'Twas the Night Before CHRISTMAS

This is a beautiful version of the story 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by my friend Victoria Bierman Jenkins.   I pray that it will bless you as it has me.


'Twas the Night Before CHRISTmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
None of God's creatures were stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In truth, it was Christ's birth that had put them there.

God’s children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Unlike the baby Jesus, with no place to lay His sweet head;
Mother Mary and Joseph, and some shepherds perhaps
Watched over our Savior as He peacefully napped.
When up in the sky there arose such a clatter,
That three wise men grabbed the best gifts they could gather.
Away to the Messiah they flew like a flash,
To see our Redeemer in the flesh at long last.

The star in the sky gave off such a glow
Shining with the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But the stillness of the star showing they must be near.
It's unclear how long they traveled, but it was quite a bit,
Still they knew by the star's pause that this must be it.
Three gifts they brought to little Jesus when they came,
And they rejoiced as the angels had as they praised His name;

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom He favors!
To the top of the mountains!
To the bottom of the sea!
Our Savior is born to save both you and me!"

As God's children sleep, safe in their beds,
Both Father and Son watch over their heads,
Loving them enough to number each countless hair,
We've no way to earn their love, but every way to share.
Giving gifts as the wise men did is a fun tradition,
As long as the point of Christmas never goes missing.

Deck the halls and trim the tree,
Hang the stockings and dance with glee.
Share the joy of CHRISTmas which no wrapped gift could match,
Tell of the Babe wrapped in cloth who brought us freedom at last;
A bundle of joy lying in the manger,
Sent to save us from unspeakable danger.
His life for ours, what an amazing gift!
He was born so that man might no longer perish!
His life was as pure as the day He was born,
As He taught us the greatest lessons we'll learn;
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love,
Don't try to be pleasing to man, but to God above;
Build on the Rock and not the sand,
Keep an open heart and an outstretched hand.

So many people are in need this Christmas,
Let God use you to fulfill their wishes;
Give as you've been given to,
You provide for others and He'll provide for you;
So speak of His Word, and get straight to His work,
Always giving Him the glory since it all came from Him first.

Remember, it's God's children in this world that are the light,
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

And The Winners Are...........................

Today's the day to announce the four winners of From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy  by Leah Adams.

So without further ado, the winners are:


Marilyn in Mississippi from Walking in Truth

Tiffany from Tea with Tiffany

Vivian Childs 

Cindy from Consider it All Joy
 

Congratulations ladies!  I will have your books in the mail by Thursday, November 18th.  Thank you for entering the drawing.

It's Give Away Time!

 In honor of my friend Leah  I will be giving away four autographed copies of her Bible Study,  From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy.

This excellent Bible study will help us examine our legacy and guide us in creating a godly legacy that will honor God.

All you have to do to enter for the drawing is to leave a comment.  I will choose the winners in a very scientific way; your names will be drawn out of a hat by my sweet hubby on November 15th.

What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

A Good Connection

My Blackberry was on it's last legs. The screen would freeze, making in difficult to use unless you turned it off and then back on several times a day.  I am not technologically savvy at all but I decided to get a new Android phone that is really cool.  My niece works for our wireless carrier so when she brought me the new phone, she and her brother gave me a thorough tutorial.  Very soon I was familiar enough with the phone to do all sorts of cool things.  However, I failed to learn how to retrieve a call!  After several missed calls I finally got the hang of answering a call.  By now you have probably figured out that I am not always the sharpest crayon in the box.

Today in Bible study during Leah's prayer, one of our ladies' phone rang.  She had forgotten to silence it.  She managed to silence the call and then another ladies' phone rang.  She silenced her call as well and we had a little giggle during our prayer.   As Leah was praying, she thanked the Lord that he never silences our calls.  I am so thankful for that.  He always takes our calls.  He never mutes us.  He never sends us straight to His voice mail.  He never screens our calls even when He sees on His caller ID that it's me.   Our calls to Heaven are never dropped and there is always a good connection.  He is "on call" 24/7.  His network is always available.  He can "hear us now".  Praise Him with me that He always hears our prayers.

 "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all you heart."  Jeremiah 29: 12-13

 "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."  Jeremiah 33:3

Life is Good,

Cindy

Hoarders

Some of you may have watched the television show Hoarders but  I had never seen an episode until last week.  I was flipping through the channels on Labor Day hoping for a Criminal Minds or NCIS marathon but instead I happened upon Hoarders.  And I was mesmerized.  And heartbroken for the hoarders.

 The A & E channel defines it like this : "Compulsive Hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things even if the items are worthless, hazardous or unsanitary."  Some of the hoarders have had some circumstance in their life that triggered their disorder.  I was amazed that some of the homes had gotten to the point that they were uninhabitable.  The hoarders are embarrassed and overwhelmed.  Most of the houses had gotten so bad that the hoarders had no clue where to start and seemed hopeless.  Some of the hoarders did not realize that they had a problem.  Families had been torn apart by the hoarding.  The only way for a compulsive hoarder to change is through therapy.  It was so easy for me to be judgmental and disgusted.  But like I said my heart was broken.

