THE gift...

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! ~2 Corinthians 9:15

I don't think anything in life is random. There is nothing that happens by chance. I didn't always think that. I figured that if I got to a stoplight and it was green... well, it just happened to be green. If I bumped into a long lost friend at the grocery store... hey, what a neat coincidence. I certainly didn't see life as being intricately scripted by God. And yes, I was a believer at the time.

Then one summer in a very special Bible study, we studied the attributes of God. I walked away from that study with a sense that every moment of life is a moment of Divine intervention. Whether it is a check that arrives in the mail just in time to pay a bill that's due or a phone call that delays me five minutes, making me miss being in a major traffic pile-up, I know for certain that God is sovereign. (By the way... if you've never pondered God's sovereignty in your life, I urge you to do so. It will absolutely blow your mind.)

So... today when we were taking down our Christmas decorations, we took a little break to sit down as a family and watch a little bit of a totally crazy old movie. Our Christmas tree stays up through Epiphany, so there it stood in the corner of the family room, untouched by the undecorating frenzy that was going on throughout the rest of the house. My daughter commented, "Oh no... I think we forgot a Christmas present." Sure enough, there was a present in a small box, wrapped in blue paper, still lying under the tree. I stared at it and then I remembered that it was one of the gifts our first grader had made in school. The tag said, "To Jesus." It was symbolic of our gift to Jesus for His birthday... our hearts. It struck me at that moment that Jesus wants us to give Him our hearts each day.

A little later in the day, someone had moved the present from under the tree and left it lying in the middle of the floor. I picked up the present to put it back under the tree and noticed writing on the wrapping paper. When I read the writing, I had another "epiphany." The wrapping paper said, "Jesus is the greatest gift." And, "Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving." Wow. I thought it was all about our giving our hearts to Jesus daily. Then I realized that it is all about Him giving Himself to us. How kind of our Lord to take me beyond myself and focus my heart on Him. It was no coincidence we didn't notice that present until today. It was a well-timed lesson from the heart of a loving Heavenly Father.

So tonight as I type this post about the days leading to Epiphany, the day of gift-giving, I treasure His gift to me that allows me to give my gift to Him. And another verse comes to mind...
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8

Happy New Year!

Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth,

do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation.

The old has passed away;

behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

The Celebration Continues ... by Shannon

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.

Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

In our family, the Christmas season didn't end until the magi arrived. No decoration could be removed until Epiphany … the tree stayed up, all ornaments were left untouched, and the stockings were even returned to the hearth as if Santa never came. Just as the season of Advent was our recognized period of waiting for the Christ child to arrive, the span between Christmas Day and Epiphany was time to wait for the three kings (yep, I know now it wasn't necessarily three and that they were magi not kings, but I didn't know that then!).

I always felt like something was missing when I visited friends' houses in late December and early January and saw the Christmas decorations cleared away so quickly. It made my heart sad to see the twinkling Christmas lights go dark on the 26^th. I felt like shouting, "It's not over yet! The season isn't complete! We're supposed to still be waiting!"

And yet how often do I hurry on with my life, living as if Christ didn't come or at least isn't relevant today? I am so hasty to move into the rest of the week once Sunday has passed, or to dive into the next season once Christmas or Easter is over, or to simply rush into my day after a brief morning devotion. I rarely allow myself to sit and wait in expectation before the Lord as the psalmist did. Just as I was sad for my friends to miss out on celebrating Epiphany like my family did, what is God sad that I'm missing today? What blessings would I see if I would only wait?

Perfection ... by Shannon

I usually decorate our Christmas tree. My husband, Lee, helps, but he asks me where everything should go. (Although, I must admit that somehow his Santa-with-a-shotgun ornament – yes, he's a good ole Southern boy – always ends up aimed at the deer ornament, and that has never been my doing!) This year was different; this year I had a helper: Jocelyn, who will turn two in January.

Before this year, our Noah's ark set of ornaments were always grouped near each other; this year, Noah is nowhere near his wife, the lion can't see his lioness, and the other pairs are all in places that Jocelyn deemed best (including the penguin who is hanging from the nightlight in her bedroom). In previous years, our plain ball ornaments were placed in the recesses of the tree to make it look fuller (especially this year, since our artificial tree is beginning to show that it was a great deal when we bought it as newlyweds); this year, Jocelyn decided that all the ball ornaments needed prominent positioning, since one of her favorite words is "ball." No ornament is where I would have placed it (except for her, my, and Lee's baby's first Christmas ornaments; those I placed near the top as usual), but it's beautiful. Special. Perfect. In a word, it's us. And I love it.

