14The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

27Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Starting this Monday at 7:00 P.M. and Wednesay

http://www.nyibs.net for full offering and register on line

Monday Classes

Bible Survey 5 –  7:00pm – 8:25pm                                                                  

 Instructor: Dean Tom Riley
New Testament 1 (Matthew – Acts) – No one teaches New Testament Survey like Dean Riley

What On Earth is God Doing?–  7:00pm – 8:25pm   

Instructor:  Dr. David A. Watson
Biblical Christianity and Contemporary Culture   – Finally a class that takes on the tough issues     

Christian Life & Witness 3 –  8:35pm – 10:00pm   

Instructor: Dr. David A. Watson
Apologetics 

Wednesday Classes

Theology Survey 3 –  7:30pm – 9:00pm                                                             

 Instructor: Dr. David A. Watson
The Holy Spirit and the Church

Counseling 2103 –  7:30pm – 9:00pm             

Instructor: AACC Video Lecturers; LaVerne White, Facilitator
Applications in Mood Change/Medicine/Addictions

9:00 am Service with Rudy Rameriz

11:15 am Service with speaker Sam Autry

This past week the temperatures have plunged and the Mid-Western and North-Eastern part of our nation have been thrown into what forecasters have described as a polar vortex. A polar vortex is, according to a government website “a low pressure area—a wide expanse of swirling cold air—that is parked in polar regions. During winter, the polar vortex at the North Pole expands, sending cold air southward. This happens fairly regularly and is often associated with outbreaks of cold temperatures in the United States” To date this latest experience of the polar vortex has claimed the lives of 21 individuals from across the Midwest and Northeast.  Thankfully it seems things will warm up a bit by next week.

Recent headlines about governors and legislatures and the expanding of abortion reaching almost to infanticide (Think Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and bills in the New York State Legislature and the Virginia State Legislature) should prove to us that spiritually speaking our nation, our culture, is in the grip of a Polar Vortex. This kind of spiritually frigid temperatures come not from Old Man Winter but from the darkest, coldest regions of the sinful heart of man and from Satan himself. A thaw is not coming anytime soon.

When the Governor of New York and the State Senate of New York applaud loudly over the passage of a bill making it legal to kill babies up until their last second in the womb, you and I should get the chills. When the Governor of Virginia describes the process of eliminating a live post birth-canal baby who is not in his eyes viable, our teeth should chatter as if we were at the south pole. Baby, it’s cold outside.

Jesus predicted that this lawlessness would abound in Matthew 24. In describing the end of the age He says “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

The Apostle Paul also warns us of this us in his second letter to Timothy. In it he says:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God    – 2 Timothy 3:1-4

Please note the last phrase in Jesus’ words -“The love of many will grow cold”. If we aren’t careful the spiritual temperature outside can affect the love we have for the Lord on the inside. How incredibly dangerous!!!. I submit to you that today, because of the utter sinfulness of our culture as illustrated in the present debate involving babies in and outside of the womb, that that the followers of Jesus Christ are at great risk of having their love grow cold. That’s right, the Church could freeze to death from the inside out.

I was recently reading in Proverbs 31, the prose about the virtuous woman. In verse 21 we read these words: “She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.” Some sources substitute the word “double clothed” for the word “scarlet”. The Wycliffe Paraphrase Bible puts it this way “She shall not dread for her house of the colds of snow (She shall not have fear for her household concerning the cold and the snow); for all her menials be clothed with double clothes.” The Church, the Bride of Christ, is called the Elect Lady in Scripture. I wish I could say that the Elect Lady has nothing to worry about regarding her household during this spiritual polar vortex.  I can’t. Sadly, the church has great cause to be afraid. Her household is not wearing double layers but pajamas in the dead of winter. It is time to take the words to church of Laodicea to heart. Jesus says there:

 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. ¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. – Revelation 3:17-19

 

 

To catch up please use the links below

The Christmas Scarf – part 1

https://nycshepherd.com/2018/12/10/the-christmas-scarf-part-1/

The Christmas Scarf – part 2

https://nycshepherd.com/2018/12/16/the-christmas-scarf-part-2/

The Christmas Scarf – part 3

https://nycshepherd.com/2018/12/24/the-christmas-scarf-part-3/

The Christmas Scarf – part 4

The Christmas Scarf – Part 4

The Christmas Scarf – part 5

The Christmas Scarf – Part 5

The Christmas Scarf – Final Installment

The snowy days leading up to Christmas flew by and were bearable for Molly. Since her first honest to goodness frank conversation with God things were different. Not necessarily all better but certainly different. She had had many such conversations since the first one. Bearable was good phrase to describe how she felt. Her heart wasn’t healed but the pain that was there was now not the only thing she felt.

