These days you do not have to look too hard to find a quick fix for whatever problem or dilemma you are facing. I typed the words “self-help” in the search box on Amazon’s website and found over 100,000 results; books and products promising to improve just about everything about you. I even came across a series of books promising to make you (and me) badass. Maybe I should read those books, and in doing so, I will have better success at winning friends and influencing people. Hmm, what do you think?

It is fair to say that whatever is lacking in our lives, there is probably a self-help product available, with seemingly endless places to look. And it can be said, at least of me, for much of my life, I looked in some of the strangest places.

We also spend lots of time and money seeking “improvement” advise from others, some of which is absolutely of great help to us. Other times, nothing more than quackery. In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy has a psychiatry booth. Her advice is almost always of no help. Once, in response to Charlie Brown telling Lucy that he had deep feelings of depression, her answer was to simply “Snap out of it! Five cents please.”  

It is true that we all need help improvement in one or more areas of life. Wisdom is admitting that we do not have all the answers and knowing who or where to go to find help. There is also great value in changing up the things we do and don’t do, say and don’t say, many of which are self-help in themselves. And sometimes we run from fad to fad, just hoping the latest and greatest fad might “fix” us. And when that fix stops working, we move onto the next one, until that too stops helping. Then off to the next. It becomes a vicious never-ending cycle, usually with little or no lasting improvement, and soon, frustration sets it, and invariably we end up stop trying to improve. 

I am in no way discounting the many proven methods to make changes in us and around us. They often bring about tremendous results. We should always be striving to become a better version of ourselves. But, today, I would like to offer another, always more effective, and time-tested, method to improving your life. Let me do so by simply offering you these three verses from the God’s Word, the Bible.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

“Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another – showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, MSG).

Jesus, in His final words to His disciples after the Last Supper, called the Farewell Discourse (Gospel of John, chapters 14-17), said this – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

So, in these last two weeks of the year, and as you look to 2023, if you want lasting and permanent improvement, seek first the advice of the best Helper available to mankind – God. Dive into His Word and ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom, courage, strength, and help in becoming a new and improved you, someone being formed more and more into the image of Jesus.  

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In a safer time, people often left their doors unlocked. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1960s, our neighborhood was “one big happy family.” People went from house to house, often just knocking and walking in. Everyone knew everyone’s name. Kids could play outside without worry of being abducted, often being out of sight of the adults. When it was time to come home, parents had a way to call their own kids. My parents used a whistle. We even crossed Morse Road, a major thoroughfare, and rode our bikes in the parking lot of the now torn down Northland Mall. It was a much safer time.

In college we often left our dorm room door unlocked. If we needed something in a friend’s room, we usually just knocked and walked in. If you wanted privacy, you locked your door. But if you locked your door, you could expect to be “pennied” or have isopropyl alcohol poured under your door and lit on fire. My treasured Farrah Fawcett poster was a victim of such a prank. We felt safe without having to lock our doors. It was a much safer time.

These days, people lock everything, often having two and three deadbolts on their doors. Security systems, handguns, apps on our phones, and “Beware of the Dog” signs, are commonplace, all intended to protect us, our possessions, and keep out unwanted guests.

You hear a knock on the door and before you open the door you pull the curtain back just a tiny bit to see who is there. If it is one of those young men in a white long sleeve shirt and skinny black tie, you probably quickly turn off the lights and whisper to the kids to be quiet, hoping those knocking don’t know you are home. These days, people do not dare walk into someone’s house without first being invited in. We just don’t enter anyone’s space without them inviting us in.

Jesus is the same way. He only enters your heart if you invite Him in. He never knocks and then just barges in. He never kicks down the door and pushes His way in. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, John writes seven letters to seven literal churches while exiled on the Greek island of Patmos. The Church at Laodicea saw themselves as rich, prosperous, and needing nothing (3:17). However, this is what John hears Jesus saying to that church, to those people – “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (3:15-16).

While this warning is directed to the Church at Laodicea, it also warns us today that Jesus despises lukewarmness. I do not think this warning is directed to nonbelievers; they would be the “cold” in that previous verse. I believe Jesus is warning those of us who are his followers that He is saddened by us just “going through the motions.” Maybe your once burning hot faith has all but burned itself out.

