Articles by Phil Ware at Heartlight

More than Words

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

We were tired -- exhausted would be the more accurate description. We had just returned from a week of working with about 100 volunteer workers and 30 translators in a Peruvian orphanage. Many of us had come back a little sick. All of us had spent a great deal of our own money to go and many had received additional funds from their churches, friends, and families so they could go.

I was a bit taken aback when a person came up and said, "I don't mean to be uncaring, but wouldn't it have been better to simply have collected all the money you spent and given it to the needs of the orphanage? Seems like that would have done more good."

The person wasn't being rude. He was raising an important question. In fact, it was a question posed by two others in emails. I'm not sure I answered them at that time in the best possible way. I believe I said something like this:

Yes, it was very expensive. But you see, we've generated far more money with social media, reporting to our churches, getting people involved in the project, giving ourselves, getting our translators involved in the needs of the orphanage, and getting Peruvian businesses involved than we ever could have accomplished if we had never gone.

These are reasonable answers. They are significant. They are factual. The 950 plus children in The Community have gone from less than one meal per day to three since we began our trips. Conditions have dramatically improved with sidewalks, better cooking and kitchen resources, cleaner water, better kept houses for the children, more going to college when they finish, and new buildings being built. But this is not the primary reason we go.

Probably the most famous verses in the Bible are the following:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17 NIV).

For God so loved the world that he did NOT send ... money, a book, a philosophy, a new idea, or even a religion. God loved us so much that he gave by sending us his Son.

We needed more than words: we needed the Word of God in human skin (John 1:1-18). In other words, God spoke his most powerful, most complete, and most important message through his Son (Hebrews 1:1-3).

And when Jesus finished his time on earth he said to his followers:

Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you (John 20:21).

The Lord wants us to live our lives out of the same purpose he had in coming to us: we are sent out to the people in our world so that they know that God loves them.

While I believe we must evaluate the effectiveness of what we do and why we do it, we must also realize that not all measures of success and failure fit into our nicely constructed categories. Even if our efforts to bless the children of Sagrada Familia didn't come out to such a clear measure of success, there is still the example of God that we are called to follow. We go because he came. We send because he sent. We love because he first loved us.

When asked, "Why do you go?" recently at a meeting about this year's Peru trip, all the answers were precious, but two answers brought tears to my eyes.

The first answer is a sentiment shared by several people who spoke:

For one week, I can give these children total attention. I can kiss their hurts. I can give them hugs. I can wipe away their tears. I can share their laughter. Without parents, no matter how hard the staff works and how much the helpers do, these children don't have this. They need to know they are loved up close. And that is why I go.

The second answer comes from a young woman who is simply precious. She and her husband were great with these orphan children. But in the subsequent months, discovered that their third child she was carrying would not live long after birth. As you would expect, they have lived a hard journey the last several months, but they have done so with grace and faith. This young mother's answer says it all:

Yes, I want the children to have clean water. Yes, I want the children to have enough to eat. Yes, I want the children to have a warm bed to sleep in. Over these last several months, I have had clean water, enough to eat, and a warm bed to sleep in, but this is not what sustained me. What sustained me, is Jesus. I want these children to know Jesus. That's why I am going.

Why do we go? Because God chose to leave heaven and come to us. Words -- even divinely inspired words -- were not enough. God knew we needed words with skin on them: we needed him. So he came to us in Jesus, lived among us, and showed us who he really is and how much he loves us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:1-3). ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). ... No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (John 1:18).

For more on the trips to Sagrada Familia follow this link:
http://www.thephilfiles.com/?s=Sagrada+Familia

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Open Doors, Open Hearts

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Don't forget to pray for us, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ ... (Colossians 4:3 NLT).

There is a wide-open door for a great work here ... (1 Corinthians 16:8 NLT).

As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying (Acts 16:14 NLT).

Thirteen time zones from home and suffering a bit of jet lag, I awakened early this morning at 4:00. For the next hour, I tossed and turned in prayer with these three Scriptures pounding in my brain and tugging at my heart. I spent an hour in fitful sleep while praying for open doors to hearts that are precious to me.

