Behold the Lamb of God

Good Morning Friends!  Thankful to be HIS, Tuesday!  One of my job duties is to go through the Ada and OKC papers and cut out all articles dealing with Native Americans.  What a privilege, right?  Reading the newspaper on the time clock?  Well, yesterday I had all the papers since last Wednesday to go through, quite a stack!  Lots of sad news as well as good news, but one page, full page in the Christmas day paper took my breath away.  Very simple, but detailed, muted colors, but a glow framing the young child on the floor.  The child, Jesus in his dad’s work shop, playing on the floor while Joseph worked at his carpenter’s bench.  Jesus, the child, had found some nails and was pretending to work like his dad….the glow on HIS head cast the shadow of cross on the floor behind HIM.  Jesus playing…..in HIS dad’s shop…took my breath away.  I had never thought of Jesus, our Savior, as a young boy playing on the shop floor….just like Shawn and Ira.  Oh how those boys loved to play in their dads’ shops….Just like Jesus…Our SAVIOR….We are used to seeing Jesus in the manager, healing the sick, and hanging on the cross, God’s word tells us that Jesus was true man as well as true God….the picture showed me, reminded me that the true man was also true boy….born of a virgin…true God….the cross shining on the floor….that boy became our Savior…..HIS death and suffering….true man….HIS glorious resurrection…TRUE GOD…..All for us….JESUS the REASON for the SEASON….JESUS….the REASON….our SAVIOR…our BEST FRIEND!   Father thank you  for the gift of YOUR SON, TRUE GOD…true man…our SAVIOR, thank you for loving us and forgiving us, Father we sure don’t deserve Your grace and mercy.  Keep us mindful so that we forgive others…..

 

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  John 1:29.

Love you all!

Jesus IS the LIGHT!

Good Morning Friends! Thankfully loved by HIM, Thursday.  Last Sunday at our Christmas program, Pastor and his wife, gave me a Christmas gift.  I didn’t open it until   I got home and settled in…..I was very pleased as I pulled a beautiful, hand painted, glass nativity very different from anything I have seen, out of the box.  It stands about 10” high and probably 4” wide, well it looks like an “L” facing forward….gosh hope you can picture that.  Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manager sit on the base, the back looked a bit like a church window….anyway, I placed it on the coffee table, thinking I must thank them tomorrow and tell them it’s beautiful.  Well, I did do that, but the week has been really hectic so I hadn’t really paid a lot of attention to it or any other Christmas decorations either….that is, until this morning.  I got up at my usual time and headed to the living room for bible and prayer time.  This morning I took the time to plug in my decorations with lights….When I had finished reading, I got up and turned off the over- head light.  As I sat back down and was snuggling in for a good visit with our Father my eyes got a glimpse of a light I didn’t recognize….Wow, the light from the candles on the mantle were reflecting through the back of my new nativity….the light was shining on Jesus…..Jesus was shining…..Jesus IS the LIGHT….the LIGHT of the world, the LIGHT of our lives, shining HIS Perfect Love on us, guiding us, protecting, uplifting….forgiving us!  JESUS the REASON FOR THE SEASON!  I sat on the edge of my chair, my eyes focused on the beauty of the shining nativity…..my heart was aglow as HIS Peace filled me….the Wonder of HIS LOVE…..Thank you Father for the giving us the LIGHT OF THE WORLD….help us to catch the glow and reflect HIS love.  

 

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the LIGHT of the world.  He who flows ME shall not walk in darkness, but have the LIGHT of LIFE.”  John 8:12.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you:  You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying a manger.”…..So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  Luke 2: 8-12 & 16.

Love you all! 

God loves all our praises!

