Christmas: Welcome to our World!
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Christmas blessings from a branch in the VINE.
Read MoreADVENT (Week 4) -- Fullness of LOVE in Jesus: "the Smile that Destroyed My Religion"
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When I think of God’s Love in Jesus, I no longer think,”Yeh, He loves me, but then sometimes He loves me not.” Do you feel this way?
For this very short 4th week of Advent, I feel compelled to share the most critical turning point in my spiritual life. and this turning point is all about the “fullness of the love of God” for me truly and totally.
Glory-filled JOY: Hail, the Incarnate Deity!
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I love this song and this blog. It is an excerpt from my Bible study/ devotional book, The Witness of Our God: Relationship in Every Dimension. (See below)
Enjoy the backstory of this amazing hymn and several renditions of the song.
Then dig into the bible study that amplifies each line of the song with scripture. …
ADVENT (Week 3) -- Fulness of JOY in Jesus
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“Don’t be afraid!” he said.
“I bring you good news that will bring great JOY to all people.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem,
the city of David! …
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others
—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
Christmas: Welcome to our World!
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Christmas blessings from a branch in the VINE.
Enjoy this family story and a heart-grabbing song, my gift to you.
And most of all, join me in welcoming our JESUS!
Read MoreJesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven (A Children's Carol)
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There's a song that's been going through my mind and heart these Advent days. I even find myself bursting into a line of lyric here and there. The thoughts I love most in it are truths that have become more and more precious to me as I reflect Advent after Advent -- that our Emmanuel came to earth from heaven, not just to pay for our sins (as crucial as that is), but also to give us His divine eternal LIFE...deity indwelling our humanity. We can become children of Almighty God!!!
Read MoreDarkness to Light: Disappointment to Hope
/And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death,
Upon them a Light dawned.
Matthew 4:16 NASB
I love this verse…it makes me think of Jesus the Son of God, the Light of my world … not just at Christmas, but every day of my life.
And this Christmas, the darkness could flood in for me. John and I have COVID during this most anticipated time of the year. All kinds of missed celebrations and holiday concerts and most of all, extended times with our “treasured ones.”
Read MoreHe's Here ... Emmanuel!
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He is HERE … right here, right now. The God of the universe in human flesh! Our Redeemer, our Brother, our Friend. The One who was waited for, longed for, foretold … now ours. Celebrate!
Enjoy this magnificent rehearsal of the coming of the God Who is HERE with us!
Read MoreOf the Father's Love Begotten ... Emmanuel
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For the past several years, I have been following an Advent devotional by a British author Tim Chester. One of the unique things that the author does is quote some “unknown to me” hymns and carols. In one of the devotionals, I recognized the final lines of each stanza in the hymn of the day. Sure enough! I had been listening to that very carol each year on an old Christmas CD in our collection.
Read MoreThe Mega-JOY of Emmanuel
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Joy is the flag that flies over the soul when the King is in residence!
Chuck Swindoll
Years ago, I was leading a small group of ladies through Paul's letter to the Galatians. In chapter 5, we came to a familiar passage:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,and self control. Galatians 5:22-23
Julie was in that small group that year, and Julie was from Great Britain. I asked her about Chuck's metaphor. She assured me that it was true. When royalty is in residence at the palace, the flag flies. It's the signal to the "subjects" that their monarch is present.
Read MoreAdvent Devotions: Us with GOD
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A few Advents ago, I met a new-to-me British author, Tim Chester, through his Advent devotional The One True Light. I’ve loved this little volume that has led me year by year through the first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John.
Well, this year I discovered his other two Advent books: The One True Gift (On Philippians, chapter 2) and The One True Story (on the story of Christ through the Old Testament to Jesus’ Coming). So this year, each Advent day finds me meditating through all three, each one in turn.
The books are not coordinated, but one day in reading all three, a thread grabbed and entwined me in an amazing truth: Jesus is not only Emmanuel, God with Us; He is also Emmanuel, Us with God!
