January 2026 – February 2026
From the Pastor’s Desk
God’s grace and peace be with each of you through faith in Jesus Christ.
Do you know what the lull is? The lull is that time between Christmas and Lent. For some reason God’s people seem to lie back, lounge as it comes to worship. Advent in many congregations with its extra worships, Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Epiphany right around the corner may lull peoples into thinking, wow, we go to church a lot. Here at Grace, we combine our Advent with regular Sunday worship as we do at Lent, which also leads up to a second lull after Holy Week and Easter. Then, the rest of the church year seems to go back to normal. Why the lull? Some may think this is a normal aspect of churches without midweek worship. But they too seem to suffer from the Lull. Why the lull?
This dip seems to start the Sunday after Christmas and Easter as churches resume regular worship routines, which can feel like a calm after the storm, especially after a hectic Christmas. The post-Christmas and Easter lull typically happens as the high energy of these two Church celebration end with their extra high energy worships and regular worship practices resume.
God’s Word encourages us to not fall into this pattern of excluding ourselves from worship. We see the practice of the early church according to Acts 2:42 was to “devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer,” i.e. worship.
Why is this so important? Matthew 18:20 tells us why, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Worship is not just a fellowship with Bill and Jane it is with Christ as well. This seems to be something many forget. Satan rejoices when we let outside sources get in the way of worship of God by His Church.
It is we who should be rejoicing! Worship is a time of rejoicing according to Psalm 122:1 “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’ ” It is in worship that most Christians pray, praise and give thanks to our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit with other believers. Hebrews 10:25 tells us, “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.” Habits can become dangerous if used wrongly. Habits can become routine.
Regular worship shows our love for and devotion to our Lord. He gave His all for us. Is one or two hours a week in fellowship with our brother and sister too much to ask? Here is another thought. Our corporate worship is rehearsal for the heavenly worship that we will participate in, in glory. Worship is also our response to the love that God shows us. Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is in worship we receive one of the gifts of that love, the body and blood of our Lord in His holy meal, the Lord’s Supper.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor St. Jean
December – January 2026
From the Pastor’s Desk
Well, it’s December and we are about to celebrate the birth of the Lord. And the old argument arises again as it does every year as to when Jesus was born. One might be inclined to think that when Jesus was born is obvious: on December 25 Christmas, in the year 0. It is as far as the Grigorian calendar is concerned. The only problem is that the Grigorian did not exist until October 15, 1582. Prior to this the Julian named after Julius Caesar was the calendar in use as early as 45BC. It did not assign a date for the birth for Christ nor any other Christian event. As Christianity grew then it added its holy days to the calendar. However, the early Church didn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus for 300 years after his death and resurrection. It was at the beginning of the fourth century church leaders first instituted what would become the “Feast of the Nativity.” Pope Julius the 1st is said to have assigned December 25th as the date of the birth of Christ. It took almost another 400 years before the fest we now call Christmas to become common throughout the European world. You will notice I said Europe. Christians in the Eastern church and other parts of the world celebrate January 6th, Epiphany, as their Christmas.
When I was at Redeemer Whittier, we had some fifty Arabic members who worshipped in Arabic. So, we celebrated two different types of the “Fests of the Nativity.” Well actually three, for we had some fifty Hispanic members who worshiped in Spanish. They celebrated “Feliz Navidad” Happy Nativity. The custom is similar but the food is vastly different. Our Christmas celebration lasted from December 24th til January 6th.
As to when Jesus was born no one knows.
- Matthew put it prior to the death of Herod the Great. Strangely this would be in 6 to 4BC according to the Grigorian calendar. No one knows the day, month, or year of the birth of Christ. The early church fathers did not deal with it nor Advent or Lent. These all developed over the life of the church. And the when, is not the important thing, the was, is!
- The unbeliever and Bible critics say it cannot be late December because it’s too cold for this sheep to be grazing in the hills at night. Not true. Sheep do quite well in temperatures between 40F and 70F. The projected temperature in Bethlehem around December 25th runs around 48F at night to 65F during the day. Sheep would love it. So that discredits their objection.
- Matthew and Luke are different in the account of Jesus’ birth so it is not creditable. Of course they are. They deal with different aspects of the birth and the person of Christ, and are writing to different people. Matthew is writing to the Jewish people and his emphasis is on the Messiahship and the fulfillment of the Jewish prophets. He shows Jesus direct lineage to the line of David and then to Abraham and that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Luke is writing to the gentile world and is expressing the facts of the miracle in the virgin birth, time of the birth during the rule of Caesar Augustus who issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register. Luke goes on to deal with the human and divine aspects of the birth. Each dealing with what would be most important to their audience. Matthew the Jews, Luke the gentiles. It is so simple I do not know why they try to make it so hard.
What counts is that the Savior came and accomplished what the Father sent Him to do, save man from sin, death and the devil and provide us with forgiveness, salvation and eternal life.
Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad,
Pastor St. Jean
November 2025
From the Pastor’s Desk
Well, we just celebrated Reformation Day and are moving into the part of the church year that examines the end times. Theologically it is called Eschatology. But for us less than perfect theologians we will just refer to it as the “End Times”. Why is this an important part of our church education? Because it is part of our confession which we express each week in our worship service when we proclaim our faith through the words of the creed; “and he shall come again to judge the living and the dead (Apostles Creed) whose kingdom shall have no end (Nicene Creed).”
We specifically confess our belief that Jesus will return and what is to come about when He does. So, why is this so important? We do not know when that will be. In His Word we are warned to be ready at all times for His return.
“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36
“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed>” Revelation 16:15
“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42
We need to be ready for him today. This hit home on July 21st when I had a heart attack. Thankfully the Lord was beside me. But how many also had heart attacks that same time who do not know Christ and did not recover? This may seem a little morbid but keep reading. On July 21st some 4109 people had heart attacks in the U.S. and of that, some 1370 died according to the American Hear Association. Of those 1370 how many did not know Jesus as their savior? IF you go by an old Gallop pole only 25% of the population believes that they are saved by faith in Jesus alone without works of the Law. By that reckoning roughly 1027 were unbelievers. That would mean some 374,855 souls are lost annually because of unbelief just from heart disease. I hope I did that right. I’m a theologian not a mathematician.
As a Christian, never mind my position as pastor that is an alarming number. According to the CDC almost 50,000 died from Covid each year. That would mean we have just in that group 37,500 souls that need to hear the Gospel. In totality we have over 6,000,000 souls who need to hear of the love of God in Christ just in the U.S. annually. A daunting number, yes, but not an unattainable one. If just the 25% reach out that would be more than 300,000,000 answering the call to evangelize. How many people would hear of the sacrifice Jesus made for them and by the power of the Holy Spirit be moved to believe if we told them of Christ? Faith comes by hearing the words of Christ, Romans 10:17.
The Day of the Lord is nearer every day and in each of those, eternal hope through the Gospel can be proclaimed to so many people if Christians would just reach out and speak up. We all know someone who needs Jesus. How will they hear? Through us!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor St. Jean
