With Christmas being just a few days, I read one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Luke 2. In this, Jesus is presented at the temple eight days after He is born. There we are introduced to Simeon. Simeon had been praying to God for the Savior. This is what he prayed after He say Jesus.

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Since he saw the Lord, he was willing to die. His life was now complete. This makes me wonder what I would do if I got to see Him face to face?

I would say that the reason that most are reluctant to give their life to Christ is that they are afraid that they have to give something up. They are afraid to give things such as: casual sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, lying, etc…People think that these things are enjoyable and at one point I did as well, but I am just going to be honest here…It does not compare to what we gain when we fully submit our lives to Christ. And that was demonstrated in today’s reading was Philippians 3.

I believe that Paul really captures the essence of giving up things. (He refers to it as losing) He states, “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ”

He is telling us how wonderful it is to gain Christ…He goes on to say that he has lost all things for Christ. I know that it seems hard or near impossible to do this, but it is not. He tells us that with Him all things are possible.

Do we truly want a good life? Do we truly want peace in our hearts? I don’t think that anyone could answer no to these two questions. If you do just lost it…

With the financial downturn we hear everyday about money. Like who is losing it, making it, filing bankruptcy and how to properly invest. To be honest this is not much of a concern of mine, the only thing that I worry about is making it. And to be honest I really don’t worry too much about that anymore.

Today’s reading was Proverbs 27. Proverbs is full of knowledge and useful/relevant information and today was no different. The thing that really stood out was verse 17 which says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This is actually a pretty cool statement. How much easier is it to get something done when we have someone checking up on us. I will answer…a lot easier. For example, it is much easier when we diet with someone so that they can hold us accountable. We don’t want to disappoint them.

The same principle is true in our walk with Christ. We have to hold invest in each other. So my questions are: Who are we helping out by investing in them? And who is investing in us? We absolutely have to invest in people. We have to truly embrace the principle taught in Proverbs 27:17…Christ invested in people…

How many people do we know that do not know Jesus Christ? I would say that the number is astronomically high. (Sad, but true) Today’s reading was Proverbs 24, and I have to tell you it made me take a look at myself and look and see if I am doing what I am supposed to do.

Proverbs 24:11 reads, “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”

Vivid right? They will be slaughtered…This is a horrifying image to have in your head about loved ones. What if we could help change this? What if we had the tools to SAVE their life? Would we do it? How many more will we allow to be slaughtered?

At some point in time, for most of us, someone shared the love of Christ with us…Who do we know that we can share with?

So many people do not truly believe that God loves them. They think that they are too wretched or something. God loves us to the point that he has anguish for us. Anguish can be defined as “Agonizing physical or mental pain.” How could someone NOT love us if they felt agonizing pain? This is God’s plead to us: