ExtraChristy

Years ago a special present for Christmas in the midst of winter in Northern Ohio was an orange. With fresh fruit from around the world now available around the year around the corner, a fresh bright orange on a gray winter day doesn't seem miraculous like it did when great-grandparents were children.

Giving fruit is mentioned in Luke. When folks asked what was good fruit for the coming of Christ, the gospel quotes John the Baptist's answer

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance…”The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”-Luke 3:8a, 11

As you finish your Christmas shopping, remember to include sharing good fruit with those who have none. For Jesus would like nothing better than good fruit given to all in honor of his birthday.

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Philippians 1:3-11

There are people who watch fuel gauges and head for a fill up every time the gauge drops below ½ because “it is as easy to keep the top half full as keeping the bottom half.” Then there are those who do not realize they have a gauge, they wait until the idiot light comes on telling them they are almost empty. What if we all had heart fuel gauges? How many lights would be on in the congregation? Among the people we see every day?

I believe there would be some hearts with the empty warning light flashing. Why? I believe the main cause of empty hearts is loneliness. Not being alone, which is solitude and sometimes pleasant and other times necessary; but being alone when we don't want to be alone. I believe there is more danger of loneliness now than in recent history.

Divorce in 1900 was rare, less than ½ of 1% of men and women were divorced in 1900, in 2000, 8% of the men and 10% of the women were divorced. (US News & World Report, Dec 27, 1999) Divorce not only removes one's spouse, but also can remove one's friends and family leading to empty places in the heart where people used to be.

According to the Census Bureau's Families and Living Arrangements: 2005, the proportion of households consisting of one person living alone increased from 17 percent in 1970 to 26 percent in 2005. In 2005, 10 percent of the nation's households contained five or more people, down from 21 percent in 1970. During the same time period, average household size declined from 3.14 to 2.57 people. We are living alone or with less people.

Physical heart disease is linked to loneliness!

In 2005, results from the U.S. Framingham Heart Study demonstrated that lonely men had raised levels of IL-6, a blood chemical linked to heart disease. A 2006 study conducted by the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago found loneliness can add 30 points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of 50.

Often, people mitigate loneliness by interacting with others via the phone or the Internet. However, it is widely believed that purely remote relationships are no substitute for in-person relationships - an opinion based at least partially on the fact that a person's true identity is difficult to determine on the Internet, and also that such relationships are less stable. Commitment to a friend or acquaintance is less strong, partly because the remote situation makes it easier to ignore the demands friends place upon each other, and because it is harder to share emotions in such a way. — wikipedia entry on loneliness

Where did I get the last note about inadequacy of on-line relationships? On-line of course!

How do empty hearts get filled? We have spent a lot of time and effort the last decades working on self-esteem. Supposedly building up the hearts of our youth to like themselves, that they are special. If everyone is special, then there are no groups, everyone is in a group of one. Even the army, the most difficult place to be alone, has bought into this with their recruiting slogan, “An Army of One.” Who ever heard of an army of one? So institutional

Some schools are considering having no grades because it might damage self-esteem A class I had tried a gradeless grading period. Everyone who signed up got the average of their first two grades for the third grading period. Everyone signed up, about 30 students, at the end of the period only 3 earned their grades, the rest got Ds or Fs. Cutting off that relationship to others, in the form of grades, brought everyone's achievement down.

Our scripture in Philippians keeps referring to others and there is the way to fill hearts to overflowing. You put others in your heart until the love overflows. Like a half-full glass of water to which you add ice, a heart half-full of love can be overflowing when other people are placed in it.

There are many activities this Advent season. Choose ones that add people to your heart. Maybe it is welcoming the preschool parents to their holiday show Tuesday night, maybe it is shopping for an Angel Tree present and coming to the party Saturday to help some families that need some love celebrate. It could be volunteering at Haven of Rest, or bringing an acquaintance to a special church service. If your heart is empty, putting other people in your heart and holding them there as the Philippians did Paul, will fill your heart up to overflowing.

And that is a great message as we look forward to Christ's arrival. For Christ had the most esteemed position in the universe in heaven. Christ left heaven's glory, to come to save all the people of the earth by opening God's heart to them. We have a spot in God's heart. Let us make room for others in our hearts and so make love overflow. Amen.

Copyright (c) 2006. Advanced permission is given for non-profit, for-prophet use of the above at no charge as long as it is reproduced unedited with notices and copyright intact. Written copies are provided after they are preached as a courtesy for the personal, private, appreciative use of the congregation of Goodyear Heights Presbyterian Church, their families and friends to support the ministry of Goodyear Heights Presbyterian Church and its pastor the Rev. J. Christy Ramsey. Join us Sundays! 8:15 Traditional Worship and 10:15 Blended. Mingle in our Gathering Room between services and take advantage of Christian Education opportunities.

2006 brought Christy a new car which he uses to commute between being a pastor Akron, Ohio and a father and husband in Greensburg Pennsylvania. Christy went with Robert on the Dad and Lad tour visiting eight colleges in three states. Christy also visited General Assembly in Alabama with a pastor friend.

Bette Lynn is feng shuing her way to preparing the house for sale: painting, upgrading, and removing clutter. (No, Christy wasn't part of the clutter!) Her favorite home visit of the month is not a physical therapy patient, but her husband in Akron.

