Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 12,27-   A Fragile GiftLuke 2:1-7 Keila Ochoa When we give a fragile gift, we make sure it is marked on the box that contains it. The word FRAGILE is written with big letters because we don’t want anyone to damage what is inside. God’s gift to us came in the most fragile package: a baby. Sometimes we imagine Christmas day as a beautiful scene on a postcard, but any mother can tell you it wasn’t so. Mary was tired, probably insecure. It was her first child, and He was born in the most unsanitary conditions. She “wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). A baby needs constant care. Babies cry, eat, sleep and depend on their caregivers. They cannot make decisions. In Mary’s day, infant mortality was high, and mothers often died in childbirth. Why did God choose such a fragile way to send His Son to earth? Because Jesus had to be like us in order to save us. God’s great...

 12.26- God With Us Matthew 1:18-23 Amy Boucher Pye Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left . . .” These hymn lyrics, written by the fifth-century Celtic Christian St.Patrick, echo in my mind when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth. They feel like a warm embrace, reminding me that I’m never alone. Matthew’s account tells us that God dwelling with His people is at the heart of Christmas. Quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of a child who would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14), Matthew points to the ultimate fulfillment of that prophecy – Jesus, the One born by the power of the Holy Spirit to be God with us. This truth is so central that Matthew begins and ends his gospel with it, concluding with Jesus words to His disciples: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). St. Patrick’s lyric...

 12.26-   An Unlikely King Max Lucado In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what He was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, her son, her Lord. His majesty—she couldn’t take her eyes off Him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God. So this is He. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said, “His kingdom will never end!” He looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.  

 12.25- A Message From God Hebrews 1:1-9 David McCasland In 1971, Ray Tomlinson was experimenting with ways people and computers could interact. When he sent a message from his computer through a network to a different unit in his office, he had sent the first e-mail. Now decades later, more than a billion e-mails are sent every day. Many contain important news from family and friends, but others may carry unwanted advertising or a destructive virus. A basic rule governing e-mail use is: “Don’t open it unless you trust the sender.” God has sent us a message in the Person of His Son, and we can trust the Sender. In the Old Testament, God spoke to His people through the prophets and many rejected God’s Word. But it was all leading to this: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the wor...

12.25- From the book: Joy in the Journey: Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death by Steve Hayner (Author), Sharol Hayner (Author Christmas Joy From the book, Joy in the Journey by Stephen A Hayner A Confession of Faith by Stephen A. Hayner   When God created the heaven and the earth When God created all that lives He crowned creation with humankind And said, “This is very good.” The people who walked in Light, Walked in perfect fellowship with God; In perfect harmony with each other and with the earth. They were whole, alive, full of joy, without fear; They know who they were because they knew whose they were. But they grew proud in their sufficiency, In their abundance they forgot God. They turned within themselves for answers And the Light flickered out. The people of the Light became the people of darkness. Once they were God’s people—now they were no people. Over the years many proposed that the darknes...

 12.24- In winter, I often wake to the beautiful surprise of a world blanketed in the peace and quiet of an early morning snow. Not loudly like a spring thunderstorm that announces its presence in the night, snow come softly. In “Winter Snow Song,” Audrey Assad sings that Jesus could have come to earth in power like a hurricane, but instead He came quietly and slowly like the winter snow falling softly in the night outside my window. Jesus’ arrival took many by quiet surprise. Instead of being born in a palace, He was born in an unlikely place, a humble dwelling outside Bethlehem. And He slept in the only bed available, a manger (Luke 2:7). Instead of being attended by royalty and government officials, Jesus was welcomed by lowly shepherds (Luke 2:15-16). Instead of having wealth, Jesus’ parents could only afford the inexpensive sacrifice of two birds when they presented Him at the temple (Luke 2:24). The unassuming way Jesus entered the world was foresha...

 12.24- My Best Friend LARRY WISHARD • REFLECTIONS ON JOHN 10 • CHRISTMAS 2005 He is direct. Straight up. Up front. He knows my name, but does not use it to flatter and manipulate. He loves at all times, but his love stands out in times of adversity. He leads in the direction I need to go. He loves me as I am, but does not leave me as I am. I find myself wanting to spend more and more time with Him. He is a gate of wisdom. I find myself wanting to ask what He thinks of any major decision. He has been in my life for many years, helping me through many stages of my family life. He has added value over and over. He has taught me to guard the resources I have been given. He has taught me to not make a vow, rather than make one and not keep it. Promise less than you can deliver. He has taught me not to love money, but rather enjoy my work. He is my mentor. He knows me and allows me to know Him. He always has room at the table for one more guest. He is a take-charge...

12.23-   Linus’ Voice Luke 2:1-21 Tim Gustafson In the timeless TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown tries to direct a Christmas pageant. Everyone, it seems, is caught up in the commercialism of the season. Rehearsals go from bad to worse until our exasperated hero shots at the ceiling, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” It’s then that Linus pipes up, “Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell what Christmas is all about, “Clutching his security blanket, Linus shuffles center stage and launches into a soliloquy for the ages-The Christmas story from Luke 2. Christopher Shea, the seven-year-old actor who voiced Linus’ role, died at age fifty-two. But he learned the source of that simple TV show’s significance. “As I got older,” Shea once said, “I understood the words more, and I understood the power of what was going on.” One day our lines will be complete. We’ll walk offstage and into eternity. If we...

 12.22- This Christmas season people do beautiful things for each other. In 500 B.C it was true that the path to a great life is to "administer true justice, show mercy, show..to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless or the poor and do not devise evil against each other"   Zechariah 7. 8  Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9  “This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10  and do not oppress the widow or the [ h ] orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’

 12.21-   I once was given a beautiful ring by my sister. I wanted to find a buried treasure so I buried the ring in the middle of a cotton field thinking I would later come back with someone and find it and show how "lucky" I was. I never found it. I needed to remember that I was "blessed" to have been given a sister who would give me a ring like that.   Matthew 13. 44  “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again ; and from [ aa ] joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field. A Costly Pearl 45  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46  and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything that he had and bought it.  

 12.20-   I had this dream. In heaven the three of them were discussing the kind of woman they admired. One of them said, “I like a woman who loves to worship God.” The second one said, “I’m drawn to the lady who knows how to make a banquet a real celebration of all that is tasty and beautiful.” The third said, “I am drawn to a lady who knows what she wants and can speak clearly and directly to get things done whether it is cleaning up a mess or writing a song with a message. They decided to have Gabriel show up to visit Mary, the fiancé of Joseph of Nazareth to tell her that she was highly favored and the rest is history as they say.   Luke 2. 2  Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all [ a ] the inhabited earth. 2  [ b ] This was the first census taken while [ c ] Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3  And all the people were on their way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4  Now Joseph ...