LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

We’re about to enter THAT time of the year!

It’s time to dig out our Christmas songs, and sing the prophetic words of Isaish 8:8. The only problem is that “Immanuel’s land” is not just for Christmas! How unfortunate that we sing “God is with us”, the interpretation of the Hebrew word, and then start the New Year without Him!

How many of our 2006 New Year resolutions will come from Him? How much of even the holidays will be with the knowledge that He is not just WITH us, but IN us, and we IN Him? Can we ever break free of the other stuff that fills the holiday season, without abloishing it- just putting it where it belongs in the scheme of life and things.

What is it that St. Augustine knew 1,600 years ago, that we’ve now acquired collective amnesia over? How have we strayed from the Christian tradition(s) of God’s PRESENCE. Why do we not embrace Luke 17:21 more than we do? How I long to KNOW Christ as St. Augustine did when he wrote, “How late I came to know you. You were WITHIN me, yet I had gone OUTSIDE to seek you. You were WITH me, but I was NOT with you. I finally tasted and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and now I burn with longing for your peace.”

How I desperately pray that we will ALL come to Him sooner than later, but above all, that WE DO! May this season of celebrating the holidays, the CHRISTmas story, and the birth of Immanuel be REAL in our lives. May He be birthed in our soul and spirits in such a way that we never lose sight of Him again.

Thomas Merton said it this way, “It is obvious that God is everywhere and IN everything and we CANNOT be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is that we don’t SEE Him.” May we be AWAKENED from our slumber this holiday season: maybe even TODAY!