I am not sure how to open those doors. These people are precious to me and I want them in my forever family -- to become true followers of Jesus. I have parted with some of them before, and as anyone who has a loved one away from the Lord knows, partings are much different when the eternal outcome of those you love is in doubt. Some of your heart hangs in the balance with each parting. You are left with an ache in your soul for these precious ones to know Jesus.

The difficult problem about all of this is that I cannot force their hearts open! I'm not that smart or powerful or influential. And really, they have to open their own hearts to the Lord. I can't force it open. All I can do is love, share, wait, hope, and pray.

They love and respect me. They know what I believe. Yet they cannot, or will not, allow a way for faith to come into their own hearts. Sometimes, it feels as if there is some wall that they have erected so they won't believe. So while I know God doesn't flip a magic little switch in a human heart and make anyone believe, the verses posted above seem to indicate that the Father does help open hearts to faith. So for the next few days, my life's purpose is clear and for this I need your help!

Please pray for me. Pray that God will open the hearts of those so precious to me. Pray for them to accept Jesus! Pray that my eyes will be open and my heart tuned to God's timing and work in their hearts. Pray that the Holy Spirit helps me win their hearts to Jesus and not win arguments for myself. And please pray that nothing I do or say drives them farther away, but instead demonstrates the love and grace of our Savior.

And while you are at it, please pray for your church, your ministers, your ministries, your missionaries, and yourself. And don't just pray for safety; but also pray for effectiveness and boldness, infused with the grace of gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

Oh Father, God of every person in every time, please open doors for us to tell the mystery of Christ. May we find a wide-open door for a great work to reach precious people with the message of Jesus. As they listen to our words, O Lord please open their hearts so that they will accept Christ and the gifts that his sacrifice and resurrection bring. In Jesus' name and for Jesus' glory we pray, Amen.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Better Broken: Forgiveness and Power

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

We all can make a mess of things. It starts when we are young. We don't even have to try to make a mess -- it's just what we do best sometimes. And our messes do not necessarily happen because we've done something bad. We could be just trying to have fun, or live life, or be minding our own business and we make a mess … or someone else makes a mess that happens to us.

Our messes ripple out and cause problems in our families, businesses, lives, friendships, purity, passion, churches, marriages, and dreams. We end up ashamed, demoralized, and embarrassed for what we have done or what has been done to us. And if we are not careful, our spiritual life becomes a game of hide and pretend. Then our wounds go underground and rip apart something inside us polluting how we view ourselves and our relationship with God.

Is there a way out of our messes?

Hmm, imagine what it was like for Saul of Tarsus -- later known as the apostle Paul -- on the road to Damascus when Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). He considered himself faithful to God, committed to Torah, passionate about holiness, and loyal to the traditions of his people. Suddenly, he found out he was a murderer of those who were following God's Messiah, Jesus -- someone he called a blasphemer. Don't you think he saw the face of the dying Stephen as he waited in his blindness for three days to learn what he needed to do to undo the mess he had made (Acts 7:57-60)? Don't you imagine he heard the screams of the families he tore apart as he arrested those who believed in Jesus (Acts 26:9-10)? He wasn't using hyperbole, he was speaking from his heart when said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:12-15).

How do you make your life count after you've made such a mess?

How do you turn your life around after doing such harm?

For Saul, it began with these words from Ananias, sent to show Saul his way back to the Lord:

"And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16).

The fuller version of the account goes this way:

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord -- Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here -- has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength (Acts 9:17-19).

What we see are God's forgiveness and power, given as a gift to help fix the mess that Paul could never fix.

Now imagine the group that loved God and prayed daily for the coming of the Messiah. They had made the trip to Jerusalem for the Passover and are back for Pentecost seven weeks later. They've heard rumors about Jesus' resurrection and then began to witness the amazing miracle of hearing the message in their own language. Then they see these once fearful followers of Jesus are now bold and powerful. Then in a thunderclap of horror, they hear:

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah" (Acts 2:36).

They realized that they were complicit in murdering the Messiah! Some of them had even yelled out, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" So they were cut to the core of their being and their hearts pierced by their sin.

How could they make their lives matter after such a thing?

How would they turn their lives around and undo the mess they had made?

Amazingly, the answer is very much the same as what Saul was told. When they asked what they needed to do, Peter replied:

"Repent and be baptized,a every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

And that's what they did (Acts 2:41).

So let's admit it again: we have made a mess of things! And for us, two questions still remain.

How do I make my life count after such a mess?

How can I turn my life around after the messes in which I find myself trapped?

And God's answer is as simple and clear as it was to them: forgiveness from sin and power from the Holy Spirit!

"But you don't understand! I'm no Paul -- I'm not that important or powerful or significant." But weren't there a lot of "normals" out there in the crowd at Pentecost -- you know, normal everyday folks like us? And weren't they promised the same thing!

"But we don't have the same power today as they did," many protest and say today. Yet isn't the Holy Spirit we're given the same Spirit they were given? Aren't we promised "incomparably great power" (Ephesians 1:19) that is like the power that raised Jesus from the dead? Aren't we promised that this power comes from the Holy Spirit at work in us (Ephesians 3:16) who "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20)?

"But I've already been saved and forgiven, but I still make messes!" Yes, and so did they, and they were not only forgiven; they were also cleansed (1 John 1:5-2:2).

So the real question for us is this:

Isn't it time to quit defining ourselves by who we are not and what we don't have and what we've already done so we can start expecting what Jesus promised: his forgiveness and his power through the Holy Spirit!

God wants us to hear him say, "I can make you better after you are broken. My strength is made perfect in weakness!" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Better Broken: 11!

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

11!

"The Eleven" to be exact (Luke 24:9; Luke 24:33; Acts 1:26).

That's how the apostles were known the seven weeks after Jesus' death. It was not a title of respect. Instead, it was a reminder. More than a scar, this title was a gaping wound, hemorrhaging memories of betrayal, denial, and abandonment.

"The Eleven" was most of all a reminder of Judas. Judas was one of them. Judas had shared in their ministry, their table fellowship, and the work of Jesus (Acts 1:16-17). Judas had betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:47-48).

If we are honest, most of us have had our own personal Judas -- someone close to us, who knew us well and knew how to hurt us deeply. And they did hurt us deeply, leaving us broken, devastated, and not sure we even wanted to go on living. Then every time we turned around, there was a song, a scene in a movie, a joke on TV, the voice of someone who reminded us of the betrayal, and the hurt came flooding back.

Yes, we know what eleven means. It means less than whole. It means life with a hole. It means the pain of trying to trust and not knowing whom we can trust and even less how we can trust. It is the suffocating reality that seems inescapable.

11!

An old saying goes something like this: "To live above with saints we love, now that will be glory. But to live below with saints we know, ah, that's another story." People are the most precious gifts in our lives, but they can also break us in ways and in places that seem incurable.

That's why it is so important that we see what Jesus does with "The Eleven" before Pentecost happens. He heals the wound. And he does it with Peter: the one who also failed miserably -- the one who Jesus warned and then promised would be used to help the others (Luke 22:31-32). Yes, Jesus had confronted him on the beach after his resurrection and called him back to ministry and restored him to leadership (John 21:1-17).

So Peter is the one whom the Lord uses to lead his small band of followers to do three things that are important to help them overcome their "Judas hole" and restore "The Twelve" so they can begin the work of building the unshakeable Kingdom.

First, they admit their hurt and tell their story, not trying to avoid the truth that it was one of them who had betrayed the Master (Acts 1:15-20).

Then, they open themselves up to others -- they invite another back into their number to mend the hole left by Judas (Acts 1:21-23).

Most importantly, they ask for God's guidance and help to show them how to move forward and who to include in their number (Acts 1:24-26).

Now this is not a formula, so let's not reduce it to that. However, it's a powerful example of how we can move forward in the face of deep, grievous, and personal wounds and find our way to God's powerful future. Their example is also an important reminder that we can be better after we've been broken if we allow God to do the mending. God doesn't want us to retreat from life or from church family when we've been betrayed. Instead, he wants to heal us and remind us:

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV).

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Better Broken: The Plan

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!"

That had to be the comment made by angels when Jesus returned to heaven. He was leaving the start of his church, the expansion of the reign of God on earth, and the spread of the good news of Jesus to the whole world to them -- to that group of men and women he left behind staring into the sky (Acts 1:1-11).

