December 25–The Choice

If I had been in Bethlehem the night that Christ was born

Would I have heard the news with joy or turned my head in scorn

Would I have run to see this child or climbed back in my bed

Would I have bowed my head in prayer or laughed at those who did

 

I wasn’t there in Bethlehem to choose what I would do

But I have a choice this Christmas

And so, my friend, do you

 

Will I find the time to praise my Lord and call Him King of All

Or will I leave those words unsaid inside the South Plains Mall

Will I sing the well-loved carols with a heart so pure and free

Or will I worry about the baking and the trimming of the tree

 

Will we read the Christmas story as a family group this year

Or will we tear into the presents left by Santa’s swift reindeer

Will this Christmas linger in our hearts as a time of faith restored

Or will it end with a broken toy and a child who says, “I’m bored.”

 

I wasn’t there in Bethlehem to choose what I would do

But I have a choice this Christmas

And so, my friend, do you.

   

VaDonna Anthony—Souljourners

December 24–Making Room for Love…Dogs as Our Example

We think the subject of love is an easy one to get right.  How hard could it be?  In today’s world where do we find the best examples of unconditional love?    I suggest that our pets are the best answer to that question.  We are a dog family so I will use Jax as my example.  Jax helped us during a time of recent challenge. Even when we were not the best examples to each other, we could always find Jax who could give a hug, a kiss, or just comfort without questions or judgment.

If you don’t trust Jax, I suggest you give Jesus a shot with this subject.  He tells us that out of all the things we are called to do, we must first love the Lord and secondly and EQUALLY as important is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Go out and hug a dog! Or just follow Jesus!

Glenn Mellinger—Homebuilders

December 23–Where’s the Love?… Waiting

OK… call me scooge, but by the time Christmas actually rolls around, I feel drained and exhausted. Empty if you will. Some of it comes from working at the South Plains Food Bank.

 Don’t get me wrong. I love what we do at the food bank. But during the Christmas season in particular, I see that everything we are doing for some of the people I know really isn’t enough. Maybe I take this stuff too personally, but it breaks my heart to see some of the individuals and families coming through our food lines. I’ve seen these faces before. I care about them. And it frustrates me to no end to see some of these families marking time. Marking time for what?

 I forget that the season of Advent is about taking time to prepare for the coming of Christ into our world. About taking time to make space in our lives for the presence of God. A time to embrace and be embraced by the love of God.

When I feel drained and emptied, I remember a quote from Augustine: Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

 

Come oh come Immanuel. I am waiting. I am empty.

 

David Weaver—Boomers

December 22–Making Room for Love

Each of the four weeks in this devotional series, we have been trying to make room for:  first, “Peace”, then “Hope”, followed by “Joy” and now “Love”.  Love is probably the easiest of these to fit into whatever the room may be in which we find ourselves.  For one thing, love, seems to fill the room anytime that we pause long enough to hear the sounds of the season.  As we reach the threshold of Christmas, our hearts are full and open to meditations that accommodate the prospect of miracles to come.  Every corner of the world is rendered beautiful by holiday trappings, child-like anticipation and even the soft sounds of imagined snowfall on an arid landscape.  As we prepare for Christmas, we find reminders everywhere that this is a time to reflect on God’s love for us.  We attempt that, well aware that we cannot even begin to fully return such a love.  Our only legitimate attempts to do so come when we allow His love to be expressed through us – by sharing it with others through our caring, generosity and charity.  Just as in answer to Tiny Tim’s prayer, God has indeed blessed us – every one.  His boundless love shines through like the profound star above the manger that night in long ago Bethlehem.  May we personify his spirit through an abundant love for all of mankind and not just for a holiday season.

Bill Locke—Cornerstone

December 21–Making Room for Love

A friend once told me she used to wonder how she’d have room in her heart to love more.

She had three children, and said that before the second and third children were each born, she worried she couldn’t love the next child as intensely and as wholly as the ones that came before.

But it was amazing, she said.  As each child was born, her capacity to love just grew and grew. 

When I was readying to have my second child, I remembered her words and thought, You can love even more.  And when I held my two children close, I thought, She was right. Our love is ever-expanding.

My friend’s words still give me solace.

When I look at the children I teach each Wednesday night, I think to myself, You can love even more.

When a visitor comes to church, or a friend is in need, I remember, You can love even more.

I picture God this way, too; every time a new person is born or every time we cry out for help, I imagine his capacity to love us inches greater and greater.  His love for his children is infinite.

And, if we are made in his image, we have this capacity for ever-greater love and compassion, too.

I must remind myself of this, especially when my life feels filled to the brim with obligations.  I sometimes pray when I feel I sapped of all energy, God, grant me the capacity to be more loving and giving.

And miracles come in the mundane: the energy to read a bedtime book, or teach a Sunday school class or call a friend.  And with each answered prayer comes the promise: You can love even more.

Irie Price—The Bridge

December 20–Making Room for Love

In winter nature withholds her evidence of abundance, and we must look to human countenances of our family and friends to find the reassurance of love against the indifference in the world.  In the candle of human love, glowing in the wintery night as the winds moan and howl outside, we find our humanity, and in so doing we experience God’s intimate love.

