A WOMAN'S VIEW ~ Lenore Buth

Peel away the tinsel and take a fresh look at Christmas

Question a group of people about faith and someone will answer, "Well, all religions are pretty much the same. Besides, we'll all end up in the same place, no matter how we get there."

Ask what they know of Christmas and one might say, "Aw, it's something about a baby in a manger, a nice story this time of year."

Well, no. It's much more.

 What about it? Are all religions "pretty much the same?"

Not according to a traveler to a Middle Eastern country that's over 90 percent Muslim. The American looked up his old friends, whom he believed to be Muslim. No, they told him, they've been Christ-followers ever since they heard the Gospel proclaimed. 

Their American friend asked what differences they were aware of in the two religions. Without hesitation one answered, "Every Muslim is taught that God is impossibly far from human beings, that we must try our hardest to reach toward Him through being faithful in our spiritual practices.

"Then one day I heard the Good News of Jesus. God came to earth in the form of a baby, to live among human beings. People like us!

"When I read more of the Bible I was amazed. In Exodus it tells how God dwelled with His people, the Israelites, there in the wilderness. He went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. God even spoke to Moses directly!"

The man's wife said, "And then we read it was God's plan to send His Son to earth to pay the price of all our sins. To set us right with holy God. Now we are free! Free from fear, free from condemnation. I feel lighter, as if someone unlocked my heavy chains.

"Jesus did it all!  I will never be the same."

That's what sets Christianity apart

 

Christmas is nothing less than a miracle of God 

The Christmas story began long before the angel appeared to Mary, the virgin, and told her she would bear the Son of God, that very first Christmas. And it goes on long after the Christmas tree comes down.

The Christian faith is not about a far-off, distant god or magnificent monuments where followers must go and worship to prove their faithfulness.

It's about our Lord being up close and personal for every one of us. Our Savior and best Friend. Our Comforter. Our strength. Our Deliverer. Our Joy. Our Peace.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.                        --John 1:14

That's why God came to earth, born as a human baby to a human mother, there in Bethlehem.

For you.

For me.

For all the world.

That's the real Christmas story.

May it be your story, too. I pray your heartwill be filled with the joy of Jesus this Christmas and all through the New Year!

Lovingly,

Lenore

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Right this minute there are big issues issues at stake in our Nation. 

If you've read this blog for awhile you know I haven't waded in the murky waters of politics. I do so only because vital issues are getting lost in all the blather.

One involves both our faith as Christians and our rights as citizens under The Constitution of the United States.  George Washington said, " . . . its only keepers, the people."

That's you and me, my friend. We are the keepers of our Constitution.

Are we paying attention?

One major issue relates to the often-referenced First Amendment

Amendment I was ratified December 15, 1791. Here's what it says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

From the beginning word spread all over the world about America's Constitution and the rights it guarantees. That's why America shone like a beacon of freedom to my great-grandparents who wanted to worship God according to their understanding of what the Bible teaches and without government interference. In America they could live by faith without fear.

That's always been true. Until now.

Enter the new health care law, which mandates what employers must cover   

Take Tyndale House Publishers and Hobby Lobby as examples. Since a Christian couple founded Tyndale House 50 years ago this firm has only published Bibles and Christian books. Their son, Mark D. Taylor, is the current president. Tyndale's 260 employees currently are covered by their employee health plan. Taylor, a Protestant, has no moral objection to contraceptives per se. However, as a Christian he believes it's against what the Bible teaches to provide Plan B (the morning-after pill), Ella (the week-after pill) and intrauterine devices to covered employees.

Our Government says he must. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ruled that health insurance plans must provide such contraceptives free of charge. Tyndale House is a for-profit entity. Therefore, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says this Company does not qualify as a "religious organization" and therefore, is not eligible for an exemption.

(Tayor notes that even exemptions granted to nonprofit entities such as the Roman Catholic Church will expire after one year.)

Fines for failure to comply will cost Tyndale as much as $100 per day, per employee. That equals $26,000 per day. $780,000 per month. $9.36 million per year.

Tyndale management's only "crime" is wanting to freely exercise their faith without Government interference. They believe the federal government is telling them they must either violate their own conscience or pay fines that will put them out of business.

It doesn't stop there

Hobby Lobby was founded 40 years ago by a family working out of their garage on a $600 bank loan. The children, now adults, are involved in the business, which now has stores in more than 500 locations in 41 states. They believe it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured and aim to honor God and to treat their employees well with above-average pay and many benefits. They provide an employee health plan, but consider Plan B, Ella and intrauterine devices to be abortifacients. 

