Who Started This Christmas Stuff?

In all this rush to find the perfect gift and have the perfect Christmas, it is so easy to forget that the only perfection was born in a dirty manger in a small obscure village over 2,000 years ago to peasants. He wasn’t born into a royal family but He is royalty indeed!  He is our Jesus, the One who came so that we might have everlasting life. But we have to accept the gift…God’s gift to us. If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, I pray that God will open your eyes and your heart to the real beauty of this sacred season.

I wanted to share the following story I received via email this morning. May it remind you WHO started all this Christmas stuff. Merry Christmas!


A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable; and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many feel during the holiday season time of the year – overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don’t forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally the elevator doors opened, and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed, she couldn’t take it anymore and she stated, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.”

From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, “Don’t worry, we already crucified Him.”

For the rest of the trip down in the elevator, it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. This year, don’t forget to keep “the One who started this whole Christmas thing” in your every thought, deed and words. If we all did it, just think of how different this whole world would be.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

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Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas

Consider some ways you can help others less fortunate this Christmas. Here are some ideas from Luci Swindoll’s book, “Celebrating a Christ Centered Christmas.”

• Help an elderly person decorate his or her home and take the decorations down at the end of the season.
• Give an anonymous gift of money to someone who lost their job or someone who you know struggles financially.
• Offer to do Christmas shopping for a disabled person.
• Purchase and deliver a gift for a child whose parent is in prison
• Pack a shoebox for a needy child overseas through Operation Christmas Child.
• Process toys for the Salvation Army.
• Volunteer to ring the bell for the Salvation Army.
• Work in a Soup Kitchen
• Visit someone in a nursing home who has few relatives.

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10 Relationship Tips for the Holidays

I wanted to share the following with my readers. Written by Pam Farrell, I think it provides wonderful guidance for this holiday season.

C – Center your heart on the deeper meaning of the holidays. This will help everyone become easier to get along with because the heart of the holiday will remain intact.

H – Hear what your friends and family are voicing as their stress, and listen carefully to them—a gift that will lower their stress.

R – Reach out as a family to help others in order to keep the proper perspective on what is really important in life.

I – Invest in memories, not material goods. Make time for family baking, tree decorating, or board games.

S – Speak your love in words. The best gift you can give is for a person to hear their value and worth from your lips.

T – Take time for romance. The greatest gift you can give your children is a happy marriage.

M – Make time to reach out to extended family. Visit or call grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

A – Assume nothing; ask those who are celebrating with you what their expectations are, and communicate the plan clearly so people feel informed.

S – Stay flexible. Don’t be a Christmas boss, ordering family around. Instead slow the pace, gather consensus, and give options so that you create an environment of connecting and sharing.

Excerpted from Simplify Your Holidays © 2008 Marcia Ramsland.

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Let’s Pray for Our President

I am your servant, Lord God, and I beg you to answer my prayers and bring honor to yourself by having pity on your temple that lies in ruins. Please show mercy to your chosen city, not because we deserve it, but because of your great kindness. Forgive us! Hurry and do something, not only for your city and your chosen people, but to bring honor to yourself.”  Daniel 9:17-19 (CEV)

When Daniel was young, he was taken into Babylonian captivity. However, he never converted to their ways. Through divine wisdom from God, Daniel was able to interpret dreams and the visions of kings and became a prominent figure in the court of Babylon.

While we may never become a prominent figure in our government, we do need to pray for our leaders, especially our president. During Daniel’s time, God’s people were in turmoil. Jerusalem had been destroyed and its people taken into captivity.

Today our country is in turmoil with high unemployment rates, high gas prices and the rising cost of necessities. Many have lost hope as home foreclosures continue to increase and more families seek assistance from social agencies and churches. Our country has the highest number of homeless at 13 percent than any other industrialized nation.

Recently, I read a newspaper article buried on the back page of a section. However, it gave me hope because two members of Congress, Reps. Dan Boren and James Lankford, recently presented copies of the book, Obama Prayer: A Book of Prayers for the 44th President,  to the other 434 U.S. House members. The book, written by Chuck Garriott, was received by the members with positive feedback.

Lankford said, “It’s a nonpartisan issue to me to say we have a responsibility to pray for our leaders.”

Whether we like our president or not, we need to pray for him. In fact, it is in our country’s best interests to pray for all of our leaders. As God’s servants, it is our responsibility. Will you join me in praying for President Obama?

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Seek God This Holiday Season

I wanted to share the following devotional with my readers because so many in this country lose sight of the real reason for this joyous holiday season. It is excerpted from the Daily Guideposts. The author is Mary Brown. Enjoy and pass it on please.

Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. Proverbs 23:23 (NIV)

The commercial countdown began weeks ago, and today advertisements urge: “Only forty shopping days until Christmas!” In other words, spend! Buy! Get ready!

Forty days has often been a special period for God’s people. Jesus Himself fasted and prayed in the desert forty days before beginning His ministry. Although I can’t take off to a desert, the coming weeks provide precious opportunity to do some spiritual spending and the Bible gives an interesting shopping list: truth, wisdom, discipline and understanding.

During this hectic season, what I need to seek as doggedly as I search the stores or the Internet for those “perfect gifts” of toys, books and clothing is God’s wisdom. It seems no coincidence that discipline is next on the list. Too often I’ve seen a connection between lack of discipline in my life and a shortage of understanding how to love God and the people around me. This Advent I want to establish a small discipline of taking a few quiet moments each day to think about Jesus, the Wisdom of God.

Who is He? Who can He be for me? Even in this busy time, God wants to come to me in the midst of my everyday life. Moses was busy going about his daily work, tending sheep on Mount Horeb, when he came upon an incredible sight: the Angel of the Lord appearing in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

Moses’ response? “I will now turn aside and see this great sight . . . ” (Exodus 3:3, NKJV).

God, a consuming fire, comes as an infant in a virgin’s womb! Forty days isn’t enough even to begin to ponder His appearance, but I want to try—to turn aside and gaze on Him a bit more each day.

Lord, help me to acquire Your wisdom and better understand Who You are.

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His Word Endures Forever

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”–1 Peter 1:24-25 (NIV)

            Working in my flowerbeds brings me pleasure. Not only do I like getting my hands dirty in the soil, I like the reward that comes from my effort. When bushes grow, seeds sprout and flowers bloom, I see the results of my hard work. The benefits of their beauty are a bonus.

Last spring, I purchased a packet of Morning Glory seeds at a local dollar store. I had never had any luck growing this very fast-growing annual vine known for its trumpet-shaped flowers, which come in blue, pink, purple, scarlet, white and multicolored blooms, attracting hummingbirds, bees, ladybugs and butterflies.

Blooms open in the cool of the morning, hence, the name Morning Glory. During the fall, flowers open all day. They usually bloom from summer until fall frost. My Morning Glory plant grew fast, covering my brick mailbox with its profuse vine. However, I was disappointed when it didn’t bloom this summer. I had watered it, fertilized it and waited for the flowers to appear. Several neighbors had also planted seeds next to their mailboxes.  While out walking my dog each day, I enjoyed the flowers growing abundantly on their vines.

According to the information I had read about this flower, the vines die with a winter frost but will reseed themselves each year. However, my vine had not produced any flowers. Although I had only spent a buck plus tax for the packet of seeds, I had looked forward to seeing its blooms. The morning after our first heavy frost in mid-October, I went out to retrieve my mail. I was amazed when I noticed several buds on the vines not destroyed by the frost.

Excited about my discovery, I immediately called a neighbor with whom I had lamented about my bloomless vine. Like me, she couldn’t believe the vine had bloomed after a frost. In this instance, seeing is believing.

Each morning, I admire the flowers that now open daily to greet the sun as well as me when I visit my mailbox. Viewing their purple flowers is a reminder to me that God never gives up on us, even if we turn away from Him.

Revisit the Bible stories to see how many times God was disappointed by humanity’s behavior. Men and women turned away from Him repeatedly and continued to sin. When God chose Noah to build the ark, then flooded the earth, destroying the rest of the world’s inhabitants, He also made a promise in the form of a rainbow as a reminder that He would never do it again.

When Abraham and Sarah grew impatient after God promised them a son, they took things into their own hands. Abraham had a son by his wife’s servant. God could have changed His mind after this disobedience. However, He didn’t.

Just as my late-blooming flowers bring hope, so does God’s Word. It endures forever.

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Six Silent Devotions

I wanted to share the following article, written by Julia Attaway, with my readers.

There’s a saying attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”

It’s had me thinking about ways to improve my relationship with God by using what I do as an act of prayer.Here are six silent devotions I came up with to start:

1. Perform a secret act of love.
Do something for someone else, for God’s eyes alone.

2. Notice an invisible person.
Look on the fringes of coffee hour, at the PTA meeting or at who’s handing you change at the grocery. Find a quiet way to acknowledge that they’re there, even if it’s just a smile.

