Another Christmas done, another year coming to pass… It goes too fast doesn’t it? For me the end of the year becomes a time of questions, “Has it been a good year? Did I accomplish all I should have accomplished? What memories stand out, good or bad? What friends have I lost? Gained? How has my relationship with God changed? What new insights has God given me about life… about myself… about those around me? Have I left a Jesus kind of mark on the world around me? Have I been a good husband? Father? Have I invested the time God’s given me wisely? Have I been so serious that I’ve had no time to be full of wonder…. no time to laugh…. no time to be as a child?

And along with the Old Year’s Reviews come the New Year’s Resolutions. I have a list of 70 resolutions written by Jonathon Edwards (philosopher/preacher used greatly by God in revival) over a period of time from 1722-1723. I offer a few of my favorites to you.

5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possible can.
6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
22. Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
25. Resolved, To examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
28. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly percieve myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
40. Resolved, To inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking.
42. Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church, and which I have solemnly re made this 12th day of January, 1723.
52. Resolved: I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, That I will live just as I think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.

I think resolutions get a bad rap when we define failure as anything less than 100% compliance. I think a good resolution is one in which failure is defined simply as “quitting.” A resolution becomes less a test and more a direction. If we desire to take a particular journey, we must take a step in the right direction. A resolution simply points the way…if you fall along the way, simply get back up and take another step.

If you weren’t able to be with us on Christmas Eve, you missed a great evening. We had more people than ever before and God blessed our time together. Even though we are not meeting again for worship this weekend…I have one more message in the Radical Christmas series. Below is the final talk, you can watch it with the player provided here on the blog or you can click the link below the player and go directly to the vimeo site. Hope your Christmas was God-Awe-Full…and your new year is filled with God’s amazing gift of His Spirit!

A Radical Revolution from Dan Nold on Vimeo.

I remember going to visit my grandmother when I was just a kid…we would travel all the way to California. it seemed like the longest trip… but it was always worth it, because I loved going to my grandma’s. She had the greatest toys — toys, comic books, games — she kept them in a box in her closet. While we were there, I could take those games out. I could take those comics books out. I could takes those toys out, and play with them — just like they were mine, like it was my stuff. But at the end of the week, when we would pack up to go home… try to sneak a comic book home and she morphed from little grandma to the all-seeng presence. I could never take any “stuff” with me.

It was there before I came and there when I left. While I was there I could play with it like it was all “My Stuff” but when I left, it all went back in the box.

I remember going on vacation with some friends of ours. We went to the North Woods in Minnesota. We had a great time, except for that afternoon when we pulled this Monopoly game out of it’s box. Brian was a good friend of mine, humble, gentle, just a good guy. But what we didn’t realize was that Monopoly changed him — ruthless, total commitment to acquisition.  He knew that ultimately the master of the board was the one with the most stuff.  He was ruthless in his passion to have it all in his hands and by the time we were done, he’d reduced us to financial and psychological bankruptcy.

But you know what?  No matter how well had learned to play the game, no matter how many hotels he had placed on Boardwalk, that afternoon when the game was done…it all went back in the box.  For an afternoon he was on top, but before we left that place. It all went back in the box.

As it is with monopoly and Grandma’s toys — so it is with life — it all goes back in the box.  In I Timothy 6:7, Paul says: For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. It doesn’t matter how well you play the game, how much stuff you collect.  It all goes back in the box. In the end it’s no more “my stuff” than monopoly money.  In the end it all goes back in a box and at the very end we call that box a casket and if the focus of our hopes and joy was my acquisition of stuff — in the end — all that’s left, is in the box.

But there is another way. Listen to what Jesus said about the box.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

This vitally profound statement that Jesus makes has wrestled it’s way into my heart…For where your treasure is…  I’ve come to understand that this is as true as the truth that Jesus died for my sin and rose from the dead. It is foundational. Where my treasure is my heart will be also.

If we don’t want our hearts to end up in a box…we need to send our treasure on ahead.  How?  Be Generous.

After reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, you might have thought that C.S. Lewis was a great fan of Christmas. After all, he described Narnia’s curse as “always winter, but never Christmas…” You may even remember that Father Christmas has an honored part in the story.  But, today I ran across an interesting quote of C.S. Lewis,’ from his collection of essays, “God in the Dock.” He writes,

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here.

The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs.

But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business. I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers.

The commercialization, consumerization of Christmas was even a concern in Lewis’ day.  Now, this might be a personal trait more so than a universal trait, but if it is personal, I think it applies personally to many of us.  What trait am I talking about?  Sometimes especially when addictions occur, it is not enough to make a small change in our behavior, we need a wholesale-cold-turkey-don’t-touch-it kinda of change.  Like an alcoholic can’t have just one drink, what if they only way to stop the addiction of Christmas consumerism is to go cold-turkey.  No gifts.