The biggest difference, though, is in how the ornaments were treated. I have my favorite ornaments, those with special meaning or memories or those that are just prettier. I usually hide some less favored ornaments in less conspicuous places, like the back of the tree or its interior, and reserve special spots for my beloved ornaments. This year, though, every ornament was beloved. Jocelyn carefully examined each, lovingly kissed each, and painstakingly selected the perfect spot for each.

My friend, isn't that the message of Christmas? God so loved the world (each of His "ornaments") that He sent His one and only Son so that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life (a perfectly picked spot on His tree). He doesn't have favorites. He doesn't hide some of us away and show off others. On our tree, the ornaments this year were the same ornaments as last year; their monetary value didn't change. But, in how Jocelyn treated each, their worth did. When Christ came, the value of each person didn't change. But, as He paid the price for each of us, our worth was changed forever. Now that's worth celebrating! Merry Christmas!

Beyond the manger ... by Shannon

This year when my mom, who loves Nativity sets, asked what Jocelyn might like for Christmas, I mentioned the Fisher Price Little People set. Since Advent was always a big deal in our home, I shouldn't have been surprised to find the set, along with the coordinating inn and wise men sets, on our doorstep in time for the beginning of the Advent season. We cleared off a side table to allow for the manger, the inn, and the wise men to each occupy a level, and Jocelyn has loved it!

She ignores most of the characters, just playing with the animals, except for baby Jesus. In the pictures above you may have noticed that the main man is missing from the scene. That's because Jocelyn runs around the house with the figure that she calls "baby 'sus." She covers him with kisses and shoves him in the cats' faces, shouting "baby 'sus" the entire time. Occasionally, she gets distracted and leaves the baby somewhere, but she always returns to find him (sometimes after an extensive search). Thus, baby Jesus is rarely in the Nativity set.

As I thought about this, it brought to mind how easy it is for all of us to leave Jesus in the manger. Babies are pretty safe and unintimidating, right? We're often more comfortable with Him in the manger as a babe than we are, for example, as a man clearing the money changers out of the temple. And we're often more comfortable leaving Jesus in His place in the manager … or perhaps at church after Christmas Eve or Easter or just a typical Sunday worship service … than we are taking Him with us in our lives, carrying Him around, giving Him kisses with the way we live our lives, and sharing His message to others (though, unlike Jocelyn's approach with the cats, not shoving Him in their faces!).

I think we'll be beginning a new tradition this year. As I pack up our Nativity set this year, I'll be leaving baby 'sus out as a reminder that He entered His human life in a stable but that He was never meant to stay there.

It's Christmas ...

'Tis that time of year when carolers sing

Of the manger where Jesus lay;
How there was no soft pillow to cradle His head,
Only a mattress of hay.

Then our thoughts dart foward
To a cross on a hill,
And Jesus, by choice, hanging there,
By the world rejected still.

And for just a moment we feel so sad
As we think of the price He paid;
But He gave His life freely; He loved us that much,
And He triumphed over the grave!

It's Christmas, my beloved friends,
And 'midst all the "hullabaloo"
Let's not lose sight of the simple fact
That He did what He came to do!

The Bethlehem manger is empty,
And bare is Calvary's tree;
The Savior of the world now lives...
Forever...in YOU and ME.

Copyright ©2008 Melvin Bennett

Magnify...

Gabriel visits Mary with the news that Jesus is on His way. Mary goes to see her cousin Elizabeth, who confirms Gabriel's message as she's experiencing a miraculous pregnancy of her own. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth blesses Mary, "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Luke 1:45).

Mary responds with the famous song of praise known as "The Magnificat." And in the first line of her song, Mary reveals the secret of celebrating Christmas. She says, "My soul magnifies the Lord..."(Luke 1:46). What a simple, amazing idea. Magnify the Lord.

