Christmas Nativity - Luke

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. – Isaiah 9:6

The Christmas Story
Luke 2:1-20

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

3 And everyone went to his own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 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.

11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ [a] the Lord.

12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,

18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Do you have a nativity scene at your house?

It’s amazing how many of the images of Christmas come from the gospel of Luke. Without Luke we wouldn’t have much of a Christmas visually.

Luke gives us the warm coloring of Christmas. Mary and Joseph coming to Bethlehem, searching for a place and having to settle probably for a drafty cave. Because Jesus was born in a stable, Luke brings us all the animals that we have in a nativity scene, not to mention the shepherds and angels.

Luke is responsible for most of the Christmas carols that we sing—”Angels We Have Heard On High,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Away in a Manger,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” “Silent Night,” etc.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here are some unusual Christmas trees submitted for your approval!

This one from Neatorama.com is considered one of the Most Expensive Christmas Trees. This one, in Singapore, featured 21,798 diamonds, 3,762 crystal beads, and 456 lights, for a cost of over a million dollars! Good grief!

You can view a slide-show of interesting Christmas tree concepts at the Kunstmagazin website including this Christmas army:

For those with a real sweet tooth ... This Weihnachtsbaum is made out of sugar cubes:

For those going green this year ... Go to Toxel.com to view unusual trees including the Plywood Eco Christmas Tree, the Shelf Christmas Tree, and the Empty Bottles Christmas Trees.

This french fry tree is decorated the European way–with ketchup and mayo! A true kid favorite! Via the Art Das Kunstmagazin website.

A now for my personal favorite ... The brussel Sprout tree! Now this is really cool! Proudly presented from the SeriousEats website:

Have a most blessed Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas in January

Today was the day of the long awaited Chiloquin Elementary School Christmas Pagent! Alas, last months was canceled because of blizzard conditions. Today however, was the day of the big performance ... Here is my daughter Hannah (5th from the left) and the rest of Miss Henson's Fourth grade class, kicking into a rousing number called "The Fruitcake Song." The show must go on does it not!

Tim, the proud Dad after all ....

Merry Christmas Greeting

I Love Jaquie Lawson cards. Check this one out ....

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=PP28735954

Have a blessed warm Christmas full of Light and Love!

Messy Christmas

Jesus is many things to many people, but to John he was Light and Life. The apostle must have remembered where Jesus was standing and what he sounded like when he referred to himself by those words. Although nothing is written in his book, there is a little inkling of the birth to be found in John’s Gospel after all. It is wrapped up in one short sentence, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. This verse really should be read before Matthew and Luke. It prepares us to receive the full version of the story. The Light that is Jesus shines in, around, through, behind, beneath, beyond the darkness of the manger, the stable, the darkness of the world, the darkness of buried in our own hearts. Do we really understand it any more than the shepherds or the wise men did. Who can grasp the idea of Light and Life being contained in a body?

If you were a shepherd 2,000 years ago and were outside watching the sheep one night when an angel showed up with a message from God, well…what would you do? Once they got over the shock They probably thought, Oh, sheesh! What did we do now??? They had been told that God did not like people , sinners, who definitely are not all cleaned up, so they might have assumed the angel was there to tell them God was mad at them — or worse. Maybe God had finally reached his limit with all the crap in the world and was ready to do something about it — starting with them! But instead the angel began with these words: “Fear not.” It’s a familiar refrain, angels, who seemingly always having to preface their conversations with people this way. Then he told them how to find the long awaited Messiah:

He will be wrapped in rags, lying in a feed trough, surrounded by animals — kind of like one of your shepherd kids would be. In other words, here’s how you will know the Messiah when you see him: You will find him in the middle of a big stinkin' mess!

The whole reason this is Good News — to the shepherds that night and to us right now — is that we really are all messy people. Every night, well dressed and manicured people appear on television and tell us how the world got a little messier today. We manage to mess up every single area of life: relationships, finances, work, family, the environment, the Church (especially there), our conscience, our habits ... the list can go on and on. In fact there’s not a single place we haven't managed to mangle ... And we can't seem to fix any of it!

So the angel says, “Here’s the Good News: God is not afraid of your mess.”

Say what??? Our God doesn't seem to care how messy our life is. It couldn't be any messier than where He chose to come to earth. He was born in a mess — wrapped in rags, laid in a manger — and he died in a mess! And in between his first day and his last day, he mostly hung out with messy people, seeming even to prefer them!

We make Christmas really pretty, with red velvet bows and evergreen branches and all that. But the real story of Christmas proves that you do not have to clean up for him. Cleanliness, it turns out, is far from godliness. If anything, it’s in the middle of our messiness that God shows up! God is love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure in seeing us punished. God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home.

Merry Christmas!!!

revelation 12/the other christmas story

There is another Christmas story that we don't hear of during the season, at least very rarely, and its recorded in Revelation 12.

"Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days" (Revelation 12:1-6).

There is this parallel history kind of thing, and while we reflect on shepherds, a mad king and a manger scene, this story in Revelation shows whats going on in the heavens. Even before Jesus was born, Satan was plotting to kill Him. The Incarnation was a tremendous blow to Satan and his forces, who continued to pursue Jesus, until through the sacrifice of His life on the cross, He won the ultimate battle and brought to completion the reconciliation of God and man. The war is raging on, with Satan and his angels cast to the earth where they continue to display their wrath against the Body of Christ ... us.

John's preface to his gospel holds that when the Word became flesh, many didn't recognize it. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, but it didn't know him. He came to his own, and they didn't acknowledge or receive him. But some did. Christmas has to do with seeing the signs, with recognition, with discerning God's presence in the world. I believe the peace of the Christmas story is one of God's gifts to us, a gift that reveals to us the victory of God in the midst of terrible strife.

At every turn the story in Revelation 12 seems an absurd mismatch: a woman and a dragon, a babe and the kings of this world, a messiah and the power of death. But that is precisely the method that God has chosen in the incarnation. If we look closely, we will see that there are two levels or fronts to the Christmas story: one of peace and the other of war. The truth is, God has been active in the history of man, and He will be active in our lives forever; regardless of what the enemy tries to do, He will prevail. Isn't it a strange thought that what happens our our tiny planet, perhaps even our own actions, echos in the heavens?