As we are taught in 1 Corintihians 13:13, “And now faith, hope, and love abide these three; and the greatest of these is love.”  God’s love for us is unending, enfolding, and sufficient even ‘til the end of time.  God guides us toward others with loving patience, tender care, unending understanding, and awesome tenderness.  Let us listen, hear, and do as God wills us to do.  God is love.  God’s love is free.  May we share His love with one another now and forevermore.

Visions

December 19–The Love of Advent

I love Christmas!

You probably have predicted now that I’m a Christmas-aholic.  Well, you’re correct!

I have a close friend, who was raised in a very stoic environment concerning Christmas.  No decorations, no carols, no tree, no packages.  Not because of economy – but because of his family’s very strong conviction about doing only what was “Christian.”

No two friends could ever be further apart.  I happen to believe there is no way to over-emphasize Christmas.  Every day of waiting in the season is magical.  There aren’t enough lights to adequately express the light of the world.  The more decorations, the merrier.  The more fun, the more holy.  I believe I could probably sing Christmas carols for 12 months, and it wouldn’t seem unnatural.

During our ensuing friendship, I’ve started noticing that some Christmas has rubbed off on him.  He puts up a tree, his family exchanges gifts, and I even heard him listening to a Christmas CD this week! 

To be honest, I started thinking about my obsession with Christmas, and thinking about “over-emphasizing” the season.  I started thinking about that word “Love,” comparing it with the unconditional, unending, and overwhelming sense of God’s love.  Last year, I started feeling guilty about my Christmas revelry.  Maybe I need to put up fewer lights.  Maybe tone things down a bit.

Then, the week before Christmas last year, my friend was introducing me to one of his friends.  “This is my friend, Larry,” he said.  “He has shown me how to love Christmas, and in so doing, to love God more.”

I’m putting up more lights this year.  I love God/Christmas!

Larry Landusky—Pyrexia  

December 18–love and other foolishness

love

in a young girl’s song;

fearful,

determined,

hopeful,

bursting.

love

in a mother’s song;

tender,

embracing,

challenging,

stern.

love

is god’s song;

curious yet timid,

playful and wondering,

coming among us again.

we light a candle for love.

—Katherine Hawker

 

Love is never an accident.  It is, rather, quite the opposite. 

The phrase “falling in love” has always been something of a struggle for me.  A fall is never planned.  It is always unexpected.  An accident.  One second you’re standing…the next you’re not.  That image of love, I feel, is a little deceptive.

But the more I think about it, maybe love is like a fall…a waterfall.  Once flowing from the source it is unstoppable.  Undammed it has great power.  The power to change lives.  And hearts.  To take the mundane rivers of life and turn them into something breathtakingly beautiful.

True love is intentional.  A choice.  

No, God’s love for us is no accident.  He chose us.  And he wraps us in his love…in much the same way the newborn Jesus was wrapped in a swaddling cloth. He holds us close.  And sings his love over us.  May we know that love…and the power it brings…in a special way this advent season.

—Nick

December 17–Joy

Saint Paul was imprisoned in Rome when he wrote his letter to the Philippians.  Yet he mentioned his joy and his rejoicing thirteen times in this short letter.  An inward feeling of joy can fill a person in isolation, but it desires to be expressed and shared with others.  Thus Paul says he “rejoices in the Lord” several times, but he also asks the Philippians to “complete my joy” by being of one mind, to receive Epaphroditus with joy, and to “rejoice in the Lord always.” 

We express and share our joy in the Lord as we worship together and as we offer Christian support to one another.  Let us not forget to emulate Paul by making our prayers with joy (1:3) and by rejoicing in being of one mind (2:2).  Our joy in the Lord is a precious gift to our God and to one another.

Penny Vann—Covenant

December 16–Joy

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where?

Well, I confess that I just made a parenting mistake.  I was lying on my daughter Gabrielle’s bed, saying goodnight, when she mentioned to me something about growing up and getting married.  After my knee-jerk reaction of telling her she could never grow up, and never, ever get married, I relented.  “Alright,” I said, “you know I just want you to be happy.”  

And that was the mistake.  I want something more than happiness for Gabby.  Happiness is an emotional state based on circumstance – your positive feelings resulting from whatever positive happens to you.  I want something that goes beyond the vicissitudes of circumstance.  I want joy for my little girl.

Just before Jesus was betrayed He spoke to the disciples of the pain of their grief, but then pointed to a promise beyond their present circumstances.  “You also now have sorrow, but I shall see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you,” (John 16:22)  

Joy is the gift of God that no person or circumstance can take from us.  It goes beyond our satisfaction at work, our performance in the market, our winning or our losing, and even our goodbyes.  Joy is deeper than all that.  Joy is Christ Himself living way down deep in our hearts.

May the joy of Christ live and dwell in you richly this Advent season.

 And if the Devil doesn’t like it he can sit on a tack.

–Ryon