Sure, he had left them with a PURPOSE for their future ministry:

"... you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

But, let's be realistic. Do you see any world-changers in this little group? Peter denied the Lord three times and the other apostles ran off and abandoned their Lord in his worst moment -- and all of this after having been warned repeatedly about what was going to happen. In addition to everything else, this group of misfits is missing one of their own -- Judas, who betrayed Jesus. To top it all off, they weren't much to begin with -- a bunch of powerless and disrespected folks from despised Galilee!

Yes, they had a PURPOSE: to be Jesus' "witnesses." And if that PURPOSE wasn't a difficult enough challenge, notice the scope of where that purpose was to be accomplished: "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This group of broken failures was going to take Jesus' message to the whole world?

... with no telephones?
... with no mass media?
... with no internet?
... with no car or air travel?

If Jesus hadn't been Lord, already conquered death, and been given all authority in heaven and on earth, his statement about their mission would have been laughable ... more than improbable, these words would have felt like they were impossible!

So Jesus' answer to us about this would probably go something like this:

"Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible" (Matthew 19:26).

We do believe the Lord's words. Yet over time, we've been exhausted and a bit jaded by all the church bumper stickers and slogans and hype. We believe it was possible for them, but not really possible for us, today. Let's be honest, in most of our churches, Bible studies, and homes, we've become like the people of Jesus' hometown. Mark describes it this way:

And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief (Mark 6:5-6).

Yet the real issue isn't that we live so far in time from Jesus' words and true access to God's power. Our PURPOSE, to be witnesses for Jesus, hasn't changed. The issue IS that we haven't committed ourselves -- our hearts, our families, our Bible studies, our churches -- to the PLAN, PEOPLE, and POWER that enabled them to live out Jesus' mission -- the same mission Jesus has for us.

So let's ask a simple question and let Luke answer the question. What was Jesus' plan to help them live out their PURPOSE of being witnesses "to the ends of the earth"?

Luke tells us:

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers (Acts 1:14).

Luke tells us in his gospel that prayer was the powerful framework of Jesus' ministry, as he often got off alone to pray and be alone with the Father (Luke 5:16). And if we read the book of Acts attentively, we see that prayer was the framework, or the PLAN, that Jesus had for his followers to accomplish their mission -- * see the Scriptures related to prayer in the first 16 chapters of Acts at the end of this message.

While prayer does not change things or empower us, prayer does remind us of the One who can change any circumstance and empower His people past any obstacle. So when you join together with other believers and pray, sing, read Scripture, confess that Christ Jesus is Lord, and take communion with those who anticipate the Lord's return, remember that you are participating in the miracle of God doing the impossible through broken, flawed, and everyday people ... just like you and me! Your faith, my faith, is testimony to these flawed and broken people being used by God to accomplish their mission!

So how about joining me as we each ...

... bow our head
... hit our knees
... lift our hands
... and pray to God!

If you are looking for a daily prayer plan, you are encouraged to download the following pdf -- http://hlt.me/yTsLLr -- to use as a guide and also to subscribe to Passion for Praise -- http://hlt.me/zZAPeY -- to help you grow in your language of adoration and praise to God.

Here are the passages on prayer in the first half of the book of Acts:

Acts 1:14 -- Jesus' followers were waiting in Jerusalem as Jesus instructed them and they devoted themselves to prayer

Acts 1:24 -- Jesus' followers prayed for God to help them choose a replacement for Judas

Acts 2:42 -- the new followers of Jesus after Pentecost devoted themselves to prayer

Acts 3:1 -- Peter and John heal a lame man at the Temple going there at the time for prayer

Acts 4:23-24 -- the followers of Jesus responded to threats and persecution with prayer for boldness and for God to act mightily

Acts 4:31 -- when they had finished praying, they were filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 6:4 -- the apostles define an essential part of their ministry as being devoted to prayer

Acts 6:6 -- the seven servants to widows were selected with prayer

Acts 8:14-16 -- Peter and John pray for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit

Acts 8:22 -- Simon, a sorcerer by trade, is told to repent and pray for forgiveness for wanting to buy the gift of giving the Holy Spirit

Acts 8:24 -- Simon asked for Peter to pray for his forgiveness

Acts 9:11 -- Saul, who would become the apostle Paul, is praying while waiting word on what he needed to do to become a follower of Jesus

