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Building Strong Children

Do you have children in your life? My children are now grown but I have grandchildren. I’m always thinking of ways to gently impact my grands for the Lord, adding to the teaching and guidance of their parents. Kids are amazing, taking in so much information around them every day. There is more of that external influence on them today than when I was a child, and much of it we don’t want them to know. I’ll bet you’ve noticed that too. Well, I’ve discovered a source of good information for those young minds and I want to share it with you.

Recently, I was introduced to a children’s devotional written by fellow blogger and author, Susanne Maynes. A few years ago I reviewed her devotional book Unleashing Your Courageous Compassion, a 40-day devotional especially for women who work in life-affirming ministries such as pregnancy centers.

Now Susanne has written and published a 40-day devotional workbook geared for children ages 8-12 years. Releasing Your Brave Love: Helping Kids to Change Their World builds from the ground up to do just what the title says: help kids to change their world. But first, they must understand why they and their world need changing. Here is life-influencing information we want our children to have!

Forty-day Devotional for kids. A great tool for parents.

Susanne Maynes, like a master builder, starts her devotional for children at the foundation level: God created you in his Image. Every person has worth and value because of that. Humans are a unique creation of God and Susanne slowly builds the walls of biblical truth, using Scripture, one brick of truth at a time in each of her daily two-page lessons.

Susanne starts with the foundational truths and as she builds on them she works her way to the crucial matter of children putting God’s truth into action in their lives. She brings up numerous everyday examples where a child can enact God’s way to bring change to his or her world. Knowing truth doesn’t help us or others if it isn’t acted upon and the author gently leads the way to the practical application of God’s word.

Susanne enhances the learning process by asking thoughtful questions creating teaching points parents can expand upon as they discuss the issues with their child. In this devotional, parents have been given a tool to use as they disciple their child. Since discipling our children is a tremendous responsibility for every parent, each tool is an asset!

There is much to appreciate and applaud in Susanne Maynes’ devotional for children, Releasing Your Brave Love. I highly recommend it for parents of children ages 8-12 years. I purchased one for my 8-year-old granddaughter and look forward to her working through it with her parents or even us, her grandparents.

Releasing Your Brave Love may be purchased online here. I encourage you to take a look at Releasing Your Brave Love for your 8-12 year old child, relative, or friend.

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It’s Book Launch Day!

Wednesday, January 30th, is the day I’ve been counting down to for the past several weeks! This is the day my new book, Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study: Going Deeper to the Source of Transforming Your Brokenness to Beauty is ready to be introduced to the world.

Though Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study has been for sale online for about a month, I waited for this month to advertise it because December is an extra busy month for most of us (remember Christmas?).

One reviewer said of the Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study, “This ten week Bible study starts with a review of our own personal journey and helps each see how God is moving us onto a deeper relationship with Him ” (C.Reinoehl).

Another wrote these words about the Bible study, “She partners scripture to her teaching throughout the lessons and shares how the love and hope of Jesus brings healing to our broken and hurting places. Her validation of our stories and the truth of the healing power of Jesus, makes this a powerful Bible study” (Lynn Donovan, Author of Winning Him Without Words and Not Alone).

If you’d like to take a look at the Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study, you can go here to read more from inside the book or here to my website where I offer the paperback version of Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study and my book, Brokenness to Beauty for sale at discounted prices.

If you are an ebook reader, whether Kindle or Nook or another ebook form, you can get either one of my books in digital form for only 99 cents each at major online retailers.

Why is it important to introduce this Bible study to the world? I wrote it with the prayer that God will use it in people’s lives to help grow them stronger in Christ. One friend emailed me and said, “Jacque, you have hit a home run with that Bible study! … Writing a book is no mean feat, but writing a deep, life-changing Bible study to go with it is monumental!”

Life change. That’s what Bible study is all about. It is what we all need and should experience as we put into practice what we study in the Bible. This is my prayer and goal for the Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study, life change because Christians are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a result of using the study.

Will you help me achieve this goal? Pick up your copies of Brokenness to Beauty and Brokenness to Beauty Bible Study today. Start a Bible study with your friends!

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To A Better New Year

The following is a reblogged post by Debbie W. Wilson. I thought it was so good I wanted to share it with you. You can read it here or go directly to Debbie’s website at
Debbie W. Wilson. Enjoy!

The last days of 2018 sped by like the final squares on a roll of toilet paper. In considering the New Year, my prayer is that I’ll manage my life instead of arbitrary influences controlling me. After the holidays, I have lots of things that need to be corralled—including sweets, spending, and schedules!