The Holy Spirit began to whisper that we as Christians can be hoarders too.  What?  Did I hear you correctly Lord?  While we may not hoard possessions we can sometimes hoard our emotions.

• We hoard forgiveness when we fail to extend it to someone who might have wronged us. 
• We hoard mercy when we fail to show compassion to others.
• We hoard patience when we are easily annoyed by others.
• We hoard joy when we let our circumstances dictate how we feel.

When we hang on to these things instead of sharing them with others we are basically hoarding Jesus!  Jesus paid too high a price for us to keep Him too ourselves.  I don't want to be a hoarder.  How about you?

Different Denominations (and I'm Not Talking About Money)

Our church just began having a contemporary service in our Fellowship Hall on Sunday mornings in addition to our more traditional Sunday morning worship.   W.I.T.H  or Worship in the Hall wasn't a change in theology, but a different style of worshiping the same God.  It is an amazing worship service and it got me to thinking about different denominations and the different ways that people worship the One True God.

I think it's really neat that we as the body of Christ can choose how we worship and belong to the denomination of our choice.   It would be boring if everyone were alike.  Some prefer chocolate, some vanilla.  And so it is with worship, we have different preferences.

Sunday morning before last I turned on the television to hear a popular Atlanta pastor as usual before leaving for church.  I couldn't find him, so I settled for a different channel and different pastor.  I never did find our his name because I was listening from another room as I got ready to go to church.  But it was a very interesting explanation of denominations.

He surmised that  different denominations possibly existed in the Old Testament.  I know what you're thinking, probably the same thing I was; huh?   After the Egyptian Pharaoh released the Hebrews after 430 years of captivity, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and other laws.  He later gave him detailed instructions on building a sanctuary or Tabernacle for Him so that He could dwell among the people. The Israelites  were divided into 12 tribes and each tribe set up camp around the Tabernacle, the position of each tribe's campsite had been determined by instructions from God to Moses. 

Each of the twelve tribes had different standards or banners that they flew over their tribe.  Even though they were all Jews and they had all been enslaved in Egypt there were differences in each tribe.  Every tribe had a set of values; personal values, traditional values and core values.  Personal values could be shaped by circumstances in their lives, their jobs, etc.  Traditional values were held by each tribe, and came from traditions that had been passed down from the families in the tribe from generation to generation, like what dishes they ate their Passover meal on, whether they watched the Passover football game, etc. (I'm just kidding.  But you get the drift.)  And core values are the values that they all held as God's chosen people.   These core values were absolutely non-negotiable.  "You shall have no other gods before me, You shall not make for yourself an idol, You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, Honor your father and your mother, You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony, and You shall not covet".

We who are Believers have our own set of personal and traditional values.  Some of us are quiet in our worship, and some of us clap our hands.  Some of us like the old hymns and some of us like the new praise songs.  We are Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Lutherans to name a few.  But our core values are the same.  We are followers of Christ.  We believe that Jesus died once for all, taking on our sins and on the third day rose from the dead, giving us eternal life and preparing  us a place with Him in Heaven.

 
  

Putting on My Armor

Hello again.  It has been forever since I've seen you!  I've missed you.  I had no intentions of being away so long, but God had other plans.  This has been a hectic year.  In March and April I battled the flu for a month and in May our daughter got married.  In my last post I told you that God had me in a place of quiet rest to recover from all the excitement.   I really didn't expect my rest to be an extended one, but in July I came down with what the Doctor thought was bronchitis but turned into pneumonia.  The symptoms lasted over a month and then I was diagnosed with asthma.  That explains why it was so hard to get over the flu and pneumonia.


I have to be honest with you, while I was going through the flu I began to feel so defeated.  I don't think I had ever felt that bad and it got to the point where I wondered if I would ever feel better again.  And even though I knew that it wasn't the truth, I even felt like God had forsaken me.   Those were lies straight from the enemy himself. When I got sick with pneumonia I briefly entertained those lies again.
Both times when I was sick, I was unable to sit up and just generally felt lousy, not even like reading.  So I let my Bible reading and my Bible study lapse.  Big mistake.  One that I will never make again. 

Today in my Bible study on Covenant,  I read Ephesians 6.  I have read this passage many times, but today God showed me something new.   Kay Arthur says: "  The word "struggle" in Ephesians 6:12 is the Greek word pale.  It is a wrestling term - meaning to throw to the ground and hold there.  Could this be why so many who profess Jesus find themselves pinned to the ground by the Enemy?"  That is exactly how I felt!  I realized that during my illnesses, I had not put on the FULL armor of God.  I had select pieces on, but not the full armor.  My feelings were due to something that I had not done.  God had not forsaken me, I hadn't done my part.   Listen to me my sweet sisters, we cannot function at all unless we are FULLY armored!  We cannot stand firm against the enemy's schemes without God's complete suit of armor.  We cannot resist his lies unless we are fully armored.   It is impossible to stand against his evil ways without His complete armor. 

Ephesians 6:10-17 (New International Version)

The Armor of God

 ¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.