Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7.11 NIV
“The glorious gospel of a blessed [happy] God” is that He loves you (1 Timothy 1.11). He is happy with you. We have a Father well-disposed towards us. He is rejoicing over us with singing.
Daddy loves you. God rest you. God keep all dismay from you. God save you from Satan’s snares.
Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy!…Jeanie
pictured: the grandbabies helped Dave set up the town this year. No levels or train this time, just a nicely laid out vista with lots and lots of trees!
I LOVE Christmas!I am not a very exuberant person by nature, not naturally just happy and light-hearted, but give me a vision and some understanding and I come alive. My Holy-Holiday-Calling is to remember and release a spirit of rejoicing in myself and in others as we make Jesus Christ and worshipping Him central to our raucous Christmas celebrating!
In our 1860s Victorian house in Nebraska, we had 9 fully-decorated trees. I have never run out of ideas for decorating a tree, each in a unique and personal way. Now, though, we’re down to two. One is the collections of our lives (the tree of my sentimental heart) – the ornaments the kids made at school growing up, “baby’s first” ornaments and now treasures from the grandchildren.
But the main tree,too tall and big enough to fill too many totes with it’s ornamentations, is the tree of my faith. The centerpiece in the branches reads:For unto you is born this day (with the print of a baby’s foot to represent Jesus’ birth), A Savior, who is Christ the Lord(a bloody hand-print reminds us that He was born to die for us)!
From the 12 foot peak flows down wide, red swaths of blood-red satin to represent His sacrifice for me. The tree, evergreen representing everlasting life, is decorated with crosses and the angelic hosts. It is decorated with symbols and words of all Christ came to accomplish. It is, for me, an altar of worship. I raise it yearly to remember and celebrate the completed work of Jesus Christ in my life. My tree is a symbol of a broken curse.
There was another tree. It was stripped bare of it’s branches, save one, which was affixed across the trunk up high. And that tree is part of our celebration, even now during Christmas, and symbolizes everything that happened there bringing us eternal life.
At the foot of our Christmas tree, we lovingly exchange gifts. Our tree is laden with sparkling ornaments, twinkling lights, and bedecked with glittering beauty. And why?
Because it was on a tree that God hung His greatest gift to us all and He calls us to that tree to receive the greatest of all gifts – His son, Jesus. Galatians 3.13 reminds us that on that tree, Jesus redeemed us from the curse. It holds nothing on us. We are free and redeemed from the law of sin and death and we commemorate Christmas with joy with our ornamented tree – celebrating His love toward us which flows out as we gift one another.
I’ll kneel at the tree within the next couple of days, my altar of remembrance and pray:
Father, I am kneeling at this tree thanking You that at that tree You broke the curse for me. I am open, during this Christmas season, Lord, to receive Your deliverance for anything that haunts or taunts me. Set me free from the things that have entangled my life. I remember, today. In the light from this tree, I receive Your gift from that tree…
His coming wasn’t random. It was planned. Remember to remember…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Make funny faces in the round glass ornaments. Crack God up.
pictured: a close-up view of the message of our tree; some up-shots
I LOVE Christmas! I am not a very naturally exhuberant person, not just all happy and light-hearted, but give me a vision and some understanding and I come alive. My Holy-Holiday-Calling is to remember and release a spirit of rejoicing in myself and in others as we make Jesus Christ and worshipping Him central to our raucous Christmas celebrating!
Between Steph and Tristan’s house just a couple of miles east of us and my house as you travel back on Bridge, you hit Brighton’s “high point,” which isn’t very high – as we are in the valley of the great Rocky Mountains. But there it is. And even in this recently rural-and-still-small, but-booming town, suddenly, you reach the peak and there they are: the lights! And especially in these long, dark nights, Christmas lights line streets and neighborhoods have come alive with twinkle.
