Thomas Wolfe said “Loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.”
Are you a lonely person? Do you live alone? Do you live with family, friends, roommates? I have found that many people who live alone have learned how to deal with loneliness, while others who share a residence are many times more lonely than those who don’t. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely lonely and 10 being you never feel alone, where do you fall on the scale? We are in a series on the Blessed App dealing with various emotions that are most definitely amplified and accelerated during the Christmas season. Yesterday, we took up the primary and dominant emotion of ANGER. We talked about Herod’s raging anger at the baby born in the manger. Here are those notes, along with the notes for this morning. On Saturday, let’s “Take the Tension Out of the Tensel” and discuss how stress seems to always increase during Christmas and what we can do about this. This Sunday we’ll continue our “PreQuel People” series focusing in on Luke 1 which lays the ground work for the Christmas story in Luke 2. Every year we focus on Luke 2 and all of us pretty much have it memorized. But Luke 1 is an incredible chapter about Zachariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist who was conceived 6 month prior to when Mary became the virgin Mary with Emmanuel in her womb. In many ways, you and I are also PreQuel People who prepare this world for the good news that Christ is born in Bethlehem to save us from our sins. Most of my lives are at 8 am EST, but I am considering a Christmas day Blessed App LIVE at NOON EST. I sure hope you can join and help keep the fire burning warm and bright in THE FIREPLACE! I want to thank you for your love in Christ, prayers, and support. I am so thankful for your generous donations but through The Blessed App FirePlace as well as the Link Chapel square link in the email below. Keep in mind, I’m here for you if need to schedule a session through the google meet video link, also right below at the bottom of this blog. We would schedule the time in my time zone, Eastern or New York time zone, and then you would click the link below that says One on One session, also available in the emails.
Thur Notes
“Herod’s ANGER at the Holy Manger”
Matthew 2:1-23
Introduction: Pastor’s Dan’s experience with anger
Dr. James Merritt’s book “How To Deal with How You Feel”
Herod’s Anger in the Christmas Story
Scrooge VS Grinch
Five ANGER ANCHORS:
Assess it – James 1:19-20
Nip it – Ephesians 4:26-27
Grace it – Ephesians 4:31-32
End it – Psalm 37:8
Rule it – Proverbs 16:32
Here are my notes for this mornings Bless App LIVE!
“NO ROOM FOR YOU”
Christmas Time Loneliness
Luke 2:1-7
5 PathWays Out of Our LONELINESS:
1) DIVINE PRESENCE Deuteronomy 31:6-8
2) HONEST LAMENT Psalm 62:5-8
3) COMFORTING COMMUNITY Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
4) PURPOSEFUL SERVICE Isaiah 58:10-11
5) ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE Romans 8:38-39
Thank you so much Pastor Dan for this blog. This is spot on with what I’m going through right now. Being alone. I’ve never been alone like this in my entire life. I have always lived with someone whether it was family members or friends or staff in treatment facilities. God is so good and I’m very grateful that I’m finally able to be alone and I can put all of my focus on the Lord and myself. So on the scale of 1 to 10 I would say I’m at an 8 at this point because it’s only been a few days and so I’m taking it easy and resting in the Lord. No feelings or emotions have rose up yet so this is the honeymoon of my journey being alone. I am willing to do whatever it takes to be closer with the king of kings, Lord of Lords.