To read more click here:

The post Make 2019 Your Best Year Yet appeared first on Debbie W. Wilson.

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Light … In the Darkness

This is the time of year when the daylight hours are fewer and the night darkness longer, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. So we put on our house lights sooner in the afternoon and leave them on later in the morning so we can see to do what we need to do.

In my house, the day after Thanksgiving signals the time to start pulling out the Christmas decorations. My favorite is the lights. Randy prefers the multicolored mini-lights over than the white lights so that is what we use to decorate with. He even strung them on our patio, which makes it festive and cheerful all year round.

This year he surprised me by designing a large five-point start on our front porch, with swags of lights running across the front of the porch. All who drive by can see our declaration that we believe in the Star of Bethlehem and the Christ whose birth we profess to celebrate.

When I get up in the early morning darkness now, I like to plug in the lights on our tiny tree and on the garland draped on the eight-foot tall, wide entryway from the living room into the dining room. I enjoy sitting in their soft glow, cup of coffee in hand.

Lights, whether white lights or multi-colored mini-lights, can bring us joy at this season. Lights bring us crucial assistance all year round, lighting the darkness.

There is another light crucial to our lives, the reality of which struck me as I recently began reading the book of John. Since then, I’ve been contemplating the Light that Scripture often refers to. In the gospel of John, some of John’s first words are:

In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally]  with God. All things were made and came into existence through him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being. In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it]. …

There it was—the true Light [the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light] which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. He (Christ) was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own [that which belonged to Him—His world, His creation, His possession], and those who were His own [people—the Jewish nation] did not receive and welcome Him. But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name— who were born,… of God [that is, a divine and supernatural birth—they are born of God—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified]. (John 1:1–5, 9–13 AMP, emphasis added)

This is the Light that transcends all other lights for it reaches well beyond the physical realm alone. This Light reaches all the way to eternity.

Jesus Christ, who is God, the Creator of everything, who has life in himself, has come into our world to give that life, the Light, to everyone who will receive it. The more I think about these words, the more amazed and moved I become!

This is the Light that will bring to us true and lasting joy; the right to become children of God! This Light brings the joy and peace of the presence of God and the assurance of eternal life, the life Jesus Christ bestows on us when we embrace by faith the Light of Christ.

Do you have that Light and life by faith in Jesus Christ?

What are we then to do with that Light?

Let’s keep contemplating the Light and see what God teaches us.

May this Christmas you have a blessed celebration of the entrance of the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, into our darkness!

Photo by Dan Kiefer on Unsplash

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Welcome to my new website and blog!

Since starting to blog in 2008, I’ve made two blogging name changes and site moves. The first was from JacquesJourney (Blogger) to BrokennesstoBeauty (WordPress.com) in 2014.  This year I changed the name again, to Living with Hope and Purpose and made the big leap to set up my own website. I’ve moved in and set up housekeeping so …

It’s open house time! I hope you will take a look around the website, sign on to continue getting my blog posts, plus a complimentary download, and occasional tidbits of inspiration or valuable information from me.

Send me your comments using the comment button with this post; I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!

 

“Open” sign Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash 

“Letters” photo by Gabor from Hungary 

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Treasures of Wisdom in a Dollar Store

You never know what you might find in a Dollar store. I stopped in there to buy some small paper plates, plastic forks, and napkins for the Mission Partnership meeting held at church today, and in the checkout line I spied this refrigerator magnet:

 

This must be the California surfer’s version of “When Life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Lemonade, surfing, however you choose to say it, this is a good philosophy for life. Because we’ll all get lemons, or waves, at some time (or several times) in life.

And we need to know how to deal with them.

Don’t I know it!

Many, many people had encouraged me to share what I had been learning about surfing the waves that came into my life and making lemonade from the lemons on the tree that took root in my life when I was just a young teenager. I’ve had lots of years to learn “best practices” for dealing with difficulties and trials in life.

To share with others about learning to surf life’s waves and make lemonade from life’s lemons is the major reason I wrote Brokenness to Beauty. The subtitle says it all: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life. It is not easy, this kind of learning. It takes time and effort, persistence and patience but it is terribly important and so worthwhile.

And I’ve written down all these lessons, or at least most of them, in Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life.

It’s there for you, sort of like a mini-mentorship.

Or for someone you care about who is struggling, trying to keep their head above life’s waves.

