See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

-Malachi 3:1

Peeking out from the edges of Halloween decorations, preparing to pounce, are Christmas decorations! We still have Thanksgiving to celebrate and Black Friday to survive and Advent to enjoy, but preparing ourselves is a holy task. Preparing for God entering the world is indeed holy. You've maybe heard hints of Advent, our preparation season, if you belong to the choir or worship team. You've certainly heard the Christian Ed team asking for you to share your stories and memories (please go do that now!) and begun to think of annual favorite traditions and gatherings, preparing your home and maybe a shopping list? Checking it once or checking it twice?

If you're anything like me, you love to give gifts and you have your eyes open all year for good ones, saving online links and coupons, hopping on sales and squirreling things away all year. Or, maybe you're not and you freeze in fear and worry and wonder how you'll ever find anything meaningful or in the right sizes or age appropriate or well-loved. Why bring it up now? Couldn't I have waited till after Halloween for that stress?!

No. I don't want you to be stressed. I hope that you'll see your advent season as one for blessing and not stressing. If Christ's coming was to save and not condemn, the coming of Christmas is for goodness and not frustration and worry. And gift giving can indeed be a blessing when done thoughtfully and in that spirit of love and grace and compassion. Before you begin making your lists, let JCPC and the Mission Team help. This year, we will once again be providing an Alternative Christmas Market. We know many said last year... I wish I'd known about this sooner! Now you do.

The gifts available at this event in the weeks leading up to Christmas (end of November through Christmas in the Welcome Center) will be of a spiritual nature. All of the organizations represented are agencies we support as a church and trust to care for the least of these throughout the year. Choose from many different price points a gift of a donation in honor of a loved one and receive a Christmas card to send them with a message explaining your gift. Give the gift of feeding a family at Hands of Christ or providing bed linens to a family receiving their first home from one of our youth build teams. Feeding or housing a family in the season of welcoming the holy family is truly the greatest gift you can give. I hope you'll join us.

Prayer for Today

Lord, make me ready for the holidays, both secular and holy. Make me a child of joy who is ready to give thanks for my many blessings and then ready to bless those in need. Amen.

A Harvard Business School economist wanted to test out the theory about whether offering people more money would lead people to do something. He set up an experiment in which people were approached and asked to let someone cut in line. The person who wanted to cut in line began to offer money to those in line let them do it. He found that if you offered $1.00, half the people let the person cut. At $3.00, 65% of the people let them cut in. At $5.00, 75% let them cut.

While the economist thought this proved the point about money being the prime motivator, the odd thing was that even when they let the person cut in line, almost no one actually took the money! The economist had to revise his theory - that instead of one's own financial self-interest being the main reason someone allowed another person to break in line, that the real, hidden factor was the obligation people felt to help those in need. He said, "The more someone needs our help, the more obligated we feel to provide it. . ." (From Pre-suasion by Robert Cialdini: 52) The amount of money simply expressed how badly someone must need to break in line.

Maybe God has made us so that when we see genuine a need, we want to help. Jesus said this: "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:30-31, NIV)

In the next day or two, you will receive a letter from me. We have entered into our "Season of Generosity" during which we are talking about how to become a more generous person. Last Sunday we said that "God Gave to Save" - which is why "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. . . to save the world through him . . ." (John 3:16a,17b, NIV) We need every one of us to give generously in order to do our part to save the world God so loves. That is one way to become a more generous person.

Prayer for Today

Thank you God for creating and loving this world and everyone in it. Help us to give so that you can use our gifts to help save the world. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, the Savior of the world. Amen.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)

This has been a familiar passage to me since 7^th grade. That's when I memorized it and it's been imprinted on my heart ever since. What words come to mind when you hear the word peace? Where are the places that really need peace right now? What relationships are required? How might God be a part of bringing that peace through us?

Perhaps peace in our world begins with peace in our own lives. We each have places of unrest, and perhaps if we work for peace here, inside our lives, we might be able to know more of God's peace in the world.