Some one asked me recently why on earth people would still put their lights out with the world’s problems and the economy the way it is? If they had heard Guini the other night when we drove the kids around Brighton to see the lights, they would understand. For she and Gavin and Hunter oohed and awed over every single light. But Guini, each time she spotted a lit up star (and especially the really large one atop the 100-foot tree at the City Building, would scream, a la Buddy in the movie “Elf,” “CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! Star!!”
Yes, there are hosts of people all over Brighton and Denver and Colorado, all over our nation and the world who are celebrating, whether they even yet understand it or not, that the Light has come and the darkness can never be the same!
Isaiah 9.2 “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death – a light has dawned!”
John 8.12 “Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”‘
I love the lights of Christmas! And every twinkling light, every candle we light during this season is piercing a darkness that would otherwise be there and is representing that Jesus is the Light of the world!
I LOVE Christmas! I am not a very exuberant person by nature, not naturally happy and light-hearted, but give me a vision and some understanding and I come alive. My Holy-Holiday-Calling is to remember and release a spirit of rejoicing in myself and in others as we make Jesus Christ and worshipping Him central to our raucous Christmas celebrating!
There are two reasons it is important to know and understand the symbols (the stuff) of Christmas:
Because they are beautiful, visual touch points for teaching our children about our faith in Jesus Christ. Every year as we decorate with bows, and holly and stars and Nativity sets, we explain it, (here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept) and we are sowing spiritual seeds of faith. Christmas then becomes the accumulation of learning as year follows year and season follows season. When they are grown, the Truth is there – either for them to joyfully impart to their own children, or no matter how far thy may seem to wander from the Lord – as an inescapable testimony, the Truth they will see all around every Christmas season.
And because, through the symbols of the season, we can impact others with the truth. For when we have a correct understanding, we’re gently able to impart spiritual truth to others. For many of our co-workers and neighbors are celebrating Christmas not even aware of the depth of what they do! Even so – they are acknowledging a Savior! Christmas=Christ’s mass=the worship of Jesus Christ. So we need understanding so we’re not sheepish about what Christmas has become. We should be the most joyous celebrants of all and welcome and use every symbol and facet of the season to give a reason for our hope and to set apart Christ as Lord – the Worthy One.
I believe.
I believe in the symbols! In each one there is lodged a deep and spiritual truth. Religious tradition doesn’t impose these truths. The truth exist and the symbols (the lights, the decorations, the songs, the trees and wreaths) have become the way we express Christianity through our decorating and celebrating and rich traditions! The things we do when we celebrate bring us understanding.
God loves a good party.
God loves celebrations! He, in fact, set forth many celebrations in the Bible. The one in Exodus 12 for the First Passover was His invitation as a way to teach the children. Joshua 4 tells of celebrations also meant to teach the children of the faithfulness of God. The gathering in Ezra says the celebrating was so loud (over several days) that is was heard far away.
So, I think it is OK with God to celebrate Christmas! I don’t think God would be displeased with us if we just listened to Bing Crosby sing about Rudolph and we made cookies and put lights on our house – just for a break, a nice celebration. But it is so much more dynamic than that when we understand and teach and share the symbols because of the rich and powerful spiritual meanings.
I plan to keep on exposing my children and their children and the people around me to the raw reality of my unhampered happiness. I plan to sing “Silent Night” when I stand in a long line at the bank. I plan to worship Jesus at the foot of my Christmas tree, an altar of peace and prayer in this harried season. I plan to say to every clerk and neighbor and service person I meet: Merry Christmas! Because when I do, whether they consciously understand the significance in the declaration, I have just prophesied into the atmosphere around me: Merry Christmas! Happy worship of the Christ! Jesus Christ, we worship You! And I pray that pierces their heart in the deep places in some way.
Yes, this is our season as Christ-followers. Because it is His and we can openly declare His glory in these few short days like at no other time of the year.
Happily hallowing the Name above all Names even and especially at Christmastime…Jeanie
1 Peter 3.15 “But in your hearts set apart Christ as lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have.”
The Garage at church is dark and very hip and cool. So, the Christmas decorations won’t stand out if you do the usual woodsy-greens.