What does Jesus say is the answer to turning lukewarm into red hot? A few verses later, still to the Church at Laodicea, Jesus says this – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (3:20)

So, today, whether you’ve never invited Jesus in or you’ve gotten lukewarm in your faith, open your heart to Him. Jesus is extending that invitation to you right now.

This painting, found in the public domain, titled “The Light of the World” (William Holman Hunt) depicts Jesus knocking on an overgrown and long-unopened door. Notice the door has no handle and, thus, can only be opened from the inside.

In these remaining days of Advent, will you open, or re-open, your heart to Him? The very One who can be your Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Immanuel, God with us.  

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This time of year, in public spaces everywhere, you will likely find a beautifully decorated Christmas tree with neatly wrapped boxes underneath. There is one problem with those boxes. While they look pretty on the outside, they are simply empty boxes, wrapped in colorful paper, topped with ribbon and bows.

Oftentimes our lives are the same way – we look all pretty on the outside, but on the inside, an entirely different story. We are busy and productive, festive and smiling, saying and doing all the right things, but inside that beautifully decorated box, there is an emptiness, a darkness, a loneliness. Nothing more than wadded up tissue paper. Something is missing.       

The word Advent means “coming,” and it is during Advent, the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, that we expectantly await the coming of the Messiah. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet foretells that a virgin will give birth to a son and call him Immanuel. In Matthew’s telling of the birth of Jesus (1:18-25), we find – “’She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

It is God dwelling with us that can turn emptiness into fullness, dullness into vibrancy, barren into lush. It is absolutely true that Jesus came to cleanse us of our sins and to restore our relationship with God, a relationship broken by sin. It is also just as true that in Jesus, God with us, your dry and parched soul can find refreshment (read John 4:1-26), and your emptiness can be filled. In John 10:10 we find these words of Jesus – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

(It is important to note that “abundant” does not mean filled with all your wants and desires. Rather, it means an abounding fullness of joy, a peace knowing that God is with you, meeting your every need. An abundant life comes from following in God’s ways; being obedient and living in accordance with His will.)

So, in the remaining days leading up to Christmas, make it a priority to purposefully and expectantly await the coming of the One who fill your empty gift box: Immanuel, God with us!

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Have you ever heard someone say, “Be careful of so-and-so, they have baggage”? What they really mean is that person has stuff, they have junk, in their life that they will carry into their relationship with you, and most often, that baggage will cause problems.

The truth is, we all have baggage. Sometimes we allow our baggage, our junk, to be like carrying all our earthly possessions in suitcases on our back. It is hard and tiring work. The longer we try to carry that baggage, the more it weighs us down. And sadly, oftentimes, others just watch us struggle, doing nothing to help.

But unlike those who see us struggling and are hesitant to help, we have a God who does not sit idly by and watch us struggle. You might right now be thinking, “Oh you don’t know my past. The pain is too great, or the hole is just too deep to climb out of, God can never help me.” The truth is, God loves you and is interested in redeeming and restoring you, no matter how broken you feel; He wants to unload the baggage off your aching back.

David wrote this in Psalm 40:1-2 – “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

So, when you feel weighed down, drag yourself to Jesus and unload your baggage at His feet. It is in that transaction that Jesus promises to give you rest. I will end with these familiar words – “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).  

Confused by take my yoke upon you? Just what is a yoke? It is a wooden board fastened over the necks of two oxen when pulling a cart. The value of a yoke is that is lessens the load. Yoke up one ox to another, and they pull the load together, lessening the load on each. Jesus says “yoke up with me” and I will lighten your load. In that verse in the previous paragraph, Jesus says to us – team up with me; learn from me; share your load with me; find rest in me; you can move with me, both in the right direction and at the right speed.

Allow me to offer this challenge as well. It is easy to sit idly by when we see others struggling since we are already hauling around our own stuff. And who needs loaded down with the junk of others anyway. But sitting idly by is not what Scripture calls us to. Here is what we find in Galatians 6:2 – “Carry (to bear, meaning take up not take on; there is a difference) each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” You ask, what is the law of Christ? Well, just one chapter earlier, Paul is quoting Jesus (from Matthew 22:34-40) – “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14).