Now I’m really not a scrooge.  I’m all for gift giving.  I think true gift giving tickles the itch of grace planted deep in our souls.  I’m just not sure that we can recover true gift giving at Christmas.  Christmas is too fraught with the immediate pleasures of consumerism.  Perhaps we should pick a day in January and declare it, National Gift-Giving Day.  If we (Christians) can keep it a secret, we will get all National Gift Giving Day (hear after referred to as NGGD — or nagged) gifts at post-Christmas sale prices!

Then we give ZERO gifts at Christmas…except the gifts we give to Jesus.

Now that would be radical.

Are you interruptible? Last week, that was the application point that I left with us. (If you weren’t here, click 

to listen.)  That’s the question that continues to hang with me this week. On Monday, I prayed, “Lord please interrupt me today.”   As I think about interruptions, God keeps drawing my attention to a burning bush.  Moses was this humble, courageous leader who struggled with doubt; this imperfect man of God who was so passionate for the presence of God. Participant in miraculous moments and moments of failure. But one thing that is so compelling about Moses is that it says…in Ex 33:11 “The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks to a friend.”   But do you know where it all started?  A burning bush.

One day, Moses was out taking care of the sheep and goats. They weren’t even his. He wasn’t a rich man or a successful man…he was a goat-herder. It just so happened that Moses was leading his goats to Mt. Sinai, the holy mountain. God appeared in a bush that was on fire but not burning up. This is strange!” Moses said to himself. ” I will turn aside and see why the bush isn’t burning up.” When Moses turned aside, God called him by name, and Moses answered, ” Here I am.”

That’s where it started. Moses turned aside.  He allowed his day to be interrupted by God.  It was just a bush. Bush’s like this all over the place, passed by thousands of-em following these stupid sheep. Just a bush… Everybody in his neighborhood had a bush, some people had three or four. But this time the bush was on fire with the presence of God. And Moses said, I must turn aside and look at this great sight…so he turned aside and… he heard the voice of God.

Do you see how everything hinged upon his willingness to turn aside? Everything hinged upon his willingness to be interrupted by God. You’re thinking…I would’ve done that. Who wouldn’t turn aside to be with God? Hear his voice, experience his presence, feel the fire. The reality is that we live in a culture of preoccupied noise. I have a suspicion that’s turning into a conviction… I think we run past burning bushes every day without turning aside long enough to discover holy ground…with God.

Moses could have…missed it. He could have missed the great adventure of a lifetime. He could have missed his purpose for living. Most importantly he could have missed God…but he turned aside.

It reminds me of Mary. Mary allowed God to interrupt her plans. She took on a nine month interruption that led to the interruption of her life. What does turn aside look like for you this week? Will you let God interrupt you?

For those not up on football lingo a Monday Morning Quarterback is “one who critiques from a position of hindsight.” I know it’s not really Monday, but it’s still a look back on this last weekend. So here are my thoughts looking back…

1) This weekend our Christmas music extravaganza took place at Calvary Traditions and Calvary Classic, the choir, an orchestra, and a few hundred Calvary voices filled 1250 University Drive with beautiful Christmas music.  They were amazing!  Thank you to Susie Kleinert and her whole team for all the work they put into this.  It was fantastic!

2) I’m not saying this because I have to…  I’m saying it because it’s true.  I love the worship styles of everyone of our gatherings.  Each one has a wonderful unique expression of worship.  When I think back to when we first went from one worship gathering to two, we thought there was no way we would ever be able to make it work, just not enough musicians or worship leaders.  But as people were willing to step out in faith…they just kept coming.  God has certainly blessed us.

3) This morning (Tuesday) was our staff meeting.  Filled with God-stories — a story of God@work — and prayer requests.  I wish I could share them all with you, but let me just say that it is so encouraging to hear some of the ways in which God is at work in and among the Calvary family.  Also good to be reminded that every good story has an antagonist…or at least difficult circumstances to work through.  Every miracle starts with a problem.  Every God-story involves a need.

4) I love being part of a church family where people don’t get upset when we do something that isn’t very religious.  Like it’s not very religious to cancel Church on Sunday.  In fact there are some who would wonder if we are even Christian.  I’m pretty sure God is okay if we miss a Sunday every now and then.  In fact for those who worship at the Table gathering, they always miss Sunday worship.  So this weekend we will be worshiping together on Friday.  Which means the staff will truly get to celebrate Christmas with their families!  Maybe not very religious…but it will be a good sabbath and I have a good feeling God will be good with that!

