POTUS, Empty Ballroom, A Raised Flag, and Christmas

As caregivers, we have so many things that hit us all the time, and we can't always nail these things down by ourselves. Who helps you?

What does that look like? I'm Peter Rosenberg, and I want to tell you about a program I've been a part of now for almost 10 years, and that's Legal Shield. For less than $30 a month, I have access to a full law firm that can handle all kinds of things.

If I get a contract put in front of me, if I got a dispute with something, doesn't matter. I've got a full law firm that can help me navigate through all the sticky wickets that we as caregivers have to deal with. Power of attorney, medical power of attorney, I will.

Every bit of it. As a caregiver, we need someone who advocates for us, and that's why I use Legal Shield. So go to caregiverlegal.com. Look on the left-hand side where it says Legal Shield. Just select it.

It turns purple. It says, pick a plan. It'll give you some options.

If you don't need any of those, don't select them. Check out and be protected starting today. That's caregiverlegal.com. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. I'm Peter Rosenberg, so I'm glad that you're with us. Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Hopeforthecaregiver.com. Have you got all your Christmas shopping done, all the meals planned, all the decorations up? It's the most wonderful time of the year. Does it stress you out a little bit to deal with Christmas?

It can. I mean, it's done it for me over the years, but I've been working on that so that I'm not pushing myself quite as hard as I used to to make sure we have it all perfect. The gift is perfect. That's the whole point of Christmas. And so that's kind of the mentality I'm trying to do as I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of this time of year. Maybe it's because I'm getting older.

I don't know. But I look at things a little bit differently now. I think maybe my journey with Gracie and all these years of hospitals and everything else we've done, and maybe that's all shaped the way I look at stuff.

But I want to paint a picture for you. First off, do you like Christmas decorations? When we were kids, we would go out and drive around the neighborhood. I mean, this is back when I was little. Mom and dad would take us all out in the station wagon. We'd go out and see Christmas decorations.

And then my four brothers, my little sister was just a baby at the time. But we'd always count how many we could see we could see of the decorations. It was kind of fun just to go out and look at it. I don't know if everybody else did that, but we did it. And it was fun.

And we had a good time. We loved decorating the house. And I still have a Christmas stocking that I made when I was just a kid.

I've kept for all these years. And all these trappings of Christmas, when they come out, it creates a sense of excitement, of festivity, nostalgia, feelings, all kinds of remembering things, people in your lives maybe that are not here or Christmas has gone past. I mean, there's all kinds of feelings that come out at Christmas.

And then it seems like it's over too soon. Out here where we live in Montana, God does a better job of decorating for Christmas than I ever could. I mean, it looks like a winter wonderland out here. And we live in kind of a courier and Ives picture because the mountains are covered with snow. And I get out on the snowmobile and feed horses. And they come running through the snow, just galloping, throwing up sprays of snow and looking forward to our grandchildren being out here with us.

And we'll have all kinds of fun. But I want to talk about the decorations for a bit. When we have decorations up for Christmas, there's a clear indicator of what's happening. I mean, the Christmas decorations are like no other. And we have them all safely preserved.

They're in boxes or bins or whatever and all those kinds of things. But let me tell you about some other decorations that I saw one time. Years ago, Gracie was invited to sing for an event with President George W. Bush. And it was an event in Nashville. And we got there and we met the president and so forth. It was very, I mean, you can imagine it's kind of a big deal when you meet a city U.S. president. And then we went into the big ballroom.

They ushered us there into the ballroom where Gracie was going to sing. And she's standing at the podium. And the podium has the seal of the President of the United States on it. There's a notebook with the seal of the President of the United States. And it's right there in front where his notes are because I saw it. And she did kind of a rehearsal soundcheck or whatever.

But it's all there. The backdrop, everything that communicated that the president was there. And for that time, for that night, for that day, that particular ballroom at that hotel was the seat of power for the executive branch of the United States of America because the president was there.

You could just feel it. It was just electric in the air. A week later, I had an opportunity to go back for a meeting at that same facility, that same hotel.

And for whatever reason, I was kind of curious or whatever, and I just went down to that same ballroom where Gracie had performed just a week prior. We stood there with the President of the United States and the ballroom was empty. There was nothing there to communicate that at one point that ballroom was one of the most important places in the country because the president was there, in the world, because the president was there. It was completely empty.

There was not one trapping of office. For the United States of America, the seat of power is wherever the president is. In a like manner, when Queen Elizabeth, for example, now King Charles, was at Balmoral Castle or at Buckingham Palace, a certain flag was raised to let you know that the king was there, the queen was there. The raised flag communicated to all who saw it that the monarch was in residence.

The monarch was physically there. Our Christmas decorations kind of reflect that in a way because the whole point of Christmas is to recognize the seat of power for the kingdom of God is wherever Christ is. Once a year, we celebrate that he came to earth, put on flesh, and became like us. That's what Immanuel means, God with us.