Do you think all of the noise and busyness in our lives makes it difficult to find peace? Do our schedules, our time, our lives look like that of person who wants to experience God's peace? Is it possible that sometimes we search for God in the winds, earthquakes and fires, but God is waiting to speak to us in the silence and peace?

Last week, we snuck away for a few days to find some peace. It started out as work, filling the car with everything we thought we would need for 2 nights of camping, driving down to St. Mary's, GA to stay overnight and be prepared for an early ferry ride. In order to camp on Cumberland Island, you load up everything you need for your trip onto the ferry boat and that's it. Once we made the hike to our campsite and settled in, we felt this wave of peace and calm. At that moment, I stopped to listen, you could hear the ocean waves and the creatures that lived among the palmettos.

This is our view at the end of a long hike. May it bring you some peace today.

Prayer for Today

Gracious God, Help us to see the needs of others around us. Help us to know those needs which we can fulfill. Help us to fulfill them and make your peace known. In Christ's Name, Amen.

On the first Sunday of November we will be celebrating All Saints Sunday. Traditionally, as part of our worship we read the names of JCPC members who have died during the calendar year and following each name spoken, a bell rings out and resonates in our souls. We remember.

Remembering is fundamental to our being. As much as we are told to stay in the present or move forward into the future our very being is rooted in remembrance. Such is our faith. Wayne Oates states that first and foremost Christian faith is about remembering the past. We remember what God has done!

The bell rung during All Saints Sunday reverberates in our hearts to recall the loved one whom we remember and miss. It rings a mixture of both knowing and missing; of presence and absence. In our hope and our grief there is a strong bond with the departed and All Saints Sunday reminds us of that sacred bond. As one author states, "the Christian celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and those the living. This bond and its remembrance bring both joy and grief.

If you have lost a loved one or know someone who has I want to invite you to Safe Harbor following the 11:00 a.m. worship service on November 3 from 12:30-2:00 p.m. in the small dining room. As we approach the holidays it is important to remember that our grief gets activated when we remember holidays past.

Stephen Minister, Angie Ferrell recently told how her grief was triggered at the holidays. Angie had lost her mother and as she and her daughter were planning the family meal Angie's daughter asked, "But Mom, who will make the dressing?" Out of the blue her grief washed over her.

Perhaps you've experienced some of these out of the blue moments which can leave you feeling blue. Safe Harbor is a gathering of others who share in similar experiences.

If you would like to attend email me at nealk@jcpcusa.org or call me at 678-467-4909.

Click here for more information.

Prayer for Today

We thank you gracious God for the gift of love. We grieve because we are able to love, so we ask that through your loving support and the support of others that you will walk with us through our times of grief. Amen.

I once heard about a student taking a class in preaching at a prominent seminary. The student, a young man who was a bit full of himself, delivered his sermon with eloquence and evident passion. He sat down self-satisfied, and the professor paused a moment before responding. "That was a powerful sermon," he said. "It was well organized and moving. The only problem is that God was not the subject of a single one of your sentences."

The professor highlighted a problem all of us struggle with at times: We can talk as if we're the primary actor (emphasizing what we do, what we say) when in truth God is the primary actor in life. We often profess that God is somehow generally "in charge," but we act as if all the outcomes depend on us.

The Scriptures insist that God is the true subject of our lives, the true force. Even our necessary acts of faith are done "in the name of the Lord"-in the Lord's power (Psalm 118:10-11). God enacts our salvation. God rescues us. God tends to our needs. "The Lord has done this" (v. 23).

So the pressure's off. We don't need to fret, compare, work with compulsive energy, or feed our many anxieties. God is in charge. We need only trust and follow His lead in obedience.

Prayer for Today

God, I've been paying lip service to You being in charge of my world. It's exhausting, and I want to stop doing that. Help me trust You. Amen.

And rend your heart and not your garments " Now return  to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in mercy And relenting of evil.

-Joel 2:13

"Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "

Return  to Me," declares the LORD of hosts, "that I may return to you," says the LORD of hosts.

