“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.” Ephesians 1:7-8(a)
I was blessed to have known my Papaw Mabrey’s siblings. They were all Christians and I loved them very much! There was my Great Uncle Marvin and his wife, Eunice. Marvin was a rural mail carrier like my grandad. Then there was my Great Uncle Audie and his wife Maudine, who owned a parrot named “Mabrey” whose cage was positioned just inside the front door to their home and would carry on a conversation with you every time you came over for a visit. And then, there was their precious sister, my Great Aunt Grace. Grace fashioned her hair in a bun, wore silver horn rimmed glasses, had a gold tooth near the front of her mouth, was always giggling, and dipped “Tops” Snuff. Great Aunt Grace was only four feet in stature, but her heart of love rose to the stars!
Great Aunt Grace lived in my hometown of Albertville and I will never forget the time she invited her siblings and their families over to her house for a Christmas Eve Party. Although I was only early elementary school in age, I still remember that night just like it was yesterday. For one thing, after we had been there for a short time, and while folks were talking and mingling, Aunt Grace invited me to have a dip of her snuff from the can she always had in hand. As a kid, I thought that sounded neat, but after one dip, I asked her if I could have a glass of iced tea. She gladly got ahold of one and I downed that tea in a few seconds washing the snuff taste away. In retrospect, I am thankful for my Great Aunt Grace, for since that night, I have never had any desire to dip snuff!
But the most memorable event of the evening for me was a gift I received from my great aunt who had special gifts on hand to give all the children who were present. My gift was a little plastic house that had a roof and featured thirty-one little doors all numbered 1 to 31 representative of the thirty-one days of Christmas. Behind each door was a small chamber housing a little plastic toy or a piece of candy. Oh! What a gift for a young boy, and what a loving heart attributable to the giver of the gift! I was so excited I opened every one of those doors before I went to sleep that evening.
When you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the Bible says you enter God’s House of Grace which features way more than thirty-one doors you can open; each one blessing and revealing to the believer the love, mercy, and benevolence attributable to the character of God! And Paul is telling us this all begins when one comes to the cross (the blood) of Christ and is lavished with the forgiveness of his or her trespasses by the glorious grace of God. And for that, I am thankful for GRACE. My Great Aunt Grace, “Yes!” But most of all for her pointing the way to God’s rich and endless supply of grace which proves His initiative to first love us; the unlovely, which is a most beautiful thing! Do you know how much God loves you and how beautiful you are in His sight? Just open the door! Merry Christmas!
Pastor Louie
Sand Mountain Sermonette 30
John’s Gospel 1:12-14; Isaiah 1:18
Jesus Paid it All!
When my mother was a little girl, there was country store down by the creek near her home. One day mother’s dad sent her to the store to pick up some items and when she took them up to the counter, Irvine the storekeeper said, “That will be five dollars.” To which my mom replied, “Just charge it!”
Today is not that far away from yesterday, is it? In a world of credit cards and other means dependent upon buy now and pay later; there was a central point in the history of the world; a time chosen of God, in which His one and only Son, Jesus Christ was born into the world. Before the world was even created, God had a plan in place to reconcile sinful humanity back to Himself through the blood of his innocent Son, shed upon the cross!
When one repents of sin and turns in faith to the work of Jesus Christ’s death upon the cross as full payment for his or her sin disease, the Bible says that individual is declared “Not Guilty!” This is the meaning of Christmas: Jesus Paid it all! His love through salvation is His free gift offered to you! As the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, would you invite Him into your heart this day if you have never received Him as your Lord and Savior?
John writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word (Jesus) became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John’s Gospel 1:12-14
“Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain-He washed it white as snow.”
Hymn: “Jesus Paid it All.” Written by Elvina M. Hall one Sunday morning in 1865, while seated in the choir loft of the Monument Street Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. (Explore Isaiah 1:18 in the Old Testament).
