Tag: dave weiss

Advent Week 2: O Little Town of Bethlehem

The Christmas Hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem was written in 1865 by Philip Brooks, a pastor from Boston and Philadelphia. He wrote the hymn after traveling to the Holy Land and worshipping at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Standing so close to where Jesus was born, hearing hymn after hymn of praise on Christmas Eve, inspired him so much that when he arrived back in the states he wrote the poem that would become this classic hymn and had a friend set it to music, for the children to sing at his church.

The song imagines a tranquil setting, with people asleep in a night that is utterly still. Yet while the people were sleeping, God was at work. An everlasting light was shining. The One who said let there be light, three long days before He created the sources of light, was bringing the light of the world into the world. John chapter 1 tells us the story of the light. “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. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it”. The people sleeping just off those dark streets didn’t even notice. They didn’t see the light, but if they had seen it would they have understood? God changed the entire course of history, while the people slept. The One people had been praying for at least a thousand years had come, and they were caught unaware.

Maybe it was because they had waited such a long time for their long awaited King, but when He came there was no room for Him. His mother birthed Him in a stable because there was nowhere else available. The prophets foretold it. He would be born of a virgin, from the line of Judah, in the city of David, the little town of Bethlehem. Somehow they missed it. Let’s make sure we don’t.

Now to be sure, the lyrics of the song are not Scripture. They’re a poem written by a man of God, inspired by a once in a lifetime trip to the place where his Savior was born. It’s doubtful things were still, in Bethlehem that first Christmas night. People were forced to come there from all over the world to be counted. There was likely a whole lot going on that night. Enough that the birth of one little boy might easily have been overlooked, and maybe that’s a lesson for us. In the midst of all of our preparations, do we end up missing the baby? In the dark streets of life, do we miss the ever- lasting light? Brothers and sisters, we need to be aware. Yes Jesus has come, and for that we praise Him, but He has also promised to come again. 20 centuries have passed, and once again, the streets are dark and many seem to be asleep. The length of time between the first and second coming is not a sign of a broken promise. It’s the sign that a loving and graceful God is patiently waiting for people to come into the light.

The light is coming. Don’t miss it. Philip Brooks finished the first verse of his song with a reminder for us all. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Jesus is the answer to all that we face in this world. He is the source of all of our hope and He is big enough to overcome our biggest fear. Jesus came on Christmas, and He’s coming again.

Be ready.

Advent Week 1: Joy to the World

If you went to church in England up until the early 1700s, you wouldn’t have needed a hymnal. The church sang almost exclusively from the book of Psalms. This is the world Isaac Watts was born into, but he wanted something more. He wanted hymns that reflected New Testament thought, so he started writing his own. He wrote 750 hymns over the course of his life, including, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, O God Our Help in Ages Past and the hymn we’re about to look at, Joy to the World. Today it’s hard to imagine the church without these hymns, but in his time, Watts and his hymns were really controversial. Change has always been hard for the church, but can you imagine singing praises in church without mentioning Jesus?

Joy to the World is really the brainchild of three different men. Around the time Isaac Watts was writing his hymns, George Frederick Handel was writing his masterpiece, The Messiah, which features the Hallelujah Chorus. About a century later, the composer Lowell Mason took Isaac Watts’ lyrics and set them to the tune of a portion of the Messiah and gave us the song we know today.

Think about those lyrics:

Joy to the World; the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King!
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.

It’s a proclamation of Joy. After thousands of years of expectation, the promise had been kept. The Messiah was here. This is a song of celebration. The promised King, the long awaited King has stepped out of heaven and into human history. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. Jesus was here it was time to receive Him. Of course, we know when He came to be born in Bethlehem, there was no room for him. The people had waited so long and yet they were unprepared to receive Him. Singing this song, in a way asks the question, is there room in your heart for Him? Christmas is a time to celebrate because Jesus is here. He came to our rescue, defeated sin and death and the grave and made the way for us to receive eternal life. This should bring joy not just to our lives but to the world.

