have the money to fill up my 30 gallon gas tank on my van. I can’t count the number of times I sheepishly walked in the gas station to only put 2 or 3 dollars worth of gas into the car, just enough to get me to where I was going and back again. I should apologize to the cashiers that I made wait as I counted out change over the years. I was smart enough to know I needed to fill up, but the circumstances of my life didn’t allow me to get a full tank whenever I wanted to.

Now I usually fill up my car with gas when I can, but I’ll admit that my spiritual gas tank doesn’t always stay as full. Over the years as my family and ministry has grown, I need more and more fuel than before. I have found that I needed to fill up my spiritual gas tank more than ever. But I’ve also found it harder to do that. Many of the things that edify and encourage us are harder to do the busier we get, like fellowship, meals with friends, or even gathering as a church. We don’t have time for all of these things that we need to stay on full. Every person has to overcome obstacles like tragedy, suffering, or even just the busyness of life. Each of them makes it harder for us to keep our tanks full.

It would be nice if we could always fill up the tank all the way, but the circumstances you face right now might not allow that. What you need to do is find those moments throughout your day and week when you can put a few dollars in the gas tank and make it to your next stop without running out. This might be a quiet moment in the car while you drive and worship, a conversation with a good friend over the phone, or a good night with your family. When all we do is look forward to the big moments of rest like a week-long vacation, we miss the daily and hourly moments we have to rest and fill our hearts and minds with God.

Every person has those moments where you have just enough in the tank to make it through the day before you collapse and do it all over again. No one is exempt from those seasons. While it’s unavoidable to have seasons where you feel overwhelmed, we shouldn’t get so used to it that we make a habit of it. At times we might only have a few dollars to put in the tank, and it’s in those seasons every little bit helps. We need to make sure that we find the still moments in the middle of a busy day to turn our hearts and minds back towards God and fill our tanks up again. But we also need to make sure that we take the longer types of rests that push our needles all the way back to full.

Everybody would benefit from a nice long rest, but that kind is a lot harder to come by. It would be great to take two weeks vacation or a month’s sabbatical to fill all the way up. And we must make sure that we make the time to do that. But if we only wait until we can fill all the way up then we will eventually run out of gas somewhere on the road. We need to train ourselves to find rest in those small moments along the way, which will probably be different for every person. Every person has to make sure they find ways to rest in order that they can keep sharing the gospel with others and being there for their family and friends.

You never see someone ashamed to be at a gas station. In the same way you shouldn’t be ashamed of taking time to refill your tank so you can continue to lead in the place God has put you. In the middle of a crazy season you might be able to only fill up a few dollars at a time. Don’t forget to plan for those seasons when you can fill all the way up too. There’s too much at stake to let your tank run dry.

The first holiday after the death of a loved one is hard, but the next ones don’t get any easier.  The truth is we never know how many more holiday seasons we have, how many more meals we get to share, or how many more times we get to hear them tell that funny story.  The things that make the holidays so good with family are the same things that will make them hard when loved ones are gone.   

So what do we do? We can stay busy, keep going, work harder.  All of those things have some merit to them. But there are some losses you will never get over, and that’s okay.  If we live long enough, we will all experience the empty spot at the table. 

How do we move forward when there is an empty chair during the holidays? Thankfully scripture promises that Christ will never leave us.  Pray that the presence of Christ will be greater than the feeling of loss.  Loved ones leave us, and someday we will leave our loved ones behind.  But even when we leave this earth, to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord. Pray this season for those dealing with loss that the presence of Christ would be felt. The chair might be empty at the table this year, but praise God the tomb of Christ is empty too.   

It can be that way with lots of things. We work hard for something, but we don’t know what to do afterward once we get it. This happens to the nation of Israel when they finally end their journey to the land promised to Abraham. They spent 40 years wandering in the desert, trying to get to the promised land. God used that time in the desert to shape and refine them into his people. But once they arrived in the promised land, it seemed like they forgot how to live close to God.

The stories of this in the Bible are too numerous to count. The men and women who were once close to God fell away, especially once they found success or what they had been looking for. David, Moses, Solomon, and others all wandered from God. The reasons range from strife and laziness to indulgence and pride. But scripture and our lives show this fact: living in the promised land is hard.

