By Pastor Bob Rasmussen
Good morning , and hello to those watching online – YouTube, Facebook, Roku, CWM, and our website. Just a reminder that we will not have soak on Friday evenings this month. Lord willing, we will start again on Friday, January 2nd, at 6 PM. Also, I would highly encourage you to come join us this Thursday for bible study at 6:30 PM. This past week was very good, and I am looking forward to this week, when we will discuss “What is Christmas, part Two.”
Now, I need to clear something up about Christmas music and my position on it, it seems.Let me start by giving you a little background. I struggle a little during the holidays.
You see, when I was growing up there were two things that impacted me deeply during Christmas – maybe three things.
The first was my mother. My mom was a very hard-working woman. She grew up during World War 2. She was just 3 years old when the war started. I cannot imagine all the fear of a child.
This is an image of how they used train tunnels as bomb shelters. You can see small children in there and I try to imagine my mother just trembling in fear.
This is an image of the city of Wurzburg before March 16th, 1945. At that time my mother was 8 years old.
On March 16th, 1945 the English flew 225 bombers dropping 1000 tons of high explosive bombs meant to blow holes in walls and open roofs and to prepare for the next phase. Hundreds of thousands of incendiaries were then dropped, creating firestorms reaching 2,000 degrees, decimating the city center. Over 5000 people were killed.
Here is the after.
The city would be assaulted again by the artillery of American soldiers, destroying all of the main bridges. And then an assault on the city.
It would take years to rebuild, and the struggle for food and necessities was very real for my mother. I can only imagine and she would not talk about a lot of what happened.
She married my father on December 23rd, 1954 when she was 18.
Fast forward to when we were born and Christmas time. My mother would start saving for Christmas the day after Christmas. She would shop all year long, and when Christmas Eve came, that is when we celebrated; it was just – bountiful.
I am certain I did not deserve everything she got for me, but it gave her tremendous joy – and I realized that it was because she wanted us to have what she did not have as a child.
And then my kids came, and we basically needed a U-Haul to get everything home that she blessed them with. But the one thing that had to happen, every year without fail – my mother was catholic, we had to go to Christmas Eve mass. A beautiful church, beautiful songs, and a message of the coming Messiah, Emmanuel. It was something I really enjoyed, but I did not get it – I did not have a relationship with Jesus at that time. So when I heard scripture or music that said something like this:
· Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
· Or this scripture.
· Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
To me, at the time, these were just…words, just lyrics…to a song.
My mother died of cancer January 29th 2012 She got sick around Christmas – it was her 3rd round of cancer.
My father was a musician; he played organ and piano.
There is more history that I wish I knew. It turns out that my grandmother came from the Burdick family, in Milton, WI. I remember visiting my aunts, but not much detail. It was just a long drive there and back. They lived in Milton.
After my dad passed, we came across this spoon. It was engraved with “This is one of a set of spoons presented to Rev. Mrs., George Washington Burdick n 898 when they left their pastorate at the Milton Junction Seventh Day Baptist Church and moved to Welton Iowa.”
I was like what? There was a preacher in the family? I kind of knew dad played organ at the Milton Seventh Day Baptist, but I never saw him go to church or talk about God when I was growing up. I actually thought my father was an atheist until the last 10 years of his Life.
We had these things called Opa Sundays. To get him out of the house as he was all alone. Many times conversations would lead to faith, I have some hope that Diana and I had a part in bringing him back to God.
My dad did love music, though. At first, I was mostly annoyed by it. Classical music and opera. I was like blech.
You know I can still hear the music playing throughout the house. Well, it eventually rubbed off on me, and I started playing trumpet. I got pretty good. I ended up being the only freshman accepted to work with Professor John Aley.
My favorite performance was playing in Handel’s Messiah.The music touched me, as most music does. Maybe I was more focused on performance than context, because they were just words to me.
· Isaiah 9:22 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
The words seemed almost foreign to me. I did not even know what a gentile was for heaven’s sake – which was apparently me!
I did not know that this was a prophecy for the birth of Christ. I just saw it as lyrics I didn’t have to play like the notes before me.
· Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
This is a messianic prophecy – I did not now or quite honestly care at that time in my life. Messianic prophecies are predictions in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) foretelling a divinely appointed Anointed One (the Messiah) who would bring salvation, establish righteousness, and fulfill God’s promises to Israel. Huh! I wish I had known that then, but life is life.
At Christmas time in my senior year in high school, when I visited home from college, four others and I had a brass quintet. I grew up in Monroe, Wisconsin. It is a quaint little town. It has a square of shops all around the courthouse.
During the holiday season, it is festive, and they have a holiday parade and a giant tree. PIC
My friends and I would get together, and we would walk around the square playing Christmas carols. We would get hot chocolate and ice cream as we played and went to shops. People loved it, as did I. That’s as Norman Rockwell as it gets.
Yes, we played Jingle Bells and other favorites many of us know. We also played God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Joy to the World. Again, these were just notes that I played with others, forming perfect harmonies with rhythm and crescendos and all the musical jargon.
The words, not so much. They did not move me.But many of them echo scripture, talking about a newborn who would be King, who would save the world. It is joyful, the Lord has come.
· Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Well, I had an accident the summer before my 2nd year and damaged my mouth, and that forever changed what is called your embouchure. My tone was horrible, everything was hard to do, and I lost my range. And honestly, I lost my dream.
