This week on the ‘Countdown’ I present to you the TOP 5 (+ 1) Scriptures out of the Good News that were referenced on actual Christmas cards that were sent or given to me by friends and family during this most festive of holiday seasons.
Always remember the true reason for the season.
6. Isaiah 9:6 – And His name shall be called The Prince of Peace.
5. Luke 2:9 – And, lo … the Glory of the Lord shone round about them …
4. Luke 1:46-47,49 – And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is His name.
3. Ruth 2:4 – The Lord be with you ! The Lord bless you ! …
2. Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice !
1. James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.
May we walk together as we always follow Him on this journey.
This morning a cool dude at the Homestead campus of Life Pointe Church asked me if I was going to be at the Plantation Key campus tonight. I said ‘No’, and I followed-up my response with the fact that I would be at home watching my precious Washington Redskins on local TV this afternoon.
About an hour later I was filling up my car with gas at Chevron in preparation for a possible visit to the Plantation Key campus.
Four hours later I was driving down U.S. 1 on my way there.
Jesus is more important than the Redskins. Jesus is urgent.
Pastor Bill Wilson had me in stitches and moved me to tears during this morning’s first service at the Homestead campus. There was no way that he could possibly do that all over again during tonight’s service, right ? Wrong.
On this Sunday morning we enjoyed the preaching of a special guest speaker:
2 Corinthians 5 (NLT, 2ND Ed.) We Are God’s Ambassadors 11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12 Are we commending ourselves to you again ? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now ! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun ! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God !” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
This edition of the ‘Retro’ is not about a specific year, but rather the good times and past memories of Christmas Day mornings gone by with my family.
Back during the early-1980s in Northern Virginia me and my little brother would wake up extra early – like at around 4 AM or so. We would quietly bundle up, go out in the dark and cold of wintertime, and deliver newspapers for a couple of hours. We would then come back inside into the warmth of the house and prepare for the opening of the Christmas presents that had gathered and multiplied underneath the Christmas tree since about Thanksgiving Day.
Mom, Dad, Me, My Brother, and even Fluffy our Manx cat were all together for about an hour of warm giving and receiving. Even our lovable cat got a present or two, and as the gifts were opened and the wrapping paper was thrown astray a bunch of the decorative bows and ribbons eventually ended up on Fluffy. She would also tend to play with all of the wrapping paper that was all around her. We would rather that she play with the wrapping paper than ingest the icicles off of the Christmas tree and then wait for the undesirable result of that a day or two later.
My very first Christmas Day away from home occurred in 1985. I had only been living in the U.K. for about 6 weeks, and since I was so new over there (as an Air Force Airman) I couldn’t take time off to fly back to the States. I wouldn’t miss many more Christmases after that one.
During much of the early-1990s I drove the 2,200+ miles to and from the Washington D.C. area to visit my family from Homestead. Late in 1996 they moved down to Jacksonville Florida, so that 2,200+ mile round trip was reduced down to 800 miles or so.
This Christmas Eve I’ll be driving up there again to visit my Mom, Dad, and their current cat – Pumpkin. My brother and his wife won’t be there, but it will still be fine. We enjoyed Thanksgiving together at their place in the north of Dallas Texas.
Oh Christmas Tree - Late-1990s - Jacksonville Florida
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