5) On Monday, I prayed, “Lord you can interrupt me today.”  He did.

6) I am so looking forward to worshiping with you on Friday.  Christmas carols.  Our 1% offering.  Some time to ponder the radical gift of Christmas and of course Silent Night by candlelight.  Invite a friend, we have plenty of room this year with five different gatherings — 3,5,7, and 9 at 1250 University Drive and 8pm at Camp K.

7) Calvary Kid Care had their open house on Monday night.  Dani Mangene is leading the team to minister to your kids and the kids of our community.  Still room for kids.  Click Calvary Kid Care for more info.

Have you ever wanted God to owe you?  

A week — in the Nold household — rarely goes by without receiving a mailing sent to entice us to borrow money from another credit card company. Actually pretty amazing that so many people want to lend me money. They are just standing in line waiting for me to sign on the line. Of course one reason for our current economic crisis is that too many organizations loaned money (called a mortgage) to people who would never be able to pay them back. Have you ever loaned money to someone who didn’t repay you? Makes you a bit nervous about lending the next time.

Last year I ran across a verse in Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17. It caught my attention, because I have always believed — that when it comes to my stuff — that I am a steward, not an owner. I try to operate from the perspective that everything I have belongs to God. It all belongs to God, everything I have is a gift from God.

That’s why Proverbs 19:17 caught my attention. It tells us the secret to putting God in your obligation; getting God to owe you. Here is what is written,

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord and he will repay you!

Help the poor and God is obligated to repay you.  When we feed the poor, give water to those who are thirsty, serve those in need, we are lending to God. God gives us an IOU.  Wow.  So let’s think about this for a moment.

1. Everything I have belongs to God. But when I use what belongs to God, to serve those in need, I lend to God. He pays me back.

Wow.  That’s so amazing that I’m not sure I really get it.  Sounds too good to be true, but that’s just the Old Testament version.  It gets better.  In the New Testament, God sweetens the deal.  In Luke 6:38 Jesus says,

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

So when we give, we lend to God.  He doesn’t just repay us.  He overpays us.  Perhaps the reason why, we — the American people — have so much debt is because we are trying to hang on to what we have rather than putting a generous God in our debt.  I know, I’m not even comfortable writing that and the fact that I can is simply evidence of a God whose generosity is beyond beyond…

At Calvary we are challenging each other to give ONE% of our annual income to serve those in need around the world.  Give to the poor, lend to God.

The All Better Book is a book in which elementary school children try to solve some of the more difficult world problems, like what to do about global warming, or how to get people to stop smoking. Here’s one of the questions, these little minds deal with:  With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely. What do you suggest?

Kalani (age 8) suggested that someone should find lonely people and ask their name and address. Then ask people who aren’t lonely their name and address. When you have an even amount of each, assign lonely people and not lonely people together in the newspaper.

Max (age 9) had a bit more practical answer. Make food that talks to you when you eat. For instance it would say, “How are you doing?” and “What happened to you today?”

But it was Brian (age 8) who obviously spoke from personal experience when he wrote, “Sing a song. Stomp your feet. Read a book.  Sometimes I think no one loves me, so I do one of these.

Perhaps at no other season of the year are we more aware of our desire for an “us” than we are at Christmas.  Randy Frazee declares that God designed us with a connection requirement.  The Alameda County Study headed by a Harvard social scientist followed the lives of 7000 people over 9 years. Researchers found that the most isolated people were three times more likely to die over that time than those with strong relational connections. People who had bad health habits (such as smoking or alcohol use, lack of exercise or poor eating habits) but strong social ties lived significantly longer than disconnected, isolated people with great health habits.

In other words you can either get on that treadmill all alone or join a friend and eat all the Christmas cookies and candy you want! You choose, but Christmas with a friend will lead to a longer life! It is the “us” of our lives that brings us life.

Christmas is the story of our adoption into the family of God. Through Jesus we’re adopted into the family of God. This is why Christians love foster care and adoption, because it’s our story, the good news that God adopts us and brings us into his family, the church. Jesus came to put the “us” in Christmas.

In Psalm 68:6, the psalmist writes, “God puts the lonely in families.” What an amazing account of God’s love for adoption. At Calvary we have a growing movement of adoption and it is our great privilege and joy to help those who have a heart to open their homes to God’s placement service.

When you give to our ONE% offering — click ONE% for more info — you help God’s placement service. You help the lonely find a family. Please watch this video and praying about what you might give.