We talked about this on the last program, God with us. Wherever he is, there is the seat of power. The flag is raised. The king is in residence. Now the difference between God and any other monarch, ruler, elected official, once he establishes his residence, he doesn't leave. When I went back to the Vanderbilt Plaza there in Nashville and I looked at that ballroom, there was nothing in that empty ballroom. Even the chairs and the tables were stacked away. It was an empty room. There was nothing there to communicate in any way the authority of the United States of America. There was nothing there to communicate the office of the president. There was nothing there.

It was an empty room. When Gracie performed at Madison Square Gardens for the president, there was a second time, that room was filled with all kinds of things. I mean there was a massive audience and we were on stage with the president.

It was massive. If you go to Madison Square Gardens on any day of the week, it's just an empty hall. There's a lot of memories there that I'm sure people have, but there's nothing there. The president's not there. Frank Sinatra, who once played there, he's not there. Nothing is there.

It's just an empty facility. When you're around a lot of the pomp that you get to see and all the stage stuff and the flags and all those kinds of things, it's great. But look at what Isaiah saw in chapter six. I saw the Lord. He was high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. The angels cried holy. It was so much that Isaiah said, you know, I'm undone. Woe was to me. I mean I'm a man of unclean lips.

I mean Isaiah was stunned. But now listen to what Paul says. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. That's 1 Corinthians 6, 19, 20. You're filled. You're infused. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is in you. That same pomp, that same power, that same seat of power is in you. Christ in me, the hope of glory. That is in you.

That is in me. And he never takes the flag down. So when we put up Christmas decorations, do those decorations reflect our theology, our doctrine that this is not just about Santa Claus. In fact, it's not about Santa Claus at all.

And I understand the nostalgia, and I'm not here to have that argument. I'm just simply saying, do you understand that once the flag is raised in your life, the monarch, the king, is in residence, and it signals to everybody around that the king is in residence there. The seat of power for everything is in you. Because wherever Christ is, there is the seat of power, and his spirit resides in you. Emmanuel, God with us, and he doesn't take the flag down.

He bought you at a great price, Paul said. You were bought at a great price, and he's not taking the flag down. So you can leave your Christmas decorations up all year long, because guess what? The king is in residence in you.

What started in a stable became so much more, and this is why we celebrate Christmas. And this is why I have hope as a caregiver, because as I serve as a caregiver, and all the functions go on, the flag's up. The king is in residence. I'm not an empty hotel ballroom. The flag's up.

He's not taking it down. This is Peter Rosenberger. You've heard me talk about standing with hope over the years. This is the prosthetic limb ministry that Gracie envisioned after losing both of her legs. Part of that outreach is our Prosthetic Limb Recycling Program. Did you know that prosthetic limbs can be recycled?

No kidding. There is a correctional facility in Arizona that helps us recycle prosthetic limbs, and this facility is run by a group out of Nashville called CoreCivic. We met them over 11 years ago, and they stepped in to help us with this recycling program of taking prostheses and you disassemble them. You take the knee, the foot, the pylon, the tube clamps, the adapters, the screws, the liners, the prosthetic socks. All these things we can reuse, and inmates help us do it. Before CoreCivic came along, I was sitting on the floor at our house or out in the garage when we lived in Nashville, and I had tools everywhere, limbs everywhere, and feet, boxes of them and so forth. And I was doing all this myself, and I'd make the kids help me.

And it got to be too much for me. And so I was very grateful that CoreCivic stepped up and said, look, we are always looking for faith-based programs that are interesting and that give inmates a sense of satisfaction. And we'd love to be a part of this. And that's what they're doing. And you can see more about that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle. So please help us get the word out that we do recycle prosthetic limbs. We do arms as well, but the majority of amputations are lower limbs.

So we're going to be doing that. But the majority of amputations are lower limb. And that's where the focus of Standing With Hope is. And that's where Gracie's life is with her lower limb prostheses. And she's used some of her own limbs in this outreach that she's recycled. I mean, she's been an amputee for over 30 years.

So you go through a lot of legs and parts and other types of materials, and you can reuse prosthetic socks and liners if they're in good shape. All of this helps give the gift that keeps on walking. And it goes to this prison in Arizona where it's such an extraordinary ministry. Think with that. Inmates volunteering for this, they want to do it.

And they've had amazing times with it. And I've had very moving conversation with the inmates that work in this program. And you can see, again, all of that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle. They're putting together a big shipment right now for us to ship over. We do this pretty regularly throughout the year as inventory rises and they need it badly in Ghana. So please go out to standingwithhope.com slash recycle and get the word out and help us do more. If you want to offset some of the shipping, you can always go to the giving page and be a part of what we're doing there.

We're purchasing material in Ghana that they have to use that can't be recycled. We're shipping over stuff that can be. And we're doing all of this to lift others up and to point them to Christ. And that's the whole purpose of everything that we do. And that is why Gracie and I continue to be standing with hope. standingwithhope.com