Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from home. Yes, I am home for several weeks here.

I have been teaching at Baptist College of Ministry for a week and several other things, and, of course, getting ready for Christmas. I am sure you are as well, and I appreciate you tuning in to the podcast. I just want to share a little bit with you in light of Christmas coming—a little bit of the thought of nostalgia.

I know many of you are young, and nostalgia is probably not a big part of your life yet, but it might be. Christmas comes around, I hear a Christmas carol, and I am immediately transported back to the living room where, as a kid, there is the Christmas tree and I have the Sears catalog on my lap.

All you millennials and Gen Zers may wonder what the big deal is about a Sears catalog, but ask your mom or dad, or even your grandfather, and they will tell you that was the big deal when the Sears catalog came to your home around Christmas time.

I have memories from Christmas. I am sure even some of you teenagers have childhood memories that are special—a certain toy you got, a special thing that happened at Christmas, maybe a surprise visit from Grandma or whatever.

Certainly, we make memories at this time of year, and I hope they are all mostly good. I realize sometimes negative memories happen, but there is a certain blessing in nostalgia where you think back to exciting things that happened to you.

Sometimes it is brought about by a smell. Sometimes, like I mentioned, it is by a Christmas carol. Sometimes it is by a sight, looking at a Christmas tree in your living room.

I have nostalgia of driving home from college. I know many of our college students are excited about that right now, some already on the road heading home for Christmas break, and there are just a lot of great memories at Christmas time.

But you know what it made me think about as I was preparing for this podcast? It made me think about the fact that there is also probably a much more important type of nostalgia that comes from those early moments in your Christian life, particularly when you get into your teenage years and college years. You are making important decisions of faith and following the Lord, and sometimes things just really speak to your heart.

Even as someone who is on the older side than most people probably listening, there are times that those moments come back to my mind.

I remember out under the stars at Bob Jones University as a student, just looking up and meeting with God during those early times of meeting with God and realizing He was there, giving me a sense of destiny and purpose—that God had a purpose for my life—and being able to pray with great confidence and faith that God was hearing my prayer and that there were great things ahead that He was going to do, things that would be in my periphery, in my experience, and that were coming.

Those are special times of nostalgia. I was reading this morning in my devotional time in Genesis chapter 28, and I came across Jacob’s time there at Bethel with the ladder.

In verse 15, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. And I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”

That was a key time in Jacob’s life. There is no doubt God was telling him, “Jacob, I have got something big for you, and it is way bigger than you can imagine.”

I want every young person listening to understand something: God has something bigger for you than you right now can imagine. He certainly can do above all things that we can ask or think. That is big, because some of us can think pretty big, but He can do greater than that.

Many times in your early steps of your Christian life, when you begin to take steps of faith—if you got saved younger, maybe later on in your teen years or college years—you begin to recognize the need for a walk with God. You begin to search the Scriptures, seek God, and begin to pray. There are times God begins to meet with you and ministers to you the fact that He has a purpose for your life.

One of the nostalgic moments for me is some of the cards or letters my mom would send me. I was back in the day, of course, before email, before texting, way before all that. My mother was faithful to write me on a regular basis, and there are a couple of verses she would often put in those letters.

Sometimes it was just the reference, but I am going to read them. I became familiar with these, and I know what she was doing: she was giving me a sense of destiny and calling and a sense of God being with me.

Deuteronomy chapter 31, verses 6 and 8: “Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them”—talking about, of course, enemies—“for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

Verse 8: “And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee.

He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed.”

When I think back to those letters and reading those verses, or seeing—I can still see my mother’s handwriting. She had unique handwriting—and when I think of those verses, they stir me because I know God ministered to my mother to give those verses to me.

Do not be afraid about the future, do not be dismayed, but have great confidence that God would go with me in life. He would make not only a pathway, but He would be with me in what He had called me to do.

Certainly, I have not lived it perfectly, and many times the older you get, you realize there is a whole lot better way you could have journeyed the journey. But God has always been with me, and He has always been there to enable and encourage me in what He has called me to do.

He called me to do something humanly I could not do, but He gifted me. “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.”

He has a gift for every one of you. It may not be my gift; it might be, but you have a gifting from the Lord. That is your sweet spot, I call it.

When you get in that place where your gift is operating, you have a fulfillment and a power that is beyond you. You know, “This is what God has made me to do,” and you are so thrilled.

I was talking to somebody recently who loves working with people who have been in prison, and that is their sweet spot. They just love discipling and helping people who have had a rough past. God calls people to those things.

He equips people to do special things. I do not know what God has called you to do, but here at Christmas time, we think of gifts.

God has gifted you. He has given you a great gift, not only salvation.

Believe me, if that is all we got when we got saved, that would be far more than any of us could ever imagine. Without the Bible, we could not have imagined what God gave us at salvation. But not only did He give us the gift of eternal life, He has given us a spiritual gift so that while we are on this planet, we have a place—a place of service that is effective and powerful.

I want to encourage a young person: you are making memories now, but make them good memories where you are meeting with God and seeking Him. God pulls back the curtain, and you begin to realize God is real. He has a purpose for my life.

When you meet with God, you cannot help but come away with some sense of destiny.

You are not on this planet by random choice. You may have gotten here in a way that seems unorthodox—maybe talking to someone who was conceived before their parents got married, or in less than optimum circumstances—but the moment you were conceived, God had a purpose for your life. You did not take Him by surprise, and when you were conceived, He wanted you.

He wants to use your life. He has a plan for you.

If you will follow the Lord, God will do wonderful things in and through you, because that is what His will does. That is what it is. It is the greatest thing, as I have often said.

Here at Christmas, when you begin to make memories and even have a little bit of nostalgia from some of those childhood memories of Christmas—the magic of it, Christmas morning, and the excitement—all of those things are wonderful things. But I will tell you, friends, as long as I have lived life, I enjoy the nostalgia of Christmas. No doubt about it.

But the greater nostalgia is remembering back to those teen years and college years where God began to meet with me, where He began to answer prayer, where He pulled back the veil, and in my heart He ministered these words.

He spoke to Moses, and He spoke here to Jacob, as I mentioned earlier in the book of Genesis: “I am going to go with you. I am going to be with you. I am going to accomplish in and through your life, if you will trust Me, what I created you to do.”

There is a sense of purpose and destiny when God does that. I just want each young person here at Christmas time to spend time with God and seek His face. Some of you are not in school now; you have more time.

Set some time aside where you just seek the Lord. Have an open Bible, maybe some things you want to pray about written on a pad so you can remember some important things you are facing in life, and begin to learn to meet with God, because those are the great memories that really come into your life and later on will stand you in good stead.

You will realize, just like Jacob could look back and realize, “God promised this,” and Moses could look back and say, “God, You promised You would not fail me, You would not forsake me, You would be with me.” Those are wonderful things. They are wonderful gifts.

I trust at Christmas you will not only have Christmas nostalgia, but, more important, Christian nostalgia—meeting with Jesus Christ and knowing the reality of His presence.

I encourage you. I hope you have a wonderful, merry, merry Christmas and a wonderful time and a happy New Year. We will certainly look forward to the next podcast in January, but in the meantime, I will sign off.

As I always do, remember: it is a total surrender to God’s will in your life and a total dependence on His grace to enable you to live it. God bless.