From Pastor Tim's Heart

  Read John 1:1, 14, I Corinthians 13:12      I apologize that this devotion may be a little lengthy, but it is Christmas, and I cannot let this week go by without writing this.      When I was a kid, Christmas was my favorite time of year. In Minnesota, in the middle of winter was the best. We would sled and skate and play snow football. My dad also grew up in Minnesota, so he knew how awesome winter was. We would be off of school and dad would take a snow blower down the long hill of our driveway and then water it down so that we would just fly down on our sleds. He created a huge skating rink and kept it flooded so it would stay smooth.      I remember all the baking that my grandma, mom and aunts would do. Invariably we smelled the aroma of Christmas wreath cookies, peanut butter with a Hershey kiss in the middle, and I will never forget the crumb cakes. I remember trying to figure out what I got for Christmas. I remember waking up on Christmas Eve knowing that we would soon be hea

Satan has called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “we cannot keep the Christians from going to church. We cannot keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the Truth. We cannot even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ, and if they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they cannot gain that relationship with Jesus Christ.” “This is what I want you angels to do. Distract them from gaining a hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!”  The evil angels shouted, “How shall we do this?” Satan responded, “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7

James 1:3 “Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” During our climb up the mountain of life, we may experience some difficult times. At times we may lose our breath, pull a muscle or twist an ankle. It is at these times that we must be willing to fight through the pain and the hurt to achieve the goal that is at hand. If you never thought about it, you might expect that the positive and beautiful memories from the past would be the ones that would increase your faith. I always believed, for example, that one or two really dramatic or miraculous answers to prayer would increase my faith immeasurably. If I had just a few victories that were pleasant I would be able to do anything that God asked me to do. Yet, it hasn’t seemed to work out that way. Tough times, painful times, of course, do one of two things to you. They either break you or they make you. If you are utterly crushed by them, you will do everything within your power to bury them into the far recesses