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Thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions

“Now faith, hope and love remain – these three things – and the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13

Every January our culture has a conversation about New Year’s resolutions . . . should we or shouldn’t we? Should we make promises to ourselves, to others, even to God? Often the reason we don’t is the lack of confidence we have in ourselves that we will be able to keep the resolution and then disappoint ourselves, other people and maybe even God. So, sometimes we just don’t do anything.

I believe God created the world, created us and has given us an amazing gift in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus talked about life a great deal, both everlasting life and abundant life. Everlasting life is a gift we receive through faith in Jesus Christ. Abundant life is a life we live, a life created as we partner with Christ, learning day by day how to live in abundance, “faith, hope and love!” By God’s grace we have the power, the presence of His Holy Spirit and the biblical truth that is given to us by God so that the future can be changed by making promises and commitments to it. I am going to go to church this year! I am going to stop this certain destructive behavior! I am going to forgive this person in my life! I am going to begin a regimen of self-care, body, soul and mind! You get the idea.

Thoughts on the invitation of Christmas

In the story of Christmas, we have what is called by many “The Incarnation.” The son of God is born through a miracle of the Holy Spirit and a young woman named Mary. This child named Jesus was born “to save his people from their sins.” This is a promise made by God long before. One of the most interesting things about it is the invitation to other participants who did not really have to be there for the Incarnation to take place — wise men who discovered in reading prophetic words that a Messiah would come to Bethlehem one day and had been searching and waiting for generations and then the shepherds who were shocked out of their sandals by angels who invited them to the most important moment in history. Their invitation is our invitation, whether we discover Christ is Lord by the words of angels or prophetic words such as the Bible records. It only matters that we accept the invitation and show up at Christmas. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow . . . and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Christmas is made real only on the knees of those who bow before this Lord.

There is a true story told of a man named Tim Smith. But you might not know the entire story. Tim was raised by a man named Horace Smith. When Tim Smith was 11 he found a box under his mother’s bed with his birth certificate in it, a certificate signed by Tug McGraw. He knew the name immediately because he had Tug’s baseball card taped to his bedroom wall, for Tug was a famous baseball pitcher. He discovered that this man was his real father. A quick look in a box slid under a bed changed Tim Smith’s life as well as his name. Today he is Tim McGraw, married to Faith Hill, and is one of the most popular country singers in America and played a lead role in the movie The Blind Side. What a shame if he just slid the box back under the bed without looking inside.

I hope you will take a deep look inside of Christmas. When I do, it changes how I experience this life-changing season. It is not a season we pull out from under the bed after Thanksgiving and then slide back on New Year’s Day; it’s a joyful reminder of what it means to bow before God who sent us such an “Amazing Grace” Savior. Christmas is a special holiday, all the pieces from the secular to the sacred, the tree to the candlelight services. But Christmas is also as simple as a knee bent on a stable floor before a small child who would one day save us all from our sins.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas,

Few words say more than these two, as they speak of joy in the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, good tidings of great joy the angel’s sang. As I often say, we are drawn to the Christmas story because of its simple beauty and its powerful hope.

Christmas is special for many reasons. I think of the many Christmas’ my parents gave me as a child, from Santa’s gifts under the tree that I know they sacrificed to give their four children to the many candlelight services we attended as a family where we celebrated Christ’s birth. I enjoy the decorations, music and trappings of the season. O Come, All Ye Faithful is my favorite carol, and Rhonda and I both enjoy a glass of eggnog, something we only share at Christmas time. For me, all the symbols and events of the season are experienced through the filter of my faith in Christ, and I love sharing the Christmas “good news” in sermons and messages.

This last year has been eventful for the Ramsdell family. Our oldest daughter married Jason, and together they now have five children. They seem very happy, and we are happy for them. We celebrated Thanksgiving at their home in Lumberton, Texas, the first time this holiday was not at our home or my parents’ home. Kelly, our youngest daughter, along with her husband Chad and their two children, lived with us for a couple of months as he prepared for his third deployment, this time to Afghanistan. He is in Kandahar today, and Kelly will live with her sister as they help one another during this next year (Kelly needs support while Chad is gone, and Julie needs a nanny). It seems to be working. Our son Michael, who is married to Gladys, has our youngest grandchild, Henry, and recently was advanced in the company he works for, Caris Diagnostics. He loves computers, and this is what he gets to do. Our children are all doing well as are our eight grandchildren; we are deeply proud of who they are. Faith is the center of all our family.

