The Inspired Innkeeper

Joseph and Mary were making their way through the streets of Nazareth looking for a place to have the baby. By now, Mary was in labor and her water may have broken. Because the city was packed with people waiting to register their families, a place to stay was hard to come by. But they continued on, praying for a place of refuge. The one they knew God would provide.

There was an inn on the edge of town, one of their last hopes. When they knocked, the door opened to a room already bursting with people. Joseph pleaded with the innkeeper but the innkeeper knew he was already swamped with demanding guests. He wanted to help but he couldn’t. The innkeeper began to shut the door, when he had a thought…the stable outback! So he hollered for the couple to come back. He told them they could use whatever they found in the stable. That was the best he could offer.

Joseph thanked the man for his kindness. His main concern was Mary and the baby. The stable was not what he had wanted but it was shelter and private. Now…to witness the born of the long awaited King.

The quote that got me to thinking.

As I read through the typical quotes about how the Innkeeper was such a jerk for rejecting Jesus this year, I began to pray and ask the Lord if this assessment was accurate. I felt the innkeeper was getting blamed for something that was not his fault. The scriptures simply make a statement: …there was no room or place for him in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

As I pondered, these were some of my thoughts:

The Innkeeper had no idea who the couple was. He hadn’t been informed by a dream or visitation like Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. The man was just doing his job the best he could. However, he did give what he had and that was the stable. As they left, Mary and Joseph didn’t feel rejected but blessed with a safe haven to have their child. Did God inspire the innkeeper’s offer?

Jesus had to be born in a place where no one could take credit for or profit from the occasion. God wanted Jesus’s birth alone to be center stage not the cleverness or effort of mankind. Jesus would have no obligation to anyone from the start. Plus, wouldn’t all the noise and confusion from those in the inn spoiled or taken away from the glory God wanted to share with only those He trusted?

Jesus’s birth had to be protected because of those who were out to destroy Him. If Jesus had been born in the inn, the news would have been spread quickly after the confirmation of shepherds and the Wiseman. Caesar was clearly after information leading to the baby’s whereabouts. Would the story have been drastically changed?

It was a place where those whom God chose could come freely. In our view, the stable may not be the most sanitary conditions, but no one was there to shame the shepherds or laugh at and question the wisdom of the men who traveled so far (maybe even steal the gifts). This was God’s moment, God’s way. Peace and praise were the only things that mattered. Was there really a better way?

Today, when we are carrying the King of kings within us, life may not always be what we think it should be. God’s guidance does not always mean it will be the easy way. What it does mean is your faithfulness to find His pathway will always bring the biggest reward of protection, peace and praise. 

What To Do With Santa Claus

Several months ago, my daughter–in-law, Leslie, asked me this question:

“What do I do with Santa Claus?”

I have known for a while that my heart and my head were not in agreement over the Santa Claus issue. I want to save my childhood tradition and yet knowing it interfered with the true meaning of Christmas. So… I prayed that God would show me the way to go. 

I started out by asking other Christians what they thought about Santa Claus. As you can imagine, I got a variety of answers. However, the one by which the Holy Spirit used to touch my heart the most came from a close friend. She told me about believing in Santa as a child and all the joy it had held for her. When she was seven, her parents told her the truth about who Santa really was. She was devastated. The revelation caused such a lack of trust towards her parents that she began rethinking everything her parents had ever told her. She even questioned the truths about Jesus. Was He a fake too?

For me, to keep endorsing Santa in my traditional way would be continuing to promote the same lie and distracting from the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. The Santa of today has developed into a giving machine for our materialistic desires. Santa can give us anything we desire if we are good. In holding on to this tradition, aren't I leading others to believe that earthly figures can produce the same supernatural results as God Himself, if they only believe. Is that really what I want to portray in the end?

Why should I promote the lie when I can promote the real thing? Jesus IS the only true giver of everlasting love, peace and joy. Jesus came to give us life and to bless us abundantly. When we receive Him into our hearts, we have an eternal relationship without any more shame, guilt, and condemnation ever again. His blessings of healing, protection and provision are not dependent on whether we are naughty or nice. Jesus is the true miracle worker.

Honestly, I feel like Santa has to die in my heart again like he did long ago. The feeling of not wanting to let go tells me Santa is a stronghold in my life that needs to come down. 

I desire Christmas to be about the supernatural birth of my Savior not the world’s materialistic Santa. I want to tell the world that God loved mankind so much that he initiated the process to save all from the power of sin through His son Jesus. 

I am letting go of the false now. Truth and its lasting joy is flooding my soul with peace and fulfillment. Thank you Jesus for Your patience in the process.

Can I inspire that joyous expectation  without Santa Claus? Sure I can. It may be a challenge. However, if I seek God’s ways, His creativity will inspire the way.

A Little Christmas In Your Time Of Need

My daughter and I left David and Leslie’s home Sunday with our Kentucky Thanksgiving memories to comfort us. Our long drive home started with the rustic two-lane highway through small towns and rural farm areas. Being the wintertime, the countryside looks dull and lifeless. The rolling pastureland was light brown with highlights of darker fencing. The oaks and maples were totally bare of their former glory. You would not know there was life around except for the homes that dotted the hillside with their bellowing chimney smoke and twinkling Christmas lights. I felt a sense of calmness and peace come over me.

Wintertime can be a joyful dormant time of reflection. As we consider the revelations from the past year’s trials, losses, and victories, we can shoot our roots down deeper into His soil of wisdom and love. It can also be a time of fun. Spending time with family and friends before a glowing fireplace. And then right in the middle of winter, comes Christmas, the time when we prepare our hearts to celebrate the baby Jesus and what that miracle truly means. God came to live among us to restore us to Himself.

