See Amid the Winter's Snow

See amid the winter’s snow,
Born for us on earth below,
See, the gentle Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.

Refrain:
Hail that ever blessèd morn,
Hail redemption’s happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem:
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Lo, within a manger lies
He Who built the starry skies;
He Who, thronèd in height sublime,
Sits amid the cherubim.

Say, you holy shepherds, say,
Tell your joyful news today.
Why have you now left your sheep
On the lonely mountain steep?

“As we watched at dead of night,
Lo, we saw a wondrous light;
Angels singing ‘Peace on earth’
Told us of the Savior’s birth.”

Sacred Infant, all divine,
What a tender love was Thine,
Thus to come from highest bliss
Down to such a world as this.

Teach, O teach us, holy Child,
By Thy face so meek and mild,
Teach us to resemble Thee,
In Thy sweet humility.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

     May God fill your hearts with joy this Christmas.

Developing in the Dark

Do you know what happens to a roll of film when it is exposed to light? It's completely ruined. Once the light strikes it there is no going back.

Today I learned that faith, like film, develops in the dark.

81/365 Mar 22, 2011, a photo by becca.peterson26 on Flickr.

I heard a message from Sue Gilmore, a woman of strong faith whom I greatly admire. She spoke on Luke 1:26-38, the Annunciation, the time an angel came down to a simple girl from Nazareth and told her the mind-blowing news that she had been chosen to give birth to the Messiah. 

...God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

"Troubled" is probably an understatement. If an angel greeted me right now I might just have a panic attack. No wonder Gabriel's next words were, "Do not be afraid." He announced to the girl that she would conceive and give birth to a boy named Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end."

Naturally, Mary was curious as to how this was going to work. She was engaged but had never slept with a man, and was no doubt nervous about what this was going to look like.

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

It's a well-known story, and I tend to glaze over whenever I hear it, but put yourself in that place with Mary today. How would you feel? Scared? Vulnerable? Confused? Anxious? The truth is that Mary was kept almost completely in the dark. She knew the basic facts: angel, favor, baby, Son of God. What she didn't know was the step-by-step guide to coping with an unplanned pregnancy in the kind of culture where sexual immorality could result in ostracization, or worse.

Something I had never realized about this passage until today is that this is what happens to every Christian. You won't be called on to give birth to baby Jesus, but you are called to give birth to the Spirit of Christ within you. The Holy Spirit comes to overshadow us, completely envelop us, and do what we are unable to do. This does not result in an easy life, but just the opposite. It throws us into the world's teeth, like lambs surrounded by a pack of wolves. Discipleship is a challenge, and a dangerous one.

But God knows what He is doing, and it's far more wonderful than we could ever imagine. He is the one who effects the miracle, but He waits for us to respond.

"I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled."

If God is keeping you in the dark, rest assured it's for a good reason. Your faith is putting on muscle right now; this is the place where you are meant to grow strong.

Today God is asking for our obedience. No matter your current situation, there is probably some area in your life that you hesitate to turn over to your Lord. I know there is in mine.

Will you choose to believe His promises and say "Yes" like Mary, allowing the Spirit to work in your life, or will you squelch Him and refuse to take the dangerous step of obedience?

'Twas the Day After Christmas

This week I have enjoyed some well earned post-Christmas relaxation, lounging around the house and thinking over my goals for 2013. But maybe you have not been so lucky. There's always a little letdown after the holidays, isn't there? You might be back at work or laboring away on school. Perhaps Christmas wasn't all that you hoped it would be. The bright lights, cookies, tinsel, and family members are gone, replaced by a quiet house, eggnog withdrawal, and wintry lonesomeness.

bitter, a photo by kelsey_lovefusionphoto on Flickr.

