Christmas

The Road to Christmas (video)

December 12, 2019 by amanda 2 Comments

What God is like ours? With opportunity ripe for him to wow the world through feats of strength in great resurrection power, Jesus’s glorious way was to light a fire in the hearts of his disciples through patiently explaining to them the Scripture. How keenly I identify with the confused, dismayed disciples in Luke 24. “Jesus, this isn’t what I expected. What are you doing? Who are you really? I do believe; help my unbelief.” And he reminds me, too, through the Scripture, that “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

What Jesus did for those disciples on the Road to Emmaus, he will do for you and me if we draw near to him through his Word: he will fill us with all joy and hope in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope. When I had opportunity recently to join the ladies at Longview Point Baptist Church for an evening to consider Jesus here at Christmastime, this story is what I wanted to talk about. They recorded it, and I’ve included the video here.

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Oh, There’s No Place Like Home {for the holidays}

December 23, 2015 by amanda 2 Comments

Ten years ago last week, with joy too great for words, I welcomed my sweetheart home for the holidays. And ten years ago today, he put a ring on it.

Fresh from Middle Eastern soil, he was thin and tired, but God had brought him home. He was safely back home to his family and to me, and all the world seemed right that Christmas.

Members of the armed forces are not the only ones who dream of being home for Christmas. College students return home to their families, new grandbabies are brought home to proud grandparents, and empty nesters keep watch at the front door for car headlights to top the driveway late on Christmas Eve. Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.

But the ache for those who are missing home this year is also keenly felt throughout the season. Loneliness is often felt more acutely this week than at any other time of the year. Perhaps money is too tight this season for the flight home, or the job keeps your alarm clock buzzing like usual during Christmas week. Sometimes, going home is just not an option, and the disappointment rubs raw.

Even those who will be waking up Christmas morning to the sights, sounds, and smells of mama’s breakfast or to children’s happy squeals, we too are sometimes surprised by the ache in our hearts for who else we’re missing…..grandmothers and grandfathers who are absent, wombs and cradles found empty, and estranged family members who don’t show up.

In our joy this Christmas, and in our heart’s ache for home, why don’t we indulge our pinings for a bit? Because that familiar ache in your soul to be home is a precious shadow of the eternal home for which we long….

Come Kneel Before the Manger-King

December 17, 2015 by amanda Leave a Comment

Christmas is the most beautiful time of the year, but it’s also a very difficult season for many people. In all the hurry to hang the lights, trim the tree, and fill the stockings, the season knows how to draw out our deepest feelings of loneliness and sorrow.

If you’ll come aside with me for a few moments, my prayer is to point you to the Manger-King in such a way that your heart is filled with hope and peace as you’re reminded of Who this holy infant is. Come kneel beside the manger heavy-hearted, and hear the soul-lifting words of the Messiah….

Glimpsing God’s Glory Makes Christmas Worth It

December 9, 2015 by amanda 8 Comments

A few months ago, my little pink bundle gasped in her first breath and screamed her first cry. With a warm blanket wrapped around us both, I patted her womb-wet hair and shoulders and murmured comfort to her as she laid her head upon my chest. I breathed in my beautiful fresh-birthed baby, and I saw her open her eyes to gaze at her daddy and me.

With the scent of baby awash in my heart this Christmas, I peer into the manger with new-mommy, sleep-deprived eyes. I see that soft-cheeked infant in the manger, fresh from the womb of his mother, Mary, and he’s opened His eyes to look upon His creation…his mother, her husband Joseph, camels and donkeys and cattle, shepherds and sheep.

My heart startles me these December days with unfounded fears that overwhelm and even disable me. All of my what-ifs topple good rationale, and I haunt the house when I should be sleeping, simply to confirm that latches are latched, locks are locked, and children breathe easy in their beds. It’s not just my eyes that are heavy this winter, for my anxious heart sifts worries, feeding schedules, and fevers, suddenly remembering I haven’t placed that Christmas gift order, and I guess we’ll just forgo mailing Christmas cards yet again this year.

Celebrating the Baby in the manger feels like just one more burden to add to my already full plate….

Christmas for the Bruised and Broken

December 3, 2015 by amanda 5 Comments

For several years, the Christmas season filled my heart with struggles more than any other time of the year. Holidays often seemed harder to bear when my husband and I were timing them around fertility medications and bloodwork. Then five years ago, we miscarried our first little baby at the end of December. And then the self-inflicted pressure I felt during the holidays only complicated my struggle to make it through the daily weight of depression and grief after we miscarried a second child.

Many people find the holiday season especially heart-wrenching. The empty seats around the dinner table and the absence of loved ones amplifies the pain that we may push away in our busyness for most of the year. At Christmastime we often feel especially barren. Especially broken. Especially empty….

The Eternal Incarnation of Immanuel

December 23, 2014 by amanda 4 Comments

Conceived in the womb of a young Jewish girl, the Word becomes flesh. As the cells of our Creator divide and multiply, the very Author of life empties Himself, taking on human form, soon to be born in the likeness of men.

Not considering equality with God something to be grasped, the Word of God is pushed forth from the womb, assuming forever the role of God-Man. This Image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) has forever left His pre-incarnate state, eternally to exist as the man, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).

For several months, the wonder of the incarnation has baffled me. I have been a Christian for more than two decades now, and yet I somehow never grasped until recently the sacrifice of Christ in His eternal incarnation. The Son of God did not exist in eternity past as a man. Rather, he took on flesh when the Holy Spirit gave conception within the womb of a poor Jewish virgin, and His incarnation and its permanence have everything to do with our eternal salvation and security in Him….

Christmas

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