As I mediated farther though, the harsh realities of wintertime came to mind, the seemingly endless cold weather chilling to the bones. These are the times in our lives when our circumstances seem to overwhelm us. Our faith in God is the only thing causing us to stand against the waves of impossibilities.

Then my thoughts were interrupted by a vision of the nativity scene, the baby Jesus in the middle with Joseph and Mary on either side with the stable covering them. Then the Lord spoke,

“I want to plant a little Christmas spirit right in the middle of the cold dark soil of the situation you are facing. I want my wisdom and solutions to be birthed within you. I want joy and excitement of your long awaited Savior coming to rise up within your heart. I want you to smile and laugh and dance with the sugar plum fairies. I want you to sing and praise until My blanket of peace surrounds you with love. I want you to remember I have come to empower you and lead you to victory.”

As I turned onto the interstate, I smiled as I thanked the Lord for His power and wisdom in my life.  

Are you in rough times right now? Do you need the Savior to plant a little Christmas spirit in your heart? It does not matter what time of year your winter comes. Go ahead, ask Him and then be willing and ready to get up and rejoice.

The Widows

I attended my first Widow’s Meeting. It's strange to be going now after all these years. I have been a widow since November 30, 1993. I wish I had known of a support group like this back then. So why go now? I’m not sure why other then the fact that maybe I could offer other widows hope that there is life on the other side of grief. God does lead us to minister where we have trod.

There were several ladies there that were fairly new to this journey… younger…older…and the in between. As I scanned their faces and demeanor throughout the meeting, I could see their pain and their efforts to keep putting one foot in front of the other especially during this Christmas season. Most likely each of them are struggling with some form of loneliness or depression even when they are among groups of friends or family. And the barrage of questioning thoughts that seem endless. But mainly, what is ‘starting over’ going to look like for me? I still have many vivid memories and feelings of the beginnings of when I started my journey.

We played Christmas games before we ate lunch. I opened the first prize package. It was a cute yellow statue that spelled out the word HOPE. Then I opened the second gift from another game. It was a coffee cup that said HOPE too! That is when I knew I had been lead to this group of special ladies. Not only was I going to give them hope but I was going to receive hope as well. Fill my cup, Lord!

I have already come to a ‘new normal’ in my life. However, I still struggle at times with what is out there for me in the future. Does God have another mate designed for me? What do I do now that my children are grown and leaving home for good? But through all the questions, hope in God is what has sustained me through it all. I have learned to turn and stay with Him in a crisis. I have also learned to lean on Him when I am lonely. God has become the husband I lost. And oh...what a wonderful Husband He has become.

Have you lost a loved one during the Christmas Season or anytime for that matter? Take hope in the fact that God is right there with you. Cultivate His Presence in your loneliness so you can know the love and peace He has brought through the birth of His son, Jesus.

Do you know of someone who has lost a loved one? Be especially sensitive to their need for a little extra dose of confidence and cheer. They are struggling whether they let you know or not. Send them a card or drop by with a container of soup. In other words, allow God to use you as His hands and feet to comfort those who are in the mourning process. When you do, I know God will bless you too.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Challenge

I recently I had the opportunity to pray with a woman who had a very heavy heart over the friends and family she had been praying for for quite some time. She kept saying they should be able to see the truth about salvation with all the opportunities they had been given to hear it proclaimed, especially with the circumstances they were going through. I tried to explain with the following.

First, I reminded her that when someone has not received salvation they do not have the understanding of spiritual things. It is only when they allow God to manifest in their hearts that true understanding can come.

Second, everyone has their moment when salvation is plain enough for them to see. They will know in their heart what the truth really is. When God put people on her heart, He intends for her to intercede until their godly understanding comes. Perseverance is the key.

Third, God was using this time to stretch and mature her own faith and abilities as an intercessor. God was not only touching her family and friends through her prayers but He also wanting to touch her walk with Him as well. She thought it was only about others but God was ready to inspire both.

As we kept talking, what I saw in my spirit was an agitator in a washing machine swishing back and forth. What I heard in my spirit was “Washed by the water of the word.” (Eph. 5:26) Because of her standing in the gap with intercessory prayer, God was able to ‘agitate’ them with His love and presence. Her words of faith in prayer were like cleansing water washing over them so they could find the truth.

As I continued to pray and talk with her, I felt the Lord wanted to challenge her to change her thinking about the people in her care.

During Thanksgiving, I sensed she was to thank Jesus for their salvation and all that He was doing to bring them to the knowledge of the truth.  She was to stop looking at the present circumstances and focus on the victory of God promises.

Then afterwards during the Christmas season, she was to thank him for sending Christ into the world and into the lives of those she was praying for.

This process would not be easy. But if she would pledge to change her thoughts and focus, she would bring forth faith and a renewed sense of purpose while she awaited the fulfillment of His promises.

So I offer this challenge to each of you for those on your heart during this holiday season. Along with me, many of you have been praying family and friends for along time. Some of them will be with you during this holiday season.  Instead of thinking they haven’t changed a bit, pledge to use your faith and thank Jesus for their salvation. Thank the Holy Spirit for continuing to touch their hearts. Allow God’s love to flood into your soul and then flow out to each of those you are praying for no matter what  their present situation looks like.Then know when the time is right, they will see and know God too.

 

Remember…. With God, ALL things are possible. (Matt. 19:26)