Neva Lamb’s Weblog

So I am sitting at work on my “break” writing this blog the day before Thanksgiving. I can hardly sit here I am so excited!! Tomorrow is the beginning of 29 days of pure joy! I love everything about Christmas, the lights, the trees, the smell of cookies baking in the oven, the warmth and joy that comes. Most of all I love Jesus! It blows me away every time I think about Him sending His son to earth as a baby for me, for us, for salvation and eternity with God in heaven. I can’t until our Christmas Eve service. I get to help lead worship and I love it, love it, love it! I cannot think of a better place to be on the eve of Christ’s birth than worshipping with fellow believers and glorifying Him. Sweet!

OK, on to the schedule of decorating my house for Christmas.

Thanksgiving Day: Now, tomorrow I will wake up and try to play it cool like I am really not overly excited to decorate for Christmas. It will take every ounce within me not to ask my husband to take out the Christmas tree. I will have to be distracted the entire day. That is like 18 hours, wow, I better rent some movies.

Day after Thanksgiving: OK, this is the official decorating day. I will wake up early because I will not be able to sleep because of my excitement to decorate. I will no doubt go into our storage closet and begin to take out boxes of decoration. I will take out the boxes wrong and make a huge mess. No worries, my husband will clean it up because he won’t be able to stand it. By the time he wakes up at 9:00am, I will have my Christmas village all set up and ready to decorate more! By the end of the this day, the entire house will be twinkling with Christmas garland, lights, and more!

The day after, after, Thanksgiving: This is the big day, some would call it the big dance. This is the day we decorate the Christmas Tree! Now, yesterday I decorated the entire house and went to bed exhausted. This morning I will wake up, vacuum, dust, and begin to prepare for the tree!! I will have ginger bread and sugar cookies to bake with my son. I will let him decorate them however he wants. Later that afternoon we will have Christmas music playing, cookies on a plate, and eggnog in Christmas mugs. We will then begin the decorating of the Christmas tree. This process is very detailed so I will not bore you. Just know that the tree looks awesome!

The day after, after, after Thanksgiving: This is a recoup day. The family and I will be exhausted from all of the decorating commotion. My husband and I will hopefully be on speaking terms since the past 2 days I told him how and where to put every decoration. We will sit back and enjoy our newly decorated home!

Let’s start with a definition of each word just so we are on the same page.

Hope: the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best; to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence; to believe, desire, or trust

Comfortable: being in a state of physical or mental comfort; contented and undisturbed; at ease; producing mental comfort or ease; easy to accommodate oneself

I was thinking about these two words. I don’t think they can exist simultaneously. Just watching people I know recently go through stuff I have been meditating on both of these. All of us know people who have gotten laid off right before the holidays, or maybe you have been laid off, we know people who have just lost someone dear to them, we know people who are going through struggles with cancer, finances, etc. We know people who are losing their homes and can’t see what will happen next. We know people who are hurting.

I believe God allows us to have to have hard times to have hope. When life is comfortable and everything is great there is no need for hope….or dependence…on God. I have actually noticed this with myself. It is in my darkest times that I am closest to God. I am prostrate on the floor surrendering with tears and sorrow.

I want you to ask yourselve…Do you know you need God? I mean do you really know? I think sometimes I don’t know I need him. I mean I have everything. I live in America! I think I focus on God most when I need hope. What I forget is that He is the Hope.

He is the hope of heaven.

1 Peter 2:10-12 (New Living Translation

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
      now you are God’s people.
   Once you received no mercy;
      now you have received God’s mercy.”

 11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

This is not our home and dang it I get too comfortable here! Again that word comfortable. I sometimes think if I am comfortable I am not walking close enough with God. I think that is true. In the old testament when do people turn to God? (answer: disaster, when nothing else will work). In America when do people turn to God? (disaster, death, etc.) I believe we are at a critical time in our country. Many, many people are realizing they don’t have it all together and they need something.

Hebrews 6:13-20

13 For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying:

 14 “I will certainly bless you,
      and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”

 15 Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.

 16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. 19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. 20 Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 10:21-24 (New Living Translation)

21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Being a worship leader I ask myself how I do relate this to worship? I sing with hope, I guide people to the cross every Sunday. I tell them through song about the hope they have in salvation! I cry out to God in my own live and I must become venerable and transparent as I worship and live so people can see through my deepest hearts cry to God so that they can know His love.

Man, I heard some news today about a dear family, it hurts pretty bad. The mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer. It reminds me of my own mothers struggle with breast cancer. (she is a survivor!) Yet, in the midst of this hurt I am overwhelmed today at God’s Presence.  Here is a verse that I am meditating on:

Psalm 34:15-20

15 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;
      his ears are open to their cries for help.
 16 But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil;
      he will erase their memory from the earth.
 17 The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
      He rescues them from all their troubles.
 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
      he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

 19 The righteous person faces many troubles,
      but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.
 20 For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous;
      not one of them is broken!

You see in the midst of our trial, our suffering, our hurt, God is near. He promised. He is so near if we focused hard enough we could hear His breath…His voice. Isn’t it amazing that the God who created the universe is near to you today? He is thinking about you right now. He is actually carrying you in the palm of his hand, and when he deems time to clasp his hand shut tight, nothing can get through. He is our protector, our shield, our strong tower that no enemy can penetrate. He is God. He is I Am.

It says in verse 18 that the Lord rescues those whose spirits are crushed. How many times have you been there? I cannot count the times God has rescued me. I am sure when we get to heaven there will be a big screen of some sort where we can see God near us, rescuing us. We will be overwhelmed at how close he really was the whole time! He said he will not only rescue us but He will sustain us.

Psalm 119:115-117

116 Lord, sustain me as you promised, that I may live!
      Do not let my hope be crushed.
 117 Sustain me, and I will be rescued;
      then I will meditate continually on your decrees.

So take courage today and know that I Am is walking with you, He is on the Throne. He was on the throne yesterday, today, and will be tomorrow and all of eternity. I Am wants to know you, He wants you tell Him your feelings, your thoughts, your dreams, and even your hurts.