Advent Lights the Night

By Pastor Tim White

This time of year can really be dark. It seems like yesterday that 5:00 am was a beautiful time to enjoy the spectacular sunrises in the Pacific Northwest. Now 5:00 am is like the middle of a very dark night. In this dark time of year, we miss light. And we need light to shine into our lives. As for the rest of our planet, light brings health, optimism, new energy, and motivation.  

Most religions in non-equatorial regions developed festivals to mark the darkest days of the year with hope. Christians celebrated this time leading into Christmas with Advent. And since early Christians struggled to know the date of Christ’s birth the darkest time of the year was when it became tradition to celebrate this holy festival of Christmas.  

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming” which is a translation of the Greek word Parousia.  By the 6th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. We celebrate Advent in the four weeks leading up to Christmas. The Catholic Tradition had Hope, Faith, Joy and Peace all leading to Love on Christmas morning. As each new reformation took place, different churches would change the order as Martin Luther did in reviving the faith of German Lutherans. Each tradition of Advent was meaningful.

I like to follow the Catholic Order because it is the oldest, but I could celebrate any Christian Order of Advent. This year Dr. Rey Diaz is going to be here on Sunday the 19th of December to preach and he asked to preach on Hope. So, we change the order and rotated Hope to the 19th of December and Faith then becomes our opening to Advent.

We need this season to refresh our faith. Stagnant faith becomes rigid and cold. This season is designed to renew our lives, our churches, our nation, and our families. We all need to kick off Advent 2021 with a faith infusion. Please join us at our In Person Service or Online this Sunday at 10:30am. Online can be found on You Tube, Facebook Live or the church Apps.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

Beautiful Gifts

By Pastor Linda Skinner

I hope everyone has or has had someone in their life that they could say, regardless of their age: “When I grow up, I want to be just like _________.” Well for me there have been and still are several of those people. Of course, we believe that everyone is a “Gift” and that everyone is “Gifted”. But there are some of those people whose gifts are “something special.” It doesn’t matter what their gift is, it can come in all shapes and sizes. But you see them using their gift and it is beautiful.

I’ll give you an example. “When I grow up, I want to be like Marilyn Biggs.” (I’m 73 years old and I’m still feeling that way.) I think Marilyn had gifts of faith, teaching, prayer and evangelism. And often sprinkled with a few other things as well as the need arose. But it wasn’t her gifts that impressed me over the years. It was the way she used those gifts. Every gift the Holy Spirit gave her, she wrapped it in God’s love. She was strong lady and she would speak truth into your life without hesitation. But it was always wrapped in love.

When I visited with Marilyn about 10 days before she went to be with Jesus for eternity; she told me about a nurse she encountered at the hospital. It was the first time I ever heard her say anything bad about another person. She told me this nurse was grouchy all the time, never smiled and Marilyn was pretty sick. Marilyn told me she said to her “you are not a very nice person.” I said a “woohoo—how did she take that?” Her response to Marilyn’s was, “no one has ever told me that.” Marilyn just gave her the Marilyn look, and said “I’ll be praying for you, maybe you need the love of Jesus in your life.” (I don’t know how to write that look down, but the next time you see me I’ll show you.) The nurse said, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.” Now only Marilyn could pull that one off. A gift wrapped in the love of God.

As I am preparing to wrap up our 8-week series on Spiritual Gifts this Sunday with 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love Chapter) I couldn’t help but think of my friend, my mentor, my sister in Christ. I learned so much from her and I miss her terribly. We will have a lot of catching up to do in heaven. And who knows, maybe I will get to meet her nurse there with her. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Hope you can join us this Sunday at 10:30 am In Person at Spirit Falls Sanctuary or Online via Facebook Live, YouTube Live, www.wacathedral.org, or WaCathedral App (Apple, Google, Amazon)

Just remember always “You are a Gift – Embrace It.”

God Bless You,

Pastor Linda Skinner

Success Through Your Gift

By Pastor Tim White

Something deep inside of us wants us to be a success. We want to discover our best selves and hopefully we have learned that real success is to become the person God wants us to be. I think every human being has that sense of God’s plan for their life. People get sidetracked by cheap imitations. They want to be confident, and cocaine is a cheap imitation, and its path leads to destruction. Many want to be peaceful, so people use heroin or one of its sister drugs. Some want enthusiasm, so they use meth as a cheap substitute. A lot of people are desperate for love, so they become addicted to illicit sex.

To battle those perversions, we need to meet our deepest desires by becoming the person that God has designed us to be. And we can’t do that until we discover our spiritual gifts, and we find a way to use them as the body of Christ.

How do you find that gift and how to use it?

1) You need to have an authentic relationship with your Creator. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit which prevents you from the connection that establishes your gift.

2) You need to learn about God’s spiritual gifts. What they are or what they are not. And how to use them.

3) Take an online Spiritual Gift Inventory. And learn more about yourself.

4) Get feedback from leaders in the church and match your giftedness to the need of the Team Jesus.

5) Try using your gifts and see if they are fruitful.

When you are operating in your giftedness you will discover a genuine source of confidence, peace, excitement, and love that you can’t find any other way.

Remember you are a gift embrace it.

Come join us either In Person on Sunday at 10:30am or Online with Church Apps, You Tube or Facebook Live. Learn more about how to have a more fulfilling life using your Spiritual Gifts.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

By Pastor Tim White

Don’t you just love unique people? I enjoy trying to build a friendship with my critics. Throughout my life some of my greatest critics have become my best friends. That began when I was a kid growing up. It existed when I was a young man and still exists as an older friend.

I find it astonishing that every one of us is absolutely unique. You can meet all types of people but when you get to know them longer you discover more and more of their uniqueness.

Halloween is fun because we can see this in each and every costume. Jackie was a Pirate and I was Spider-Man. My daughter Becca was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. While her husband Ben was a Ninja Turtle, our granddaughter Eva was a TV star of a Disney show while our grandson Oscar, was a Storm Trooper from Star Wars. While we were at the house, some trick or treaters came by. One enthusiastic little girl was part clown, part pirate and part vampire. Do you see what I mean about uniqueness?

When building a marriage, we need to understand human uniqueness. That’s also true of raising kids. As a Professor of Preaching at Northwest University I was always amazed at how unique each student was even with their shared gift of preaching.

Join us this week as I share how we can better understand our uniqueness and our giftedness. Sunday at 10:30am at our In Person Service in our sanctuary or online with You Tube, Facebook Live or the Church Apps.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White