It’s for this reason that we get the line which is our theme for the advent season. And heaven and nature sing. There is joy that Jesus came, but there is also anticipation because He is coming again. The Bible says Creation waits in eager expectation for the Sons of God to be revealed. There will come a time when the effects of sin will be removed, and all creation, heaven and nature will be redeemed and made whole. Jesus came to save us and He is coming again to redeem all of creation. Heaven and nature will sing rejoicing over being made new. Let every heart prepare him room. Let earth receive her king.

Joy to the world.

Empowerment

This year, I have selected a word to represent what I think the Lord is leading us to this year. That word is “empowerment.” In truth, this has long been my philosophy of ministry because, in essence, this is what happened to me. You see when I first walked into the church, at least in my adult life, I was pretty far from God.  As I began seeing my need for God, I started looking for my place to fit. The thing is, I didn’t have any of the gifts that we usually associate with the church. I was terrified to speak in public, I didn’t have enough knowledge to teach and my lack of musical ability is nearly legendary. I figured I was destined to be a consumer, and that is not a good place to stay in the church. What I did have was some artistic talent.

Long story short, my pastor found that gift and tapped into it. It was a small assignment. A backdrop for the VBS skits, but it opened the door and changed my life. The Lord through my pastor had empowered me to serve. The end result, today I am a church pastor with a speaking ministry that takes me all over the U.S. Empowerment is a wonderful, powerful, miraculous force that can change the entire direction of a person’s life.

Today the church I pastor is a blessing. Great people who love the Lord and His Word. When I hear my unbelieving friends speaking negatively about the church, I wish they’d come and check out mine and when I hear my ministry friends speak of the troubles they have in their churches, I become increasingly aware of how blessed I truly am. We’re not perfect, but Springfield Church of he Brethren is a pretty good place to be. There is only one major thing we lack and that is simply that a lot of the people who really need what we have, don’t know we’re there.

How can we fix this? I think it has something to do with empowerment. It’s not that my people don’t serve. They do. I just wonder what else lays on their hearts. We in the church tend to only see certain gifts and talents as usable for the church, but what if we saw that differently? What if we realized that ever good gift comes from God and that all of them are useful to the Kingdom?

What if we gave people the ability to ry new things? This is the sole of empowerment, and so we extend an invitation for people to try the new things God lays on their hearts. Sometimes this will be a one time thing. Sometimes it will be continual.

What do you need to have to do this? You need a dream. You need to be faithful. You need to finish what you start and you have to be trying to honor God. You need to accept humble beginnings, starting with available resources and working toward growth.

One last thing, your calling is your calling. In other words, if you have an idea you want me to do, the answer is probably going to be no, unless it’s a really phenomenal idea that’s right in the middle of my wheelhouse and clearly God’s call. Empowerment is about helping you to do what God is calling you to do and helping you to be what God has created you to be. Empowerment can change your life.

What can we help you to do and be?

May God bless you as you seek to do His will.
Happy New Year,
Pastor Dave

The Gospel Is the Answer…

There is a lot of turmoil in our world. Go to social media and you will see it’s all pretty anti-social. There is a real temptation, even for those of us who follow the Lord, to want to get into the fray and duke it out. Who knows, there may be a time and a place for that, but by and large does that really accomplish what we’d like to accomplish and does it really honor God?

Now please hear me, I know there is a time to take a stand, but do we really show the love of Christ when we fight and argue with people? Further are people ever really argued and fought into the church and/or God’s Kingdom? I think the vast majority of the time, the answer is no.

Further when we look at the massive problems our society faces and the division that happens between people, it is easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated. That does us no good. We are in this world to help it and bless it and to introduce it to the only One who can fix what’s broken. Sometimes it feels like we look to every other solution, but friend, The Gospel is the answer.

If we will be faithful to us Savior’s call, our job is and will always be to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. What brings people to repentance? The Gospel. What changes hearts and minds? The Gospel. What turns sinners into saints? The Gospel. What did Jesus command us to take to the ends of the earth? The Gospel.

What to change the world?

The Gospel is the answer.