Dear SCC & Friends,
…for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ~Matthew 6:21
Update #92
Our neighbors are great people. This year they went all out with their Christmas decorations… a multi-colored, illuminated six-foot candy cane, lights galore throughout the yard and all very well done. We complimented them for their festive efforts, and then she implied they had nothing to look at when they saw our house… So, we upped our game and for the first time in a long time, we have outside lights. I’m not sure it will make us happier this year, but the outside of our home does look cheerier. Along the same lines, I am also not sure if our Christmas would be more joyous and stress free if we could just “get more organized”. What we do know is it’s advent season, and in the midst of gatherings and festivities our hearts do best when focused on the center of the center. The center is none other than the Lord. Where is our treasure? It is there that we find our heart. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. ~Prov. 4:23
If the Lord doesn’t have our hearts, He doesn’t have us. The heart is the seat of our affections, cares and concerns. A person without compassion is considered “heartless”… Our deepest hurts are called “heartaches”… Relational upheaval can leave us “brokenhearted”… or we might refer to a beneficent soul as having a “heart of gold”… to communicate on an intimate level requires a “heart-to-heart talk”. When we truly love someone, we do so with all our heart, and conversely there is no joy when “our heart is just not in it”. Our faith endures and grows because it’s anchored in a heart relationship with God Himself. Christmas calls to mind His incarnation and all aspects of the Lord’s love and redemption. His grace helps us to remember the greatest and foremost commandment, which is to love Him with all our heart. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ~Ps. 19:14 This Christmas may we take stock that in all our years, in any and every situation, He was with and for us. We were made for these days… Keep up the good work!
He is Immanuel
Kevin