This is a precious message from my Dear Brother Pastor Paul Jaramillo Sr. of the Open Door Bible Ministry in Los Alamos, New Mexico! I have had the blessing of preaching at Pastor Paul’s church about a half-dozen times over the last 3 years or so. Sharon and I love him and his lovely wife Pat and the entire congregation. I am pictured above with Pastor Paul and Pat. It is also a blessing that Pastor Paul supports FGGAM. Paul and Pat came and rescued me and Pastor Jerry Lucero when we blew a tire on our way to Los Alamos last month to preach. Pastor Paul then gave me a love offering for new tires! PTL!! Thank you so very much Lord for friends like Pastor Paul and Pat and the congregation at the church! If you do not have a church home and live in the Los Alamos area, I strongly encourage you to attend Paul’s church!
Pastor Paul Anthony Jaramillo Sr.
As I lay my Bible on the pulpit, this Sunday I want to just smile at my congregation and say “Merry Christmas. But it’s not that simple. You see I’ve spoken at a lot of Christmas services over the years. Each year, I try to focus on a different aspect of the Christmas story. As I was praying and considering how to make my message new this year, I was struck by how unchanging the story of Christ’s birth is. Society might try to change things about it in an effort to make the story more relevant for the world in which we live. But there is one thing that has never changed over all these years. I want to just pause for a moment and take a look at John 6:38, Jesus says this, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” From the moment of His birth, Jesus had a purpose, and while we all know that His ultimate purpose was to die on the cross for our sins, it was even more than that. The purpose of Him coming down from Heaven was to do the will of His Father. Between His birth and His death, He lived His life with a focus on doing just that. We see it throughout the recounting of His life in the Bible, whether as a young boy, a young man, or a man condemned to die. Just as that is unchanging in Jesus’s story, it should be unchanging in ours. Our purpose is to do God’s will and, through doing that, we will honor and glorify Him. Following God’s will might not always be easy, but it will be the way to peace, joy, and everlasting life. Jesus’s life was full of examples of how we should live our own lives. From the cradle to the grave, He followed the purpose of His birth. To do His Father’s will. “I pray that as we celebrate His birth this season that we will commit ourselves to the purpose God has put before us. That we will be able to say, “Not my will, but thine, O God.”