Acts 9:40 -- Peter prays for Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, to be raised from the dead

Acts 10:2 -- Cornelius is a devout seeker of God and prays regularly along with his household

Acts 10:9 -- Peter receives his vision to go to Cornelius while in his regular time of prayer

Acts 10:30-31 -- Cornelius and Peter both associate Cornelius' conversion with time they both spent in prayer

Acts 12:5 -- the church prays for Peter who is in prison after the apostle James has been martyred

Acts 12:12 -- Peter escapes prison and goes to Mary's house, where the church is praying for Him

Acts 13:1-3 -- worship (presumably including prayer) is where the Holy Spirit makes clear that Paul and Barnabas are to be sent off as missionaries

Acts 14:23 -- Paul and Barnabas appointed elders with prayer and fasting

Acts 16:13-16 -- Paul meets Lydia, and others, at the place of prayer by the river

Acts 16:25-26 -- Paul and Barnabas are praying and singing hymns in jail when the earthquake occurs and the jailer is reached for Jesus

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Get Your Head Out of the Clouds!

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

We begin the New Year with the same ol' hype, same ol' commercials in different dress, and if we are not careful, the same ol' resolutions as last year, and the year before, and ... well, you get the picture. It can easily become a game and we can play the game as easily in our life of faith as we can anywhere else.

We probably have a right to be cynical. Experts say that the past is the best predictor of the future, so here we go again with all sorts of good intentions knowing we'll end up in the same place ... so why play the game?

But then there are those exceptions. Like that rag-tag bunch of nobodies that Jesus chose -- those average nothings (in the eyes of the world) that Jesus chose to be his apostles. And when Jesus was with them, let's be honest, they weren't much better than they were before Jesus stepped into their lives. Then at the end of his life, when things got close to the Cross, they were worse. They ended up broken because of their own betrayal, denial, and abandonment of the very one they considered their teacher, Lord, Savior, and friend.

Thankfully the story doesn't end. Jesus stepped in again, raised from the dead, and things were better ... a lot better. These average men and women were better after being broken. Maybe it was because they were forced to realize that what they couldn't, he could; and that what they wouldn't, he would; and when they said, "We can't!" he showed them "You can!"

Luke tells us this amazing story in the book of Acts. But he doesn't tell it so that we can admire them or revere them or recite their mighty deeds. Nope, Luke writes this story so that we, too, can know that we are better broken -- God's grace and sufficiency show themselves in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)! And that's good, because at some point in time and at some place in our lives, we've all been deeply broken ... or we will be. It's the inescapable reality of our human existence.

So when we are better after being broken, then we are ready for Jesus to continue his story in us -- not for our glory and not even as our story, but as His story lived out in us. Luke hints at this in the very first verse of Acts:

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach … (Acts 1:1 NIV).

That means that our lives mean something, they matter, and God uses them for more than just occupying space and breathing air and taking up a green footprint on this little blue planet. History, or better yet, His-story, comes alive in us!

But here's the rub. We have a tendency to read the book of Acts and put what I call the "Big Woo!" on what we read. The "Big Woo!" is this perspective we get when we see God doing great things through people who lived out the Bible's story and we think, "Yeah, but they are Biblical characters and God doesn't do that kind of stuff today through ordinary folks like me.

I'm not sure how all of that started, maybe it was a well-intentioned theological position of some folks, but it's sad. It's sad because it lets us off the hook for investing our lives and setting our hopes on the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus longs to release in us to bless the world through us. We become a society for the study of ancient history about what God used to do instead of being the Kingdom people of God through whom God is doing what Jesus promised he would do:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12).

Sadly, we can become like the people of Jesus' hometown who would not believe in him and Mark tells:

He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith (Mark 6:5-6).

So the angel's words to the band of amazed followers left standing on the mountain are also an important message to you and to me:

"Why do you stand here looking into the sky? (Acts 1:11).

Instead of reading the Bible for facts, let's read it for focus: what God longed to do for them and through them, he longs to do for us and through us. Instead of imagining what it was like, let's believe what can be. Instead of praying for blessings, let's pray for boldness. Instead of praising God for what he did long ago, let's rejoice in what God is doing in his unfolding power and grace in our time.