Rachel, 22, came back for her senior year at Seton Hill University after an amazing summer counseling at Camp Augusta. She is president of her class and her college major's honor society. She was the senior selected to receive the President's award for community service. All this while fighting off mono!

Robert, 18, is making the most of his senior year. He was the only gargoyle (from Beauty and the Beast) taken into the National Honor Society. He was named Spirit King for homecoming (they had to make up a new award!) and voted most spirited by his high school soccer team and the senior class.

Next summer we should be moving to the Akron area where Christy is pastor of Goodyear Heights Presbyterian Church. www.ghpcakron.org

Robert, Rachel, and Christy are on facebook. Christy's web sites are www.christyramsey.me and www.christyramsey.me

May you have a better than expected Advent!

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I arrived early for a breakfast with my uncle and cousin. (I didn't get the memo with the time change.) So I sat at a table and watched the door for their arrival.

Eventually, they came in. My uncle looked at me and then across the room at another table. Two of us were waiting for him, but at different tables! We were so focused on looking for my uncle; we didn't see each other!

It struck me that there is a lot of faithful people waiting for Christ this Advent (when we prepare for his coming.) but at different tables. Maybe we should see who else is searching, sit together, and help each other look!

Jesus wants to gather all his waiting people together:

I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd. - John 10:16

Hope you find someone to help you wait and watch this Advent!

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I Thessalonians 3:9-13

The first quote in my Facebook is one I found in my reading ( Don't Ever Call Them Jerks by Arthur Paul Boers): “Whatever happens to you is the best possible thing for your salvation” by Meister Eckhart a 14th Century German mystic. This is a kinder and gentler version of Nietzche: “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger!”

How does one get a strong heart: one that will enable us to escape all fear and foreboding of the world and enable us to stand before God blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints?

Earnestly pray night and day—Pray first is always the best plan. We had a gathering of prayer warriors here last Tuesday night praying for the ministry of the church. It is sobering to realize that wherever two or three are gathered in Christ's name, Christ is present (Matthew 18:20). Being in the presence of Christ is a great way to strengthen our hearts. We do that each time we gather with others for prayer.

A larger gathering in prayer is sponsored by Love Akron is in the middle of a 40 day prayer vigil for the greater Akron area. We have a link on our web site at www.ghpcakron.org to the daily scripture, reflection, and prayer if you want to join with folks in prayer for Akron against drugs, violence, and gangs. There will be a public prayer service at 3 pm two weeks from today (on Sunday, December 17th) at Grace Park. You can get strong hearts there.

Prayer makes hearts strong by linking your heart not only with the hearts of others, but with God's heart as you seek God's will and purpose in prayer.

Increase and abound in Love for one another—Whitney Houston gave voice to a generation with the song, “The Greatest Love of All.” What is the Greatest Love of All according to the song?

I found the greatest love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all
And if by chance that special place that you've been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place, find your strength in love

Yet the scripture is constantly pushing us from ourselves to others. In reflection of the greatest love of all, the love of God shown in coming as Christ, God with us, giving up heaven for our salvation. We have a generation that believes and lives for themselves, not for others, and they are the unhappiest generation as well. Strength comes in numbers and with others, not in love wrapped up in ourselves.

The designated president of the nationwide Christian Coalition, Rev. Joel Hunter, resigned before he started this month after several state chapters, including Ohio, broke with the national organization over the controversy of expanding the mission of Christian Coalition to include compassion issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment. At what point did compassion become a liberal or conservative choice? Strong hearts care for others.

Another disturbing opinion comes from Dr. Wayne Dyer a prophet of Generation Me. He is against going to funerals that you rather not go to. Who wants to go to funerals? We go because of our love for one another, and such exercise in love of others strengthens our hearts. Our hearts grow strong as they are extended beyond ourselves.

Increase and abound in Love for all—Love of others isn't just for me and mine. It is for all people.

A PresbyNet friend of mine, Houston Hodges, tells about some strong hearts that increase and abound in love for all. And as is the often case, love grows out of a tragedy in his town of Huntsville, Alabama. A bus, with forty students from Lee High School, was cut off on an overpass in the center of the city and it was forced over the side, a thirty foot drop to the pavement below… nose first. Twenty-three students were injured, 13 of them seriously, and three teen-aged girls were killed.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas protested outside the church during one of the funerals. The group has gained national attention for protesting at funerals of fallen soldiers claiming that such tragedies are punishment from God on America. I cannot say the name of their hate filled web site in polite company.

The demonstrators from Kansas were not alone, however: a good-sized group of counter-protesters were there as well “to present an alternative” quietly holding a sign which told that contributions were being made to the families of the kids who died and to the local AIDS Action Committee, and that the pledges for contributions were based on how long the Westboro Baptist church crew remained — $956 per hour. The longer the haters stayed, the greater the lovers pledged.

Strong hearts indeed met hate with caring and contributions. Hearts grow strong when hate is met with resolute and costly love.

Conclusion—Strong hearts come from prayer, getting our hearts in line with God's heart and the hearts of good Christians. Strong hearts come from the love of others not ourselves reflecting the greatest love of all—God with us in Christ. Strong hearts come from facing down hate with sacrificial love.

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