The project was coming along and in fact it was almost finished. It gave her something to look forward to when she came home from work. Beyond that, she was looking forward to her Christmas Day meeting with Grace. She’d had helped her so much with a just a few words. She hoped that at her next meeting with her they could talk more about Grace’s journey from grief to hope.

Molly also had decided to do something very special for Grace. She planned to present her with the beautiful scarf that had been the project but now was a wonderful tapestry of green, blue, red, gold, silver and purple bands with white separating the bands. It looked great even if Molly said so herself. The scarf had brought her close to Rebecca and would be a fitting gift to Grace her …friend or was it her mentor.

On Christmas eve Molly hurried home first from work and then from a family party with uncles and aunts and nephews and cousins. It was her second Christmas without Rebecca. It seemed to her that she would always measure life with how many Christmases it had been since Rebecca’s passing. And yet she could sense she was getting better. There was hope. That was enough for now.

Once home she took one last look at the scarf and then wrapped it in a beautiful purple box with a bright purple bow. She had picked out a special card for Grace as well. It wasn’t really a Christmas card, but it had a snow scene on the front and a blank place to write on the inside. There Molly wrote “Dear Grace, Thank you for teaching me that “I have a broken heart not a broken life. I’ve got a broken dream not a broken future”. I have hope now. You are a very special person. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Your friend, Molly.” It was the most personal card she could ever remember writing.

Molly intended to go to bed early. She had agreed to meet Grace with Samantha. the girl she was mentoring at Grace’s church. They were to meet for Christmas Day Services at 10:00 A.M. the next morning then good to Christmas Dinner. She was actually a little excited about Christmas Day. She’d even gotten a little doll for Samantha. She walked into Rebecca’s room to feel close to her on Christmas Eve. She went to her closet to pull out one of her dresses. As she looked in at the few dresses that were there her eyes were drawn to a garment bag hidden in plain site in the middle of the closet. Pulling it out and unzipping it she gasped.

There before her eyes was a beautiful, hand crafted, green, blue, red, gold, silver and purple scarf with white dividing each color hanging in the garment bag. It was just like the one she had seen on Rebecca’s battered cell phone. That was because it was the one she had seen on Rebecca’s battered cell phone.

Holding the completed project, the Scarf that Rebecca had made, Molly’s mind raced. “Why was Rebecca making two scarfs?” Molly asked out loud. The answer came easily to Molly’s mind. One was to be for Molly and one was to be for Rebecca. Molly smiled and cried all at once. Nearly a year after her passing, Rebecca had given Molly one last amazing Christmas gift.  It wasn’t cold in her apartment and it wasn’t snowing outside but Molly still wore the scarf to bed.

The alarm clock wakened Molly much later than she had intended to get up. It was 9:30 A.M. and she needed be a Grace’s Church in 30 minutes. She was going to be a little more than fashionably late. She did her best to get ready quickly and get out the door but it was 10:15 A.M. before she threw on her new handwoven scarf made for her by her daughter and left the house. She pulled in to the Church at 10:45 A.M. It was 10:50 A.M. when she snuck in the back as the congregation was singing in Spanish “Gloria a Dios en lo alto. Gloria a Dios en lo alto.”. The smiles on everyone’s faces made her glad she had come. She looked for Grace but she was nowhere to be seen. She was so looking forward to giving her the scarf in the gift box she had carried in with her. She was going to take a selfie of the two of them in their scarfs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Samantha sitting alone and wondered the more where Grace was.

After the singing the Pastor made his way to the platform with what looked like a letter in his hand. Clearing his throat, he began to read it in Spanish. He must have noticed the puzzled look on Molly’s face because he started translating it as he went. The English translation was choppy but Molly understood it. “My brothers and sisters” the letter began “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me”. It continued “I came to you broken and bitter, hurting from my loss and running from God. You befriended me and helped me heal by the grace of our Lord. You helped me find my purpose again. I’ve been called back home to my native country because my sister is sick and needs me immediately. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to say goodbye. Please take care of my mentee, Samantha, You will always be in my heart, Love, Gracia”.

Molly was stunned. She regretted now never exchanging her cell phone number with Grace. Her thoughts immediately turned to Samantha and her feelings of desertion. Right after the service was over she sought her out. Putting her arm around her she consoled her. She prayed “God help me to help her”. Immediately and almost miraculously and instinctively she knew what she needed to do. She handed the purple wrapped box with the purple bow to Samantha. Opening it Samantha smiled a smile that went from ear to ear. Molly pointed to the scarf around her neck and helped Samantha place the just opened scarf around her’s. Taking out her cell phone Molly took a Christmas selfie of two girls in Christmas scarfs. It would be the first of many selfies of Molly and Samantha. They walked out of church together into the freshly falling snow, two girls in beautiful, handwoven green, blue, red, gold, silver and purple separated by white Christmas scarfs.