Enter my Silent-Night-Holy-Night-O-Little-Town-of-Bethlehem-all-in-white theme. It came to me 2 years ago during church one Sunday morning – I saw silhouettes and sparkly huge cut-outs encasing the room. Scott gave me the go-ahead this year. He is so trusting.
Add in my friend, Pearl, who is not only very creative and artistic, but has always wanted to create “Bethlehem.” Three years ago, she created Narnia at the church we attended then and it was the most magical thing I have ever seen for church decor! She brought her love for “sculpting” with foam, her attention to detail, her heat gun, her very talented husband, Bryan, along with great ideas for back-lighting the town and we were off to the races. Pearl did a lot of the detail work and “smaller” projects at home, then we worked at the church together some for 3 days.
There is a heavenly host of angels suspended from the ceiling over the stage, which is draped with light curtains. Genius lighting tech, Alfonso Lopez added some amazing effects the other night to cause shadows to double our angelic group and it was beautiful! He also spot-lighted the Star of Bethlehem (which Pearl carved and fit together from 2 star shapes of 2″ thick foam) to a brilliance I did not know you actually could achieve from white and silver glitter and a few hundred sequins.
Up high, over the entry doors, are the “Wise guys,” heading directly, on their noble camels, toward the star, which will lead them straight to the babe.
The stage is garlanded in crystally, poofy fabric wrapped around hundreds of lights. Just below the garland are a small group of lambs straining to get a glimpse of the baby Jesus.
Bethlehem itself lines one wall leading to the stage, while the shepherds in the fields are overcome by the brightness of the host of angels on another.
But center stage? The Nativity is illuminated on the main center screen – for the whole thing leads directly to Jesus. His birth. His coming. Him.
As near as I can tell, the whole project took about 85 or 86 man hours (you can’t just cut the foam at your own speed, you know). We went through a few pounds of glitter, quite a few sheets of 4 x 8 foam, yards and yards of fabric, many strings of lights, and a lot of help from our husbands!
The best part was my time with Pearl and getting to see the whole thing finally finished on Thursday night (even though we still had ideas and materials-you have to stop sometime) and “coming to life” while the worship team practiced for Sunday.
On Sunday morning, just in time for the “unveiling,” we got a beautiful, wet, full winter snow outside. Just like inside, it was white. It seemed holy. The four lambs on the stage right in front of the Nativity testified that, through Jesus:
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Is. 1.18 NIV)
So this is what I have been up to…Jeanie
Big-time thanks to: Pearl and Bryan Younger, daughter Tara, daughter Steph and my little Guini-muggins, Laura Frye, Mike-the-maintenance-big-wig, Rocky, Alfonso, my longsuffering husband, Dave (he rolls with my flow), and daughter Stormie
PICTURED: top row ~ Stormie did the graphic so the big screen would be part of the whole design, a angel sampling; second & third rows ~ (thumbnails, click to enlarge) more angels, a Bethlehem wall, wise men on camels (nearly 6 feet tall!) up over the entry way, one sparkly donkey, hard to photograph a spinning star! It was 40-some inches “tall”; final four shots ~ a vista (I may have to finish the fabric and lighting we had planned, hmmm…), shepherds in the field wall, Rocky leading, some of the band amongst the sheep.
My family (children and MJP) has been going to The Home of Refuge for several years. The kids have raised countless dollars and helped teach, preach and build playgrounds and remodel kitchens and have just carrried the torch for this particular orphange. Heaven Fest and WWM has made the Homes of Refuge a major focus in ministry and giving.
A few days ago, the government took the property over and bussed the children off. We have been praying for the children. It has become clear that there is an enemy assignment against the leaders of the ministry and the orphange there. The government has threatened this for years, but is finally carrying some things out.
Below is an e-mail from Mary Jean Powers that I just got today with the most recent news of Tony and Rosa and The Home of Refuge in Venezuela. We have been weeping over the children. Join us in prayer, please.
