The Christmas Dinner That Almost Never Was

Not that this is completely atypical for the Robertsons…but we came close to eating little more than peanut butter sandwiches, Frosted Flakes, canned tuna, kidney beans, lasagna noodles, and mandarin oranges in heavy syrup for Christmas dinner (basically the contents of our pantry). And we’re going to have a total of twelve people here in a few hours!

The story goes something like this. Yesterday was so hectic. It probably shouldn’t have been, but it was. While Beth was doing housework and wrapping presents, I was uploading pictures to Walgreens to be developed and baking unleavened bread for our Christmas Eve service at church. Beth was running errands for me and I was running errands for her. In between, we were making our lists and checking them twice. Our plan was simple—we were going to buy food for our Christmas dinner after the Christmas Eve service.

Did I mention that Wal-Mart, Food Lion, and Kroger all close early on Christmas Eve?

We were panicking! I started laughing but Beth didn’t think the situation was funny. She was about to play hostess for eight other people and we hadn’t even started buying groceries for Christmas dinner! (It’s about 7:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve at this point, by the way.) Walgreens is always a good place to pick up whatever you need…unless what you need includes ground beef and a variety of cheeses for Beth’s famous lasagna (we go non-traditional for Christmas dinner).

About that time my phone rang. It was my older brother, James. Man, I hated to tell him our dilemma but I had to. “Brother,” I said, “you’ll never believe what we’ve done…”

After he stopped laughing…he told me that my niece had done the same thing, but she had found Martin’s Food Store on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard open until 9:00. I’ve never been so glad to see a store open in my life. I actually said, “It’s a Christmas miracle!” Okay, so I overreacted a little…but you’ve got to put yourself in our shoes.

$105 later, we were on our way home. Crisis solved. Whew!

Our story makes me think about people who are so busy with life that they don’t take time to think about the One born on that first Christmas night. Maybe they’ve planned to deal with God later on in life…maybe they haven’t. But what happens if and when they look up and realize that it’s too late…that their plans were terribly flawed?

We would have survived the embarrassment of our Christmas dinner quandary we almost created; but missing Jesus involves far more than embarrassment. Make room for Jesus today…

Merry CHRISTmas!

He Knows My Name (Updated 01/03/07)

UPDATE: Regarding the following post, I've received information on the organization who accepts letters on behalf of ill or wounded soldiers at Fort Cambell. Operation Home Front works with other military supporting agencies to review all the letters to ensure their appropriateness and safety. You can send your cards and letters to:

Wounded or Ill Soldier
c/o Operation Home Front
P. O. Box 20295
Clarksville, TN 37042

Thank you, Laura Boyd, for the info!

I was just reading an article on FoxNews.com entitled, “U.S. Refuses ‘Any Wounded Soldier’ Mail.” The title initially aggravated me because I thought it was like the recently reversed decision by NBC not to air a conservative group's television ad thanking U.S. troops. But as I read the article, I began to understand.

Long story short…in the wake of 9/11, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have agreed no longer to deliver cards and letters addressed simply to “Any Wounded Soldier” because of the fear that terrorists or our enemies might seek to inflict further suffering (physical or emotional) by way of toxic substances or disheartening messages. It’s sad, but that’s the world in which we live.

Also sad is that all those acts of kindness by well-intentioned people will never fulfill their purpose. But, once again, that’s the world in which we live.

My mind drifted to Christmas…that first Christmas…when God put on the garment of human flesh and was born as a tiny, helpless baby through the virgin womb of Mary. The angels announced to the shepherds that the good news of His birth was for all people! In fact, Acts 10:36 reminds us that Jesus isn’t just the Lord of Christians—“He is Lord of all.”

But with all our emphasis upon God’s love for everyone, how often do we forget the personal nature of God’s love gift in Jesus’ birth? I love Jesus’ words in John 10 to this effect: “The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out…I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me” (vss. 3, 14). And then there are David’s words in Psalm 139:17-18—“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” And, of course, Jeremiah 1:5—“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

My point in all this rambling is that when God sent Jesus to be born in Bethlehem, He didn’t address His birth to “Any Wounded Soldier.” Jesus didn’t come to us like junk mail, addressed to “Resident” or “Occupant.” God knew (knows) my name and your name! There’s not a one of us who’s anonymous to God!

This thought is going to make Christmas even more special for me…He knows my name!

They Did What!?!

Okay…I’m still rubbing my eyes, trying to see if what I’ve been reading is really there. The first sentence of the Baptist Press article reads, “Members of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, voted Dec. 2 to delay a decision on whether to include homosexual members as couples in a church pictorial directory.”

