This time of year people start getting SAD.  Yes, there are people who have emotional SAD.  They get depressed because they miss friends and relatives.  Others have seasonal SAD.  They have an idealized view of what Christmas should be like or they thought it was like once.  Nothing can measure up to the old standard.  Others have medical SAD, seasonal affective disorder.  Their bodies perform sub-par when they don't get enough sunlight and vitamin K.

If you are SAD, what is the cure?  If you have emotional SAD, you can't bring people back from the dead, but you can enjoy the company of those who are alive in Christ.  The best cure is to be among God's people.  Fellowship with others in Christ.  Attend Advent services.

Go to Sunday School, worship services and Bible study.  Call a friend and go to lunch.  Call someone and pray for them.  Visit a friend in the hospital.  You'd be surprised how much better you feel when you bring joy to others in need.  If you have seasonal SAD, lighten up, enjoy some new traditions.

People with medical SAD need light.  If they don't get it, their bodies may run down to the point of severe depression.  Doctors prescribe special bright lights (light boxes) and have the patients sit under them for 30 minutes to an hour each day.

People with spiritual SAD (sin and death) need the light of Christ.

If you are a sinner (and who isn't?), you continually need the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.  Read your Bible (light box) for 30 minutes to an hour each day.  God will shine His light on you and cure your spiritual SADness.  This Advent we focus on the messages of

light:  Jesus is the Light of the Heart, Light of Life, Light of Truth, and the Light of Salvation.  Hear about God's light cure.

John 1:9-14 (ESV) says, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Don't be SAD, be GLAD (God's Light and Deliverance) in Christ Jesus.

Amen.  

Pastor Raymond Van Buskirk

www.rlcbaytown.org

1200 E. Lobit Street

Baytown, TX 77520