May This New Year Be Your Best!

I hope that the year has begun well for you.  With the start of each New Year it seems in some ways to bring promise that life will start afresh. Many share a hope that the beginning year will be better and more prosperous than the previous one. Some make resolutions to change their lives in some particular way for the better. I do not know if you are one who makes resolutions but if you are of the family of God, he is without doubt resolute concerning you. In his word he makes claims like, the love he has for his own will never change and that he will always be with them. His word also declares that he personally guards the lives of his own and will bring them to their eternal home to be with him when life is done in this world.

Learning the value

Many of God’s family (Christians) have not come to know the value of his eternal love for them or that he stands guard over their lives. This is evident in that many churches are less than full during Sunday morning worship time. God is patient and waits for his children to learn the value of his love for them and to embrace his love with their entire being and not only their words. Though it is difficult with all of the things that are offered by the world system which are seen as desirable and deemed as success and fun, they should not have priority.

If you are of the family of God and have not attended church in a long time, I encourage you to attend this Sunday. Demonstrate that you are learning the value of his love by attending your local church where this value is taught and shared.

Start the New Year Well

Being that this Sunday is the first Sunday of the year, it is not too late to start the year well. The thought has been in many of your minds that it is time to return to church. So, go ahead and do what you are already thinking. Return to your God who created you and made your life possible. Do not make excuses anymore like-the service is too long or that Sunday is the one day that you have to rest. Remember that if you are truly his child he has left no room for excuses. Attending church is not optional, just as he has not left himself an option to love you eternally and to guard your life until it is done here. He has not left you and option to forsake the assembling of yourself in the loving fellowship he has provided for you.

Gratefully,

Learning Him.

Bill Landrum

Bill Landrum serves as senior pastor of Harvest of Love ministries in Long Beach California.

Great Funerals

I spoke with a good friend today who shared with me that his former wife and friend had lost her battle with an illness which had plagued her for some time, and how great the funeral was because it spoke of a life that was accomplished for the sake of Christ. What a coincidence, my wife Glenda and I had attended two funerals in the last five weeks and how great they were because they too spoke of lives that had known and embraced God’s gift of Christmas. The first one was for another close friend’s sister, whom I have known since high school. His sister had demonstrated kindnesses toward me and others that was unparalleled by teens or young adults of our time. I knew that there was something oddly different about her. I later found out that she was a Christian and that their father was a pastor, which at the time meant nothing to me because I had never seen Christianity in true form so close up. But she was consistent and seemed to grow sweeter yet more firm in her life of faith as the years went by. One of the things that impressed me so much about my friend’s sister is that she treated everyone with such equity, no matter who they were. I did not know until I attended her funeral however, that she too suffered an illness that would eventually take her life; she lived with such jubilant concern for others. Her funeral was one that spoke of a wonderful life and home going because of Christmas. The second great funeral was of my wife’s oldest sister. We lived in different states and did not know each other extremely well, but the testimony of her funeral spoke of her life as one deeply committed to her belief in God through Jesus Christ, demonstrated by the love and care she showed to others, especially to all of the children she had taken into her home to care for.

 A life can be truly well lived and well celebrated at the funeral simply because of Christmas.

Without Christmas

Many people love Christmas because it has become a joyous occasion in and of itself to them, kind of kiosk, self standing on its own. The truth of the matter is however, that Christmas provides a way for men, women and children to find their way back to God and to live a life separated unto Him that also has an arresting affect on others, but of course Christmas could not stand without Jesus the Christ. So the love of Christmas without Jesus     as the foundation and central figure is like having a well wrapped gift box only to open it and find that it is empty.

A life can be well lived and so celebrated because the well wrapped gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ the Savior, without Him there can be no well lived life to celebrate at a great funeral. There can only be a life that has been lost to the futility of a well wrapped box of emptiness.

All acts of kindness without Christmas, no matter how noble, are based on a wrapped box of emptiness; and unfortunately this is the accepted life of many.

Embraced Truth Is Freedom

It is impossible to live well without embracing God’s gift of Christmas while at the same time being buffeted with all of the offerings of the world. It is just sometimes too much to resist, because we want so much to be accepted by the peers of whatever stage of life we are in; meaning one does not have to be a child to be influenced. Professionals are influenced by the strong characters of their profession, such as politicians, educators, law enforcement, even the president of the United States. But it is knowledge of and living in truth that makes us free to live well to end this life celebrated by a truly great funeral someday. The Christ of Christmas is that truth. The bible says embrace God’s word and you will know the truth and you will be made free (John 8:31-32).

I Love You So

It does not appear to have been God’s original intention for man to have need of funerals. The disobedience of man caused it to be so (Gen.2:17; Ro.5:12). Yet even before He pronounced judgment for man’s sin He declared that the seed of the woman would defeat Satan and sin, as well as reconcile all of receptive mankind to Himself, giving man eternal life while paving the way for man to live unto Him culminating with a great funeral (Gen.3:15), that seed was the gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ.

We have some great funerals because God sent His son to show us the way. Some have not taken Christmas lightly and have relinquished what others call, the privacy of their own lives, over to God for His purposes. Others still see it as just another occasion for a holiday.

So why would God give so much for a people who reject His gift and live as if He does not exist? The bible says it is because He loved us so (John 3:16-18). Have you ever experienced such love?

Bill Landrum

Harvest of Love Ministries (HOL

Sunday Morning Meetings at 11:00 AM

1215 East 59^th Street, Long Beach, CA 90805

American Legion Bldg

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