Twas The Night Before Christmas

merry Christmas!!!

Our God is so good; truly He is the only Reason for the season. Should it not always be Christmas in our hearts? When Jesus is born in our hearts, only then is it truly Christmas! Jesus was born in a filthy stable.....and there was a reason. God was giving us a picture. The filth of that stable was the symbol of our hearts. All our righteousness is like that stable, but when the only Righteous One is born within us, then the cleansing begins. He is so good, so faithful, so beautiful.

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Rejoice in the Lord always!

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I received an email from the Ludys with a video of Hudson reciting "Twas The Night Before Christmas". Perhaps some of you got it too, but if you didn't, here is the link. Be sure to listen to it, because it is so cute! And if you really want to laugh; watch their other videos too. :)

http://kiddos.setapartlife.com/Our_Blog/Entries/2008/12/23_twas_the_night_before_Christmas.html

My Shepherd

The LORD is my Shepherd;

I shall not want.

-Psalm 23:1

"You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God," says the Lord God.
-Ezekiel 34:31


Ezekiel 34 amazes me. (Read the whole chapter!) God meant earthly shepherds to be for the good of His people; to lead His people in a way that would show them who He is. Yet perhaps too many of them take their jobs too lightly or are ignorant of the fact that they are meant to be a beautiful picture of the One Shepherd. Certainly they are most definitely not beautiful pictures of Him in and of themselves, and never can be--- but by the impartation of Him who is truly beautiful. In the beginning of the chapter the Lord addresses the shepherds, telling them everything they have done against His sheep. The reason that they erred in the first place seems to be because of one thing: Self was on the throne rather that the LORD, which brought much destruction to the sheep and led them astray.
There are many warnings in this chapter; both to the shepherds and the sheep. His shepherds need to recognize their job, and His sheep need to recognize their Shepherd. Though earthly shepherds may be for our good (those who recognize their responsibility and the fact that they too are under the One Shepherd), we (the sheep that is) must never look to them to save us or be to us what only He can be.

In the middle of the chapter He mentions His servant David.
There is one key that unlocks understanding of this whole chapter; one key that this whole chapter points to. The key of David: Jesus Christ.
When we His sheep come to complete dependence on Him, and can truly say that He alone is our Shepherd, there is no other, we have need of nothing because He is our everything, then we will never be led astray.


(If there are any out there who also find joy in this, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Please!?)

Logan

He had just turned six years old. With blue eyes and white-blond hair, he was a little terror. I was reminded very quickly of the death grip with which sin takes hold of lives from such a young age. But from the very first time I laid eyes on him, I knew that all he wanted was someone to love him, and in that very short week that we would know each other, that is exactly what I planned to do. He would fight with the other kids just to gain my attention, cry like a baby when he was reprimanded, and the next minute show how well on his way he was to mastering the "tough guy" act. He seemed not able to call me anything but "teacher" and would continuously give me "bear hugs".



It was right before snack time when someone announced that everyone needed to quiet down because we were going to pray. I felt a tug on my sleeve and looked down to see those big questioning blue eyes looking into mine as he said, "teacher, what is pray?" I knelt down and said gently, "it is when we talk to God". His next words greatly surprised me. "I saw God once!" he stated confidently. I was a little taken aback and thoughts ran through my head saying "no one has ever seen God; what is this little boy talking about?" But then I thought of the love of Jesus, "doesn't He manifest Himself to people? He loves the children!" So looking once more at him, I asked, "where did you see Him?"

"I saw Him here; He was here last year!" he replied.

Gracious Uncertainty

"Certainty is the mark of the common sense life: gracious uncertainty is a mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately when we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only belive our belief about Him. Jesus said, "Except ye... become as little children." Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. "Believe also in Me," said Jesus, not---"Believe certain things about Me." Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come.

Remain loyal to Him."

-Oswald Chambers

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This quote really caught my attention. This world teaches us that we must make our plans, believe in and trust our plans, stand up on our plans, be completely certain of ourselves...and then we will be something. We all heard it when we were little: "What do you want to be when you grow up?", and when we were older it was supposed that we had gained our self-certainty: "What are you going to be?" (Notice the thread running through all of this: it's all about me.)

As I grew up, and my answer continued to be "I don't know", people would seem to kind of pause at my answer for a minute, and then with a little knowing look they would say, "Well, you are still young; you still have time to decide." (As I learn more from my Lord, I realize how different "Time" is in His eyes than in the world's.)

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How about loving Jesus and saying, "I delight to do Your will, O my God" ?

How about leaving all our plans and desires and letting Him be certain of them? How about saying,

When I grow up, I want to be

Certain of my God.

Rings of Gold

Oh, how the coming storm brings forth the darkest clouds tonight!

They seem to say that none can stand before their angry forms, and are made bold

To try and steal away the sweetness of the moon.

They do not know they only magnify its beauteous light

By circling it with rings of gold.