Hobby Lobby gives half its pre-tax earnings directly to a portfolio of evangelical ministries. It has  given away and distributed over 1.4 billion copies of Gospel literature mostly in Asia and Africa. It sponsors the YouVersion Bible app for mobile phones, which has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Yet this is a secular, for-profit company.

These business owners, too, believe requirements of Obamacare go against the Biblical principles on which their company was founded. Hobby Lobby's non-compliance fines could total $1.3 million per day.

So Hobby Lobby reluctantly sued the Government in Oklahoma City Federal courts. Their lawyer cited their "deeply held religious beliefs" as individuals and business owners who seek an injunction to block enforcement of the new health care law. 

In a piece dated October 24, 2012, The Washington Post, reported the U.S. government was urging the federal judge hearing the case to deny the request to block enforcement of the new health care law.

The dilemma for employers is obvious. They either go against their faith and keep employee health plans in place or follow their conscience and go out of business.

They either obey their understanding of what God says or what the Government says.

Look behind the smoke screen and the endless blather on TV

Numerous interviews and articles trumpet the same endless discussions about "women's reproductive rights," "contraceptive freedom," "bigots who want to ban birth control," etc. 

This is not the issue.

For the record, I am not against contraception. Opinions vary about the morning-after (up to three days after) pill and the week-after pill, which induce a woman's uterus to slough off an implanted fertilized egg. Those of us who believe life begins at the moment of conception view these meds as abortifacients. Intrauterine devices are devices placed in the uterus by a physician that in various ways interfere with a fertilized egg being implanted on the wall of the uterus. 

It seems to me there are three questions:

• In cases such as Tyndale House and Hobby Lobby, is our Government "prohibiting the free exercise" of the owners' religion as they understand it?
  
• As individuals of faith, what do we hold to be true?
  
  
• If provisions of this tax-supported new health care plan violate our personal religious views, will we vote for candidates who back it?
  
  
• Will we speak well of business owners who abide by faith? Will we support them with our words and give them our business?

Some words to think about  

"The LORD gave me this message: 'I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb.'"  --Jeremiah 1: 4  (NLT)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, and I know that full well.   --Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.   --Joshua 24:15b  (NIV)

My reader friends, let's be sure to thoughtfully, prayerfully exercise our rights as American citizens and VOTE!

Praying along with you,

Lenore

 

Three cheers for this royal couple and may their example catch on

I resisted being drawn into the hoopla around  THE wedding. I've never been much of a royal-watcher.

Until today.

Today I gave in and  watched the lovely pageantry of the day, the ceremony in magnificent Westminster Abbey, with its soaring ceiling and choirboys with angelic voices.

The Bishop with his heavy robes, the chanting, all of it seemed appropriate on this day. Wedding guests sang hymns and spoke prayers, including the Lord's Prayer.

An estimated two billion people were said to be watching this wedding around the world. 

Then it hit me. Two billion people, most of them non-Christians, were hanging on every word as the Bishop proclaimed the Word of God and delivered a Christ-centered sermon, as well.

Many who were glued to their telly live in cultures where wives are looked upon as mere property, second-class, easily disposable. In Westernized countries like ours, more and more people now consider matrimony a needless outdated custom, irrelevent in today's society. Too many consider faithfulness and monogamy rather quaint.

No matter where viewers live, each one heard Prince William and Kate Middleton pledge to be wed as husband and wife and to live together according to God's holy estate of matrimony. Each promised to love and comfort, honour and keep each other, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Each vowed to forsake all others and to keep themselves only for each other so long as both shall live. 

What will these two people make of their marriage? That's up to them. They know their family history and the challenges they face even better than we. But I choose not to be cynical and to wish them God's blessing. I am glad for their choice to be married in a Christian church and to promise before God and the world to be married--and faithful--for life.

I'm thankful that the Church of England bishop preached a faith-centered, meaningful wedding sermons. Most of all, I am thankful that Christ was proclaimed. For once, the world was listening.

Who knows how God will use this? 

Lovingly,

Lenore

 

Fun in the summertime--with VBS

"My kids have been waiting for this to start ever since last summer!" said the smiling young mother as she wiped perspiration off her forehead. She swayed from side to side, keeping her toddler quiet. "I brought our three oldest, plus two neighbor kids. Where do I sign in?"

She and her kids were part of the impatient throng that crowded into our church for the first night of Vacation Bible School this week. "I love those hot dogs and watermelon!" her preschooler announced. "Are we gonna have 'em tomorrow night, too?" 

I shook my head and answered, "I don't know what the kitchen crew is planning for tomorrow night. It's a surprise!"