If I understand the issue correctly, Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, started allowing practicing homosexuals to become church members at some point in the past. Now the church is struggling with whether to allow gay couples to be presented as such in the church directory.

Wow!

Here’s an excellent example of why Southern Baptists needed to update their confession of faith in 2000. Southern Baptists adopted similar confessions of faith in 1925 and 1963. Unfortunately, the 1963 version has been used time after time to justify sinful behavior such as homosexuality. There’s a phrase in the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message that I agree with 100%...sadly, some who want to call themselves Southern Baptists highjacked it from its context and have used it to validate their immorality. It’s the phrase, “The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.”

Sounds harmless enough, right? In fact, it’s not at all hard to agree with it. The problem with that little phrase is that some wayward Southern Baptists who have wanted to justify virtually any aberrant behavior have consulted the gospels and concluded that if Jesus didn’t address an issue, it must be acceptable behavior. Case in point—homosexuality.

Please hear my heart on this. I’ve said it repeatedly as I’ve preached—“Sexual sin is sexual sin is sexual sin!” God doesn’t view homosexuality any differently than He does fornication and adultery. They’re all sexual sin, whether the orientation is heterosexual or homosexual.

But when we receive members into our churches, we make certain assumptions and seek to operate within certain guidelines. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is that the candidate for membership has forsaken all known sin and placed his faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. We call that having a “regenerate church membership.”

That a church which has a quasi connection with Southern Baptists would be struggling with whether to allow gay couples to be presented as such in their upcoming church directory is absolutely inconceivable to me. But when you deviate from the Word of God and begin to equate the pseudo-wisdom of men with the timeless truths of Scripture…well, this is the kind of thing that happens.

“Lord, I want to pray for Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And, Father, I pray for those in homosexual bondage who've been admitted into Broadway's church membership and encouraged to continue their lifestyle. Somehow...through someone...deliver them through the life-changing power of the gospel. Lord, I don't pray that You'll give them heterosexuality...that's not their greatest need right now. But I pray for Your holiness to be poured into their lives by grace through faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.”

I Still Do

Today I will perform a wedding ceremony for a great couple--Eric Robson and Sara Burkhead. Sara came into our church family not long after I became the pastor, and she's become a friend to my family. In fact, I've threatened to break both of Eric's legs if he doesn't treat Sara right. I'm just kidding...sort of. Seriously, I think Sara's found a great guy...and I know Eric's getting a great girl. If he ever forgets that, though...legs, kneecaps, walking, rehabilitative therapy. ;-)

I don't perform a wedding ceremony that I don't think of my own marriage. That's a good practice, by the way...reevaluating your own marriage everytime you watch another couple say, "I do." You know, couples spend so much time, energy, and money on the wedding ceremony that sometimes they don't think nearly enough about the marraige. The ceremony lasts but a few minutes...the marriage is to last a lifetime.

Beth and I stood on the platform of Calvary Baptist Church in West Memphis, Arkansas, almost 20 years ago and said, "I do." I meant those words with all my heart...but you want to know what my wife wants to know now...19 1/2 years later? She wants to know that "I still do." She's never asked me to say those words, I want you to understand. But I tell her from time to time (not nearly enough, though), "I still do."

What does that mean? It means that all the promises and commitments I made to her on our wedding day are just as significant...just as real now as they were then. As a pastor I often hear couples say, "We just don't love each other like we did in the beginning." I want to say to them (and sometimes do), "I don't love my wife the same as I did in the beginning. I love her MORE!"

I love to say that there's nothing more beautiful in this life than old love. By that I mean older folk showing their affection for one another. I see it when they hold hands as they walk through the mall. I see it when a husband opens the door for his wife. I see it when a wife shows up everyday at the nursing home to care for her husband with Alzheimer’s. He doesn't know who she is...but she knows who he is...and she remembers the vows she made to him on her wedding day. That's old love, and it's beautiful.

But I assure you, old love doesn't just sprout out of nowhere; it's homegrown. Old love has to begin somewhere, such as with young love. I do long for heaven because God has placed eternity in my heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But I also want to grow old with my wife. In some ways I feel like we've been together our whole lives...I barely remember life without her. In other ways, I feel like our relationship is just getting started. I'm still learning her...coming to love her more.

So as I sit here putting the finishing touches on Eric's and Sara's wedding ceremony, I'm also thinking about my wife downstairs. I'm thinking about how "I still do." I think I'll go tell her...