Honoring members in this way is a good idea. But how could you step the value up from merely good to great, maximizing the assimilation value and encouraging true Christian fellowship?

 Here are four ideas:

1.  Get a group of friendly and established members to introduce people to one another. 
2. Provide name tags. Just because you know everyone doesn’t mean long-term members know newcomers or vice versa.  
3. Put sheets of ice breaker questions at each table. Include silly or serious questions. Ask people to name their favorite _______ (fill in the blank). Have everyone describe their best Easter/graduation/Mother’s Day of all time. Open ended questions like these can get everyone sharing in a way that feels safe and fun.  
4. Provide pencils and note cards and encourage everyone sitting at each table to exchange  prayer requests for the upcoming week. If they share phone numbers or E-mail addresses so they can stay in touch. Encourage them to contact each other at least once before next Sunday.

 Do you want to help worshipers break the every Sunday “hit and run” habit? Proactively leverage spring events to deepen relationships!

 Now he’s arrived on the doorstep of your church. You are strangers to him, and he’s a stranger to you, too. But after a few months of intentional friendship building, you start to see leadership potential in Sam. Might you consider inviting him to step forward as a lay leader?

 He may be hesitant. He may have questions:

• Do I have enough Bible knowledge?
• What if compassion isn’t my strong suit right now?
• Could this be a nudge from God to test the waters? Can I trust him?
• Is this a safe enough place to plunge in?
• How will my wife feel about it?
• Will my mentors throw me in to sink or swim alone?

If you befriend a young adult, especially one new to your church, think about opening doors for service. But think, too, about the questions and concerns that might arise. Promise to be there—and then keep your promise. Help your “Sam” to see that he can lean on Jesus, he can trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5).

 If you’re not sure how to say that or if you’d like to reinforce that message, consider giving “Sam” a copy of Shaped to Serve: Celebrating Your Gift of Service.

 Will you leave a legacy at your church by encouraging the next generation to step forward to serve–and then helping to equip them to do it? Their gifts are a blessing to others; help them explore the possibilities.

Here in Minnesota, it can be hard to think of January as a time of new beginnings. We are in the heart of winter; everything is covered with snow and ice, and we are happy if the temperatures reach into the double digits.

Still, while I was driving to school after Mass this morning, I saw God’s glory reflected everywhere. The sky was a pristine blue, and the sun was shining. The overnight fog had crystallized on the trees, and snow blankets everything in sparkling white.

It reminded me that every day is new in Christ. Why? Because our sins and wrongdoings are things of yesterday. God is full of grace and healing, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. Every day when I arise, He gives me the opportunity to start anew, to consecrate the day to Jesus, and to remember that He lives in me.

May He bless your new day today in that hope!

Joy should be everywhere, shouldn’t it? Digging out from all the December craziness, we realize Christmas isn’t just a special day on the calendar. We’re journeying to Bethlehem in faith to kneel in awe and adoration at the little baby feet of the world’s Savior, Jesus Christ. We celebrate God’s gift of love, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, his gift that brings joy from heaven to earth. Jesus brings joy for the world—for everyone, everywhere. 

Jesus brings joy and blessings abound—enough for everyone! Maybe joy comes to you in new memories you create with relatives from out of town, in an unexpected bonus you receive at work, or in an extra measure of the Christmas spirit you feel in your heart.

Still, even with joy surrounding us, some of us  experience the “merry side of Christmas,” only to slide quickly into despair. Our fa’s are strong early in the season, but before long, our la’s fall flat. Some of us find our joy crumpled up like a pile of discarded post-Christmas wrapping paper.

Are you lip-syncing both the fa’s and the la’s, hoping others don’t notice your struggle to smile? Certainly, not everyone agrees that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Christmastime can be a highly charged, emotional time. So many variables toy with our level of joy. Think about it . . .

