Monday, December 29, 2008

Happy New Year

Wow - another year has come and is nearly gone. It has been a year of change for the Kulwicki's. My dad went home to heaven after a very short battle with cancer and my sister and brother and I got to care for him during that time. Billy changed jobs and we moved to Rockwall. My mom fell and broke her hip and shoulder requiring surgery and many, many months in rehab. My sister and her husband are leaving their acreage in Greenville after 11 years to move to a townhouse near George Bush freeway! Some of the change has been fun and adventurous and some has been grueling and painful. Such is life.

We have no clue what 2009 will hold for us but we can be assured that it will be a mixture of good and bad, fun and sad, easy and difficult. So how do we prepare ourselves?

I think the answer is found "in Christ." In Christ we have assurance that He is in control. In Christ we have the hope (rock hard certainty) that all things are being orchestrated by Him for His purposes - and that they are good. In Christ we find our joy and rest and peace. In Christ we are being molded into His image.

In Christ.....that is where I want to be found as 2008 fades into 2009. Not just as in being saved but firmly entrenched - making my determined purpose to abide in Him - loving Him with all my heart, trusting Him with all that is in me and believing Him with a steadfastness born of a relationship that has proven His faithfulness to me.

It will take determination on my part and a resolve to look not at my circumstances but at the faithfulness and power of my Abba Father who is the King of Kings. It is my intent but I will need you to remind me when life hurls 'stuff' at me. It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a church (body of believers) to raise a believer. How about in 2009 we hold each other accountable to be found in Christ - every day, in every situation? If we do so, I believe 2009 will be our best year ever.



Monday, December 22, 2008

What A Plan!

Colossians 1: 15-16 (THB) says "Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all, and, in fact, Christ Himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth..."

And yet He chose to wrap Himself in human flesh and enter the womb of a young Jewish woman putting her in peril of her very life while allowing Himself to be born into enemy territory. What kind of plan is that? All that He could live as we live, walk where we walk, be tempted as we are tempted and die that we may no longer die.

What kind of God is this?

Scripture says He is love. He loved us so much that He sent us His Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is the plan in a nutshell. I know I would willingly die for my children. In a heartbeat. No matter what they do or how they act or truthfully....even how they feel about me. I'm much happier when they express their love but their response has nothing to do with my love for them. I think that is a picture of God's love for us. A tiny picture because He has no shadow or impurity in His love for us.

His plan - and never doubt - it was preplanned from before Adam, is one that requires faith. We have to believe Him. We have to believe in Him. We have to believe that we are deeply and immeasurably loved - regardless of how He shows that love for us. We are living in hard times and many of you are going through trials and you might be tempted to throw in the towel.

Look deeply into the manger this Christmas. See the little baby - born to poor parents who were probably as confused as we are - and believe that He came to make a way for you to go home and this is not it. We are aliens and strangers here and what we long for and dream of is coming.

Now we need a plan. A plan that doesn't look at bank accounts or stock options, headstones or hospitals - it is a plan that involves looking up. Up - where heaven is. Up - where our Savior sits at the right hand of the Father. Up - where everything we long for and wait for is prepared for us. Up - where Christmas begins and ends. I love you - Merry Christmas!


Sunday, December 14, 2008

Emmanuel

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Parties, shopping, decorations, bells at the grocery store and PLANS!!! You've got to do a lot of planning this time of the year in order to do everything you want to do and get your families all visited and taken care of. I am a master planner. In fact, if I'm not careful - 'the plan' will become my emphasis. I was making my 'plans' this weekend when our son looked at me and said, "How are we going to go all that?" I had such great ideas: cinnamon buns for breakfast followed by gift exchange followed by pictures/puzzles/cookie decorating and then on to lunch, movies and a family Christmas dinner with my brother and sister and their families. I was trying to fit candy making in with my daughters-in-law when it dawned on me that I COULD make it all work but would it really be fun?

I think that is where Emmanuel becomes such a precious reality to us. The name God gave us for Jesus is "God with us." No plans. No preparation. God with us - always, wherever, whenever, whatever. You can be intentional about spending time with Him and experience His presence more fully or you can be unintentional and miss Him or be surprised by Him. For He is always with you.

Our Christmas is really no different than the first one. Everyone was busy with their plans. Caesar Augustus had plans for everyone to go to their birth city for taxation. City managers were planning to fill the city coffers with hotel and dining money. Mary and Joseph planned to check in to a local hotel and deliver their firstborn. Things didn't exactly go as planned. They don't usually for ours either. Humans seem to get in the way of the best of plans.

It's easy for us to look back at that first Christmas and stand in amazement that they missed Jesus. Yet if we're not careful, we'll do the same. But He won't miss us. That was the entire point of God becoming a man. He wanted to live with us - within us. To be with us always. It's an amazing and wonderful gift. And it is our reality. God is with us.

The originator of Christmas is also the originator of families.......man.......and plans. He isn't opposed to any of those - in fact He just wants to be right in the middle of them. That is my intent this Christmas - to center Christ smack dab in the middle of my planning! I encourage you to do the same.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas in a Crummy Economy

If you have somehow avoided a newspaper or television, maybe you didn't know that the USA is in a recession. But more than likely you knew it because it has somehow affected you. Recession could just as easily be summed up in one word - loss. Loss of job. Loss of retirement. Loss of savings. Loss of homes. Loss of sales. Loss, loss, loss. We Americans - the richest of all nations - have learned that the things in which we too often place our trust are nothing more than shifting sand. Of course, we Christians were supposed to already know that. At least we sing it.

When Jesus came to earth - and by the way, talk about LOSS. Paul said it best in the book of Philippians when he said that Jesus 'emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.' Jesus chose loss for our sakes. He bypassed an eternity of glorious riches for a temporary life span on earth. A life span that Ecclesiastes defines as "a mist, a vapor." It didn't change His eternal destiny but it sure changed ours.

Most of us affected by the economic turndown are focusing on the temporary - the things that are mists and vapor. Focusing on those things will take our spirits to where the economy is - in the tank! When our focus turns to the eternal riches that are ours; the inheritance that is promised to us; the infallibility of our God and His kingdom and the immutable truth that "all things work together for our good" and "nothing is impossible with God, " we are more than conquerors. We are different. We are a light in a dark world. We are confident in things unseen.

Christmas is about the incomprehensible. God became a fetus. He limited Himself to the womb of a teenager and a delivery in a stable. Seems like a sweet story unless you've ever birthed a baby. Then you know that being forced to deliver in a stable versus a birthing room surrounded by loved ones and skilled attendants might rank higher on your scale of crisis than the economy.

Immanuel - God With Us - stripping Himself of honor, glory and majesty to come to a world that had no room for Him. Maybe your losses in this recession make you feel stripped....of pride, of self, of honor. Perhaps you are in good company. Jesus did so willingly that we might know - really know - how much God loves us and longs for us. That didn't change when the economy took a nose dive. He is near to you.

Christmas in a crummy economy is forced de-materialization. I think I made that word up. It is being forced to not buy so much. Not shop so much. Not stress so much over what we can't afford and don't need anyway. And focusing on what's really important - people. I'm really sorry so many people are hurting. I'm really sorry so many people have experienced so much loss. But I'm so happy that most of the people I know are more than overcomers in Christ Jesus.

This economy is nothing to God but His concern has never been on the economy. He is concerned about His children. His heart is that we would turn from our obsessive compulsion for things that never satisfy to the rock which will never be shaken. I am praying that we discover the joy of Christmas this year above all others. Share what you have. Open your home. Give. It's the Bible's cure for loss. And discover what Jesus did - joy!