NINE - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 21 , 2022
Christmas messages from area churches continued from page three
Christmas is for Seekers
he had over so many lives.
But there was more to Billy than laughs and stories.
There was a deeper part that was easy to overlook if you
didn’t peer for a closer look. Billy was, like all of us,
a person who longed for something deeper and more
meaningful. Something that lasts and endures beyond
tall tales or careers. Billy sought out God, and just as all
before him who sincerely seek God, found God in the man
Christ Jesus. I can personally attest to the fact that Billy
came to a point and moment in time where he understood
who Jesus is. He understood that he needed Jesus, and
Billy prayed and believed in heartfelt sincerity that Jesus
died for him, and Billy asked Jesus to save him. Simply,
completely, Billy gave his life to Jesus.
I tell you this, because I want you to see that you are
really not much different from Billy. You, like Billy, may
have had a great life. A long life. A wonderful life. But
even if your life has not offered you blessings and instead
you feel like you have had mostly curses, the truth is that
we are all seeking something deeper. We are all seeking
answers beyond the here and now. Answers to our hurt
and pain. And though we are not promised completely
satisfying explanations, we are promised a remedy. That
remedy to our hurt and loss is God’s promise fulfilled in
Jesus that He would come to earth, as a human, live just
as we live, experience what we experience and then grow
up and willingly die for our sin, our shame and our pain.
This is what Christmas is all about. God with us. God
coming to us when we couldn’t go to Him. Christmas is
for seekers. God is seeking you. How will you respond?
Pastor Tripp Finch
Willow Creek Baptist Church
The Scarlet Cord in
the Christmas Story
Have you ever wondered why some of the books in
the Bible have long lists of names you cannot pronounce
that seem to go on forever? Even though we try to avoid
reading them, they do serve a purpose.
Whereas most ancient genealogies only traced the
male family line and people of Jewish birth, the book of
Matthew’s genealogy looks much different. His purpose
in this was to not only demonstrate the uninterrupted
connection between the Israel of the Old Testament,
Jesus and His royal lineage, but it included women and
Gentiles as well.
The lineage of Jesus Christ is both the plan of God
and the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham. When
Abraham showed great faith in the promise of God, God
then blessed the whole world through his line.
This Advent season we are reminded that we, too,
in Christ alone, are also part of that royal lineage. And
because of this, our names are also written in the gene-
alogy of Jesus Christ.
But who is included in the genealogy of Jesus? What
kind of people make up His lineage and what does this
say about the body of Christ, His Church?
In the ancestry of Jesus, Matthew names Tamar, a
widow who seduced her father-in-law in order to seek
justice; Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute who helped the
Israelites take Jericho; Ruth, a Moabite widow who chose
her mother-in-law and Israel’s God over her own people;
and Bathsheba, a widow whose husband was murdered
so King David could take her to be his wife.
By including these women and their life stories,
Matthew highlights the difficult and embarrassing stories
from Israel’s past. We learn that if God could bring heal-
ing and restoration through Christ in the lives of these
people, He can certainly do the same for us.
Consider Rahab. She lived in Jericho and helped the
Israelites in capturing the city by hiding two men who
had been sent to scout the city prior to their attack. But
her story is not what we think of at this Christmas season.
First, she was a woman in a world in where women were
often mistreated. She was a prostitute, broken, hurting
and bruised—perhaps thinking, “There is no hope for
me.” Finally, she was a Gentile, a foreigner, raised in a
pagan religion. As such, she was despised by the Jews.
Rahab really had nothing going for her and nothing
to look forward to. But the book of Joshua shows the
point of change or conversion in Rahab’s life. Joshua
2:9-13 tells us that she and all the people of Jericho had
heard stories about how God had delivered His people
through the Red Sea and how he had given them victory
over their enemies.
Rahab knew enough to know that the God of the
Israelites was the one true God. Her faith caused her to
welcome the spies and then send them on their way. And
her faith caused her to hang the scarlet cord out of her
window. When it came time to choose sides, she chose
to side with God’s people.
For more than 2000 years Rahab’s story has taught
us that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. Even
in the midst of judgment, God reaches out and saves a
prostitute who turns to him in faith. God delights to save
notorious sinners. So let every sinner take heart and come
running to Jesus.
At the time of year we celebrate Advent and Christ-
mas, the lights in our homes are lit with bright colors,
the scent of pine trees and holiday candles fill our homes
and beautifully-wrapped presents are under the tree. The
house is filled with laughter, fun and the smells of cookies,
roasts and other holiday delicacies.
The Church is decorated and the scent of candles and
their glow bring warmth to our hearts and memories. We
may be wearing our new clothes, and the kids are in the
children’s Christmas program.
So why this story? Why do we read of such peo-
ple whose lives were a mess? Adulterers, murderers,
prostitutes and deceivers. Is this part of the Advent and
Christmas story? It is, if you really pay attention to God’s
Word. This is what the world was waiting for. The people
living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living
in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Hope was born for the lost and hurting.
Before you came to Jesus Christ, what stories from
your past were difficult to tell? What are the things you
would prefer to edit out of your family history? Like those
named in Jesus’ human lineage, we are also a people
who are an absolute mess, rescued by God who wants
all people who put their hope in Him.
The Advent, or time for waiting, is over. Jesus Christ
came as that Child, the Light of the World, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace and Wonderful Coun-
selor, so that those in darkness could be changed when
they trust and follow Him.
This Child was born so that we would also be born-
again! To truly understand Advent is to realize the waiting
is over and has resulted in a change in us. Therefore, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor.
