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On the 7th day of Christmas

On the 7th day of Christmas we say good-bye to 2008.

I am pondering: if I could change one thing about this past year, what would I want to change?  And the only thing I can think of that was unbearable, I couldn’t change or I’d never have learned from God what I needed to in that thing – which will keep me from having to face it again in 2009.  Hallelujah!

So then, is my answer: nothing – not one thing could or should be changed?

Peace to you, my friends, my readers.  Peace and joy to you as we pass from one calendar year to another.  Blessings to you in all you do.  I wish you wholeness and healing in 2009.  I wish you repair in the broken places and hope for the future.  I wish you a double portion of any love you have ever given, the reward for every sacrifice you have made to bless another. 

Remember, though this year is at its end and this season is passed-your story isn’t yet.  He is your Author and He is your Finisher…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: It has all, every little thing, been worth it to know You tonight like this.  Dang, some of it hurt, but wow-You are so faithful, mighty God!  You are so loving.  I am amazed.

“…I will remember the  years of the right hand of the Most High.  I will remember the works of the LORD…”  Pslam 77.10b-11a NKJV

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

I LOVE Christmas!  I am not a very exuberant person by nature, not easily 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 sincere and over-the-top Christmas celebrating!  And for all of the days of the year to follow…

 

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared.  This day is sacred to our Lord.  Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”  Nehemiah 8.10

The joy of the LORD is your strength.  Are you hearing the sound?

   

This is the truth of this Christmas season for me.  This is the message of hope God has directed me to over and again.  This is the revelation of the gospel I am just beginning to understand.  This is what the Apostle Paul tried to get through to the Philippians when he said “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again, Rejoice!” (Ph 4.4).  This is what I heard for the millionth and the very first time this Christmas season.  It is the words you hear Linus recite in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and a sweet child’s voice inserted into Amy Grant’s 2008 Christmas hit, “I Need a Silent Night.” It is the truth above the roar of busyness and my epiphanic-fervor:

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.'”  Luke 2.8-11 NKJV

The revelation of Jesus Christ and His arrival as our Savior was good news of great joy!  Our strength indeed!

The Jesus and joy connection?

“I have told you this so that My joy may in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15.11).

“Ask and you wll receive and your joy will be complete” (John 16.24).

“But I say these things…so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them” (John 17.13).

God set forth  (even commanded) celebrations for the purpose of joy for the people.  One example:

“And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy.  The women and the children also rejoiced.  The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away” (Neh. 12.43)

Joy is a verb.  You gotta take action.

“I will rejoice in the Lord.  I will JOY in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3.18).

Jack Hayford’s notes in The Spirit-Filled Life NKJV Study Bible gives this on the word “joy” in Habakkuk:

JOY: Strong’s 1523: To joy, rejoice, be glad…contains the suggestion of “dancing for joy” or “leaping for joy” since this verb originally meant to “spin around with intense motion.”  This lays to rest the notion that the Biblical concept of joy is  only a “quiet inner sense of well-being.”…altho everything is wrong in Habakkuk’s world-he is leaping for joy over his relationship with God …

These can be joyless times.  The “holiday season” may have just been one more drain on you after a year of disappointment or lack.  The condition of our nation may be bringing fear.  Religious duty, a significant loss in our lives, strain in our marriages, unhappiness at work or any number of things may cause us to put on the smile-mask a Christian “should” wear and yet feel as flat and used up as the neighbor’s giant inflatable Santa looks on the lawn this morning.

But the good tidings of great joy are for me and for you.  So how do we appropriate it?  How do we walk in the kind of joy that gives us the strength we need to endure?  Repeat the sounding joy.

The sounding joy?  Good news!  Great joy!  I have a Savior!  He came to save me!  I think I’ll jump up and twirl and spin around like a madwoman while I echo the angels as loudly as I can: Glory to God in the highest!  Glory to the God of my salvation!  And peace to us here on earth, goodwill towards us from You, Father!

It is possible, I truly believe, that this act of joy as a verb – to joy – may actually begin to bring true giddy life-giving happiness to my soul.  The sounding joy: God is God!  He is faithful! He rules!  He reigns!  I receive my King!  I join with all heaven and nature in rejoicing that the curse has been broken on my behalf!   He has saved me from certain death and a joyless existence!  Glory to God in the highest!

Repeat the sounding joy.  Repeat the sounding joy.  Repeat, repeat the sounding joy! 

Not just at Christmas, but – as needed!

Joy!  Seriously – be glad and dance a little!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Don’t let the enemy steal my joy!  Not one day.  Worship and crazy praise a must!

pictured: an etsy.com image, Stephanie on Christmas morning (in the midst of physical joy!) finding out she had received the antique oak dining table and chairs she really wanted, and the chalkboard in the kitchen with my “epiphanic” stuff on it (and I am preety sure I invented that word this Christmas!)

With love from Gavin, Guini, Hunter, Gemma and Averi’s grandparents!

Our Christmas card to you!

Click on images to enlarge.

