Daily Ornament

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK

Celebrating the Season of Epiphany
“The elder,
To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” – 2nd John 1-6

It’s not often that the books of 2nd or 3rd John are used. Maybe it because they are so small and there is not that much content. Or it could be that they are extremely personal and we feel uncomfortable to some extent reading other people’s mail. With that said—I think the reason still goes back to the fact that there is not a lot of content. But what we do have and what does exist needs to be considered.
A couple of years ago my children surprised me at Christmas with two things: First was a pocket watch. I had never owned one before and had never mentioned wanting one but when I opened it I found myself surprisingly overjoyed! It just touched my heart in a very unexpected way. The second part of the surprise was a verse of Scripture they had engraved on it.
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” – 3rd John 4
John was referring to “Christians” that he had converted while at a city he had visited. We are not certain of the exact location but from what we do know—he had received word that those who had chosen to follow Christ were still walking in the truth and it brought him great joy to hear of this.
As a father—to hear and see my children’s faithfulness is worth far more than what the watch is worth. Given all the temptations and diversions that are out there, to know that they have chosen to follow Christ means more to me than all the riches this world has to offer—something that the world did not give and cannot take away! As we are drawing to a close to the Christmas season it is my hope and prayer that we would take more time to emphasize Christ, not Santa. I have a feeling that far too many people are more concerned that they will make Santa angry and then they forget to look for Christ! The best thing that any of us as parents, regardless of how old our children are, is to give them Jesus! Christmas is not over! Nor will it be if we would just see it for what it was intended to be in our lives.
Pastor J. T. Carnell