Maybe I could have fought harder; maybe I would have if I knew what I was playing and who the person of Jesus is. Perhaps if I knew who that Messiah was, it might have changed things – but I gave up.
It took a minute, I’ll leave out the less-than-great details. I majored in Political Science, but somehow ended up in IT after managing restaurants after my son was born.
It would be a while after literally hitting rock bottom that I would finally meet this Jesus I so often played songs about. This love was delivered some 2000 years ago. Here is the prelude to the birth of Jesus.
· Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
· Scripture continues
· 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
This birth of love, this miracle, this promise prophesied were no longer just words on a page; it was what would happen, hallelujah and amen. I finally met the Jesus I performed for so many times.
Some people in my life really helped me in my journey., they delivered the love that they had received to me. First and foremost, my wife, Diana. Midwest Christian Center, specifically Todd and Dorothy Benedict.The previous version of this church building, Summit Baptist Church, and Pastor Paul Denny. And this church, specifically all of you and a shout out to Pastor Jeff.
All of you and the others I mentioned did something powerful, something so significant in my life – you delivered the love that Jesus gave us all.
Just like Jesus, being delivered in the flesh is an act of love. To tear down the veil that was between man and God for so long. For too long, there was this separation between man and God since the Garden of Eden. But Jesus had a plan, a divine appointment. And love was delivered in a manger, fulfilling prophecy. Love that was real, love that was tangible, love that was – action.
A move of God so profound that it changed…..everything. For every man and woman who was alive then and every man and woman who will be born until he returns. The promise of a relationship with Jesus on an individual level. That’s love.
· Because the truth is that Love is not a noun!
· Love is a verb, and that means action. It means that it needs to be expressed, it needs to be spoken, it needs to be tangible, it needs to be seen, and most importantly, it needs to be given. I think about how things are now and how it seems people are. Here are our furry animals:
MAX,
RUBY,
RUBY & CHURRO
Why is it so easy to love a kitten or a puppy but not a human, the ones that Jesus came to save? Why is it so easy to see these little fur balls as beautiful and loving, but it is so easy to close our hearts – just like that.
· John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Words in the bible are just words without action. There is a whole world out here, lost. Evil is growing in every corner of the globe. It is growing dim and we need to be the light just like Jesus.
· Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
And maybe you are like, that’s easy for you to say, how do you apply that in your life. I am so glad you asked.
· Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let me share a story in how I got to apply this. About 6 months ago we had a homeless man pitch a tent on the land behind our house. He tried walking through our yard and my wife told him to, let’s just say – ‘get off my lawn’!
I called the police because it seemed weird some random person would start setting up a tent behind someone’s house. The police came and after a very long time they came back and said that he had permission to be on that property behind the house.
We had some engagements. He would trespass on the lawn, the dogs would bark, it was irritating. Soon, he had a woman join in in this new neighborhood we had found ourselves in. The was weird traffic in our cul-de-sac with them coming and going. We locked our doors, I added additional cameras, and became more aware of our surroundings. Different cars day and night. more dog barking.
Now, I did not think it would last long. He arrived in the summer but now winter was upon us and it was snowing and temperatures were dropping.
This is a picture I took with my drone.
Diana at times would quote that scripture, “feed your enemies”. So there was this Sunday that she said that. It was pasta night and I was making spaghetti. But all day long that scripture would be on my mind and I found myself wrestling in the spirit. The whole day.
It was cold, colder than it had been all winter. I finished preparing dinner and I packed some spaghetti in some Tupperware and even made some cheese bread. I told Diana if I was not back in 15 minutes to call the cops. I got my boots and coat on a I trudged over there, finally submitting and I called him from where they “lived”.
He came over and I just told him that the Lord wanted me to feed you guys tonight. We talked for a little bit. I apologized for any bad behavior on our part. I invited him to church. But the Lord was not done. The love of God poured into my heart and I said they were welcome to stay with us tonight. He said he would have to ask his friend.
Now I did not tell Diana about this ahead of time – she took the news well. We immediately packed up anything of value to store safely in our bedroom – and we waited. They did not come.
The important think is that we submitted to the Word and the Spirit of God. We fed them and offered them a warm place – completely out our comfort zone.
But that will happen, because love is a verb. Love is not just a word, there is a physical manifestation of love at times in our life when we submit to Jesus, and sometimes we will not be in our comfort zone.
The reason I shared so much about myself and Christmas carols is that they bring back memories, memories of loss, and pain and disappointment. And it reminds me that we do not know what other people are going through.
Especially in this season.
The loss of loved ones can really cause a lot of pain. Sitting at the Christmas table can bring joy, but the absence of those who have died is right there in your face. It hurts!
· The loss of relationships and marriages – man, that can be hard.
· People losing their jobs or perhaps their homes, it can be many things.
So this season, will you help people who only know Jesus through a Christmas Carol or words in a Christmas card see the love that was delivered that precious morning, poured out in love from us.
I hope the Lord does not send you a homeless man to your backyard. He might!
Just ask Him, pray about it. He will reveal it. Maybe it is a broken relationship with a family member – there were words spoken, painful ones, and a feeling of unforgiveness is there. Maybe the act of love is forgiveness. He forgave us, amen?
Whatever it is, let us all turn on that light this Christmas and be that city on a hill. Amen?
· Healing from Christmas carols.
· Went to a show – badge
· Listened to that music and the Canadian brass.
· Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Janesville Apostolic Ministries 
Leave a comment