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From the Pastor

December 28, 2018 by Rev. John Hartman

“Take the Next Step”

Last year, there was a commercial that ran from “Skechers,” the shoe company who has come out with a new line of shoe called the “GOWalk4.” It says that it has an all new light weight cushioning system for total comfort, so that you can maximize each step with their new technology. And the phrase for their new footwear was, “Take the next step.” If you think about it, that is a fitting tag-line for our lives of faith after Christmas.

As Christmas came this month to Chestnut Level, we told the wonderful story of Christ’s birth. In fact, we told it through the five senses through all the weeks of Advent. We gathered last Monday to tell it as part of our Christmas Eve worship service along with carols and candles. It is God’s story. It is also the story of hope, and in that sense, -- it is our story too. At Christmas, our hope finds fulfillment about a specific birth, in a specific place, that has ramifications for all time! Christmas is the story of God entering this world in Jesus Christ. It is also a story that calls for a personal response from you and me. It means we need to “take the next step.” After Christmas, most of us have all the information we need. The good news has been given. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Christ has come as Savior! To use Eugene Peterson’s phrase in “The Message,” — “God has “moved into the neighborhood.”

The question now becomes: What will you do with this promise and truth? I suppose you can resist it. I guess you could put it up on a shelf and just admire it. You might be even tempted to clean it up and pack it away until next year. Instead, I hope you will be moved and changed by it.

It’s what you do next that counts. And so, take the next step as we journey together into 2019.

Happy New Year,

John

Quote of the Week

“Faith…involves trusting in the future promises of God and waiting for their fulfillment.” R.C. Sproul

Robert Charles Sproul was an American theologian, author, and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries and could be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally.