Since we are friends, can I ask a small favor?

Can you do me a favor?  We are still friends right?

It shouldn't take up much of your time. Will you join me in noticing more Christ this Christmas?

I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade yesterday, a family tradition for years. I noticed the commercials for Black Friday sales were constant.

This is how it goes every Thanksgiving day, the shopping comes to rush us from the dinner table to the din of Christmas. Such is the clamor of the season.  And at our invitation distractions are loud, shiny and jingle oh so merry and bright.

If only we could focus a little more on why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I'm here to help you do just that. That's where the favor comes in.  Last year writing an Advent devotional was only a dream. Yes, I posted a few Advent related thoughts here. But as the month became busier and busier, I stopped my writing because I couldn't handle one more thing.

We tend to do that don't we?  We tend to crowd Christmas with everything but Christ.

We rush into our traditional holiday "yes" details and never consider choosing "no" details because we might miss out on something. We can't handle the load we put on ourselves this time of year. But how often do we stop and slow down? In our rush to do it all, and be it all, and serve at all, and buy it all...we miss Christ and arrive at the Nativity scene depleted, exhausted and emotionally spent.

Advent brings a time to prepare our hearts, our minds, and our souls for rest. We need to notice Emmanuel more this Christmas than ever before. Would you join me in searching for the Christ child this year? Would you be willing to spend a few minutes rediscovering the awe in the miracle birth of Jesus?  Can we read some worn stories and find them anew? Will you make time to notice Jesus bigger this Christmas?

I have Ebook devotional based on four themes of Advent: Anticipation, Attention, Attitude, and Advance. These weeks help you celebrate the promises of the coming season with the comfort and joy that only Christmas brings.

It would mean a lot to me if you joined me in this. Click on the picture above and you can have your very own copy to read all the way up to Christmas day. Take some time to notice God's preparation in the day by day guide. Christmas is most unconventional, and certainly full of miracles, and definitely leaves me in more awe each year. Cherish Christ this Christmas and see the glow of the manager. Come let us adore Him.

Click here too!

Let God Hijack your Advent

There's a personal way that I can experience God when I open the Bible. On so many days, God hijacks my reading to show me a deeper truth about Himself.

I like it when I can walk right into an Old Testament story find myself on those pages and align my heart to hear what God is saying. I find it interesting in reading about the people of Israel , their days were somewhat hijacked too. I call those desert or desperate days but really we could call them Advent days. Those 40 years spent in the desert were days of preparation. They waited and traveled a long way before they arrived at the Promise Land.

In these Advent days, we are preparing too. "Let Heaven and nature sing, let Heaven and nature sing, Let Heaven and nature sing...Rejoice! We are preparing to rejoice about the birth of our Savior.

But why do we need to prepare to rejoice about Jesus?

I'm so glad you asked.

In our preparing, in our waiting, we have time to reflect and rest in who God is what He has done for us. From the virgin birth, to the flat-out crazy circumstances of Jesus being born in a stable, to three starry-eyed seekers of a really bright star for a very long, long journey just to give a baby boy some gifts, well...suffice it to say, the birth story of Jesus is full of miracles.

I know what you are thinking. You've heard the story, you've heard the miracles. There's nothing new in the nativity story that you haven't read or heard in kids church. There's nothing new on those pages.

Or is there? I'm so glad you asked.

Let's think about what the name Emmanuel means. Now think about yesterday when you might have said "I feel so alone in this". Why is it we can sing that God is with us but then when tomorrow's crisis or fear hits us, the feeling of God being with us is the first thing we forget?

When fear hits in these advent days, why do we think we are out in the "desert" to fend for ourselves?

We need to remember who God is and whose we are everyday.

…God is with us!

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel"—which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:21-23
Just like the days of the desert, in the town of Bethlehem, and like Mary and Joseph, we also need to know that God is with us, everyday, to help us, to strengthen us, to deliver us, to show his mercy to us. Emmanuel is with us like the great I AM was with the Israelites in the desert. And God hasn’t changed since!

God is with you…God was with you…God will be with you!

God, the great I AM, the LORD is with us. No matter where we travel, no matter where we have been, no matter where we are headed. No matter if we are breathing our last breath or whatever fear hits us today.

God is with us. We can’t be separated from God. The God of all comfort, comes alongside of us in our Advent days and doesn't leave us when Christmas is over.

Now I don't know about you but that causes me to rejoice. One of the big tools that the enemy loves to use against us is that we can be separated from the love of God, that we are the only one going through whatever temptations, hiccups, or hangups.

Don't buy into that lie.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35, 37-39

So if Jesus is with us everyday, then why can't we feel Him?

I'm glad you asked...