It’s easier to be an underdog and find the will to fight when you think you have something to prove. Every sports team that wins a title says, “Nobody believed in us,” even when they have been ranked #1 all season. There is something about the human mindset that doesn’t know what to do once we get what we worked so hard for, so we must convince ourselves that we must keep fighting or that everyone is against us.

It’s true in our spiritual life too. Right about the time we enter a consistent pattern of prayer, scripture reading, and church attendance is when it’s the easiest to fall out of the habit. The moment that things start to go well is when we expect things to go wrong. It’s always good to be prepared, of course, but if we want to live in the promised land and dwell in the place God has for us, we can do a few things to make that easier.

1. Keep the values that got you there.

It’s tempting to think that the attitude that keeps us in the promised land differs from the one that got us there, but it’s not. It’s doing the hard work of staying close to God and living as we should. A basketball player who achieves greatness through hard work and dedication can only keep that greatness through the same hard work. It’s true in the Christian life too. The way to grow close to God is through the daily disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and devotion. And the way to stay close to God is through the same methods. Many who find some level of success believe that they can now rest, and there is some truth to that.

But common sense also tells us that you cannot coast uphill. If you are coasting, you are going level at best, but more likely, you are going downhill. So keep up the hard work and values that brought you here. Israel learned total dependence on God in the desert, but when they arrived in the promised land, they soon forgot all that God had done for them. Don’t make the same mistake.

2. Find a balance between rest and work.

Anyone who has achieved great success will tell you it comes with a significant cost. Sadly sometimes that cost is family, friends, or even just enjoying life. Some people are so driven that they place their families on the altar of success. It happens to pastors, businessmen, athletes, and more. Anyone can be guilty of this. That’s why one requirement for living in the promised land is finding the balance between rest and work. But the burden of success makes us feel we must sacrifice everything to keep it.

It might seem contradictory to say that you need to continue working and that you need to rest on the next point, but that is the way life is. The even greater danger is that we lose our family and ourselves in the promised land too. This is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus. He asked, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” One of the requirements for living in the promised land is enjoying our success but finding our ultimate satisfaction and rest in God.

3. Take time to enjoy what God has done.

Anyone who has achieved success on any level knows that many helped them get there. Coaches, spouses, teammates, and more are part of the process. Living in the promised land means enjoying and appreciating What others have done for you and how they helped you along the way.

Part of the rest in the promised land is understanding that even with all your hard work, you didn’t do everything. God is the one who has got you where you are today. Your work and effort were necessary, but it wasn’t the only component. Many others have worked just as hard and have not achieved the same success. That doesn’t mean they are less than those who have made it big. Many lower-level people work just as hard and make as many sacrifices but don’t see the same success for many reasons. That’s why when you enter the promised land, you must sit and remember what God has done for you. Enjoying what God has done doesn’t take anything away from what you have done, but it also puts into perspective the blessings that God has given you.

All of this is easier said than done, of course. As much work as it takes to achieve success, staying there can be just that much work or more. However, by remembering what God has done for us and not abandoning the values that got us there, we can ensure we stay close to God and don’t fall away. Just like success is a choice, so is continued success. When Israel arrived in the promised land, they thought their 40-year journey was over. But in many ways, their journey was only starting. So likewise, our journey to stay close to God is never over until we arrive in the final promised land on the other side of death. Our entrance into eternal rest has nothing to do with our hard work, family, or sacrifices. Eternal life has everything to do with Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Through the mercy of God, we can finally arrive in the final place, and we can rest there forever in Christ. There our work is finally finished, and we can rest knowing that we did nothing on our own to get there.

What struck me was the tools of his trade around the shop. They weren't much to look at: tongs, a hammer, a table, gloves. It's amazing that something so beautiful can be made using such simple objects. Of course it's not the tools that make the art, but the master craftsman who holds them.   

It struck me that the tools of the Christian life are not that glamorous either. Daily Bible reading, prayer, alone time with God, regular church attendance. These might seem like ordinary things, but when God uses them in our lives he can make something glorious. 

