Sweet Sounds of Christmas

As Christmas grows closer, the laughter and excitement grows. Anticipating special times with family and friends. Making new memories. Enjoying the parades. The sights and sounds of Christmas. I enjoy listening to all of the Christmas music. I love all of the traditional Christmas songs that I grew up listening to. I love all of the recent songs from the past few years. There are so many different Christmas shows on television. It’s hard to get the opportunity through the work week, but on my days off, I have to watch at least one or maybe two Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel (or one of the other channels). I prefer the light- Read more…

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What Christmas is all About

My evolution as a Christian continues. The other day, A Charlie Brown Christmas comes on. It was perfectly timed because my daughter had one of those ‘playing indoors and hitting the 55” HD TV’ wrong moments (see the 12/29 ‘God’s Righteous Anger’ Devotion), and I really wasn’t up for my initial reaction. So, I’m laughing as Snoopy boos the announcement of Charlie Brown, his owner, as the director and Schroeder plays ‘Jingle Bells’ practically breaking each piano key for emphasis. Then of course my heart warms as the Peanuts gang Read more…

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Giving

We enjoy the Christmas season because we celebrate the birth of our Savior. When we were blessed with our Savior, we were blessed with the most wonderful gift we could ever receive. Because of this world that we live in, we fall short every day of pleasing God. We turned our backs on Him, but He never turned His back on us. Through the birth of Jesus, God gave us a way to redeem ourselves. Jesus teaches us everything we need to know about giving. He is the Ultimate Giver. He gave everything for us so that we could have the best gift of all, which is spending eternity with Him.
 
When we think about Christmas and giving, sometimes we can get caught up in the stress of feeling obligated to give something. Feeling that way steals joy from us. Christmas is a time for happiness and gratitude and Read more…

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