Pastor Louie
Sand Mountain Sermonette 31
John 15:13-15; 2 Chronicles 20:7
Sand Mountain Sermonette 31
The Gift of Friendship
“Greater love has no one that this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his mater’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:13-15
My mother presented me with lots of gifts over the years. Many gifts were tangible, but the most important gifts I received from her were both life-changing and roads God used to lead my heart to the cross of Christ at the age of sixteen. One such gift was the gift of friendship; a gift that prompts my heart to remember a special Christmas of long ago when was in Middle School that I learned the value in receiving a friend and being a friend.
Christmas was drawing near, and my mother had a burden for a dear friend of hers she had known since High School by the name of Melba. Melba was a single parent with several children who lived in a small and humble home out in the country near the area where my mom grew up. Her eldest child was a boy in High School, and the youngest was a daughter who was preschool age. And although this family did not have very much in the way of material possessions, they were one of the kindest families I had ever met.
Mother worked for the State of Alabama Employment Office and had previously helped Melba find a job, but her heart longed to help Melba’s family that Christmas because she had understood these children wouldn’t be able to receive any presents this year due to financial concerns. So, my mom went out and purchased presents for each child and my brother and I helped my mom wrap them at home and then take them over to Melba’s house a few days before Christmas.
I will never forget how humble and thankful this dear mom and her children were. The only gift I remember was the one my mom had picked up for the son in High School: an electric football set; vintage now, and oh so neat! I remember his inviting me to play with him and we had a good time that night; a time that last for a couple of hours or so before we went home. And the wonderful thing was—this opened the door to several more visits with this family over the next few years. A friendship had been born out of love: the love of a mother’s sacrificial heart for her friend!
Ezra the priest and scribe records King Jehoshaphat of Judah’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:7, “Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?” In Christ, the covenant word of God declares you are God’s friend (“beloved”) forever through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for you! I can assure you from personal experience, the best friend you will ever have now and forever is Jesus! He is the only cure for the lonely soul, and you can trust Him all the way! If you haven’t done so, won’t you invite Him in, this Christmas?
Pastor Louie
Sand Mountain Sermonette 32
Luke 2:10
The Big Christmas Surprise
“And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people.” Luke 2:10
Since childhood I have found it very difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve! Even now, although I am much older, I still find it hard to sleep anticipating what I might find under the tree on Christmas morning! Let me share with you a particular Christmas of long ago that was one of the most special Christmas mornings I remember growing up in North Alabama. And, in doing so, I also want to share with you something special my parents did for my younger brother of five years, Tony, and for me every Christmas morning from the time we were kids and for as long as we lived at home.
I was about thirteen years old. My brother and I shared bunk beds located in the same room in the back bedroom of the home in which we were living in at the time. On Christmas Eve, we were in bed around 10:00 pm, and we knew we were to stay in bed because our dad had one rule: my brother and I were not to get out of bed until he and mom entered our room and told us it was time to rise and shine. Well, I had not been able to sleep a wink, but about three o’clock or so on Christmas morning my brother had woken up and asked me if I were awake, and we began to speculate in conversation as to what gifts we might find that morning that Santa has left under the tree. And then, after a little while, dad and mom entered the room and invited us to get up and did what they always did for all those years: mom would cover Tony’s eyes and dad mine, and then, they led us down the hallway to the main living room section of our home, and then at exactly the perfect moment, they shouted “Merry Christmas” as they quickly removed their hands from our eyes to reveal our packages under the tree! And that year a new ping pong table compete with net and paddles in place was right there before our eyes! Wow! What joy we felt as we beheld that gift!
Luke tells us that when the angel appeared before the common and humble shepherds, they were “terribly frightened” (verse nine). But the angel revealed the great message of Christmas: they were not to be afraid for the angel (literally) said, “I announce to you a great joy.” And what was that “great joy” God was announcing to the shepherds which was for all the people of the earth then and now? The good news was/is, “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Have you personally beheld what the shadowy hands of the night sky revealed when they parted to give way to the glorious Christmas message-the glorious Christmas gift proclaimed by the angelic messenger overlooking shepherd’s field located next door to Bethlehem that evening? The good news of God’s joy had now manifested itself for all who would receive it by faith. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full (overflowing). The gift of JOY! Pastor Louie