The prophet Habakkuk prays a prayer I hope you will join me in praying as we journey through the book of Acts these next few weeks.

LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known
(Habakkuk 3:2).

Let's pray Habakkuk's prayer as we begin this New Year and let's trust that God has "immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:21) in store. And as we pray it, let's hear the angels tell us to get our heads out of the clouds and get busy doing the Kingdom work of God!

As you begin the New Year, check out two new resources for your walk with the Lord:

Our new multilingual daily Bible verse devotional http://www.verseoftheday.com/en/

A way to begin your day with a passage of praise:
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/passionforpraise.cgi

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

In a Dream

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams" (Acts 2:17 NIV).

Years ago, the arrival of the Penney's Christmas catalogue and the Sear's Christmas Book sent our kids scrambling for a pen. They would then spend hours looking through them, circling the things they would be interested in for Christmas gifts, and then going back and starring the ones they wanted most.

One year our daughter even slept with the Christmas catalogue. I have no idea what her dreams were like that night, but I'm pretty sure they weren't about baby Jesus, the coming of the angels, or the coming of the magi to worship the Savior of the world.

We all have dreams. Some are the dreams we have when we sleep -- yes, even those of us who can rarely remember them still have them. Others are dreams we have for our lives and those we love -- more than goals, dreams are those great hopes we have for the future. Some of us are not real keen on sharing those dreams -- we don't want to be embarrassed if they don't come true or we don't want to be held accountable to pursuing them. Others talk about their dreams -- both kinds of dreams -- all the time. Regardless of whether we share them or not, we all have them.

So what is the dream you have for your life?

Is this the same dream you had for your life ten years ago?

Have you given up those earlier dreams?

What happens when your personal dreams are shattered by circumstance, betrayal, disappointment, or what feels like unanswered prayers?

And maybe the most obvious question of all: What in the world does any of this have to do with Christmas or the birth of our Lord?

Believe it or not, the story of Jesus' birth is a ship that sails on the sea of broken dreams!

God's people had dreams of freedom, independence, influence, and importance that were all broken by the domination of Roman power and government.

Mary had rearranged dreams of motherhood, marriage, and family when the angel of the Lord appeared and told her about the miraculous conception of Jesus.

Joseph had shattered dreams of a holy marriage to a pure and devoted young woman of God.

King Herod had megalomaniacal dreams of power and prestige that were threatened by the coming of Jesus and the recognition by the magi that Jesus was the true King of the Jews.

With all the broken dreams surrounding the birth of Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised by one of Matthew's key phrases in the birth stories about Jesus: "... in a dream."

Joseph is told "in a dream" that Mary was not unfaithful to him, but that the child Jesus was conceived miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit and he should make Mary his wife (Matthew 1:20).

The magi, or wise men as we often call them, are warned "in a dream" not to go back to Herod and tell this demented king where to find Jesus (Matthew 2:12).

Joseph is warned by God "in a dream" to go to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill baby Jesus (Matthew 2:13).

Joseph is told "in a dream" that he could take his little family back home from Egypt because Herod and those who wanted to kill Jesus were dead (Matthew 2:19-20).

Joseph is told "in a dream" to not go to Judea, but back to Galilee, so that Jesus could be protected and God's promises about the Messiah being from Nazareth would be fulfilled (Matthew 2:22).

If we listen closely to the story of our Savior's birth, all behind the story is a plot line that connects Jesus' coming to our lives and to our broken dreams. You see, Jesus' birth is all about what God can do when our personal dreams are shattered. If we follow his lead and listen for his voice, the Father gives us new dreams and fresh hope. The story of Jesus' birth teaches us that every broken dream leaves an empty place in our hearts for God to speak a brighter future and to give us better promises.

So as we remember the birth of our Lord, today and for the days and weeks and months and years to come, let's also remember that out of our broken dreams come God's deliverance and our Savior. The Father's words for us are much like they were for Joseph: "Don't be afraid!" And our response needs to be like Joseph and the magi: we need to do what God says and embrace his dreams for our future. When we do, we will find Immanuel, God with us, is more than a story; he is part of our lives. (Matthew 1:23).

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
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Website: The Phil Files