Hey Everyone ~ I realize that this is the first news some of you have received regarding the recent attack on Home of Refuge in Venezuela. I will make this as brief as possible because I cannot include all the details that I just got from Rosa by phone. I will be sharing everything at a prayer meeting tonight (Monday December 15) specifically for HOR and Tony and Rosa. The prayer meeting will be held at 611 Pheasant View Dr. in Frederick, CO at 7 pm.
Here are some details and a correction: First of all, the orphanage in Honduras WAS NOT ROBBED. HOR Honduras is doing great.
It was Home of Refuge in Venezuela that was robbed at gunpoint last Monday, by 4 men who were hired to kill Tony. Tony was not there.
Three government agencies came to the orphanage the following Thursday to take over. They have taken possession of the property, and sent almost all of the children away on a bus – we do not know where they are. They have forbidden Tony to come to the property, at the risk of being imprisoned.
Four of the most severely handicapped children were left behind at the facility. Big Luis and Yesica were at school; they are safe. Gabriel, Lillie and Carla, Edixon and a 5 yr. old new kid are safe, as well.
Right now, Tony is at the airport in Caracas, trying to fly back to Miami. He went to the Ven. National Guard for protection, and they advised him to leave the country asap because there is a price on his head.
As I said, I will give all the details tonight. Please do your best to keep these details accurate as you pass them along to other intercessors. I was able to pray with Rosa today, and I believe that God is raising up an army of intercessors on behalf of these orphans. One intercessor said that she had a dream of Jesus praying for our kids at HOR! Please pray what Jesus is praying!
OK, here is the most important thing to pray about (besides the obvious protection, etc. for the children):
PRAY DIVINE PROTECTION FOR TONY’S LIFE. These hired murderers will stop at nothing.
PRAY FOR COMFORT FOR THE CHILDREN, TONY AND ROSA.
PRAY FOR ROSA’S HEALTH
PRAY THAT TONY GET TO MIAMI SAFELY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
PRAY FOR WISDOM FOR TONY AND ROSA.
MOST OF ALL, PRAY FOR TONY’S SAFETY. PSALM 91. PROVERBS 14:26. ISAIAH 54:13-17.
Even this morning as I was reading about how Solomon was building the Temple for the reknown and glory of the Name of the Lord and to establish his own house, I read this, surely a precursor to our Christmas ornamentation:
“He made wreaths of [gold] chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of chainwork.” 2 Chronicles 3.16
I sigh wearily of hearing Christians who attribute all the symbols of Christmas to ancient pagan traditions. The tree, my brothers and sisters (created in the Garden where God walked first), the lights (Jesus IS the Light of the World, after all), the gift-giving (must I mention John 3.16 and the inspiration to all-gift-giving ever for all times based on this, THE most amazing gift ever?), and all the rest seem to be up for scrutiny every year. If I act a wee bit too joyous they remind me, like the father-in-law at Clark Griswold’s Christmas Vacation, “The little lights aren’t twinkling.” The bah-humbuggers want to drop-kick the joy and the meaning we have tried with our little human efforts to capture right out the door.
I don’t think the Advent wreath on which I light a candle is some all-holy-get-me-into-heaven thing. Nor do I believe God is displeased that I annually string lights and drag out the Nativity set and wrap gifts for the people I love.
What is a wreath after all? It is something woven into a circular shape and hung purely for its beauty. Or placed on the head of some one royal. It is part of my Christmas, my Christ Mass, my worship of the Christ (Christmas=Christ worship). While I am living to proclaim the reknown of the Name of the Lord on the earth, I am also establishing and decorating my home at Christmas. Solomon did it for the love of God. And so do I. His were real gold, heavy in richness. Mine are simple branches woven and beribboned.
