As we end Christmas week, I begin sadly thinking of how I will need to soon take down the lights, the ornaments, candy canes along the walkway and put away the wreath. But just before putting the Advent season to bed for the year, I wanted to share an original Christmas carol which I wrote for a church program in 2017. This all started when I began searching for a carol about the angel Gabriel telling Mary the news of how she would have a miracle child. After looking through all my books, I realized there weren’t any, and so I prayed, and the Lord gave me this song called, “Mary I Have News.” You are welcome to freely use this in your own future pageants, just be sure to let me know. I do hope you like it!
Author: pastorpete51
A Time For us to Sing
To every bird God gives a voice
And a time to sing out strong
Like shepherds who gave shouts of praise
And Mary gave her song
The mockingbird sings bright and clear
The sparrow simply cheeps
And crows caw loudly in the streets
While the silent owl sleeps
And above us all there stands the One
Who gives us each our parts
A time for each of us to sing
With humble joyful hearts
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
Song of Solomon 2:12 ESV
A Time For Us to Sing
by Peter CAligiuri
Copyright 2024 all rights reserved
Third Shift Shepherds – A Christmas Message
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Luke 2:8 KJV
For a short time, I worked a third shift job and found that I had joined that special group of people who only see the world from midnight till dawn. On the night that Jesus was born, just above Bethlehem those shepherds were the third shift workers of their day. Probably the more important shepherds got the first shift jobs. Yet on that night, those unnamed and seemingly unimportant third shift shepherds became the first people on earth to hear the good news of the birth of Jesus! The angel told them that God had remembered His people, He remembered Bethlehem and He even remembered shepherds whom everyone else had forgotten!
Did you ever stop to think that God also remembers you? He is not satisfied to visit only the better homes in the better neighborhoods with the biggest and most beautiful churches. In the same way that those shepherds were watching their flocks at night, God also watches over us in the darkest moments of our lives. He knows right where we are. He hears us and He still sends angels with His message of good news. There is no better place than right where you are to hear the news; that Jesus Christ came to bring hope and salvation to us all: even to third shift shepherds out in their fields at night!
I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Thank you for all the encouraging comments, new ideas and prayers for our family throughout the year. Below is the Christmas message which I shared at Discovery Villages this year. I hope you enjoy it as well as my “Country” version of Angels We Have Heard on High. In the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless you each and every one!”
praise2worshipdotnet 
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