For those not up on football lingo a Monday Morning Quarterback is “one who critiques from a position of hindsight.”  I know it’s not really Monday, but it’s still a look back on this last weekend. So here are my thoughts looking back…

1) Last week’s message was all about family — the “us” in Christmas.  Different phrases stick with different people, but I think the phrase that has stuck with me the most is “pass it on down the table.”  Here is where that came from… I said,

It’s been a tough year in Myanmar, a lot of emails from leaders asking me to pray that God would provide food for the kids. You know if Sarah called me from Pittsburgh and said, Dad, please pray for me, I don’t have enough money for food this week. I would sell my tv — maybe not the hi-def flat screen, but for sure the little one in the bedroom. No you know I would sell whatever I had to sacrifice. I would sell my jeep. I would sacrifice to share what I have to meet her needs. She’s my daughter. She’s family.

So I was asking Lynn, why haven’t we sold our tv, sold our jeep? Why haven’t we been willing to sacrifice more to help the kids in Myanmar. I know them. I love them. I think
part of it, is that I haven’t yet, quite made them family. But you know what…the child who was born unto us…was also born unto them…we are family.

As we close this weekend…as we make our way to communion, sometimes we call it The Lord’s Table. Just imagine with me…we’re setting down at the Lord’s Table for Christmas dinner. It’s a big table. It’s so big you need google chat and skype to talk to the people at the other end of the table…but it’s just one table… It’s the Lord’s table. It pleases him when his kids are all home..sitting around his table. Can you imagine, sitting at that table and on one end, — thankfully the end that you are sitting on — on that end, is all the food. So you start to eat. It’s so good. The food at the Lord’s Table is always sooo good. But as you fill your plate, you start to eat… and you get a text, an urgent skype call…nobody is passing the food down the table…it just stays on your end.

Once upon a time these words were written in I John…”We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion — how can God’s love be in that person? (It’s not enough to say we love each other; we must show it by our actions.) I John 3:16-18 (NLT)

In other words, we need to pass it down the table. That’s what the 1% offering is all about, passing it down the table so that everyone can eat.

If you weren’t here and would like to listen to the whole message, click .

2) Last Saturday we held our Christmas Cookie and Breakfast Sale.  We raised over $4000 for the kids we serve in Myanmar, Rwanda, and the Dominican Republic.  Around 650 dozen cookies and Christmas candy, not to mention breads, rolls, and Gingerbread Houses.  An amazing sight, and quite tasty!  Which could be equally well said of the breakfast!  A huge thank you to all those who helped, bought and ate!

3)  Speaking of the cookies sale, perhaps my most encouraging moment involved some of the unsold cookies.  With close to 8000 cookies and pieces of candy, you can imagine a few items were left over.  What to do?  A volunteer packed up 40 boxes of goodies and personally delivered them to two local mobile home communities.  How cool is that!  You served so many kids last weekend in so many different ways.

4) I had the opportunity to speak at Tuscarora — where Lynn’s folks are involved in ministry — last Sunday.  Through the miracle of technology — while you watched me on video, I was speaking to a church on the Delaware River.  And you know what?  A number of people came up and wanted to help with our ministry in Myanmar.  God always has a plan.

In a recent online issue of Catalyst Andy Stanley makes the following observation, “I know some people who are great at getting rich. But when it comes to being rich, I’m less than impressed.”  You know what America is full of people who are great at getting rich.  We educate the masses on how to get great at getting rich.  Books, seminars, and tapes to help us play the stockmarket, invest in real estate, buy silver, and get that high paying job.  And if you aren’t interested in books, seminars or tapes, you can always just play the lottery.

Here is the problem with wanting to get rich… Paul writes to Timothy,  (I Timothy 6:9-10)

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Now let me make it abundantly clear, it’s not a sin to get rich, but danger abounds when our desire to get rich grows.  Paul goes on in I Timothy 6:17-19 to give instruction to those who are already rich.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

This is instruction on how to be rich.  We think that “being rich” means we need to make wise choices about retirement plans, how to remodel the house in such a way that there is a good ROI when we sell, and whether we can afford the vacation in Hawaii or we have to settle for a condo in Orlando.

Paul says the best way to “be rich” involves…

1. 1) Being intentional about putting our hope in God.
2. 2) Being generous with our resources, doing good.
3. 3) Keeping our eyes on eternity, lay up treasure for the life to come.

Here’s the deal.  If you are reading this, and live in America, you are rich. Don’t think you’re rich? If you make $25,000 you are in the top 10% of the richest people in the world, earn $35,000 top 5%.  You’re rich. Congratulations!  So here is a thought, what if we were to spend less time thinking about getting better at getting rich — we’ve already arrived — and spend more time thinking about getting good at being rich — Paul-style.

Hard to imagine a better time to practice being rich than at Christmas.  At Calvary our challenge is to give 1% of our annual income for  Christmas offering to serve those in need around the world.  If you want to join our challenge go to ONE% for more info.