Are you successfully learning to surf the waves coming into your life? How are you doing?

 

Brokenness to Beauty can be purchased at the online stores listed here, as well as other outlets. Click on the store name to purchase the book at Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Kobo Bookstore, and from the publisher, WestBow Press Bookstore.

 

 

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Love is …

Love is …

 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13 NLT).

 

Love is … easy, love is hard. Love is … simple, love is profound. Love is … a command, love is a choice.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You must love each another, just as I have loved you” (John 13:34 CEV). Jesus means these words for me because I declare I am his disciple, a learner and one who seeks to obey him. If you are his disciple, this command is for you as well.

My choice to love was made when I chose to follow Jesus. Same for you. We chose to obey his words, his commands. And he commands us to love each other.

This love is not just human love for friends. This love is well beyond and above that love. This is the “as I have loved you” love of Jesus; God’s love.*

“This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13 CEB).

“As I have loved you.” Now that’s a thought we can chew on for some time.

As I move toward the final stages of writing prior to publishing the Bible Study for my book, Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life, I’ve crafted a page of etiquette for Bible study group behavior.

Sounds funny, a page on etiquette, but these reminders are needed. The points simply remind us of how we should act with one another. It dawned on me that these points of etiquette are actually ways we can love one another in a small group setting. Or anywhere, anytime.

I want to share with you some of the easy ways to love one another, excerpted from my Bible study group etiquette page:

“Value each person in your little community of the Bible study group. Give each other the respect due each one. Commit to:

  1. Show up. Someone said that 90% of any task is just showing up. Be at the group meetings (barring an emergency). And when there, be present. “Be Here Now,” attentive and engaged in the moment. This is for your own benefit as well as the benefit of the others. You never know what God may speak to you through another person, or what God may impress on another through you. Sometimes you just being there is all the encouragement someone else needs (Hebrews 10:24–25).

 

  1. Do your work. The week before you meet, do the work for the upcoming lesson in preparation for the group time. The more effort you put into the study, the more you will get out of it. Solomon said, “The soul (appetite) of the lazy person craves and gets nothing [for lethargy overcomes ambition], but the soul (appetite) of the diligent [who works willingly] is rich and abundantly supplied” (Proverbs 13:4 AMP).

 

  1. Be generous and share the discussion time. Be short-winded so others may also participate in the discussions (1 Peter 5:5–7).

 

  1. Be a better listener than a talker. Bible study discussions are not the place for giving advice or counseling. You are not meeting together to solve anyone’s problems but to learn what God has to say in his Word. “Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving] (James 1:19 AMP).

 

  1. Be trustworthy as you listen. What is shared in the group discussions stays a secret with the group. These things are not to be told to anyone else. “He who goes about as a gossip reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy and faithful keeps a matter hidden” (Proverbs 11:13 AMP).

 

  1. Be a Berean Christian. When questions come up, don’t default to traditional, current, or even “common sense” ideas, but search the Scriptures like the Bereans did to find out what God has to say about the issue. He does have a word to say about it. And unlike the words of men, God’s Word “endures forever” (Acts 17:10–12; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:22–25).

 

These are some easy, simple, yet thoughtful ways we can love one another in any group setting, and these few guidelines will serve as our standard of etiquette for this Bible study group.”

Though the above points are designed for a small group setting, they are applicable in most life situations. I’ll let you make the leap to apply these principles, rooted in God’s Word, to your everyday life, at home, at work, at school, at church, and everywhere. I’m working on it too.

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35 CSB, emphasis added).

 

Daily Verses

 

How can I move from my limited, human brotherly love to Jesus’ love, to love as he has loved us? A song just reminded me of the only way– “I’ve Been Crucified with Christ,” (by Robin Mark) quoting Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 CSB, emphasis added)

Listen to the song here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoZWRfXdh4w

I want to cooperate with Christ and let him live his life through me. That’s the only way to love others as he loved us.

Love is … all of the above, and so much more. In Christ we can do this.

 

The Bible Study for Brokenness to Beauty has yet to be published; hopefully, by autumn it will be available. However, the book Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life may be purchased now at Amazon books. Click here to go to Amazon.

*Agape love: “Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from the other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. Agape love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13. https://www.gotquestions.org/agape-love.html 

Scriptures are taken from https://www.biblegateway.com

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Living Like You’re Dead

I’ve had a blog post rattling around in my mind for several days, yet unwritten. Then I read Bills’ post this afternoon. It is so true and powerful, I had to share it with you. Bill always teaches and challenges me. I hope you will feel the same way after you read this post, take to heart what he says, and implement what is needed to rise to the challenge of God’s Word spoken by our brother Bill. You can read it here.

