Would you like a savior...from what?

Hi All…


It is spray painted on nearly every highway overpass between here and Indianapolis. It is held up on poster boards at NFL football games. It is scrawled in chalk on railroad freight cars across the nation. It is even tattooed on the biceps of a fair number of brawny faithful. It is the phrase, “Jesus Saves!” But what does this mean? Jesus saves from what? Do I need to be saved from anything? Careful here… beware of just glazing past this as one who has declared themselves to be a Christ-follower. Don’t just “check the box” that you already have all that needs saved because you have confidence in your eternal destiny. Let’s look a little closer in Deeper Thoughts below.


But first…


·      Are you ready for some Christmastime fun? Our annual Mt. Hope Christmas Party and Christmas Pageant is NEXT Sunday, December 10!


o   Potluck fellowship dinner from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Chris Nicholson’s world-famous pork loins will be our main dish; we need your help with the sides, drinks, and desserts. Click here to sign up for what you can bring!


o   From 6:30 – 7:15-ish, our Kid’s Connect and our youth ministry are teaming up to bring you a fun celebration of Christmas in drama and song. A live nativity will be a part of the evening as well… Ryan Sauder’s beloved llama doppelganger returns this year!


o   Parents, please note we have rehearsals both tomorrow (this Saturday) and next Saturday. Ping Chris Bowen for details—240-422-6287.


·      Not enough Christmas fun for you? Ladies… on Saturday, December 9, you’ll be getting together for cookies, tea, and crafty gift-making, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Click here for info and RSVP!


·      And lastly (for now…), mark your calendars for Christmas Eve candlelight services 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, December 24. We’ll also have a low-key Sunday morning worship service at our normal time Christmas Eve morning.


OK, that’s it today for you email-skimmers and you who don’t have anything in your life that needs fixed. BUT…




Some Deeper Thoughts


It was shouted by the angels to a rather unsuspecting crowd. Not only did it startle them; it downright freaked them out.


They likely hadn’t bathed in weeks. That’s an irrelevant and smelly point to our story except to set the stage that these were roughneck fellows working a hard manual job devoid of most creature comforts. If they had a family, they likely saw them only a night or two every week or more. Romance, family dinners, or attending their children’s events were cherished moments precious few times per year.


Some scholars suggest they were known as “Bedouins,” a nomadic sheep-tending people who wandered the deserts of North Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, most notable that they may have been Arabs—a people often antagonistic towards the Jews. Other scholars consider that these were just Jewish local boys from Bethlehem tending flocks on neighborhood farms.


Whether they were Jewish or Arab is unknown. But we do know they were the least likely to be the heralds of important news. And yet God chose to surprise them with the most important message of all time.


“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born,” the angels declared. It was “good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” they said.


Did you catch it?


“Good news… that will be for all the people.” That means you. It means me.


So, what do you need a Savior for? What needs to be saved in your life?


The concept of salvation implies a rescue. In the New Testament, it is the Greek word “sozo”, which means “material deliverance from danger and suffering.” It is a complete and thorough rescue from all that brings harm.


If you grew up in a Bible-teaching church, you have been relentlessly encouraged to receive Jesus as your “personal savior.” I am certain that a vast majority of you who read this newsletter have done just that—put your faith in Jesus as the Son of God who forgives all your sin and will take you into heaven. We have been “rescued from our sin” by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.


This is all absolutely biblical and very good. You should be certain you have “checked that box” and trusted Christ to save you from your sins. (If you have not, let me know…I can help you do that!)


But is this all that needs saved?


I desperately need a one-way ticket to heaven, to be sure. With the death rate right at 100% for my kind, I need the bedrock certainty that none of my deep-seated sin issues will trip me up when my time has come and I see those proverbial pearly gates. And thanks be to God, He has given me this certainty in the baby born in Bethlehem who would later atone for all my sins.


But there are a few other lingering and pesky problems in my life that could use a little help. How about you?


How about your anger, frustration, sadness, and fear? None of these are sins in and of themselves; they can lead to bad choices, but these painful emotions are normal, not wrong. Or how about loneliness? Or stress and anxiety? Or boredom? Or self-loathing? Or your gripping sense of insufficiency, insecurity, and insignificance?


Could you use a Savior in these matters in life?


This Sunday, we begin our four-week Advent celebration—advent meaning “the arrival of a notable person or event.” When the angels declared to smelly shepherds that a Savior had been born nearby, a notable person had very much arrived.


But as we study this, let’s look carefully at what needs to be saved. “Would You Like a Savior?” is our Christmas teaching series. Let’s go deeper than the traditional and predictable narrative of the baby, and Incarnation, and Joseph and Mary, and shepherds and wise men.


Let’s talk about you and me. Do we not only know salvation from our sins and a free ride to eternal bliss, but do we also know the complete and thorough salvation of everything broken within us? Can a baby born in a Bethlehem stable really fix the long list of ills that haunt my daily life? And yours?


Come with expectant and open hearts this Sunday. Let’s see what God might be able to do.


Sherri and I cannot wait to see you and share our love for you.


Chris Eads
Mt. Hope Pastor
Friend