• Some dread their first Christmas without someone they loved, while others anticipate their first Christmas with someone they love.
• Some receive a helpful end-of-the-year financial windfall, while others find themselves falling more and more into debt with no help in sight.
• Some find the season invigorating, while others find it nerve-racking.
• Some couples celebrate their first Christmas as husband and wife, while others experience their first as ex-husband and ex-wife.
• Some come to life, surrounded with people, while others come to deal with loneliness, even when surrounded by people.
• Some feel overly blessed, while others feel overly stressed.

As we come to adore our Savior, each of us brings blessings as well as burdens to the manger. So let’s pause in our journey to the manger to notice the people around us. We’re traveling together, and it’s important to realize we all travel by faith. We come, only because the divine Child first journeyed from heaven to earth. His birth, death, and resurrection conquers loneliness, anxiety, stress, and all our other burdens.

 Jesus’ gift isn’t necessarily a jump-up-and-down joy, although it certainly can be that. It’s primarily a joy that settles deep in our hearts. It’s a joyful, contented peace. This divine present comes with Jesus’ presence.

Jesus brings joy to the world. He also brings joy for the world. He knows our world is filled with sin and its accompanying heartache, pain, and grief. But let there be no doubt that he’s also intimately aware of every breath you take, every word you speak, and every situation you face. And he’s aware of your need for joy. So he wraps his miraculous joy within his gifts of forgiveness, help, and hope. It’s true! Jesus brings joy for the world—for everyone, everywhere.

Come and receive. Come and worship.

Come and go . . . sharing his gifts.

Editor’s note: Several Joy for the World gifts are available from CTA this Christmas. Get yours before they’re gone!

© 2007 CTA, Inc. Permission to make photocopies or reproduce by any other mechanical or electronic means is granted only to the original purchaser and is intended for ruse within a church or other Christian organization.

 The Scripture quotation is from the King James or Authorized Version.

While we do these things, though, we can also prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. What a precious gift God sent to us! As I reflect on this, I wonder how one does best prepare for our Savior? How do we get ready to celebrate his coming to live among us to save us for all eternity? The gift is so big!

Considering that gift and Christ’s holy life, I think about being holy—like Jesus—in my day to day life. I ask that he keep my heart open to him and that he show me how to be his hands and feet for all those whose lives my life touches. This is my way of keeping my life simple and keeping Jesus as the center. Jesus is the one thing that really matters.

 One of my kindergarten students recently visited Disney World. She returned with a gift for me. Her mother told me, “She searched for days looking for the perfect gift for you. You have really touched her heart.” It was so humbling to realize that Jesus really is working through me, despite the commotion and busyness of life!

 Jesus is working through you, too! May he touch many hearts through each of our lives this Christmas season!

It’s not a new idea. In fact, our heavenly Father has always encouraged his people to “pay it forward.” We don’t pay him back—we never could begin to do that! Instead, we give others what we have received from our Savior, trusting his generous heart will keep the blessings flowing into our lives. 

I thought about all this as I heard two CTA Customer Service Representatives tell the story of a CTA customer who has purchased, not one Bouquet of Blessings devotion book, but more than 100! This customer didn’t intend to give them to a large group—or even to several small ones. Instead, she touched one heart at a time, sending copies to others she wanted to bless.

Isn’t that what our Lord asks of us? Forgiven and accepted in Jesus, we nod in glad agreement when the psalmist says:  “Forget not all his benefits!”

 Our wonderful CTA customer gladly received God’s blessings and then became a blessing herself in the lives of those God brought across her path.

 Pay it forward today! And then look forward in great anticipation to the expressions of love that will continue on into eternally.

It’s so easy to look around at other people and envy the things that they have: I hear about a friend going on vacation. I talk to another friend about her family’s new vehicle. I see that a co-worker has just purchased a new state-of- the-art cell phone.

 It is not easy to separate oneself from the desire for material possessions, especially in our culture. It’s not easy, but it’s important. It helps me when I remember God’s promise to provide what I need. It helps when I remember that those around me with the new cars and cell phones may be dealing with hardships I know nothing about. It helps when I focus on the blessings God has given me—especially his blessings of peace, hope, and forgiveness in Jesus.

