Skip to main content

The Best Christmas Gift

It's an honor to step aside and post a message my wife, Dee, has written and will share at a Christmas service next week. Merry Christmas!

How many of us focus on Jesus at Christmas time? Many of us are caught up in material gift-giving, holiday depression, financial frustration, preparing for visiting relatives - all the extra "work" that comes with Christmas - it can be stressful and distracting.

This year, more so than any in recent history, people are in need of a gift that they will not find in shopping malls, they cannot order on the internet, and they will not be capable of making with their own hands:
  • We are seeking peace.
  • We are seeking security.
  • We are longing for lost loved ones.
  • We are in need of hope.
On Christmas Eve some 2000+ years ago, God gave us the first gift and the only gift any of us will ever need. Jesus was delivered to deliver us. Thanks to Jesus:
  • None of us will ever truly walk alone.
  • None of us need to live in fear.
  • We have a best friend at our beckoned call.
  • We are forgiven.
  • We will not perish, but have the gift of eternal life.
Thank you God and thank you Jesus for these precious gifts.

For the gift that is Jesus, I would like to encourage you to give something back - after all it's His birthday. Please join me in silent prayer in making your own personal promise to Jesus - a gift He will love. Perhaps it's a commitment to take Him more seriously, or it's a vow to re-kindle a lost friendship, or it's a promise to be nice to your big sister or little brother for a whole week...make a promise to Him today for all he's given you.

God Bless you and Merry Christmas!
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell Mike

  “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)   Last September, Dee and I made an extremely difficult decision to switch churches. The toughest part was leaving behind our “small group” made up of people that have become like family.  For decades, biweekly between the months of September and May, we’d get together to worship and pray with and for one another.  The prayers offered up there I firmly believe changed the trajectory of many lives for the better.     Back in 2015, an older gentleman, Mike, joined our group and we hit it off right from the start.  Mike was a prayer warrior – if I knew Mike was praying for us, I just had a deeper peace that whatever the situation was, it was going to work out for the best.  Mike also had the best memory I’ve ever been around – he even came to know my schedule...
Read more

The 25th Wedding Anniversary

“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22)   July 1st marks Dee and my 25 th  wedding anniversary.  How could time have gone so quickly?  It seems like just yesterday Dee was walking down the aisle, and here we are looking back at so many years gone by.     Those years have been filled with not only many mountain-top moments, but also times of hardship and sorrow.  Thankfully, those difficult times have helped bring us only closer.  As time has gone by, we’ve navigated toward doing almost everything together – we’ve found through times of separation, we simply work better together as a team.     The success of that team is not a mystery to us – on day one we put Jesus at the center of our marriage and there He shall always remain.  Oh, the many times He’s been there to right and steady our ship as its sailed thru stormy seas.    I’d be remi...
Read more

The Christmas Shoebox

  “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.     Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)   Two Saturdays ago, I had one of those non-stop days.  I got up early and had hours of intense office work to do.  After that, I took a break from that to help Dee get the Christmas decorations up.  After that, I switched to get some urgent outdoor items done before the Minnesota frozen tundra took over for the winter.  I capped the day by switching back to the intense office work for a couple hours.   At about 9 pm I was ready to collapse in a heap when Dee said, “we have to get the Christmas shoeboxes put together so we can take them to church tomorrow”.  After thinking about it for a minute, I reluctantly agreed.   Thankfully, Dee had taken the lead on buying everything for 4 boxes (...
Read more