If you're feeling the blues this week (or at any time, really), here are 5 ways to get a spring back in your step before the new year:

1. Are you Disappointed? It's easy to work up unrealistic expectations. For me, this Christmas was just a little less than I'd wished for because our family group was so small; many loved ones were missing. While it's tempting to relive uncomfortable times and dwell on them, the Bible shows us a better way. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). Those old expectations will never be met, so take a deep breath and cast it up to the Father. Then wait for His peace.
2. Do you feel Lonely? Maybe you got together with loved ones over Christmas and now it's just you and your family—as usual. Try livening things up a little! It doesn't have to be a big deal, just pick your clothes up off the floor and invite a couple of girlfriends over for a mug of tea, go on a shopping trip (take advantage of the after-Christmas sales), or check out the nearest bowling alley or ice skating rink.  
3. Did you Fail? I don't know how many times I told myself that I was not going to eat another slice of cheesecake, but it rarely worked. If you overindulged, stopped exercising, or forgot to send a card, then you could be feeling pretty upset at yourself. Here's my advice (and Paul's): don't beat yourself up. Philippians 3:13-14 says, "...one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." You have an upward call, and there is a prize at the end. Forget what lies behind and look at today—and only today. 
4. Are you Bored? Now that the holidays are over, it's back to the daily grind, right? Not necessarily! A little break from the ordinary can give us some perspective on our everyday lives. When I got back from a family vacation in September I was excited about exploring our local area like a tourist; the vacation stimulated my thoughts and helped me see things differently. Get creative: how can you put a little Christmas spirit into every week of the year? Playing music through the house, making goodies for friends, watching favorite films with the family...what else can you come up with?  
5. Do you Dread the New Year? You might not realize how powerful your thoughts actually are. So many times we create bad situations because we expect them to be bad. If you're already anticipating breaking your 2013 resolutions, you've set yourself up for unhappiness. Think of all the ways you can celebrate this fresh start. The slate will be marked clean—you'll have another chance to make a difference and enjoy all the blessings God has for you! 

How are you going to enjoy this week?

25 Days of Prophecy

((Thank you to my dear friend Melody for providing this wonderful idea))

It’s Christmas again! Can you believe it? This is the time of year for love, for joy, and most importantly, for reminiscing over the birth of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. As fellow Christian church-going women, I’m sure we can all relate to hearing the story of our Savior’s birth at every church service, at every youth group Christmas party, and in plenty of Adventures in Odyssey re-runs. We’ve all heard it told so many times we could recite the entire story before you could say “have a holly, jolly Christmas.”

If we were honest with ourselves, would we agree that over the years, time after time of hearing it, maybe the Christmas story has lost it’s magic...it’s wonder. Is it possible that we get so wrapped up in ourselves, in finding the perfect Christmas presents, in decorating a tree, that we forget to fall to our faces before the awe-inspiring GLORY of our Savior? 

For me, I know this has become a reality.

Let’s take a look into the Word of God to re-discover how AMAZING this story really is...

Jesus’s birth was nothing ordinary. In fact, every detail about his birth was predicted thousands of years before it happened - it was prophesied. Isaiah 7:14 predicts that his mother will be a virgin (which is amazing enough by itself) and that Jesus will be called Immanuel. One of my favorites comes from Isaiah 11:1 where it claims that the Messiah will be a direct descendant of Jesse, King David’s father. Mary’s roots can be directly traced back to Jesse, (here comes the cool part) but so can Joseph’s. What are the chances that two descendants of King David live in the same area and are pledged to be married to each other? From where Jesus was born, all the way to details of his crucifixion, Jesus’s life was written beforehand by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Still not impressed? This next one will blow you away.

God the Father sent His Son - the thing He loved most - to earth KNOWING (Zechariah 12:10) that He would die for undeserving, dirty, rotten sinners. For us. For you. God KNEW the agony and torture he would be put through. He KNEW that they would spit and jeer while His flesh burned with pain. But He did it anyway, willingly. Because He loves us. 