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God’s Delights, Our Delights

I feel good when I’m creating something with my hands. There is an interesting phenomenon I became aware of one day several years ago while working on a project. I don’t remember what I was working on or even when or where this realization first came to me. But it was an actual physical sensation of pleasure radiating from inside me. An “inner smile” is the best way I can describe it. It comes unexpectedly when I stop to take a break from working on the item or when I finish a project. And when I sense that inner smile, it makes me smile on the outside too.

It has come at times when I’ve written a piece that has come together through struggle (as most of my writing comes). But when I found the words that were “right,” that resonated in my soul, there was that smile coming from the inside.

More often, though, I’ve sensed that inner smile of pleasure when I’ve been caught up in the creative process using my hands. It has come while creating a mosaic, adhering pieces of broken or cut glass into designs on a substrate. Or like the other day, when I was gluing a paper dust cover onto the back of an old 30″X 40″ frame I had refinished. This frame now holds a large filet crochet piece I crocheted over the course of several years, and a couple of moves across the country (from California to Georgia to West Virginia, a long time ago).

This inner smile I experience, this pleasure at doing something creative, not only causes me to smile outwardly but makes me think of the pleasure of God, that is, the pleasure God takes in his children when we are being and doing what is right and good, in love, reverence, and trust in him.

I started looking for just a few Scriptures that speak to what brings God pleasure and found these (this is not an exhaustive list, of course):

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. (1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV, emphasis added)

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7 NASB, emphasis added)

His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

    in those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psalm 147:10-11 ESV, emphasis added)

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV, emphasis added)

At that very time (Jesus) rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.” (Luke 10:21 NASB, emphasis added)

Doesn’t it make you smile inside, and out, to read some of the things that bring joy, delight, and pleasure to our God? Think of it, we don’t have to be superheroes or wildly gorgeous or do some great feat of strength or daring to please him (sounds like what the world goes after, doesn’t it?). We don’t even have to be “wise and intelligent” in this world to bring joy to our Father. Maybe a sigh of relief is more accurate as a response to what God values and seeks in his children. Because I’m sure not any of those things.

To bring joy to our heavenly Father we only need be like little children in our simplicity and humility, loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And loving and treating others the way we want to be treated (Matthew 22:37–39; 7:12). “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets,” Jesus said (Matthew 22:40). In other words, these two commands of God are the Bible in a nutshell (Romans 13:8–10).

And since God has given us everything we need to live a godly life in Christ Jesus (2 Peter 1:3), we can do this, we can make God smile. He’s given us his Spirit to live in us; “Christ in [us] the hope of glory.”

I’m working on cooperating with God. And learning. It’s my life goal to bring a smile to my Father’s face.

We don’t have to be rich, or good-looking, or famous, or smart, or … anything except actively loving God by “abiding in him,” which is obeying his word, and loving one another (John 14:15; 15:10, 12).

So our response to our gracious and merciful God should include these elements (again, this is not an exhaustive list):

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Jesus, in Luke 10:20 ESV, emphasis added)

Your words were found and I ate them,

And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;

For I have been called by Your name,

O Lord God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16 NASB, emphasis added)

In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. (1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV, emphasis added)

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2 HCSB, emphasis added)

Trust in the Lord and do what is good …

4 Take delight in the Lord,

and He will give you your heart’s desires.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in Him, and He will act,

6 making your righteousness shine like the dawn,

your justice like the noonday. (Psalm 37:3-6 HCSB)

As I said, this is not an exhaustive list. You can add to it Scriptures that come to mind about what God values and delights in. Consider setting a goal for your Scripture reading in 2018 to look for these sorts of verses that clearly state what gives God joy and pleasure. And make being and doing those things your life goal. I guarantee that will give you an “inner smile” of pleasure.

May your New Year be filled with God’s delight in you!

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A ‘Christmas’ song I never thought I’d hear-a reblogged post

Today I am reposting an article by Dr. Jim Denison, from his blog Denison Forum. The subtitle is “How we can respond to the secularity of the season.” This is such a pertinent topic, and the article so well written, I wanted to share it with you.

