Christmas

Christmas in Large Print

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I am so glad to be able to offer this 30 day Advent reader in large print for 2018. With my own eyesight a bit sketchy over the last few years I jumped at the chance to be able to render this devotional book book in an easy to read format.

“O tidings of comfort and joy” goes the end of the chorus of the 18th century English carol. Hearing the strains of that melody stirs in many of us the picture of shepherds surrounding Bethlehem’s manger with wise men just over the horizon bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. While all of these images are true to the lyrics and the season, our own journey on this telling will begin in Nazareth. These glad tidings given came to Mary, then Joseph, the shepherds, wise men and now for anyone who will be willing to listen. But hearing is only the first wonderful step that allows the comfort and joy from Our Father’s heart to become our own through Christmas and forever!

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30 Days of Comfort and Joy

On Tip-Toe

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Today I am making available the 2018 Christmas devotional “Mary I Have News” both in a Kindle edition and in paperback. The concept for the theme this year began with a song I wrote last year for our young people to sing for a Christmas program. So often we think of Christmas on that Silent Night when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But the birth announcement by the angel to Mary marked the moment when God came and entered the world secretly while angels stood on tip-toe to see what God would do next!

The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. Romans 8: 19 Phillips version

Does it seem that Christmas has become tedious or even a bit boring? I recently learned a lesson from our grandson Alex as we walked to the nearby fire station one morning. Along the way he picked up every seed and stick stopping every few feet for new discoveries. When we got to the fire station, he peered through the windows at the fire trucks and even opened their letter box to see their mail!…

Excerpt from Day 1: Mary I Have News: 30 Christmas Reflections (Kindle Locations 27-32). Kindle Edition.

Mary I Have News

Mary I Have News!

All is Bright?

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 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

Silent night Holy night / All is calm all is bright      Josef Mohr 1818

I am not sure of the exact inspiration for Josef Mohr when He wrote the words for Silent Night. What strange word are these? What Silent night? What holiness could be seen? From the braying donkey carrying Mary to Bethlehem to her cries piercing the night as she gave birth; there was no silence or holy place given her. ” All is calm all is bright.” Yet it would be hard to imagine Joseph being calm when there was no better place for Mary than a stable or cleaner spot to lay her child than a feeding trough for the cows! Yet the oddest of all these lines is “All is bright.”  All is bright? I have memories of milking our cow at 4:45 a.m. in a barn without electricity. My only light was a candle stub which I placed on a beam. There was nothing at all especially bright about those cold early mornings in the barn.

And yet by faith we sense the deeper reality of the silence of angels, stooping low to see the Savior. We recognize the holiness of the child conceived by God’s Holy Spirit. We feel the calm assurance of Mary and Joseph’s hearts as everything happen

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ed just as the angel had foretold. We see the brightness as the first flicker of God’s light in our dark and waiting world. From that first Christmas till now, the darkness has never put it out!