Jesus’s birth is the only reason we are alive today. He is the only reason our Christmases can be filled with joy and peace and love. His birth is the reason for the season! The reason for every day! 

The next time we hear the Christmas story, just remember that the birth of that little baby is the reason you are alive. Remember that that little baby saved your soul. That little baby paved the way to your eternity with God. 

JOY TO THE WORLD! The LORD is come!

the feel of a season

I've never quite liked Christmas as a holiday. It always seemed such a bother: people never seem to have time to spend simply sitting and enjoying it. They're always consumed with other things, like buying presents and navigating tricky supermarket interchanges, and making sure that everything for Christmas dinner is just right because if it isn't Aunt Millicent will be dreadfully upset, and above all, never ever letting on that there is anything odd about the materialism that somehow seems to have sprung up around a celebration that has been about Jesus' birth ever since Christendom got a hold of it.

So perhaps to say that I don't like Christmas is an overstatement. I quite like Christmas as an idea, and as a season. Perhaps it's simply that society has ruined it for me.

You see, I love decorating for Christmas. I love nativity scenes; if they could stay whole in my house, I'd have dozens of them, all perfectly arranged (there is only one right way to arrange each individual nativity set, and once you find it, never move the figures, or else you'll ruin it forever). I love Christmas lights, especially driving down silent streets looking out at them, glittering in the darkness. I love sitting by firelight and candlelight, and reading some homey epic that makes you feel simultaneously quite daring and quite comfortably at home wherever you happen to be (I've only done this once or twice, but my future house will have a fireplace so I can do it lots). I adore curling up next to a window in a hoodie and thick socks, a cup of cocoa in hand, to read almost as much--and it has the added bonus of being quite splendid for acting out whatever I'm reading with my quite-slippery socks across hardwood floors...because who doesn't want to be a slippy-slidey version of Legolas defeating the Mumak?

I love dancing around to Christmas carols, or standing in an echoing chapel and singing a quiet version of Silent Night--I especially love dancing in the snow and belting out "Jingle Bells" or "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" at the top of my lungs. I love hearing about Mary, the simple Jewish girl who was chosen to give birth to the Messiah. I love learning new things about the beginning of Christ's earthly journey. I love thinking forward through that journey, seeing what this beginning would eventually achieve, how it would change the world.

Most especially, I love simply sitting, and thinking about this miracle.

Jesus, son of the Almighty God, become Emmanuel. 

The Highest, Jehovah, Lord of Glory, I Am, the upholder of all things, the Alpha and Omega, ending and beginning. 

The Wisdom, the Power, the Might, the Messenger, the Word, the Flesh, the Image.

Son of Man, Son of God, Prophet, Servant, Son.

Savior, the Same, the Lamb, the Shepherd, the Sacrifice.

The Bread, the Tree, the Living Water, the Rose, the Lily, the Branch.

The Light, Strength, Hope, a Refuge, Horn of Salvation.

The Rock, the Redeemer, the Foundation, the Cornerstone, the Temple, the Offerer, the Offering.

The Gift of God, God's Beloved.

The Way, the Truth, the Life, the Covenanter, the Witness.

The Head, the Ensign, the Captain, the Shield, the King, the Lord, the Crowned one.

All of that. All that he was. All that he will be forevermore. And he became a man. And not all at once, oh no. First he became a baby. A tiny, helpless, crying thing that can't even move on its own. That was what the Lord of the universe, a being beyond all human conception, became.

All for us.

And that, to me, is why I love the Christmas season most of all. Yes, it's not technically the time that Jesus was born. He wasn't born anywhere near what we call Christmas. And yes, "Christmas" is technically derived from some pagan festival until it was roughly made "acceptable" by the Catholic Church...but you know what? I don't really care. Because it is yet another chance to simply sit and marvel at how great my God is. And I'm not going to pass up a single reminder to do that.

My Peace, my Righteousness, my Lord, my Master, was made a helpless baby so that he might go to the cross.

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King