Simon Says > Jesus Says I saw this video from Francis Chan about making disciples and it really hits home when he compares how most of us have all played "Simon Says" as a kid, but yet we think that when Jesus says all we need...
Heart Check For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others...
Keep Me Humble I occasionally publish notes on my YouVersion profile, but for some reason they don't always show up, so I will also post them here.
After reading Luke 8:9-14 I decided to write a letter to God and...
Merry Christmas 2010 This year seems to have flown by! I am not happy to see it end, but I am thrilled for 2011 to start. This past year I found myself in several interesting places ministry-wise.
Many of you know that...
My Light Will Shine This year I am taking the page from a friend of mine, Adam McLane, and I will not only be passing out candy for Halloween but I will also have some coffee and hot chocolate for the parents that are walking...
Christmas flew by last year and this year we decided to not let that happen. So our family participated in an Advent of our own. So we bought the book A Family Advent and picked up an Advent wreath. It was a great way to focus on the meaning of the season and to not let it just let it pass us by.
Not only that, but I believe that we as a family grew stronger in our faith and closer together. It was really neat to see the kids share in reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke before they opened up their gifts. It was also great to see their excitement each night as we lit the candle and would do our reading from the Family Advent book. And the book had some great activities to do and some extra fun facts as well. I highly recommend that book as well as doing Advent at your home next year for Christmas. Below is a picture of our wreath on Christmas Eve with the Christ candle lit.
“The idea that God, if there is a force of Logic and Love in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in shit and straw . . . a child . . . I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry . . . Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came streaming down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.”
I am glad that there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, and that He did chose to come to earth in the form of a child. His name is Immanuel. Matthew 1:23….
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Today, my family and I went to a Salvation Army Camp near us and helped them serve their annual Breakfast with Santa. Every year my extended family tries to do something that is our gift to Jesus for Christmas to celebrate his birthday. This year our kids are old enough for us to do something where we can all do something like this.
At first our kids were kind of shy about doing this, and then they just took off and really enjoyed themselves. They were even somewhat competing to see who could get to the person who needed something first. Of course they were told not to run and act crazy, which they did a good job of not doing. I was really proud of them and it warmed my heart to see them so willing to serve people like that.
We also have given some canned goods and other items at our church that will be passed out to needy people in our area. We have some other ideas of ways that we as a family can help people that we plan on doing as well. Between doing those things and celebrating Advent this year in our house I do not feel that Christmas is just passing us by like last year, but that the richness and joy of the season is grabbing a hold of me and my family.
So what are you doing to make Christmas special to you this year?
Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I love the lights, the music, the tree, the decorations, the cheer and everything else that goes with the holiday.
But for whatever reason this year was just kind of a blah year. Christmas came and went without much fanfare or anything. It was really disappointing to me. We had the lights and decorations up, we listened to Christmas music, but it just didn’t seem the same this year. I just felt like we went through the motions and did Christmas.
I don’t like that feeling. I feel like we missed out on what Christmas is supposed to be about. I was talking with Kimmy about it this afternoon as we were taking down the decorations, which is something I never want done until after New Year’s Day, and we were both expressing how it seems like we skipped Christmas even though we didn’t want to. We talked about some of the things that made it feel that way. I said that it felt like there was no build up or anticipation for Christmas Day. That is something that I am envious of in the liturgical churches, because they celebrate Advent. Whereas the more evangelical churches don’t do the whole advent thing. Other than at our Christmas Eve service there really wasn’t much about Christmas at my church. We didn’t really sing any traditional Christmas songs until Christmas Eve, except for one or two the Sunday before. I am sure that some of that is because the service the week before was canceled because of the heavy snow and they just moved what was supposed to be done at that service to the following week, but it was sad none the less.
So next year Kimmy and I decided that we as a family are going to get an Advent wreath and do Advent with our family even if our church isn’t doing it. Because we want to make sure that we don’t miss the anticipation and excitement of what we celebrate this season for. And next year we are going to be participating in the Advent Conspiracy, because we want to make sure we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the best way possible.
Next year I have a feeling that Christmas could be our best Christmas together since our first year together as husband and wife. And I am excited. For now I leave you with one of my favorite Christmas commercials.
We did Christmas with Kimmy’s family on Saturday, because her brother and his wife went to Pennsylvania yesterday to spend Christmas with her family. My in-laws got me a Michigan hockey sweater, which is something I have wanted for a VERY long time. And then today, Kimmy and the kids gave me tickets to go to see Michigan’s hockey team play at The Joe for the Great Lakes Invitational. I have not been to a Michigan hockey game in years, so this was a cool gift. But what makes it even better is that I got 4 tickets, which means the whole family is going with me. That is the coolest part about it all. They are going with me.
I also got a pair of size 34 jeans from Kimmy and a large sweater. It is hard to believe that last year I was wearing 38 jeans and XL shirts, but now I am down to those sizes. All in all it has been a good Christmas and I can not wait until Friday to go with my family to see Michigan stomp Providence’s hockey team.
Last night, Kimmy and I took the kids to see “A Christmas Tale”, which was put on by Discover Church. It was a good production and it was nice to see some old friends. Too bad the visit was cut short because the fire alarm went off during the hanging out time after the production.
Well, after that we decided to go by and see this house at Tienken and Washington roads in Rochester, MI that is dubbed to be a Griswold House. And as you can see from the picture taken on my camera phone that it really is an amazing sight. If you live in the area it is worth a trip though the neighborhood to see this house, just make sure you go down to the roundabout so you can see the back side of the house. It is pretty cool.
My kids had their choir concert tonight for their elementary school. This year we had two new teachers and no offense to last years music teacher, but it is WAY better this year. The kids didn’t just sing songs, but there was life to everything. At one point I wanted to give the teachers a standing ovation because the music program is so much better.
But on a semi-funny note, it is kind of funny to have the politically correct Christmas concert. There was a Hanukkah song and even a Kwanzaa song along with the traditional Christmas carols. But strangely absent was any Christian Christmas carols. I guess we can be politically correct as long as Christ isn’t mentioned. Even though it is CHRISTmas.
Christmas flew by last year and this year we decided to not let that happen. So our family participated in an Advent of our own. So we bought the book A Family Advent and picked up an Advent wreath. It was a great way to focus on the meaning of the season and to not let it just let it pass us by.