Our church family has had an equally wonderful year. You are an amazing church family. I am proud of you and honored to be a small part of what God is doing in and through First Church. The God Is Big Enough campaign has taken off around the world, not only in the good news the wristband has given people in so many different situations, but also helping us define who we are as a church. God Is Big Enough continues to create a great United Methodist Church that is making a tremendous impact on its community, on the United Methodist Church and in the world. I appreciate all you do and pray God blesses your family as he has mine.

As a small Christmas gift, I have put together a few of the personal “quotes” I have written the last few years, ideas that have influenced me and I hope will bless you a little. I call them Simple Ideas from Simple Ramsdell (click on this link to read). I have learned it is the concepts I can grasp quickly and consistently that create the most positive change. Maybe an idea or two here can bless you a little as well.

Merry Christmas and a God Is Big Enough New Year,
Pastor Mike Ramsdell

Thoughts on defining what Christmas is

Christmas ? the season is upon us, and it is moving fast. It always does, especially with the countdowns we hear on the news most nights and the tasks we have to get done. It’s like getting on a bullet train that will come to a screeching halt on Christmas Day. One writer put it this way about the day after Christmas, “Nothing is more over than Christmas when it’s over!” I’m not sure Christmas should have a start and end date, though maybe a beginning one.

I think we often enter this season with anticipation or anxiety — anticipation of the holiday giving us a wonderful time, a promise that it may not be able to keep, or anxiety at all the money we have to spend, presents we have to buy and added events we have to attend — events added to an already full life and money spent when we might be maxed out already. Most of us try our best to tie the secular and the sacred together in a meaningful way. We enjoy a tree and lights, so up they go. We know it’s about the birth of Christ, so we make sure we put Christmas Eve Candlelight on the calendar. (It’s on mine.)

So, the question is, “What about the Christmas season can we take into the new year that will build and expand our lives?” I think the answer is relationships — relationships that have grown in family, friendships, marriage, church and with Jesus Christ himself. Separate the living part of the season from that which is not. If the lights don’t work on one side of the tree (like our tree), that is not a problem. But if we don’t find time to hold the hand of a loved one and don’t find time to connect to Jesus, that is a problem. The tree goes up into the attic, but our relationships will define what 2012 will be and also what it won’t be.

• The eyes of a child experiencing the firsts of Christmas
• Sitting next to someone in church who you love holding hands with
• Sharing a tradition you love with someone else
• Kneeling at the foot of God (Christmas is God’s footprint on earth.)
• Finding a place to serve or give to another
• Making a friend
• Forgiveness, gratitude, hope, faith

If we are not intentional about what matters to us and God, then when Christmas ends, it ends. If we are intentional about our relationship with God and others, then Christmas is the beginning of the brightness of the good life in Jesus Christ.

Thoughts on Christmas

I am anticipating a great Christmas season with one of the best parts sharing it with my church family. We have just begun the Advent season with an important emphasis, The Gift of Christmas! When we think of Christmas, we most often think of Jesus’ birth as a gift of God, as well as the season being one of giving. But there is an undercurrent to what the Nativity really means that is often missed, this place where we can meet God in a vital and life-changing way. This is where we will focus all the way through Christmas. My hope is that we will walk through this season together learning better how to center our lives around The Gift of Christmas. There are many services you can attend. We have all our usual special services on Sunday morning, but don’t forget our Saturday 6:00 p.m. worship time or our new Sunday worship time at 5:00 p.m. Celebrate Recovery worship is on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. You can also worship online at www.firstmethodistmansfield.tv, live streaming or later in our archives.

Some opportunities I would like to lift up:

• In each weekend worship opportunity, we will celebrate The Gift of Christmas! 
• On Sunday, December 4, at 7:00 p.m., we will have our annual Remembrance Service. If you have lost a loved one, this is a time to remember with others, not only our shared loss but the hope we have in Christ.
• Join us on Sunday, December 11, at 3:00 or 6:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary for First Family Christmas, an inspiring and amazing musical presentation. It is a great time to bring the family together to focus on Christmas as we move from the secular to the sacred. Our First Family Christmas will certainly be a high point of our season.