 This Thanksgiving, focus on the blessings God has given you!  If you think about it, they are many, and they are probably all you really need.

2010 Thanks be to God Pocket Calendar

But wait! What about the month? What about a Happy Thanksgiving month?! 

I’ve always enjoyed sharing Thanksgiving Day at church and with my family. But this year, I’ve decided to observe a personal thanksgiving month. I want to take some time and effort to say thanks to people who have been a such blessing to me—and to my family, and in my ministry.

Personal notes of thanks have all but been replaced by quick e-mails or even text messages. But these don’t always say thanks in a personal enough way.

CTA has some great items that will help me let people know how thankful I am for their service, their heart for my ministry, and their friendship. Maybe you’ll find them helpful, too:

• I can use the Thank You for Serving with a Heart Like Jesus note card set to write and send personal notes to six people—and for only 99 cents while the cards are on sale!
• The Thanks Be to God Pocket Calendar can be a year-long thank-you to those who bless me in special ways.
• So can the Thanks Be to God Magnet .

This year, put the thanks in giving by giving and sending thanks!

As a CSR for CTA, I recently talked with pastor who had just read, Grieving with Hope . . . Leaning on Jesus. He passed it on—to a family grieving the loss of a child several years ago. The family came back a few days later to say, in essence, “We so wish we had read this at the time of our child’s death!”

Grief seldom evaporates the day after the funeral! Many people continue to grieve for months and even years. Experts in grief tell us that individuals each grieve in their own way, following their own timetable.

Do you have friends who struggle with grief? When you act in faith, our Savior will step in to care for those whose lives you touch. It’s never too late to bring the hope of Jesus to those who are grieving.

Editor’s Note: CTA’s Grieving with Hope . . . Leaning on Jesus has become a best-seller in only a few months! It costs much less than most sympathy cards and it comes with an envelop for easy mailing.  The Christ-centered message coupled with four-color, eye-striking photos, make it a truly valuable ministry tool! Churches, Stephen Ministers, chaplains, and others will want to buy a case to have on hand.

• The happy lick of a puppy’s tongue.
• That week we spent in bed with chicken pox at age seven.
• The tottering gait of our child’s first step.
• The splendor of a path cut through a yellow, orange, green, brown forest.
• The agony of sacrifice that backlights, as it were, our nation’s flag whenever we sing the national anthem.

 As we pause in November to give thanks for the hundred thousand blessings our Lord so freely pours into our lives, we can thank him also for the gift of memory, the ability to recall individual instances of his goodness. Listen to these familiar words in which the psalmist David recounts God’s blessings, remembering specific gifts from God’s hand:

Praise the LORD , O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:2-5 NIV)

 Wonderful as it is to remember, how terrible life would be without the ability to forget! Part of the appeal of “the good old days” comes from the fact that our minds tend to remember the good times and forget the bad ones! We remember the ice cream and the cartoon marathons from our chicken pox days, but forget the itchiness, the fever, and the arithmetic make-up work.

 Much more seriously, those who survive the trauma of war or abuse yearn to wipe the  dark memories from their consciousness. With Job, they ache to “forget [their] trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by” (Job 11:16 NIV). 

As God’s people, we celebrate our Lord’s willingness to remember—to remember his covenant love toward us in Christ Jesus from now into eternity:

He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded, for a thousand generations. (1 Chronicles 16:15 NIV)

 As God’s people, we also celebrate his promise to forget—for Jesus’ sake! Twice the writer to the Hebrews repeats these sweet words:

[T]heir sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17 KJV)

In light of what we remember and what we have forgotten, in light of what our Savior remembers and what he promises to forget, we have much for which to give thanks—this Thanksgiving month and every day!

Looking for Christ-centered inserts to add to the Thanksgiving baskets your church will distribute this month? Check out the value-priced items CTA offers!