If I were to pick up those shop tools to use, I couldn't do much with them. But in the hands of the master craftsman they're able to do something extraordinary. Likewise God takes the simple tools of the Christian life and makes us into something beautiful. The artist can make beautiful glass, but it's only temporary. But when we are built up in the Christian life through God, it will last for eternity. Don't neglect the simple tools God uses to build us into the image of Christ.    

That’s the dreaded phrase at the end of every job description, but it’s there for a reason. We never know what kind of things are going to be requested of us on the job, and that’s especially true when working in the church. As a pastor, my other duties as assigned have included unclogging toilets, folding bulletins, taking people to doctors appointments, yard work, and many, many contractor tasks that I was not licensed or trained to do.

Every person has to wear a lot of “hats” in life. A man with young children has to hold down a job, take care of the house, save for his kids college, teach Sunday School, volunteer at youth camp, run the computer at church, and keep the spark in his marriage. A college student has class, a job, helps with family, and volunteers at church. A mother manages the family household, buys groceries, keeps kids healthy, does laundry, pays the bills, volunteers in the nursery and on the praise team, and has a job of her own on top of all that! Change the roles or ages of the person to grandparents, single people, or anything else, it still ends up with too much to do and too little time. We have so many roles and responsibilities it feels like we are drowning in a sea of hats. Some of those things we can’t escape, but a church can be one of the worst places about shoving more “hats” on people.

Every leader should know that part of their job is doing whatever needs to be done. As a pastor that means filling the baptistery, changing the toilet paper, fixing the Internet, or anything else that might come up. When good volunteers are at a premium like in a church, both volunteers and staff members find themselves with a plethora of “other duties as assigned.” Most church leaders have learned to be a jack of all trades, helping the church to be the best it can be. The servant’s heart of so many leaders shine through as they strive to serve and help the church carry out its mission. But when the church drowns people in a sea of hats, always asking more of them, it seems the opposite of the call of Christ.

Many people just give up some of those roles when it feels like too much. A family quits going to church, or a father walks out, a marriage grows cold, kids go uncared for. When most people feel overworked the response is to either double down and work harder or just lay some of those hats aside and quit. Quitting often leads to guilt that we let others down, and working harder often leads to resentment at how hard working and under appreciated we are.

When drowning in a sea of hats, the best way out is the same way as when struggling in the water: call for help. It’s often the last thing we do though, afraid that others might think us weak, or out of fear of letting people down. But just as no one would fault a person drowning in the ocean who yelled for help, churches and families shouldn’t blame when their people call for help either. Church leaders should always be on the lookout for those who are drowning under the weight of expectations in life, and be the first ones to offer a hand out of the rolling waves.

Just as a lifeguard watches the waves for the drowning, so should church leaders watch their waters to see who might be drowning in a sea of hats. The signs might be subtle at first: a parent who shows less joy, a volunteer going through the motions, or even just hearing and seeing a person less.

The primary way pastors and leaders can combat someone drowning in a sea of hats is the same way a lifeguard does: keep your eyes on the people. This is the primary calling of any church leader, and means we must care for and watch out for people in danger. Shepherds are not called to manage organizations, but to care for people. Caring for people means knowing someone who needs to step back in a hard season, or who has been working for a long time without a rest, or has a lot of other things going on. It might mean telling a volunteer they are doing too much, and telling them to step back. What does it profit a church to have all the volunteers in the world if they all burn out?

Church leaders should have regular and honest check-ins about life beyond church with their leaders. We should not be satisfied with a “how you doing” on Sunday morning, but spend time with people to know what’s going on in their lives. This usually happens in hallways at church, at a ball game, or over a meal. We should be proactively looking for those who need help before the situation arises, even calling people back who are going too deep, or taking on too many roles at the church.

The church has been tasked with a great work, but we can trust that God will see it through to completion. God has called us to plant and water, but He is the one who brings the increase. If you are drowning in a sea of hats, just call for help. Jesus calls all those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him, and he will give you rest today. Be honest with yourself, honest with Christ, and honest with others, and you will find the rescue that you need.