Now, I am the teacher-type. I have to know what the words mean. So I looked up the word magnify and discovered that it means the same thing in this verse that it does when you're talking about a magnifying glass or telescope or microscope. To place in the center; to bring into focus; to see the subject as bigger that objects surrounding it.

We are halfway through Advent. Christmas events seem to be taking center stage -- parties and concerts and plays. Shopping and gift wrapping become the focus of our "spare" time. Cooking and cleaning consume our domestic moments. Just being where we think we need to be, doing what we think we need to do takes on a life of its own, growing bigger and bigger as we rush towards December 25th.

When we magnify the spectacle of the holiday, it becomes the center of our focus. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Ultimately, the events of Christmas grow larger in our lives than the Christ of Christmas. We are rushed and panicked and exhausted, when, as Jesus told another sweet-but-harried woman, only one thing is needed.

So let's take a break. Halftime. Let's make sure that Jesus is still in the center of our lives, in focus and bigger than all else. Let's choose to magnify the Lord this Christmas season.

************************************************************

One of the ways you can keep Jesus as the focus of the Christmas season is by placing reminders throughout your home that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our Savior. A Friend of Celebrating Christmas has a collection of nativity scenes, but instead of displaying them together, she places them throughout her home as reminders to magnify Jesus moment by moment, day by day. Here are a few pictures of some of the nativity decorations in her collection...

Nativity sets make excellent Christmas gifts. They are visual reminders to magnifyJesus during these holy days.

And after December 25th, there are some wonderful sales on these meaningful decorations, so if you have already finished shopping for this year, you can begin to plan for next year and exercise good stewardship of your resources by catching them on sale in the coming weeks.

... in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name... by Jenn

You can tune your radio to a Christian station any day of the year and hear Christians singing to and about God. But for a few weeks each year we can hear something really spectacular -- secular artists singing praises to their Maker.

O holy night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night
Of our dear Savior's birth...

Why is this so neat? I believe their voices on these Christmas songs prove that each and every one of us was made to worship God.

Long lay the world
In sin and error pining
'Til He appeared
And the soul felt its worth...

You can find many artists singing traditional songs written to celebrate the birth of Christ, and some of the most beautiful, most moving versions are by men and women who have never publicly claimed to know or follow Jesus.

A thrill of hope
The weary world rejoices!
For yonder breaks
A new and glorious morn!

One wonders how you could sing the words of these songs and not be moved by them. Maybe we've heard them too many times. But these songs are the Gospel in musical form. I believe they must penetrate the heart on some level.

Truly He taught us
To love one another
His law is love
His gospel is peace...

There is one song in particular, a medley of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "We Three Kings" that especially stirs my heart. The song is sung by BNL (for short) and Sarah McLachlan, musical artists who are not in any way known for loving Jesus. But you know when you hear Sarah sing the words, "Glorious now, behold Him arise/ King and God and sacrifice/ Alleluia, Alleluia..." that her voice has never sounded more beautiful.

Chains shall he break
For the slave is our brother
And in His name
All oppression shall cease...

We were made to worship Him.

Sweet hymns of joy
In grateful chorus raise we
Let every heart
Adore His holy name...

Only Him.

Christ is the Lord!
Oh praise His name forever!
His power and glory
Evermore proclaim!

Kinda makes you want to fall on your knees, doesn't it?

An UN-usual Christmas ... by Maureen

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

The sun was rising and the chill of the day could be seen on the interior walls of my apartment where ice was forming over the brown floral, soviet-era wallpaper. Gently rubbing the frost from the window pane revealed a bustling world outside. Silhouettes glided down the ice-covered sidewalks ... people rushing to catch their buses, precisely wrapped in layers of black fur and wool with only rosy cheeks and glassy eyes peeking through.

Today was December 25th ... Christmas Day! All over the world people were waking up this morning to find neatly wrapped presents under the tree, the smell of turkey roasting in the oven and hot chocolate warming on the stove. Yet, when I looked out the window I couldn't help but think, Something is missing. Today was just another day, not a holiday, not Christmas, but another usual day. I was off to the university to teach my class.

A few weeks earlier the department head asked me to put on a "special" play for the English students. Not having any drama experience, the only play I could even imagine was the play I had seen every year since I was a child -- the Christmas story! Yes! We were going to do the Christmas story! I carefully typed up the entire Biblical account of the birth of Jesus, gave the scripts to the "star" students, and brought in a nativity set to explain the story further. It was a beginner's play -- no props, no costumes, no music or effects. I was a bit nervous to imagine all the teachers, faculty, and the rector of the university coming into my class to see my novice "work" -- surely they would send me packing after this!