Good Morning Friends!  Wrapped in HIS loving arms Wednesday!!  I Keep thinking about a special little Christmas blessing….. music….Christmas carols in the stores, on the phone, the car radio, but my most favorite is singing Christmas carols in church.  I love to sing and Christmas carols are just so singable….makes it easy….”to make music to Him…”  Psalm 33:2.  We are told in God’s word so many times to “make music to HIM”  so the joy of singing Christmas carols just fills my heart with HIS love…the trouble is, just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get them all in…So, I like to do my part….Sunday was our children’s program at church and a perfect opportunity for me to include lots of Christmas songs in the program….I was so excited to know that we would sing one after another….and of course I wanted everyone else to be just as excited as me to sing.  The kids….well, I am always on them to sing more, open their mouths and let out those praises….the kids…..they think I am nuts….well Sunday night, as usual, the kids just weren’t singing like I thought they should….but as we were singing the refrain to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,”  I looked over thinking, “well surely they are singing the refrain”  what I saw…Well, one young teen boy was….no, not singing, rather he was tapping his fingers on his pant leg….in perfect rhythm to the song…His lips were closed, but his heart was singing….."making music to the Lord.”  Oh, I thought, Kathie, Kathie….your ways are not the only ways….This child…a teenager at that….taught me a much needed lesson.  God hears the praise of our hearts….oh yes, if you like to sing, sing…..if your blessed to play an instrument, play…..if you can tap a perfect beat on your leg….God hears, God loves….all our praises.  Joy to the world…..our Savior is born….let earth receive their KING and make music.  Father, thank you for the gift of YOUR Son, our SAVIOR, fill our hearts and lips with praise.  And Father, thank you for the special blessings we receive from children.  LET EVERY HEART PREPARE ROOM!

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him.  Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed  lyre.  Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy (or tap).  Psalm 33:1-3.  Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.  Psalm 95:2.  My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.  I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, higher than the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Psalm108:1-4. 

Silent Night Holy Night…..no crib for a bed…..the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay….HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING…GLORY TO OUR NEWBORN KING….Go Tell it on the mountain….JESUS CHRIST IS BORN!  Love you all.

What was it really like that night?

Good Morning Friends!  Miracles in His love, Monday!  The other day I read an Advent devotion about Joseph…..all about his perspective of the things going on in his life with Mary and Jesus on the way.  Really got me to thinking that for sure, wasn’t all just a piece of cake for him.  The last few days our sheep have moved to a pasture right by the house, so as I leave for work I see them all there grazing (today one was stretched way up on a cedar tree, munching away) on the outside of the fence along the road sits a Pyrenees dog…..watching…..protecting the sheep.  Still thinking about the devotion on Joseph, my mind turned to the Christmas shepherds….guarding their flocks by night.  I wonder if they had guard dogs to help them…..do you think they were scared when the angels appeared?  Do you think the sheep scattered and the dogs took off barking trying to gather them up again?.......Do you think the shepherds stood, just stood calmly or took off running…..maybe they clung to each other terrified…..Can you imagine……I mean really, think about it……What if you were out in a field, in the dark, maybe coon hunting and all of a sudden….BAM!!!!   The sky lights up, brighter than any light you have ever seen…. You shield your eyes and look up…..you see….what is it….visions…forms like you have never seen….in the sky….and then they begin talking to you…..Things in the sky, brighter than any star or moon….talking to you…..think you might have wanted to run away and hide????  I can just imagine that at least some really considered it until the angels began to speak….”Do not be afraid”   Oh don’t you just know their voices oozed with calm…They were on a most important mission and really didn’t want the shepherds to be scared…..No, they wanted to tell them the good news….Jesus our Savior is born……I am sure the shepherds wasted no time finding the stable in Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph were wrapping Jesus in swaddling clothes and lying Him in a manger…..Oh my, there was so much more to that first Christmas, starting with Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah telling him that Elizabeth would have a baby, then his visit to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of God’s Son…..then sweet Joseph, his world turned upside down…..right to the shepherds….in the field….guarding their flocks by night….Friends, let’s ponder on these things…like Mary did……this week before Christmas let’s really try to slow down from the fuss…..relax in the glow of the Christmas lights and ponder on the Light of the World….JESUS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON……Father, help us to truly feel the emotions of that First Christmas and grow in our love for YOU.

 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”….So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger… The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.  Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  From Luke 2.

Love you all!

