Monday, December 24, 2007

Santa's List

It is Christmas Eve tonight! “Santa Claus is coming to town! He’s making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town!”

Those lyrics serve to motivate children far and wide to be good prior to Christmas. Those lyrics attribute “God-like” qualities to Santa: he sees and knows all. Just for Christmas Santa sees and knows all.

That may be motivational and even scary, but there is One Who sits in heaven and looks down on the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. He sees and knows all every day and every night forever.

In one of his novels, Tom Clancey describes God as the one who sits in heaven with his notebook taking notes. Actually the Bible speaks of God marking the thoughts, actions and attitudes of men and women down in his book (Mal. 3:16) even to the point of numbering (counting out) the length of our days on this earth.

It may have a certain charm for parents and motivation for children to tell their children that Santa is making his list, but the matter of real significance is that God is in His heaven. He does look down upon the sons and daughters of earth, and He does take note of both our actions and our hearts. It is something to contemplate at the end of this year and as we begin a new year that we take note of the One Who sees and knows all!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

"Person of Value" Needs Fixed

Here I was driving down a major road in Pittsburgh yesterday when I glanced at a building and saw a sign for a business - www.personofvalue.com or something similar. I had to check on my way back home to be sure I had read the sign correctly. The office was supposedly on the second floor, and it did appear that no one was home. Is it possible that someone actually makes money convincing people that they have value?
It does say something pretty significant about the search of hearts belonging to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to find value and significance in life. It says something about why we who know where real value is should be "gossiping the Gospel" everywhere we go! That's the essence of the Gospel: The bad news is that we are all far worse than we can possibly imagine as sinners. The GOOD news is that the only One who could do something about our terrible plight took on our skin and moved into our neighborhood! He came as a baby in a small Judean town over 2,000 years ago. He stuck around for 33 years so He could live the perfect life - be the only Person of Value Who has ever lived - and die next to a well-traveled footpath outside Jerusalem. That's the best news of all: Jesus gave His righteous life in my place to give me value as an adopted daughter into God's own family! That's where real value is!
Somehow I doubt that's what is being touted in the storefront in the South Hills.
People everywhere know they are broken and "need fixed" ! The search is on for a restored heart - for fixing! Jesus came to do that very thing - to restore broken hearts in need of fixing and to give value that lasts forever!