Once their laughing, jumping group was through I turned to the next. For 20 minutes or so parents and kids kept a dozen of us busy. Most moms and dads delivered their youngsters to their appropriate age groups, then hung around, waiting to see how it went. They needn't have bothered. Their excited kids were having too much fun to miss them. Once the parents were sure of that they walked back past our table to the door. Their faces telegraphed their feelings: Yeah! Two and a half hours of free time! 

As of last night we were up to 230 kids attending, ages three through middle school. So far both kids and volunteers wear joyful expressions. Volunteers number at least 75, with the youngest age 13. The oldest is 92, loved by every kid. He's a feisty fellow who cleans up, empties trash cans and never frowns. Young to old, we work side by side, whether it's food prep, leading, crafts, putting away outside equipment or mopping floors. 

Are we volunteers having fun? Yes. Would we do it again? Absolutely. Otherwise, why would we come back every year?

Cynics might wonder whether any of the work or the expense is worth it. None of us knows...but God does. 

What we know is that children arrive and learn about Jesus. They learn that God loves them and watches over them, so they need not fear. Kids take turns on the playground and wait their turns for snacks. They memorize songs about Jesus and friendship and being kind to others, then sing them while waving goodbye and skipping their way out of the building. Before, during and after this week, those children and their parents have been prayed for.

I know several adults who first heard about Jesus at VBS, maybe only once or twice in their childhood. Yet they heard the Good News and seeds were planted. 

So we rejoice. These parents know our VBS costs them nothing except gas money. Members of our church give this as a gift of love. We think all of it is more than worth it, if only for the fellowship we have and the joy it brings us.

Believe me, we're not naive. We know for some parents all it means is a freebie, with child care as a bonus. That's okay. When a parent says, "This is our fourth/fifth/sixth year at your VBS. Our kids love it!" we all beam from ear to ear.

They're here. We plant the seeds. The rest is up to God and his Spirit.

Blessings,

Lenore

Question for you:What are your VBS memories? Why not share them with the rest of us?

Remembering Christmas Eves past ...

    Today is Christmas Eve, and just the words trigger so many memories for me. You see, my father was a pastor, so naturally our family life centered around our church. My earliest Christmas memories center around the small country church across the road and down just a bit from the parsonage in which we lived. We knew every family living within miles, and they knew us.

     Most Sundays my mom played the organ, since, as everyone said, she could "make that  old organ talk!" Often my dad would not only preach a sermon, but also sing a solo, since he possessed a glorious tenor voice. For Christmas he'd sing, "The Birthday of a King," or "Oh, Holy Night," always to a hushed congregation. None of this seemed remarkable to me. These were my parents, doing what they did.   

    Christmas Eve centered around the children's program. We would practice for weeks, memorizing our "pieces," and the words to the Christmas songs we sang as a group. Anxiety would grip our little group--and our parents. Would we remember to go forward when it was our turn? Would we freeze when we looked out on that huge congregation of perhaps seventy-five people? Older kids got to recite the Old Testament prophecies, the ones with the big words. We sang "Away in a Manger," "Silent Night" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and of course, "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful," and so many more.

     Did we have a white Christmas? Well, of course. It was Minnesota, after all. In that simpler time, shepherds of small flocks often also got to be shovelers of snow on church steps and walks. I'd tag along, stepping on the just-cleared spaces. I remember walking from our home to the church across that country road, our footsteps crunching and squeaking in the snow.

    With frost etching the windows, Bethlehem seemed very far away. To think of shepherds out on green hills, watching over their flocks of sheep seemed impossible to me, since to me, Christmas and snow went hand-in-hand.

    Yet we spoke and we sang of times and places far away ... and somehow, we knew the truth of the familiar words of Luke 2:1-20. I could picture the scene. That lowly stable, filled with smelly cows and sheep and donkeys, and in the midst of it all, Mary and Joseph with the newborn baby Jesus, wrapped in cloths and lying in the manger full of hay. 

     Every year since I can remember, I've treasured the thought of the glory of the Lord shining around those shepherds and an angel appearing to them, announcing:

      Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you; You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

    Suddenly the sky was filled with angels, all praising the Lord. Only the lowly shepherds heard their glorious music, not the rulers, not the "important" people of the town.

    That still speaks to me. No matter who we are, or how many times we've messed up, or what's going on in our lives, the same Good News of Christmas applies. The Savior is born--to us! His love waits for us. He waits for us ... and all he wants is for us to open our hearts to Him.  

    It's Christmas Eve. Time for new beginnings. Time for you and me to come to that tiny Child in the manger and kneel in wonder, as the shepherds did. That's all it takes, and the same peace and joy they felt can be ours, not just for a season but for always.

    Christmas Eve memories live on. So does the timeless Christmas story.

    I wish you a Merry, Merry Christmas, and may your spirit be bright!

    Lenore

    Your comments welcomed!