We’ve also set our Christmas worship schedule:

Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship
Friday, December 23

• 6:30 p.m. — Contemporary with a living Nativity in which all children are invited to participate.
• 8:00 p.m. — Traditional with choir and orchestra

Saturday, December 24

• 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. — Contemporary with a living Nativity in which all children are invited to participate.
• 8:00 p.m. — Traditional with choir and orchestra (This will also be streamed live.)
• 10:00 p.m. — Traditional with handbells
• 11:30 p.m. — This service is 30 minutes and includes carols, candlelight and communion.

Christmas Sunday, December 25
We will celebrate with three Sunday morning services, 8:15, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary, as well as Sunday night at 5:00 p.m. in the Chapel (9:30 and 11:00 a.m. will also be streamed live).

“For today in the city of David there has been for you, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

May I be one of the first to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Thoughts on God’s gift to us

Sunday I quoted from a Western movie called Open Range. Know that I am a sucker for westerns. Also recognize that all the words in them are not necessarily inspired, but I think these words might be because they represent so much the sentiment and truth of Christianity. The doctor’s spinster sister says these words to a damaged cowboy as she offers him a small locket for luck. He at first wants to reject the gift thinking he is not good enough, but the “good enough” is her opinion of him and has little to do with the disabled opinion he has of himself. Read the words:

“It’s not your choosing if it’s a gift!”

I think these words in Ephesians say much the same thing, only they are speaking of salvation.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

People often think they have to talk God into helping or saving them. Others think they have to pay some kind of price for God’s mercy. Still more simply think they are not of enough value to experience God’s love and blessings.

“Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person; though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us, in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8)

The giver of the gift decides the value of the one who receives the gift, not the one who receives. This is a core idea of the Christian faith. God has decided, acted and proven that each of us is of immense value to Him ? a value qualified by the cross of His only Son, the perfect, sinless, complete offering of Jesus Christ. God has chosen to give us this gift. We just receive, say thank you and respond.

In the movie, this broken cowboy and former gunfighter becomes a better man begun by such a simple, undeserved, but accepted gift.

God wants to save us!
God wants to help us!
God wants to bless us!

We don’t have to pay for it, deserve it or talk him into it, just accept with a simple act of faith in God, God who has revealed Himself in the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. As we approach Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, think on these things!

I hope you will be able to join us for a special weekend of worship, Celebrate Recovery tonight, then Saturday worship at 6:00 p.m., a reception for the ZOE mission at 7:30 p.m., and then all our Sunday services, including our new 5:00 p.m. worship. We will celebrate what God has done in and through us through ZOE Ministry in Rwanda and Zimbabwe. You will be inspired as we begin Thanksgiving week with such big-deal moments. I think we need to hear Vincent’s (a 15 year old from Rwanda) story. And he needs a place to tell it, God at work.

Thoughts on looking for the 5%

Some years ago, Bill Hybles, the pastor of Willow Creek Church, one of the largest churches in America said, “Ninety-five percent is 5% too little!” Since then it has become a guide for his church and many others as we think about what it is to be a Christian. What would my life, your life, the life of the church look like if that last 5% found its way into the hands of a saving, loving, generous God?

What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “Come follow me”? Could 95% of Peter get out and make the amazing journey Jesus would demand? What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of me”? (When someone tries to plow without his eyes front, the furrows get crooked.) It takes 100% to follow and 100% of eyes straight ahead to experience the life Jesus expects of those who believe in him.

Why are we so tempted to look for shortcuts, settle for less and look for easier ways to be Christians? Wouldn’t you think we would want to be 100% of the best thing there is to be?

• 100% holy
• 100% generous
• 100% forgiving
• 100% loving

As we are in the season of Practicing Extravagant Generosity, an idea that pervades it all — an idea as biblical, as Jesus as it can be — is generosity begets generosity. One hundred percent Christians experience 100% of what the Christian life can look like and be like. This doesn’t mean life is perfect, without flaws or trouble, but it does mean that we walk with God. Walking with God as Jesus walked with God is the greatest of reward in itself. In other words, faithfulness is its own reward just as belonging to God is faith’s greatest gift.

I think spending some time looking for the 5% can be a life-changing journey, especially when we find it, we give it to God.

Thoughts on peace

There was a time when boxing was one of the biggest sports in America. It has fallen on hard times in recent years. But I remember the excitement that surrounded the three fights between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. Ali won two out of three of those fights. There was a bitter rivalry between the two. Each spent time in the hospital after the fights, and some think Ali’s debilitating health later in life came from the damage experienced in those fights. Frazier certainly did not escape unscathed on these three brutal times in the boxing ring. There is peace between the two men today. Neither can fight in the ring anymore, and they have become friends today, reminiscing on the old days when their fights caught the attention of the world.

