Proverbs 18, verse 14, says: A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?”

The other day, I was taking old boxes and breaking them down. If you’ve never worked in the restaurant or retail industry, the term “breaking down boxes” simply means that you flatten them out.

Over the years, I’ve taped boxes up to reinforce them and even folded the flaps in for added durability. But once a box is broken down or crushed, it’s pretty much useless.

If you’ve ever had your spirit crushed from a broken relationship, a lost job, death of a loved one, then you know how empty and useless one can feel when their spirit has been crushed.

Thankfully, though your spirit may be crushed, the Lord’s Spirit is uncrushable. He can wrap his loving arms around you and sustain you through life’s most difficult days. Call out to Him in prayer and ask Him to sustain you through his mighty power.

Happy Holidays!

That sounds weird. It seems that retailers, and others seeking to be politically correct, have moved away from “Merry Christmas” in exchange for “Happy Holidays.” Well, personally I can think of several reasons why this exchange is not a good idea.

First, it’s another step toward cowering down to those that are anti anything Christian. Well, I say enough is enough! The secular world doesn’t seem to be anti other religions. Let a Muslim get offended and watch the secular world change their tune. Why should we be treated with disrespect and contempt? After all, we’re not the ones cutting people’s heads off in the name of God or committing acts of terrorism under the guise of holy war. (Sorry for the rant. Didn’t mean to slip out of political correctness mode.)

Second, if it weren’t for Christmas, there wouldn’t be any holiday for which to be happy. Some have said that “Happy Holidays” is a generic greeting that encompasses all the holidays celebrated at this time of year. Please! (Said with a hint of sarcasm) Have you ever heard of New Year’s caroling, Hanukkah trees, or winter solstice dinner? Give me a break! The only holiday to be happy about is Christmas. So, just call it what it is. (Oops. Sorry. I’m not being politically correct.)

Third, and finally, we should say Merry Christmas because everyone is sick and tired of bending over backwards so as not to offend anyone. Yes, that’s right. I’m saying it’s time we throw political correctness out the window! All this talk from secularist about separating church and state, well how is this for separation? IT’S CHRISTMAS, NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I wish everyone would stop trying to make it correct politically. I don’t want a politically correct Christmas. I want a MERRY one!

So, while it may go against the current of a politically correct culture, I wish you and yours a very MERRY CHRISTMAS this year!

When I read this Bible verse, two childhood lessons from my parents come to mind. First, sticks and stones may break your bones, but word can never hurt you.

If you’ve even been told this, let me clarify something. This childhood rhyme is the biggest lie ever told! Words do hurt!! And they often stay with us long after our bodily scars fade away. The tongue and the words that come from it can encourage and speak with kindness, but it can also curse and wound and scar the soul. Be careful how you use your words.

I said there were two lessons from my childhood that this Bible verse reminded me of. The second is this: What goes around, comes around.
If you use your words to gossip and hurt others, it’s only a matter of time before you become the victim of those same tactics. How would you like to be spoken to? What would you like said of you? Let your words uplift and encourage others, and soon, their words will uplift and encourage you!

My wife and I recently attended a conference in Branson, MO. The speaker shared a recent struggle he faced in his life: depression. What led to his depression? Over commitment in work responsibilities and extreme stress. 

He told us that his mistake was adding additional responsibility to his already hectic schedule, when he should have given up some of his other activities in order to replace them with the burden of new responsibilities. What the speaker discovered–and what I discovered during a similar time in my life–is that God never designed us to work seven days a week. Our bodies need rest and “down time.”  That’s why the Lord commanded us to rest on the sabbath. 

My father recently took a new job. His boss told him to work 30 hours in the office and take the other 10 hours of his work week to go exercise or do a hobby. When asked why the man replied that he’s found that employees work harder and perform better when they have balance in their life, not when they work 60-80 hour weeks.  How true! We need balance. 

I encourage you–no, I implore you–allow for margins in your life. Seek out ways to have balance.  Carve out a sabbath day of “rest.”   You’ll be healthier and happier because of it!

Have you ever thought that some people treat church attendance like RV living? Think about it. The up-side of RV life is that you have no roots…no home base. You stay here, you stay there…and when you’re tired of one place, you pack things up and move on.

That’s the way some Christians treat church attendance. Now I know there are legitimate reasons for changing churches. You might move to a new city or you just might not be getting spiritually fed anymore. I’m not talking about those folks. You know the ones I’m talking about. They’ve been members of five churches in five years. They stay for a while but when they get bored or offended, well, off they go.

Now my Grandmother was not the RV type. She lived in the same house for over 50 years! She didn’t even like traveling on holidays. For the life of me, I can’t remember one Christmas or Thanksgiving that she was more than 20 miles away from her house.

That’s the way we should be as Christians when it comes to a church home. Find one…one that feeds you and challenges you spiritually. And stay there!

On our final day in Las Vegas, I had the joy of riding along with a missionary, Jeremy, as he made some contacts in the area. As we rode around, I did a brief interview with him. The sound is not so great but his vision for reaching the Eastern European community in the Vegas area is fantastic.

Our day of serving at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission ended with a chapel service. The residence who are staying at The Mission are required to attend. Others come for the spiritual food that’s offered alongside the physical food. On this night, our mission team were asked to lead the worship.

What follows are four videos of the chapel service. Each video is less than ten minutes so you can “stop & start” your viewing as needed. In total, the service lasted around half an hour. I encourage you to watch all four video clips. Each holds a special blessing of its own…

From a distance, they are the homeless, the drug addicts, and the less fortunate among us. But up close, they have names and faces. They are real people. Some have held important jobs. Others have family in nearby states. They were once loved by someone special…and in the eyes of our Heavenly Father, they are lovable still.

Meet William Alfred. This is his story.

This video is longer than the others I’ve uploaded but well worth the watching. If you ever had any doubts about our youth’s and adult’s ability to serve Jesus…well, doubt no more. I saw the hands and feet of Jesus from the oldest to the youngest member of our group. How proud I was to be their pastor. How proud I was of the testimony they gave for Christ in their service.

Watch and enjoy!

One of the easiest and most effective tools in mission work is the block party. Simply defined, you find a location (in our case a local park), set up your “stuff” (in our case bouncy machines, volleyball, etc) and pass out food (in our case pizza). What happens next is amazing. We saw tons of kids and adults join us for a fun time…and in the midst of the fun, Jesus was shared!

Here’s a little video of some of what happened.