Someday, the wreath of my life, the things I have feebly woven together in honor to God will be the crown on my head. But like the twenty-four Elders in Revelation
“[they] fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives until the Ages of the Ages and they cast their wreaths down in front of the throne…” Rev. 4.10 wey
The traditions we keep aren’t sacred. They are just our ways of celebrating and enjoying the story of our redemption, God’s plan, a Savior! They just mark our deliverance from darkness into His marvelous light. They are only the symbols we use to try to depict a God so great that even our words fail us.
Let me have my wreath and worship with it, too…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Weave golden moments and bejeweled treasures together into love-wreaths for people all around-even and especially the bah-humbuggers.
Thanks to Amy Grant for my favorite new Christmas song this year. I DO need one! How about you?
I’ve made the same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic, Christmas rush
It breaks me till I push and shove
Children are crying while mothers are trying
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buying and standing forever in line
What can I say?
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
December comes then disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace
Or was the world a different place?
Where people stayed home wishing for snow
Watching three channels on their TV
Look at us now rushing around
Trying to buy Christmas peace
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
What was it like back there in Bethlehem
With peace on earth, good will toward men?
Every shepherd’s out in the field
Keeping watch over their clock by night
And the glory of the Lord shone around them
And they were so afraid
And the angels said fear not for behold
I bring you good news of a great joy that shall be for all people
For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace
I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night
To end this crazy day with a silent night
In WWM staff prayer yesterday, s-i-l, Dave, prayed a prayer of yieldedness. We pondered for a few moments on what it means to yield our hearts, our lives, our thoughts, opinions and desires to God. “Here I am, “ many people in the Bible responded to God.
As Dave restated that phrase: Here I am, I suddenly saw it and heard it differently.
Here, I Am.
I caught a fleeting glimpse of the meaning of yieldedness. To say Here I am is to say You be here, Great I Am.
Here, God (I AM) be in this circumstance. Here in our home, I Am, reign. Be here, I AM, in this hour of indecision, these times of heartbreak, this uncertain future. Here, I Am. I surrender to You. Be here. Be here…
The first time I ever remember crying over simple words strung together in a book was as I was reading a selection aloud to Dave from Max Lucado’s God Came Down back in the 80’s. I think I was reading the chapter written as Mary, the mother of Jesus, sort of pondering and praying in her heart about her newborn son, and, being a young mother myself, was impacted deeply.
Parts of “Mary’s Prayer” by Max Lucado
GOD. O infant-God. Heaven’s fairest child. Conceived by the union of divine grace with
our disgrace. Sleep well…
Rest well, tiny hands. For though you belong to a king, you will touch no satin, own no gold. You will grasp no pen, guide no brush. No, your tiny hands are reserved for works more precious:
to touch a leper’s open wound,
to wipe a widow’s weary tear,
to claw the ground of Gethsemane.
Your hands, so tiny, so white-clutched tonight in an infant’s fist. They aren’t destined to hold a scepter nor wave from a palace balcony. They are reserved instead for a Roman spike that will staple them to a Roman cross…
O eyes that will see hell’s darkest pit and witness her ugly prince . . . sleep, please sleep; sleep while you can.
Lie still, tiny mouth. Lie still, mouth from which eternity will speak.
Tiny tongue that will soon summon the dead, that will define grace, that will silence our foolishness.
Rosebud lips-upon which ride a starborn kiss of forgiveness to those who believe you, and of death to those who deny you-lie still…
That Max has a way with words (www.maxlucado.com) and you can access a special, downloadable selection of Christmas writings put together as “It Began in a Manger” right here. It is a 15-page gathering of writings he has done in various books with 6 short, but thought-provoking and inspirational “chapters” including “The Arrival, ” the above-mentioned “Mary’s Prayer” and “Gabriel’s Questions.”
I love to read this every year as I “prepare Him room”…again. Check it out! Enjoy “my” (Max’s) FREE giftto you on this first day of December!
He came as a baby to save me, even me! I’ll be contemplating that and celebrating my deliverance from the law of sin and death for the next 24+ days!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: God loves to see us celebrate and rejoice. Spread the word! JOY! To the whole world! Repeat as needed!