Sin separates us from God, so what's in your life that keeps you from being close to God? Maybe God needs to hijack your busy, flurry-filled Advent days to remind you that He is still with you. Maybe you need a reminder that you have a God who cares about every little detail that is going on with your life right now. Maybe you need to remember that He has never left you and is waiting for you to slow down a little and rest during these days of preparation.

Maybe you need God to hijack your reading plan so He can show some amazing things, say.... a few miracles today.

Oh deck those Advent halls

First of all...thank you to the scholars of Pinterest.  I applaud your creativity and bravery this Christmas season.  I award you the most resourceful and economic idea-generator of all things Christmas this year.  With glad tidings you proclaim your wares, causing me to stare in amazement of how many times you can use a empty toilet paper roll.

I see plenty of those waiting for me around my halls.

Second, I applaud the rest of you for following the Pinterest march to own your decorated halls, and bringing out the best in your yards and corners of your living spaces with those perfect Christmas decorations.  The ones that will make it's mark on your family legacy.  The decorations that you will want to hand down from generation to generation.

The decorations that you will write home about, tell your future kids about, those grand kids, the one true focused decoration that stirs a deep comforting Christmas memory.  The Christmas milestone moment that bookmarks time to signal the Christmas season and tick off these Advent days.

It's not Christmas until we decorate our spaces.  Until we adorn our hallways and mall-ways with the glitters and sounds of Christmas.  We can't have elusive seasonal joy until we unfurl the best gift ever.  It's how we usher in the Christmas celebration into our homes.

Take a look around and see how you have decorated your own halls for this Christmas season.  You probably have pulled out all your favorite pieces, the ones that just say "Let's be jolly, have some holly!"  Or have hung that mistletoe in it's appointed place for just the right seasonal exchange of a Christmas kiss.  (I have never understood Santa's role in this whole kissing thing...UGH!)

I caved to the conformity and pressure of putting up a Christmas tree this year.  It was at the polite request or what I like to call a simple Christmas demand,  issued by my adult daughter (deadline was Dec. 7th and side note, I did indeed meet her deadline).  Putting up a tree reminds her it's Christmas.  It's a season of celebration for her as this month includes her birthday.  It's a tradition within her thinking that sets off an alarm to think about Christmas, to bring in the sounds of celebration, the joys of celebrating.  

In putting up the tree I couldn't help but think about how we bring in all these extra decorations to enhance our celebrations but in reality they distract our celebrations.  Isn't it interesting that Christmas is synonymous with the lights, the bows, the ribbons, and the snow? 

When we really look at the pretty sights of Christmas, shouldn't we focus on the One, simple and authentic Beauty?  Could our celebrations follow our hearts longing to satisfy our deepest need these Advent days, in taking away any fake beauty, to unwrap the real Beauty of Salvation? 

God came to us.  In the first Advent, Jesus set aside glory for humility. We didn’t tidy up our earth or our lives for him before he came. There was no level of decoration that could have been appropriate anyway. This is about His Love plan for us, that was set in motion from the Perfect Garden, before our lives became decorated with all kinds of sin.  

A well adorned Christmas tree certainly wasn't at the stable where Mary and Joseph welcomed our Savior.  There was no brilliant lights except for the angels gleaming in worship around them.  The stars beamed, shining heavenly light, in the silence of the night.  No tinsel among the hay, dirt, the mess of a stable.  

Why do we bow to the latest craze of Christmas?  

I admit I have missed the message of Christmas for many years.  

But....with an intentional focus on the reason these advent days are made for, let's pause our decorating.  Let's stop the busyness and blurry days and let our hearts trip over the manger child.  

How ever you choose to adorn your hallways, byways, your choruses, your stories, and your family photo albums with memories, remember to pause for the Christ-child.  The awe and wonder of a Holy God coming near and letting His Presence, Peace, and Joy decorate your Christmas Advent days.

My Prayer:  Dear Jesus, forgive us when we try to add to your story of Christmas.  Forgive us in our empty hearts longing that we look to tinsel and shiny things to fill our deep need for your Presence.  Forgive us Lord, when we don't shout your birth from the mountain tops.  Forgive us Lord when we bow to the latest decoration craze or light show.  Forgive us in the ways we are easily distracted.  God make our hearts stop with your message to see the beauty of Christmas.  May we take in your breathe of Heaven during these Advent days.  Make we all make more room for you, Jesus.  

Luke 2:6-7  "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

Silent preparation

There are some of you who are asking some big questions of God right now.  

Maybe you have a lot of unanswered prayers like Zechariah and Elizabeth did.  Check out their story in Luke 1.  It's a beautiful telling of God's answer in the middle of their mess.

When we read the wonderful stories of the Bible, especially the pretty story of Christmas we forget that these people are just ordinary people living their lives, regular Janes and Joes doing life, doing the work that God has called them to.  