3. Bite back one critical comment, for Jesus’s sake.
Just one. When you get good at it, go for two.

4. Get to know a non-Christian better.
Find out what God loves in him and learn to love it, too.

5. Practice being last.
Allow someone else to go first: in line, when merging in traffic, in speaking at a meeting. Work on finding a balance between assertiveness and humility.

6. Notice an unspoken need.
Ramp up your powers of observation, actively looking for people God has set in your path so that you can help them.

What can you add to the list?

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Setting priorities

I wanted to share with my readers the following devotional by Julie Clinton, a member of the Extraordinary Woman team.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:31 NIV

What if you were given $86,400, every day for the rest of your life?  What would you do with it? Let’s add one caveat. You have to spend all of it each day! Could you do it? How would you spend it? Tough decision, right?! Guess what—God gives you 86,400 seconds every day… and you spend every one! Every day! How are you using your time?

Most of us are so harried and desperate just to get through another day that we don’t take time to step back and ask ourselves if what we’re doing really matters and if our activities reflect our priorities. Often the two are disconnected, though we may be too busy to see it. However, the Bible says, “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Do the things you do reflect eternal treasures? Are you seeking His kingdom with the time you’ve been given? What are you pouring your heart into? Take a personal inventory. Find out where you’re investing your time and if the expenditure reflects your priorities. Be sure to spend your time wisely. You never get it back!

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Memories in a Small Wooden Chair

“Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm…” Deuteronomy 11:2 NIV

The small wooden chair is 80 years old. How do I know? Because it belonged to my daddy, who would have been 85 this past April. He received the small chair as a present on his fifth birthday.

Several years before my daddy passed away, I asked him if I could have the chair. It wouldn’t fetch a fortune, even if it is considered an antique. No amount of money would lead me to sell it.

I’m sure my grandmother used the chair as a spot for time-out to discipline my father when he was a child and misbehaved. I know, as the youngest of four boys, that my daddy was probably spoiled. I also know he was quite mischievous and probably warmed the seat of the wooden chair many times.

I had asked for the chair before he died because I knew it would be a reminder of my father that I would treasure. There’s nothing fancy about the homemade piece of furniture. Paint spots of different hues grace its simplicity. After my parents married, my mother had used it at different times as a step stool when she was painting cabinets and walls. However, that only adds to its history.

The Israelites, who were brought out of captivity by God, had a common history. They were witnesses to God’s power and His deliverance out of the hands of the Egyptians. The Hebrew people saw the Red Sea part and they fed off the manna from heaven.

The Hebrew people would forget time and time again what God had done for them in the wilderness. Each time they ran into trouble, they would cry out to God for help. When they deserted Him and began to worship false gods, God still came to their rescue. Their children and their children’s children would only hear the stories of His grace, passed down from generation to generation.

I was not a witness to my daddy’s scoldings and time-outs in the tiny wooden chair but its presence in my house today serves as a wonderful reminder just like the stories passed down through generations that remind us of our Heavenly Father’s discipline and love.

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Why Are We So Lonely?

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16 (NIV)

In a recent article, I read some thought-provoking information on the reason why loneliness seems to be an epidemic. As our country has grown, more communities have sprung up. However, we don’t sit on our front porches and visit with family and neighbors as past generations did. Instead, with the advent of inventions that supposedly make our life easier or entertain us–like fast food, televisions, video games, cell phones and computers–we spend our spare time hiding behind our iPhones and other technology, instead of communicating face-to-face.

We have more methods of communicating now than at any other time in history. However, this new technology actually takes away from the way we were created to communicate. With e-mail, texting, faxes, online purchasing and dating, we can stay hidden behind the anonymity of a computer screen or some another machine. It makes for many lonely days and nights. After all, it is hard to hug or converse with a piece of metal and plastic.

Although it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18), we often choose to avoid direct communication for a variety of reasons, including insecurity. However, we can be secure in our relationship with our Heavenly Father who wants to communicate with us.

  • He really loves you and cares for you.
  • He understands how you feel. After all, He made you.
  • Wherever you are, He is there, offering comfort in times of loneliness and trouble.
  • He wants to help set you free from your feeling of isolation

Theologian Paul Tillich once said, “Language… has created the word ‘loneliness‘ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.”

Jesus had a habit of withdrawing from the crowds that surrounded Him, seeking His teaching and healing. He needed renewal and found solitude with His Father to be the cure for the burden He carried as well as for the loneliness. Even in a crowd, we can be lonely, especially when we don’t think we fit in.

However, when you turn to your Creator, you can rest assured that loneliness will be left behind.

 


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