 

It's not the wrapping, but what's inside that counts

Good Morning Friends!  Wondrously wrapped in HIS loving arms Wednesday!  Well, yesterday we took care of the shopping, now it’s time to start wrapping!  Last night as I sat in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by gifts waiting to be wrapped I thought….oh gosh….what a job!  I have never been real good at wrapping, I love to see beautiful packages, fancy bows and ribbon, tight crisp edges, but I just never have been able to conquer that art!  My husband says I don’t have enough patience…..I say it’s just not my forte!  So consequently, the gifts under my tree and especially the ones being sent in the mail just don’t look all that pretty…..Well anyway, as I was saying, as I sat in the middle of the floor wrapping the thought occurred to me…..well you know…..I wasn’t alone, HE was there twinkling in the lights of the tree….so HE was guiding my thoughts….And this is what HE came up with….”My child, don’t you know that it’s not how the package is wrapped that counts, it’s what inside!”   I felt a smile welling up inside of me, from deep in my heart…..Oh goodness, we spend so much time worrying about how we look, getting our hair cut, colored, new style, painting our nails, and clothes…crazy how we worry about what we wear, oh let’s not forget all the wrinkle creams, diets….so we look good….on the outside…..And so what if we do look awesome all “wrapped” up in our styles and creams….Our Father doesn’t even see all that, HE is looking to what is inside.  What’s in our hearts and minds, what shows through our words and actions….that’s what needs to be pretty!  Sure is a relief to know HE doesn’t care what we look like on the outside (cause my wrinkles are out of control)….I was still smiling as I finished my wrapping for the evening…..smiling to think that the receivers of my gifts will delight in what’s inside even if the “wrapping” isn’t so pretty!   Thank you Father for looking past our wrinkles and gray hair to what’s inside….help us to always be “pretty” on the inside….to Your glory.

 

This will be a sign unto you:  You will find a baby “wrapped” in cloths and lying in a manger.  Luke 2:12.  Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is great worth in God’s sight.  1 Peter 3:3-4.  The Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7. 

Love you all!

 

The most perfect gift

Good Morning Friends!  Totally taken by His love, Tuesday!  Seems like so many conversations right now are all about Christmas shopping….what to get who….how much does it cost…..and then every other commercial is about some big old fancy Christmas gift and the stores and sale papers….gee whiz….easy to get stressed out.  We stress out over getting the perfect gift for our family and friends, the hottest new toy, or biggest tool, buying the perfect paper and matching bows…..people actually go in debt buying Christmas presents that they cannot afford……BAM!!!!  This morning it hit me……..each of us have already received the most perfect gift….many, many years ago……no it didn’t come from a high-dollar department store and wasn’t wrapped in shiny paper……didn’t cost us one cent….not one single penny……..This gift was born in a stable…..wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger…..a stable….for animals….donkeys, sheep, cows…..now I love all my little critters but a night with Chloe and Eyore….no thanks.  This gift God’s Son, born in a manager for us, lived, died and rose again for us…..died that we might live…..Our Heavenly Father gave us the PERFECT GIFT….His only Son…..our Savior…..This Perfect Gift was a gift of LOVE…….unselfish……total LOVE for each of us.  The gift of LOVE, wrapped in swaddling clothes….The perfect gift comes from love……not how much money was spent or the name brand…….So go ahead finish your shopping, but remember the Perfect gift comes from love.  Father, thank you for giving us, the Perfect gift, Your only Son who died to save us from eternal death…..Fill our hearts with Your Love so that everything we do brings glory to You.

 

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you:  You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:11-12.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John3:16.  This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  1 John 3:16.  We love because God first loved us.  1 John 4:19.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.  1 John 4:12.

Love you all!