Gavin 5, Hunter 4, Guini 3, Gemma 1 1/2,  and Averi on her first Christmas – 10 1/2 months.

Good tidings of great joy to you and yours…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: I could even plan to get my Christmas card photo taking done in like, October or November next year! (?) !

Thanks again to Tredessa and Tara for the photos, Wrex and Stef for the awesome locale and animals, Stormie for putting this together for me even though she is unbelievably busy, and to my children who have blessed me with these amazing five grandchildren.  And thank You, Father, for the joy…

 

The Father of Christmas

“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!

The Broken Curse

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

The lights on my tree, I wish you could see…

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!

Living in great light…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  More candles. 

pictured: part of Dave’s Bedford Falls town

The Stuff of Christmas – Right or Wrong???

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: 

  1. 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.
  2. 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.”

Sneak Peek

   

I kiddingly (kind of intending the pun) asked my friend, the goat-farming-guru, if I could borrow a baby goat for my annual grandkids-Nativity picture.  He said, “Sure.  Would you like some other animals?”  Next thing I knew, I had, at my disposal, several hundred choice farm animals, should I desire.

  

A short-lived break in the frigid weather provided a very sunny morning (the kids were majorly layer-dressed under these costumes and fared quite well, thank-you very much).  We gathered at the Ritchie farm in Brighton just under a barn awning and snapped a few shots.  The animals were so much fun.  Naturally, we never got a shot with all of the kids looking at the same thing or at the camera because they were enoying the goats and cats and sheep and the donkey just like we adults were!  But what a fun fun fun day!

   

Most embarrassing moment: 

Farmer Wrex handed me the rope which held a donkey on one end and 2 wiley billy goats on the other (I am giving them these labels to make it sound better for me).  Now, they had just been standing there, tied together, but behaving…until he handed me the rope.  “Hold this,” he tells me.  I am standing there looking all “city girl” my kids said.  The second Wrex walked away, the donkey screeched and jerked his head and the 2 goats decided to bolt.  Basically the three animals tried to put me in a strangle-hold.  My whole family, except for my wonderful son, who will now be willed all my earthly goods when I die, were just laughing their heads off, watching me push back on the rope with all my might (with my weany-arms) trying to keep the goats from dragging me to a certain snow-burn death, my shoes just sliding straight backwards to the sound of raucous hee-hawing (my family AND the donkey!).  Rocky saved me.  Still, I am sure I was born to farm.  I would just need different shoes.

Dress-up, anyone?

Yes, I do plan to subject the grandkiddos to this every single year, because it just stinking makes me smile! 

Tonight, I finally get to go through and decide what to do for our Christmas cards (nothing like waiting until that last second, huh?).  And the more chaotic the shot, the more I smile!

What could be more merry and bright than this?…Jeanie

Thumbnails, click for larger image.  Pictured: Guini as Mary, Gemma as an angel, Hunter as a shepherd and Gavin as Joseph.  Averi as an angel, Averi’s daddy goofing around, Hunter corraling his baby goat.  The animals arriving for the photo shoot, and a woolly lamb.

Thanks Wrex and Stefane!!!

Holiday Fare – Top Ten Tips

 

This came in emails from several friends last week and I must wholeheartedly concur with this very good advice for eating and diet during the holidays.  I was told a member-in-good-standing with Weight Watchers wrote it (?).  I truly suscribe to this thinking!  Here are the top ten tips to get you through the holiday buffet:

 
10.  Avoid carrot sticks.  Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet
table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit.  In fact, if you see carrots,
leave immediately.  Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls. 
 
9.  Drink as much eggnog as you can.  And quickly.  It’s rare.  You
cannot find it any other time of year but now.  So drink up!  Who cares
that it has 10,000 calories in every sip?  It’s not as if you’re going to
turn into an eggnog-a-holic or something.  It’s a treat.  Enjoy it.
Have one for me.  Have two.  It’s later than you think.  It’s Christmas! 
 
8.  If something comes with gravy, use it.  That’s the whole point of
gravy.  Gravy does not stand alone.  Pour it on.  Make a volcano out of
your mashed potatoes.  Fill it with gravy.  Eat the volcano.  Repeat. 
 
7.  As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or
whole milk.  If it’s skim, pass.  Why bother?  It’s like buying a sports
car with an automatic transmission. 
 
6.  Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control
your eating.  The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people’s food for free.  Lots of it.  Hello? 
 
5.  Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year’s.  You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of
eggnog. 
 
4.  If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like
frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position
yourself near them and don’t budge.  Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention.  They’re like a beautiful pair of
shoes.  If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again. 
 
3.  Same for pies.  Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat.  Have a slice of each.  Or if
you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin.  Always have
three.  When else do you get to have more than one dessert?  Labor Day? 
 
2.  Did someone mention fruitcake?  Granted, it’s loaded with the
mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost.
I mean, have some standards. 
  
And the #1 and final tip:  If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party
or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention.  Re-read
tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to live by: 
 
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand,
champagne in the other, body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming
“WOO HOO what a ride!”

author unknown

‘Nuff said.

images: google!