-Zechariah 1:3

'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will 

return  to Me with their whole heart.

-Jeremiah 24:7

Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return  to the LORD.

-Lamentations 3:40

Therefore, return  to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

-Hosea 12:6

Rabbi Leizer survived the Holocaust and returned to his hometown of Czenstockchow, Poland after the war. For many years, he wandered the streets playing his hand organ. Mostly, he would play familiar secular tunes. But he would occasionally play the Kol Nidrei, a tune set to the words of a sort of liturgical rite or prayer in the service for Yom Kippur - the day of atonement. He would look for a glimmer of recognition in the eyes of the children who heard him play. And by this, brought many children back to their people. In worship, this familiar tune and the Aramaic words bring the people back, to recognize and return.

Our own weekly worship in the Christian church is filled with a specific order and familiar words that invite us back. The earliest followers of Christ, a devout Jew, steeped in tradition, were called Followers of the Way. Our way, like our Jewish brothers and sisters is marked by signposts lived by Christ, righteous living through forgiveness, kindness, grace, and humility. We are called to return to our people and to the Way each week in the ritual calling of worship.

I attended Yom Kippur services at Congregation Dor Tormid on Tuesday at the invitation of Rabbi Jordan, a friend from our interfaith clergy group. He recognized me and a few others at the start of worship, including a WWII veteran. He didn't recognize him by age, but by the words, "celebrating his 97th Yom Kippur." How wonderful would it be to mark our lives by our faith, our commitment, our returning on High Holy Days? This will be my 97th Christmas or Easter? I hope to say that one day. Even war could not keep our brother from returning again and again. What shall keep us from returning each high holy day? Each Sunday? Let us hear the call and keep returning to God and the people of God.

Prayer for Today

Lord, help me to hear you, and I'm hearing, return to you and your people. Amen.

One of our church members just shared with me that world-renown scholar and author N.T. Wright will be speaking at Peachtree Presbyterian Church the evening of Sunday, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. Many of you may recognize his name from how often I refer to him. I think N.T. Wright is the most influential Christian thinker of our generation - as was C.S. Lewis in his time. Wright is often quoted in magazines when a Biblical or historical perspective is needed. He is an Anglican priest who has served in England as the Bishop of Durham, in addition to his teaching duties. We will plan to get a group from the church to go hear him, so keep your eyes open for more details as the date gets closer.

One of my favorite podcasts is called "Ask N.T. Wright Anything." I wholeheartedly encourage you to check it out. Listeners send in many of the more challenging questions those of us who are pastors often hear. Tom Wright always gives what I think are helpful, accessible, and even practical answers to every question.

So, I want to try to take a different approach with my "Reflections" blog each week. I want to make it an opportunity to "Ask Gray Anything." I will try to answer questions you give me if they are appropriate for this column, and if I can do that in about 350 words - which is our limit for this blog. I want to invite you to think of those question you want me to try to answer and I will do my best. If I don't get a question each week, I will try to answer one of the many I have been asked before. Now I do not mean to suggest that my answers will be the final word on anything. More than likely, they will be merely my first word of an ongoing discussion which we may get to continue later in another setting. My email is grayn@jcpcusa.org and my phone is 770-813-9009, ext. 224.

Prayer for Today

I want to close today with a prayer from William Barclay:

O God, help me all through today to do nothing to worry those who love me, to do nothing to let down those who trust me, to do nothing to fail those who employ me, to do nothing to fail those who are close to me. Help me all through this day to do nothing which would be a cause of temptation to someone else or which would make it easier for someone else to go wrong; not to discourage anyone who is doing his or her best; not to dampen anyone's enthusiasm or to increase anyone's doubts. Let me all through this day be a comfort to the sad, be a friend to the lonely, be an encouragement to the dispirited, be a help to those who are up against it. So grant that others may see in me something of the reflection of the Master whose I am and whom I seek to serve. Amen.