The beauty in a dead tree

Good Morning Friends!  Wise and Wonderful is our God, Wednesday!  Yesterday I told you about our wonderful Thanksgiving at the cabin, today I want to share a little story from that afternoon.  Last Christmas Eve Papa and I took Cooper and Katy to the cabin for the day to have an old-fashioned Christmas!  We cut down a cedar tree, took it in and decorated it with homemade ornaments, we decorated cookies, had hot chocolate and cooked lunch on the camp stove and even took our naps there!  A wonderful time was had by all for sure.  Well, as things go….Kim and I don’t always get things done in a timely fashion….I think I got the tree undecorated and outside about…..April…..Kim always intended to cut it up and burn it, but just never got to it.  The once pretty little cedar tree with a homemade base still on it was still lying outside the cabin…..Thursday while Mom, Dad, Nana and Papa were sitting by the fire Cooper and Katy were doing some serious exploring!  Guess what they found???!!!  Yep, last year’s once beautiful, now dead, brittle Christmas tree….Cooper was thrilled!!!  He hollered at us, “look what I found, look it’s our Christmas tree from the cabin!” He was so excited, it was precious….Papa and I asked them, “remember last year we spent the day in the cabin and made cookies and decorated the tree?”  Oh yes they both remembered and were so excited sharing things they remembered.  Cooper was holding onto the tree, trying to get it up.  Mom and dad told him to get away from it because it was on prickley….but as they spoke, right in front of our eyes…..Cooper made his move to the cabin door……he was on a mission…..the once beautiful Christmas tree, now to say the least unattractive was going back into the cabin for this year’s Christmas celebration!  Cooper only saw a Christmas tree……he saw only the beauty of a day with Nana, Papa, and Sissy….a day he treasured, more than we could have ever imagined, in his heart.  Of course we had to stop him from putting it in the cabin (with a promise of doing it again), but I couldn’t stop thinking about Cooper and that tree……Cooper saw beauty in that dead tree.  Oh Cooper, sweet boy, what a wonderful lesson you have given your Nana….We are so quick to see the unattractive, past actions, or life styles of people in our lives…..remembering hurts, mistrusts, poor choices while missing the beauty inside, the beauty and forgiveness that God offers everyone….Makes me sad to think of the opportunities I have missed to share happy, loving times with people that might have “unattractive” trees in their pasts…..judging what I think I see or know…missing out on what God sees, missing out on the blessing of sharing with another of HIS children.  Father, forgive us when we misjudge one of Your children, give us eyes and hearts that see as You do.

 

You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  1 Corinthians 6:11.  If you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  Matthew 6:14-15.  God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.  Acts 10:28.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.  Luke 6:31.  How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  Psalm 133:1  Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Hebrews 10:24.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  1 John 4:7. 

Love you all!

 

Relax in the Light of the World

Good Morning Friends!  Totally taken by HIS love, Tuesday!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving; we sure did, we spent the day at our little cabin in the woods and cooked everything but the stuffing and pie outside!  Kathyrn brought the oven stuff, but Kim and I did the rest!  No running water and no electricity, but an awesome campfire all day long!  Praise worthy for sure….now the big day is over and Sunday was the first day in Advent….gosh now we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birthday!  Crazy isn’t it, how time just seems to fly!  Good grief, I know that your lists are as long as mine and the whole month gets overwhelming at times….We had our Hanging of the Greens service at church Sunday, everyone taking part in the special service by hanging wreaths, lighting the Advent wreath, decorating the tree, placing each piece of the nativity, the banners displaying the names of Jesus, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Blessed Redeemer, Light of Light, Lamb of God, Living Word, hang perfectly straight along the walls…..kids reading, adults singing, everyone hanging special ornaments on the tree…..Wonderful, but…..yes hectic…..for the person planning it all gosh!  Thanks Nancy!  And for all of us hoping we are in the right place at the right time…..Well, festivities done, the service continued as usual, about three-quarters through Pastor’s sermon the sun, that had been shining so brightly all morning, went behind the clouds….Our church has big skylights and a huge stained-glass in the front of the church so the natural light is very obvious.  So when the church that had been bright was suddenly dim, I couldn’t help but notice….I took my eyes off of Pastor and looked around…..the lights….oh the lights, the tree, nativity, altar and wreath candles……the lights…..when the sun was shining in so brightly you could hardly notice all the lights, twinkling, sparkling…..shining in the darkness……shining…..Peace….Yes, Peace suddenly engulfed me…..I felt my body relaxing….I let go of the hectic morning and thought only of the LIGHT….The LIGHT of the world….given for me and you….God’s only SON….The Peace I saw in the twinkling lights…this PEACE that engulfed me, I know is what God wants each of us to have and to hold throughout this hectic season….This PEACE is all that matters….the LIGHT shining through the darkness to guide us…..loving us….Father, thank you for giving us the Perfect GIFT, the Light of the World, Your Son Jesus.  Push away the hectic from our lives and fill us with Your Perfect Peace as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Your Son, our Savior. 

 

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your heats be troubled and do not be afraid.”  John 14:27.  The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.  Psalm 29:11.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called peace.  Colossians 3:15.  The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:7.  The God of PEACE be with you.  Philippians 4:9.

Love you all!