We need to be reminded that though we believers in Jesus want to proclaim that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” and would like to rip Christmas out of the hands of the secular world, that isn’t exactly the Spirit of Jesus, in any season. A lot more could be said about the history of the time we call Christmas; about what Scriptures teach us about how we are to live in relation to God and men, at all times of the year; and how we, ourselves, actually celebrate Christmas. But I won’t in this post.

I’ll simply say, Jesus said we are the light in the darkness of the world. We are to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, while we take every opportunity to do good in this world, to those in the family of faith and those outside the family of faith.

I hope you’ll consider what Jim Denison has to say in his excellent article below.
A ‘Christmas Song’ I Thought I’d Never Hear: How we can respond to the secularity of the season

It was a strange weekend in the news.

Astronauts on the International Space Station made headlines after making pizza in space. Back on earth, the Pontiac Superdome survived implosion due to a wiring error. The first and only full supermoon of 2017 was last night. And college football fans are still debating the decision to include Alabama rather than Ohio State in this year’s tournament.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about an event over the weekend that drew no news coverage whatsoever. My wife and I were watching one of the plethora of Christmas specials on television when a musical group presented a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The now-famous lyrics begin:

Imagine there is no heaven / It’s easy if you try / No hell below us / Above us only sky / Imagine all the people living for today.

I never imagined that I would hear “Imagine” performed as a Christmas song. But that’s how secular the holidays have become.

According to Gallup, 95 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, but only 51 percent describe the holiday as “strongly religious” for them. One in four American adults say December 25 is simply a cultural holiday, not a religious holy day. Only 49 percent of those who celebrate Christmas believe that the Virgin birth is historically accurate.

How should we respond to the escalating secularity of this season?

Using a pagan ship to witness to Caesar

Acts 28 tells the famous story of Paul’s voyage to Rome. As I was reading the narrative yesterday, I noticed this irony: the apostle was carried to Rome on “a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods as a figurehead” (v. 11). These “twin gods” were Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus. They were believed to be deities that protected sailors at sea.

Such idolatry was anathema to the Jewish people. Saul the Pharisee would likely have refused to sail on a vessel dedicated to pagan gods. But Paul the apostle knew that he had a higher purpose. God had called him to be “a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings” (Acts 9:15). Before his shipwreck at Malta, God said to him, “You must stand trial before Caesar” (Acts 27:24).

Now the Lord had provided a way for Paul to fulfill his call. And the apostle was willing to use the things of the world to accomplish the things of God.

This was Paul’s pattern throughout his ministry. In Athens, he used the pagan altar to “the unknown god” (Acts 17:23) to introduce the one true God. After he was rejected at the synagogue in Ephesus, he “withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9).

Through this “secular” strategy, the apostle reached far more people than if he had limited his ministry to the “sacred” synagogue. As a result, “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (v. 10).

Lost people don’t know they are lost

How would Paul approach the secularization of Christmas in our day? I believe he would offer this reminder: most lost people don’t know they are lost. They may be as religious as the Romans who dedicated their ship to false gods. Or they may not be religious at all.

Either way, they are deceived: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Here we learn that most secular people who ignore Jesus at Christmas don’t know better. They don’t intend to insult our Lord or his followers. They celebrate the secular traditions of the season with no real knowledge of its spiritual significance.

I know because I was one of them.

Growing up, my family never attended religious services at Christmas or any other season of the year. We never gave a moment’s thought to Jesus’ birth at Christmas.

But that didn’t mean we intended to insult those who did. I wasn’t antagonistic to the gospel—I was oblivious to it. I heard the truth about Jesus only after two men knocked on my apartment door when I was fifteen years old and invited me to ride their bus to their church. Prior to that invitation, I was lost but didn’t know it.

If Christians had responded to my secular Christmas observances by treating me as their enemy, they would have pushed me further from Jesus rather than drawing me closer to him. Instead, members of that church reached out to me with loving compassion. They understood my lack of spiritual knowledge and taught me what I needed to know.

I will quite literally be grateful to them forever.

How can we reach people who are where I was? One way is to use secular holidays to teach spiritual truth.

For instance, Martin Luther was the first to add lights to Christmas trees; he did so to point to Jesus as the “light of the world” (John 8:12). Holly wreaths with their sharp, pointed leaves were chosen to represent the crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross; their small red berries symbolize his drops of blood. Evergreen wreaths likewise signify eternal life in him.

Nearly every Christmas tradition can be used to share timeless truth. If our Lord could use a ship dedicated to pagan gods to bring the gospel to Rome, he can use this secular season to bring Christ to our culture.

This is the promise, and the invitation, of God.