Starting on my other blog
ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS on Nov 1...a 3 day series on HOW TO LESSEN
ANXIETY.
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A different sermon is begun on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
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The sermons found on this blog are selected sermons preached by
Rev. Wyrick during a ministry of over 50 years.
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Spiritual Vitamins click on the following
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Luke
2:8-11
And there were shepherds living out in the fields,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for all the people. Today in the town
of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord.
There were times during past hurricanes here in South Florida when
our homes became darkened caves. And
before generators could be started or there was no generator to start, we all
lived with only the light of flashlights or some other battery powered
source.
They were a feeble kind of light as
compared with what normally flooded through our windows in daytime or, supplied
by the electric company, lighting up our nights.
After all since it seemed one hurricane might
well follow another a lot of us left up our plywood or aluminum shutters.
And all this got me to thinking that so it is when we block out the light of Christ or let it shine
into our lives.
There is no other light quite so bright,
quite so warming and comforting and illuminating. There just isn’t.
Therefore, if you have found that light of Christ, know what that
light means, may I suggest that on your
mantle at home, or wherever is appropriate to your line of work, that you place
a sign that reads “Christmas is spoken here.”
It shouldn’t be
something you put up just before Christmas and then right after Christmas take
down.
It is a sign you can and perhaps should
leave up all year round, for you to see and others to see…and all of you to be
reminded to practice the art of speaking Christmas. For…
Once there was a
shining Christmas tree
Standing
out where all could see.
Lights
so bright that all would say
“I
do not want to walk away.”
It
was then one bulb was heard to say,
“I’m
tired of burning night and day.
Besides
I am so very, very small,
I
won’t be missed, no, not at all.”
Then
a little child reached up and touched the light,
And
smiled and shouted “Oh, that’s bright.
Of
all the lights upon the tree,
This
one looks the very best to me.”
“Oh
my goodness,” thought the little light,
I
almost dimmed myself right out of sight.
I
really thought no one would care,
If
I failed to shine and failed to share.”
Then
all at once a great brilliance came,
For
every light had felt the same.
Ah,
our Gospel, like this Christmas tree,
Is
lit by the likes of you and me.
We
each have space that each must fill
With
love and kindness and God’s good will.
So
let us keep alive with light
With
testimonies burning bright.
For
our Gospel is a living tree
That
lights the way to eternity.
(Anonymous, considerable rewrite)
This Christmas time I give to each of you a few gifts that are really
only pin pricks of light as against the greater light of Christ, and I offer
them just to let you know that I care about you.
I promise to laugh at your jokes and not
require you to laugh at mine.
I offer you a listening ear.
I offer the gift of trying to get inside
your head when I disagree with you.
I promise to seek to see the best in you
and share these findings with others as often as I can.
I
give you the gift of not asking you to be perfect in everything you say to me
or fail to say to me, or what you do or leave undone.
I promise
to pray for you by name and I promise to do it often.
And
just perhaps, you might want to consider giving these gifts to others.
The
snow has been falling for a long time, and now reaching
a depth of 64 feet, it has become a glacier.
Slowly
moving across the land, it is impacting on everything
before its path.
So it is with your faith.
Like soft falling snow, each prayer you pray, each Biblical phrase you
read and remember, each noble thought you translate into a deed…like the
building of a glacier, you are moving toward that moment when you become a
might.
A
mighty might that makes an impact by what you have become and where you are
headed.
The
scientist Robert Oppenheimer put it so very well when he said, “The best way to
send an idea is to wrap it up in a person.”
Did you know that the word “echo” comes from the story of a nymph
named Echo. In this Greek mythology it
is her curse that she can only repeat the last word she has heard? Well, as always, I got to thinking and
decided to reverse the curse a bit…just to make a point. Suppose that for the rest of your life - we’ll
leave eternity out of this for now - suppose that for the rest of your life you
had to repeat the last sentence you spoke this morning. No editing.
Just over and over and over
again the same sentence.
The last statement you made that at that moment defined who you were.
Suppose you had known just before you spoke it that you would have
to keep repeating it over and over again.
Would you have edited it some, or eliminated it and gone back
several sentences?
It is Christmas day and I ask you to consider giving the world…giving
yourself…the gift of more and more sentences that could bear repeating…over and
over and over again.
In
our backyard, just north of our fence are two tall
palm trees with a great big red ribbon tied around the both of them,
still in their nursery containers waiting to be planted.
They
will fill in a space left empty by the hurricanes
that destroyed the illusion that I live in a
forest.
I love trees and we have a lot of them. And I definitely love
these new additions, but the reason I bring it up and share with you now is not
just because they are a gift given to me by three of my children, but because
as trees they are growing thing.
And
as I hope and pray my trees will grow tall and full and in the right direction,
so do I hope and pray that we all will do the same. We are growing things; we of body, mind and soul,
and as growing things if we healthily grow in the right direction there is more
of heaven in us, and if not, there is more of hell.
Christmas ...The
celebration of a timeless event measured in hours and minutes and seconds, and
how much love has already been spread around.
Look
around you and take in the faces of family and friends and visitors and right
now say a brief prayer for them.
Give
them the gift of lifting them up before the throne of grace.
Think
of it, you and I, all of us right now, all together praying for each other. Rekindling
each others spirits.
Can you think of a better Christmas gift?
She was such a sweet little girl but she was lost.
Somewhere out in those fields and forest, acre after acre around
her, she was lost and all day long they searched for her, but never found
her.
And the second day came, and it was very cold and hope was receding
and by the end of that harrowing day they still had not found her.
On the third day, someone
suggested they all hold hands and walk as one body, loving, caring, united body
and on the third day they found her. She was dead, as by now you may well have
imagined, for the temperature had dropped below zero.
And when they found her the mother could only repeat over and
over again, “Why didn’t we join hands sooner.”
Reach out to the person next to you, or in front of you or
behind, and hold hands. A moment of
unity as against so many times a pushing away.
This is our gift each to the other -
a very brief time of unity.
And
as we are holding hands, we are also heart to heart. I give this to you; my love, my prayers, my
concern. Give the same back to me.
And may we do it more
often even when we are miles apart.
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