All my fears melted away that morning when I arrived in my classroom to find an amazing sight -- a fully clad Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, Wise Men, a baby Jesus, and some shepherds. My students had taken the scripts home, studied the birth of Jesus, and decided to create the costumes themselves! They wanted their fellow students REALLY to understand the story!!! As people crowded into the classroom to watch, I carefully jotted a few vocabulary words on the board for reference (Messiah, Savior, salvation, prophecy, etc). For the next 30 minutes my non-believing students shared the gospel message with over 100 of their fellow students, faculty, and the rector of the university. For all of them, this was the FIRST time they had ever heard this story!

The play was a success -- not because of anything I had done, but because our Lord chose to use that time and place to reveal HIMSELF to those HE loves! Afterward, I not only retained my teaching job, but the "powers that be" asked for me to do the play every year! WOW! Even in a dark land that does not know our Savior, He uses creative means to call people to Himself! From that small group of students, two became believers that year, the first student Bible study was formed (and now has grown to a fellowship of over 100 students), out of which one student continued on to become the first "national" staff of an evangelical student group -- to this day still leading others to Christ!

That Christmas there were no decorated trees, carefully wrapped presents, or golden turkeys ... just the pure and precious gift of the message of our Savior, a message being given to those who had never heard before!

Things you can't not know ... by Jenn

It's beginning to happen every year - the decision to wish shoppers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." And many Christians do their best to take Christ out of Christmas by stomping and whining and insisting that everyone keep Him in. It's really a lose-lose situation.

I mean, yes, it's totally asinine that corporations won't allow employees to wish customers a merry Christmas, when Christmas is the holiday that generates sales that keep their doors open the rest of the year. I also think the stupidest (is that a word? My dad uses it a lot, so...) thing I've ever heard of is to call those lit-up, decorated green things "Holiday Trees." They are Christmas trees. I wouldn't say to my Jewish friends, "Hey, that's a lovely Holiday Candle Holder you've got there." It's called a Menorah, 'cause that's what it is. It's called a Festivus Pole, 'cause that's what it is. It's called a Christmas Tree, 'cause that's what it is.

Having said that, I feel it's also very un-Christlike to demand that we be wished a Merry Christmas. I mean nothing says "I love Jesus" like demanding that a store employee go against their boss to wish you a Merry Christmas.

But that's not really the point of this post. My friend Cristin sent me a story that speaks about these issues, but actually points to a deeper matter that I want to address. The story is about new ads going up on DC buses that say, "Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness' sake." (A similar ad has been running in Britain that reads "There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." I would say that "probably" is not a good word to use here. I mean, wouldn't you want to be absolutely sure about that?)

We are studying Romans in Sunday school and few weeks ago, our teacher (who is also a professor at the local seminary) was speaking about creation and God and he used the phrase "things you can't not know." He was referring to creation as being made by God. I mean, you can call it what you want, but really, you can't not know that God made it all. Even my three-year old knows. But even deeper that that, you can't not know that God is. You can deny Him, but that doesn't make Him less true.

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul tells us, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (vv.18-20, italics mine).

But here's the catch for us - while God as Creator is plain to man without ever being told, Jesus as Savior is not. So it's not my job to convince someone of the truth of creation. But it is my job, my command from the Man Himself, to speak the truth of Jesus, to live the truth of Jesus, and to be the truth of Jesus. And what better time than during Christmas?

How about this season we stop expecting to be catered to? Let's serve, instead of expecting to be served. Time and again, scripture refers to God as "slow to anger and abounding in love." There's no reason we can't be the same. Let's not get grouchy when the lines are long, and let's not do that thing where we mumble under our breath about the service or the employees.

I would love for us to put Christ back in Christmas. But forcing your town to have a public Nativity scene isn't the way to do it. I don't think a plastic, light-up Baby Jesus is the "light of the world" Matthew was talking about. No, that light is you. And it's me.

I do wish you a Merry Christmas, and I pray that you share the "merriness" that is within you to all you meet this holiday season.