December 2023 Newsletter

Season’s greetings to all our friends and family in Christ! Lord bless and Merry Christmas from the Hills and CKCM! We pray His best to you and yours; may His presence overwhelm you all! May this coming year burst forth with His good plans for you to bring Him glory! Amen!

We are thankful for God moving in our family. We felt to share with you about how He is

touching Justice, our youngest. He wants to be down at the altar. He wants to pray for others, and He is ready to receive, as well. The Lord has moved on Him strongly; it has blessed us and provoked us to quickly yield like a child to the Lord intentionally. Pastor Tommy has called him up on the stage several times and prayed for him. Glory to Jesus!

The last pic is from Pastor Jonathan in Manila. They are doing a monthly basketball outreach after we did one and supplied a basket they hadn’t had in 3 years! Hallelujah! Here in the USA, Jonah and Yissachar are part of the CCA worship team. Praise God they’re using their gifts for Him! Hallelujah! Please pray the Lord’s love, truth, and power show mightily for my scheduled ministry time at Summit Christian Academy on January 10th in Lexington. Also, please pray for financial abundance for the ministry the Lord has given us. Your year-end tax deductible gift helps us reach out and share Christ. Thank you! We pray a 100-fold return to you! May your home be full of His peace; may your families be in the unity of the Spirit with the bond of peace.

We celebrate the birth of Christ this time of year. Our Father is kind, and Jesus came to reveal His lovingkindness in greater measure. Titus 3:4-7 is quite an exquisite sample, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Such lovingkindness that sent salvation!

The more we recognize and know His kindness, the more we mature. Christ came as a baby, and 1 Peter 2:2,3 reveals for us, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” The Greek word translated “gracious” means “of persons, kind, benevolent: of God.” The word is “chrestos,” and I don’t think it is a coincidence it is so similar to “Christos,” Greek for “Christ.” One reason Jesus came was to reveal the Father and His lovingkindness. Christ points to this using “chrestos” in Luke 6:35, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”

We find “chrestos” in Matthew 11:30, too, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” That is the yoke that Jesus wants us collared with: He’s kind. He wants us feeling the weight of His favor that surrounds us like a shield. (Psalms 5:12) Whatever burden the enemy, this earthly life, or others try to lay on you, never allow it to seem more real than the lovingkindness that is draped around your shoulders pulling you from glory to glory! Amen!!!

Love and kindness are intertwined, and I was excited to hear a pastor’s wife in Kentucky share after a service once when we ministered, “part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.” Let us not resist His lovingkindness, favor, and blessings flowing to us. We hinder them when in our hearts we find fault with the Lord blessing others. In Matthew 20:1, 6-7, 9-11, 14-15, Jesus shared, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard...And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them...‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive’...when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner...Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’” O, Jesus! By God’s grace, may we never have an evil eye! Countless times, we get undeserved favor; that’s grace. But, it will happen to others when they don’t deserve it, too. May we abide in the Lord’s lovingkindness, so that when it does, we still have “kind” eyes.

Love in Christ, Steve, Jill, Judah, Yisaac, Jonah, Yissachar, Jakin, Yezekiel, Jerusalem, & Justice