I was recently considering how we share our story as Christians with those around us. When I read John 13:1-17 and think about the message Jesus was sending to the disciples through the experience of foot washing, I have some clarity for one way we can share our story. While foot washing is unusual today, it was customary in the days of Jesus, a common way of greeting your guests. However, it was not something that the "master" of the house performed. Foot washing was a service usually reserved for the lowest household servant. Jesus washed feet to show his love.

The message Jesus is sending here is clear. The way to be happy in this world is not to "Lord" over the world, but to serve the world. Think about what Jesus said: Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.   -John 13:16-17

Jesus was teaching us about the importance of humility. Think about it. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords washing the feet of those who knew him for the Lord He was. Humility was one of the Lord's greatest qualities and one that we should want others to see in our lives. Finally, Jesus taught us about the importance of sacrifice. The Bible says that when Jesus washed His Disciples' feet, he laid aside His garments. (John 13:4). He said, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. (John 13:7)

I don't know just when John came to understand the importance of what Jesus was trying to teach us, but there's no doubt that at some point in time, he realized what Jesus meant, and it really had nothing to do with foot washing at all. It was all about serving others, which as Christians we are not just called to do, but told that it will lead to true happiness.

As you journey through this week, pause for a moment to consider the message Jesus brings to us through the experience of foot washing. How will you go and serve today?

Prayer for Today

Blessed are you, Lord God. The basin and the towel are signs to us of your Son's servant hood. As we go forth, give us grace to count others more important than ourselves, to love our enemies, and to make peace. Send the Spirit of truth to keep alive in us what Jesus taught and did, that our words may carry his good news, and that our lives may bear the shape of the cross of the One who lives and reigns with You and with the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

A week after our Festival of Hymns service I found myself continuing to sing the old classic What a Friend We Have in Jesus in my head. The theme of friendship was resonating within me.

One morning listening to the radio as I drove to work I was awakened to the use of the word friend in several commercials. Tom Shane bellowed, "Now you have a friend in the diamond business." The next commercial followed in line as the host said, "My friend, Mark Spain." The concept of friendship in these commercials in intended to create a good feeling and a sense of familiarity. However, in this use it is really about a transaction of convenience for profit.

Jesus had a different understanding of friendship. Hear what he says to his disciples as recorded in the gospel of John:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. -John 15: 9-15

Yesterday, on our World Day of Communion we made new friends of Jesus around the communion and fellowship tables. Our friends are members of Casa Brasil, Crossings Community Presbyterian Church and World Healing Ministries. Rev. Lindsay Armstrong preached a sermon entitled Be Open and my prayer is that we remain open to the working of God's Spirit in our lives because we are in the midst of some wonderful friends. Be Open and grow in God's abundant grace!

Prayer for Today

Pour your Spirit upon us, O God of Creation, so that we open ourselves to the friendship you place before us through the sharing of our faith. Surprise us with the gift of friendship and remind us to be friendly and caring disciples. Amen.

Jim was frantically sharing about problems he was encountering with his work team: division, judgmental attitudes, and misunderstandings. After an hour of patiently listening to his concerns, I suggested, "Let's ask Jesus what He would have us do in this situation." We sat quietly for five minutes. Then something amazing happened. We both felt God's peace cover us like a blanket. We were more relaxed as we experienced His presence and guidance, and we felt confident to wade back into the difficulties.

Peter, one of Jesus's disciples, needed God's comforting presence. One night he and the other disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a strong storm arose. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up walking on water! Naturally, this took the disciples by surprise. He reassured them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid" (Matthew 14:27). Peter impulsively asked Jesus if he could join Him. He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But he soon lost focus, became aware of the dangerous and humanly impossible circumstance he was in, and started sinking. He cried out, "Lord, save me!" and Jesus lovingly rescued him (vv. 30-31).

Like Peter, we can learn that Jesus, the Son of God, is with us even in the storms of life!

Prayer for Today

Jesus, thank You that You have the power and authority to calm the storms in our lives. Help us to trust You.  Amen.