Let this Advent Season be a time to find a new zip in your step by yoking yourself, and those around you, with Jesus! You can carry more when you carry it alongside Jesus.

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One day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his now famous “Day of Infamy” address to the joint session of Congress. The speech is known for the first words spoken by FDR: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Roosevelt worded the speech to portray the United States as the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack.

Later that same day, Congress declared war on Japan. The resolution was almost unanimous – passing 82-0 in the Senate and 388-1 in the House. Jeannette Pickering Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States, was the sole member of Congress to vote against the resolution. Being a lifelong pacifist, she was also one of fifty House members who opposed declaring war on Germany in 1917. 

I am sure that you can think of a time when you were quietly tending to your business when suddenly, you found yourself under attack. If you cannot think of such a time, be prepared, attacks can come at any minute. And whether it is a surprise attack, or you see the bomber planes flying toward you in advance, when it happens, your well laid out plans change in an instant, your cherished comforts get tossed into the sea, smoke and fire clouds your vision, and your once-thought-to-be-unsinkable ship capsizes, taking on water. You walk around dazed and bloodied, confused about what to do next. Life might just never be the same.

In those moments, do you wonder where God is? Do you have faith that God keeps His promises even when your current situation looks as if he is nowhere to be found, just as your ship is sinking?

In the Book of Acts, the apostle Paul and his mates where on a ship that they feared might sink, not from a surprise attack, but amid a violent storm. During the storm, an angel of the God told Paul not to be afraid of the pending danger. Here is what Paul said to the men when they feared the ship would sink with them on it – “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed” (Acts 27:22).

A few verses later we read more of Paul’s words – “So keep courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me” (v.25).

The storm was violent and the ship hit a sandbar, ran aground, and did break apart. Some soldiers wanted to kill Paul and his men to keep them from swimming ashore, but the story ends like this – “He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely” (vv.43b-44).

(I encourage you to read this story in its entirety, found in Acts 27:13-44.)

So, today, just as on that infamous day in 1941, you might be under attack, facing some dire situation. But, know that God, the very same God who promised Joshua that he would never be absent (Deuteronomy. 31:1-8; Joshua 1:1-9), is right with you in the midst of the mess, and He offers you safety, comfort, and protection, even as your ship sinks. 

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Christmas is a wonderful time of year. A song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle, popularized by singer Andy Williams, tells us so. You know the song, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Not only does the song tell us that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but it also makes the claim that, “It’s the hap-happiest season of all.”

For many, the long holiday season is one of great joy, excitement, anticipation. Jesus. Santa Claus. Undisturbed snow under the night sky. Family gatherings. Holiday parties. Seasonal music. Baking cookies. Christmas caroling. Decorations. Hot cocoa by the fireplace. Eggnog. Magnificent light displays. Ralphie Parker. Clark Griswold. Cousin Eddie. George Bailey. Doris Walker. Kevin McCallister. Ebenezer Scrooge. Mr. Grinch. Rudolph. Frosty. Hermey the Misfit (Dentist) Elf. Yukon Cornelius. Hallmark movies. Ugly sweaters. Christmas Eve candlelight church services. And so much more. Oh, and may I add one more descriptor of this season… exhausting.

But the Christmas season can also be a very difficult time for some people. It could be that they’ve had a very challenging year financially. Or maybe they have some health issue that has worn them down, zapped their energy, created a future filled with uncertainty. Possibly a long-term relationship went sour and there is lingering pain or guilt from that ended relationship. Is someone new to your community, not having made many friends yet, therefore left off the neighborhood party invitation list? This season will be also hard for those who experienced the death of a loved one. There will be that sense of loneliness and sorrow. Those missing gifts and that empty chair make it no secret that life has changed.

We all know someone who would say that 2022 was “not the most wonderful of times.” In fact, that person might even say this year downright stunk, and 2023 cannot come soon enough. How about coming along side that person and simply be a friend. Our presence says to them, “I care.” Not only that, God can work through us to give that brokenhearted person a sense of hope and encouragement. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of Christmas, what better gift is there than to be a friend to someone who is hurting. The Bible tells us to do that very thing. In Galatians 6:2 we read this, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ.”

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” Proverbs 18:24.

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

So, this Christmas Season, be a friend to someone, quite possibly helping make this the hap-happiest season of all for them.

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