Read MorePost Christmas Comfort: Fear Not...Emmanuel Finally & Forever (Part 3)
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As the old year is coming to a close and the holiday glitz and cheer have dwindled, what is rushing in? Anxieties and fears for today and the year yet to come? Then hear these words again from your Creator and Savior:
Fear not, for I am near you!
Fear not, for I am closely associated with you! I've gone through it all too!
And now finally and forever...
Fear not, for I am united with you forever...we are one!
Read MorePost Christmas Comfort: Fear Not! Emmanuel, One of Us (Part 2)
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As near as God has always been to His people, when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, pierced through and entered our human history, everything changed.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman... Galatians 4:4
God came closer still... He became one of us and so He took on our fears, the greatest of which is our separation from Himself. Even though God was nearby, there was separation...until Jesus!
Read MorePost Christmas Comfort: Fear not...Emmanuel Still! (Part 1)
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Now that gifts are unwrapped, the food at least half-eaten, the many emotions grabbing at us during the season fading, the loneliness getting deeper and the grief, abandonment, "being left out" -- all having left their wounds...and the dread of bills looming in the back of our minds…we feel lost!
So enters in...fear! Yes, fear!
As we meditate on story after story of the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, to our fear-infested, dangerous, earthly, human existence, we hear His message…
Read MoreChristmas Blessings 2021 [with current family photos]: Welcome to our World, Jesus!
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Christmas blessings from a branch in the VINE.
Thank you, dear readers, for journeying with me this Advent! I hope you feel better prepared to remember our Lord, Emmanuel's coming to our earth. I certainly do for the writing.
Read MoreAre You Shipwrecked at the Stable? Brennan Manning
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The shipwrecked at the stable are captivated by joy and wonder. They have found the treasure in the field of Bethlehem. The pearl of great price is wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Everything else is cheap, fake, painted fragments of glass. . . .
Read MoreJesus Christ is of no importance unless he is of supreme importance.
4th Week of Advent: I Wonder as I Wander
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My friend Penny is a walker (a very serious, fast walker, by the way). But Penny doesn't just walk for exercise, she also "walks" closely with the Lord. So when Penny shares, I listen. And when she shared about a favorite Christmas carol, it made me take notice. Why? Because while walking, Penny has been doing what this song describes.
Read MoreAdvent Devotions: Hail, the Incarnate Deity!
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We would give up everything we've ever written to have penned this one verse, a stanza that comes as close as is humanly possible to capturing the splendor of who Jesus is.
Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ, by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, p. 173-174
What is that one verse? that one stanza? Authors Sweet & Viola are referring to the last stanza of the well-known carol, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.
In my opinion, however, it isn't just the last stanza that is all glorious with the splendor of Christ...it's the entire song. In fact, even the stanzas that were removed* from the older version are splendid indeed. But I'm getting ahead of the story.
Read MoreAdvent Devotions: Us with GOD
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A few Advents ago, I met a new-to-me British author, Tim Chester, through his Advent devotional The One True Light. I’ve loved this little volume that has led me year by year through the first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John.
Well, this year I discovered his other two Advent books: The One True Gift (On Philippians, chapter 2) and The One True Story (on the story of Christ through the Old Testament to Jesus’ Coming). So this year, each Advent day finds me meditating through all three, each one in turn.
The books are not coordinated, but one day in reading all three, a thread grabbed and entwined me in an amazing truth: Jesus is not only Emmanuel, God with Us; He is also Emmanuel, Us with God!
Read More3rd Week of Advent: EMMANUEL, Our God is WITH Us
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If ever we needed to know God is WITH us in every possible way, it's NOW, after another year of the unanswerable "why's" of life. We struggle to make sense of all the violence, suffering, and injustice we see all around us. Though we can't know the answers, we can turn afresh to the One Who has us in the palm of His Hand. The God Who became One of us...flesh and bone and joint and sinew...who experienced every emotion possible, raw and gripping, tender and affectionate! He felt it all! And He feels our current struggle with us too!
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