December 2025

Eleven months have passed, one month remains for 2025. Sadly, we have lost a number of good people during these elven months. A quarter of a century has passed since the turn of the new millennium. So many people in my family, among my classmates and friends, and from my churches have passed away since the Y2K scare. The world is definitely a different place today than it was 25 years ago. Yet, one thing remains the same: the sun rises every morning and sets every night. Every morning we are reminded of the goodness and grace of our God. Jesus noted the common grace of God in Matthew 5:45: For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  As we wind up 2025, think back over the past eleven months and reflect upon God’s goodness and grace to you. Think back over the past eleven months to the stressful times when you wondered how you were going to make it through and how things would turn out. Think back over the past eleven months and ponder the lessons learned and the areas of growth in your character, faith, and life. Even though time passes by ever so quickly and never takes a break, the goodness of God is a constant that holds His people firm throughout every day of our lives.

As we enter the busy Christmas season let’s not forget that we have a God who is constantly pouring out blessing upon blessing on His people and on those who do not even believe in His existence. Every morning the atheist, the Muslim, and the satanist wake up they feel the warmth of the sun. That warmth is a gift from God. For those of us who know God personally through faith in Christ, that warmth should be a reminder of the truth that is captured in Paul’s question in Romans 8:31: If God is for us who can be against us? The God who created and controls the sun has demonstrated His great love for His people in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Every morning you see the sun remind yourself of the greatest and grace revealed to us in Romans 5:8.

The truth of Christmas that not only radically challenges and changes the world but continually calms the individual is the fact that Almighty God stepped into time and space through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The gift and blessing of Jesus Christ go beyond common grace to saving grace. As the angel told the shepherd long ago in Luke 2:11, Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Every morning, when you see the sun, may you be reminded of the greatest gift and blessing God has ever given to the world; may you be reminded of Jesus.
-Pastor Clint Miller