Daily Verse

Angels on High

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:14 KJV For some of us, Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a Sunday school pageant featuring a seven year-old Mary carrying a baby-doll Jesus. It is wonderful seeing how children connect with Jesus, because He came as a real baby. But the angel who came announcing the birth of that baby, was soon surrounded by a whole choir of angels singing, “Glory to God in the Highest!” They remind us that Christmas is not just about Mary and Joseph and the wise men with their gifts. Christmas is about God revealing Himself in a manger. Just as the smallest candle can light the darkest room, so God’s glory shone the brightest when He came as an innocent, helpless child. Angels carried the message; a star led the wise men and shepherds ran to worship as God’s glory touched earth on that night in Bethlehem. The words of the choir of, – Angels We Have Heard on High – “Glo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooria! In excelsis Deo,” are Latin for “Glory to God in the highest. “When the message of God’s glory rings out from our hearts, though our situation may not change, we are filled with joy. If we will invite Him in, Jesus has come to be born in the very darkest places of our lives. He has come to shine God’s glory around us and to bring His good will to men.

Angels We Have Heard on High from the French “Les Anges dans nos campagnes” Music by Wilfrid Moreau. Translated in 1842 by James Chadwick

Caligiuri, Peter. A Christmas Treasury: Large Print Edition (pp. 7-9). Kindle Edition.

This is the Day

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This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 ESV

As we began the Christmas season at Life Care Center today, I shared the message that Christmas is the day that the Lord has made (specially chosen). Not even Mary and Joseph knew the exact day, if they had, they would have left a few days earlier! For each of our lives, it is the same. Many days come along that challenge our faith, our joy and endurance. We sometimes stop and wonder how God could have allowed this to happen to us. But all the days, both happy and sorrowful are given to us by the hand of our loving Father. I hope you will be uplifted and encouraged by the message of this original song, “This is the Day”. 

This is the Day by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright 2022 all rights reserved
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No Crib For His Bed

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And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7 KJV

For those whose farming experience comes only from watching “Little House on the Prairie,” the manger scene may sound idyllic. But for those of us who have milked cows, picked up bales of hay and fed the chickens, the words, “The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay” have a completely different meaning. You might not know this, but in a barn when “The cattle are lowing,” they are often doing other unpleasant things not appealing to a mother who has just given birth! But for all these oversights in this children’s carol, the central truth still rings loud and clear: Jesus was a real baby! He was not just an infant with a halo around His head, posing for a portrait, smiling for the wise men and lifting His tiny hands to bless shepherds. God’s Son was born in a barn, His first bed was a feeding trough and the sights and smells around Him were not Frankincense and myrrh. God’s chosen place for the birth of Jesus was so that both children and wise men, shepherds and small town folks, could draw near. It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t dignified. It looked like it would never work. And yet it did. Jesus heard the sounds of chickens, He touched the rough hay, and smelled the barn animals just as we do. Then one day, He was given a crown to wear covered with thorns. Then He was beaten, given vinegar to drink, nailed to a cross and left to die on a cold dark hilltop. He did it all so that anyone who would believe in Him could be forgiven. Today He invites you to come, whether your home is in a barn or a mansion because He loves you and wants to make you His own!

Away in a Manger 1895 Author unknown music by Willaim Kirkpatrick

Caligiuri, Peter. A Christmas Treasury: Large Print Edition (pp. 5-6). Kindle Edition.