5:17). If a change has not happened in you, then it’s just
a nice holiday story we tell every year, and you are still
lost in sin.
The waiting is over. Welcome the Christ in your life
and heart. Amen.
Dr. Carmelo Di Salvo
Valby Lutheran church
Christmas: Time to sing
glory to God
Advent has been an intense preparation for the birth-
day of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, which means
“the house of bread,” to become bread for all of us. He
was a beautiful example to everyone. At the threshold of
Christmas, are we ready to welcome Him into our homes
and into our personal lives? As for yourself, “What else
do I need to do to welcome Him into my individual life?”
The reading from Isaiah 9:1-6 begins like this: “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has
shone.” On the first Sunday of Advent, we were reminded
to “let us then throw off the works of darkness and put
on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly
as in the day…” (Rom. 13:12). From the time Abraham,
our father in faith, was called by the Lord to set out, to go
forth from his homeland to an unknown region that God
would show him, our identity as believers has been that
of a people making its pilgrim way towards the promised
land. He accompanies us all through this life-journey. He
is ever faithful to His covenant, though we are not. He
accompanies our journey as “God is light, and in him there
is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5). Yet people experience
times of both light and darkness, fidelity and infidelity,
obedience and rebellion; times of being a pilgrim people
and times of being a people adrift.
If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk
in the light; in contrast. if we keep our hearts closed, if
we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, lust,
drunkenness, rivalry, jealousy and envy, darkness falls
within and around us. “Whoever hates his brother,”
writes the Apostle John, “is in the darkness; he walks in
the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because
the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn. 2:11). The Babe
of Bethlehem comes as the source of grace and rays of
love from the Heavenly Father, to take us to His abode.
The Gospel reading from Luke (2:1-14), speaks of
the deeper meaning and purpose of Christ’s birth. God
became a baby, not a superman or an emperor, because
Christmas is all about love. God gave Himself totally
out of love for humanity. God sacrifices His own nature
to become one like us, to make us understand the true
meaning of love and that loving, giving, and sharing is not
limited it to the season of Christmas. All that is opposed
to these and simplicity—namely selfishness, greed, anger,
jealousy and pride—are the root causes for disharmony,
conflict, hatred, violence and absence of peace (at the
personal, social and global levels). Where there is genuine
love and simplicity there is peace.
Christmas is a reminder for each of us that we are
all the innkeepers who decide if there is some room for
Jesus or not. The real meaning of Christmas is when we
spiritually prepare ourselves to receive the Babe of Beth-
lehem in our hearts through the acts of sacrifices, morti-
fications and kindness. Christmas is not only putting up
decorations in front of our houses, preparing a Christmas
tree, and packing Christmas gifts under the Christmas
tree. We need to make time for reaching out to others in
their great need, to spend time with our aging parents and
grandparents, to examine the real meaning of Christmas.
Jesus was born in manger, but he became all things to all
people and quenched their hunger for the divine. We can
prepare a fabulous manger in our personal lives through
works of kindness and sacrifices, and become all things to
all people around us. That is the real meaning of Christmas
I feel. So, we, too, join the angels of God to sing glories
to God in the highest.
Fr. Joseph
County commissioners
hear update on Ione
gas station
By Andrea Di Salvo
At a short meeting on
Dec. 20, the Morrow Coun-
ty Board of Commissioners
heard an update from com-
missioner Melissa Lindsay
regarding work on the aban-
doned gas station in Ione.
At a previous meeting,
Lindsay had informed the
county commission that
the Department of Environ-
mental Quality (DEQ) was
taking on the decommis-
sioning of the old gas sta-
tion on Main Street in Ione
as part of the government’s
brownfield project funding.
Tuesday Lindsay told
the board that she, General
Maintenance Supervisor
Tony Clement and Public
Works Director Eric Imes
had met at the site with
the contractor and DEQ to
discuss continuing scope
of work.
“It’s pretty exciting,
all the work that they’re
going to do on this brown-
field grant,” said Lindsay.
“I think it’s going to be a
really great project.”
Lindsay said that Clem-
ent and Imes were “well
looped in” and are prepared
to see the project through
to completion. Russell ver-
ified that someone in the
public works department
would monitor the project
next year to make sure it
continued to move forward.
Imes said he would be in
charge of that.
“It’s a great project,
trying to get that cleaned
up and back refreshed in the
town there,” said Doherty.
“Make some use of that
space again, certainly.”
Lindsay reiterated to
the board that the only thing
the DEQ wasn’t willing to
deal with was replacing
asphalt. The property sits
on the corner of two streets,
one of which is Ione Main
Street. Lindsay said she
didn’t foresee a problem,
but that Imes was aware
of the caveat. As far as the
property itself, replacing
the existing asphalt wasn’t
a priority.
“The asphalt that’s on
the property is just really
old and degraded and crum-
bled,” said Imes. “There’s
nothing there worth sav-
ing.”
Lindsay also wanted
to inform the other com-
missioners that DEQ was
decommissioning two reg-
ulated and two unregulated
underground fuel tanks,
as well as one heating oil
tank, which she thought the
board may not have been
aware of.
“This is a really good
program,” said Russell.
“Before the federal and
state government had this
program, when these sites
went back for foreclosure,
oftentimes the counties
didn’t foreclose on them; it
just became an abandoned
site because nobody wanted
to touch the tar baby.”
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Ione Community Church
470 E Main Street,
Ione, Oregon
Church School & Adult Study at 10:00 am
Worship at 11:00 AM
“You will seek Me and find Me, when
you search for Me with all you heart.”
-Jeremiah 29:13
Join Us in the Search
merry christmas!
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