Sometimes people don’t have peace because they are in a constant fight with God, fighting as to who is really in charge — them or God. Pretty much everyone wants peace. But peace doesn’t come in a magical way. It is not forced upon us. And, it is not a possession or even a character trait. It comes when someone submits to God, to God’s love, God’s authority, God’s salvation, God as God. Until we submit to God, bend the knee, accept the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives, there can be no peace. Instead there is a constant battle of wills with God, a battle that cannot be won. God does not exist to do our will and achieve our dreams. We exist to do God’s will and live in relationship with God. From this place of submitting our hearts and lives to our creator, we live our lives in a new way.

I want to be happy, want to experience joy, know meaning and purpose, love and be loved. But I have learned that none of it works for very long without peace — peace, one of the fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians — peace with God, peace that overwhelms the human heart, peace that guides the human soul, peace that fills the mind and directs one’s life.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” Romans 5:1

“All knees shall bow, and all tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.” Romans 14:11

The way to experience peace is submission to God, standing up after we have spent some serious time on our knees.

“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”  Matthew 11:28-29

Thoughts on what satisfies

I think one of the interesting creations of the last few years is artificial candles. You can buy an artificial candle that you plug in that emits the scent of apple pie. Not only is there not real apple pie, just an unsatisfying smell, but there is no candle either. For someone who might be hungry and an apple pie fan, it’s a trick. The candle has a smell but no substance. Our culture has a lot of smell, but there is not always substance.

“But Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

“Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.” (1 Timothy 6:18,19)

Two ideas that come to mind:

1. If you are not happy with what you’ve got, you won’t be happy with what you get!
2. The devil wants to deceive us into thinking something is nothing and nothing is something.

Some years ago the stock market went up like crazy on the dot.com industries. It seemed like every day a new internet company started up and began looking for investors. Billions were invested and lost on speculation. Millions of Americans watched as their investments faded away. They had invested in hype instead of substance and eventually paid the price.

Only God can satisfy the soul. Psalm 42:1 says it with great imagery, “As the deer thirsts for streams of water, so does my heart thirst after you, O Lord!” We do our loved ones a disservice when we ask them to satisfy our souls. We ask our world the impossible when we look for things in it to satisfy, for only Jesus Christ can quench the thirsting of the human soul. Jesus said, “If you drink the water from this well, you will thirst again, but if you ask of me, I will give you water that you never thirst again.” (John, chapter 4).

The scent of apple pie has some appeal but not nearly as much as apple pie itself. Our culture is full of all kinds of smells that promise satisfaction but can’t deliver. God delivers on His promises because God is the deliverer.

Thoughts on Family

One of the most exciting and exacting things someone ever gets to do is build a home. This process usually takes a year or so. Getting financing, selecting the lot, working with an architect and builder to get the design down, picking out all the details — appliances, colors — and then watching as the plumbing is laid down, foundation is laid, framing goes up and the home is slowly completed. Then finally the great day comes when it can be said, “It’s done!”

As we walk through the Picture Perfect series, sometimes people might think the family, marriage and relationships, even the church are like this. Someone has a dream for what a family — their family should look like. They begin the planning and design stage, discuss some of the ideas with experts, pick out some of the details and they begin to build, watching as a foundation is laid and the framing goes up. And, then the family builder anticipates the moment when he or she can say, “It’s done,” and their family is picture perfect. This is not the way it works and is a counterproductive and frustrating way to think about family. It is damaging to those who try to build a family like this and even more damaging to those who feel like they are the bricks. The family is not a building but a living, loving, changing thing that even transcends this life into the next.

Some time ago, I shared a message centered in the idea that life is not a train; it’s a tree.  In this thought, I want to say, “Family is not a building; it’s a vine, a living vine!” Jesus uses the same analogy in the Gospel of John saying, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Just as Jesus is the life of the vine, so God plants the seeds of life and possibility in a family. God is the author of it all, a living vine that is best understood through the Fruits of the Spirit that should be at work in all the relationships of a Christian, including, of course, the family — living pieces of God, of God’s spirit — “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  (Galatians 5:22) These Fruits of the Spirit are the life of a family, family that is not a building that we must somehow get to the “finally done” stage but a family that is a living thing, even living beyond this life into the life to come, the Kingdom of God made up of God’s people.