We forget.  Until we take another look at their story behind the veil of words.  That's just a fancy way of saying, reading between the lines of the unwritten part of their hearts, the parts that the Holy Spirit teaches to your spirit.

I would be unprepared if I ignored the words that weren't written.

We pick up the story in the middle of those days where priests had it all together, and took their turn at living holy lives in the the middle of their doubts, fears, and tears.

Yes, I said tears.

What does that have to do with preparing for Christmas?  Well, I don't know about where you are in this preparing season of Advent but today in the middle of these days, God has some undoing to do.

I just had one of the biggest emotional confessions before a dear friend and God that I've had in a while.  I realized something in my tears.  

One..that our tears sometimes fill in for the silence of our hearts and no matter what, how many or how long, God understands and catches each and every one.

Two...when God calls you to show up to the calling He has given you, there is some preparing that needs to be undone before He can bring new birth into your doing.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were quite the model couple of strength through all these years of service to God.  On this certain day recorded in Luke 1, Zechariah's ministry was at an all time high.  It was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to offer sweet incense at the altar, laying before a Holy God the concerns of his people.

Zechariah had prayed for this day.  I would venture to guess that he even dreamed about how this day would go down his own prayer journal.  What an honor to pray for the problems and concerns of the people, and that he would have all the right words flowing from his compassionate heart.  His big break came, at last he was before God, and behind the veil of prayers.  

Elizabeth, his strong-supportive-solid-prayer-warrior-rock, was on the sidelines praying too.  With confidence, he enters the secret place of the temple, prepared with just the right gumption in his heart.

I haven't even addressed the unspoken needs relating to Elizabeth's barren state that might have been on the forefront of Zechariah's heart.  Think about this, if you knew you were going to meet God with your most raw and open prayers, knowing by the public approval that your prayers would be heard by a Holy God, be honest, wouldn't you say a little prayer for your deepest need too?

Or is that just me?

Zechariah was unprepared for what was about to happen.  Something holy occurred as the cloud of incense made way for an angel.  The holy host brought the element of surprise and alarm to his mix of utterances.  Zechariah's response was captured in words of "deep emotions." 

Is it just me or does the suggestion of deep emotions not evoke the presence of tears?  Face to face with a holy messenger would certainly bring a heart felt wave of emotions, including tears.  

Even though Zechariah was a priest, please don't tell me he never cried.  Pastors aren't machines with cold hearts that never cry.  Haven't you ever cried when you were afraid?  Or confused? or bewildered? 

Here the man was going into the Silence to pray some of the most heart felt prayers of his life, and before he could get every request out through his simple words, he was face to face with God, the Giver of all words and emotions.

What could have prepared him for that?

"Fear Not!"  "Why do we fear the worst from God, when he loves us completely and always gives us what is best."  ~Liz Curtis Higgs. 

And...."why are we so eager to pray away the very life circumstances that teach us the most about who God is?" ~ from my unspoken place.

The angel then proceeds to make a holy delivery of good news, the-once-in-a-life-time-prepare-your-world-to-be-rocked-to-the-core good news.  "Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John." ~ Luke 1:13

Blinking, without words, Zechariah gasps, his very breath is stolen before he could get to his request on the list.  His eyes were brimful of tears by this time, with shock and awe in his heart.  Then the angel goes on to describe all the awesome and life impacting ministry that God would soon birth.

"He will make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  There's that "word" again...prepare....for the Lord's work.

Which brings us back to this ordained time behind the veil.  What is God preparing you to do?  That's the good news of Advent, that God prepares our hearts to receive Him.  Some of you, you need to admit it for the first time, and you know by reading this, that's it's time that you accept Jesus as your Savior.  

Let this preparation time in this Christmas season begin with the gift of salvation.  The rest of you...what is God calling you to now?  And how are you preparing your unspoken parts of your heart for more room for the Savior to work during this Christmas season?

And these are the hard life questions that I am also asking myself, those unspoken parts, the exciting parts of where I need God on a daily basis, to undo what has been done to be all that He wants to do, in me and through me.

The season of preparation looks different for each of us.  But might I write a little hope for you?  When you pray for God's wholeness in this season of preparation, give Him room to work His wholeness in this Christmas season.

God want's to do some incredible preparations through your undoing, your broken relationships, your messes, the whatever need in your life that will speak to the unspoken parts of someone else.  God is a God of His words and He holds our hearts.  

He is the Hope for the broken world we are in the middle of.

God has heard your prayers, He has not tarried in answering them.  In this time of advent, as we prepare for the celebration of the Savior's birth, may we all gather in our prayers, our hearts, our tears, and our belief in the miracle of Christmas.  In the miracle of the birth of Christ as a tiny baby, who came to earth as a gift of God's grace, to bring a hope and healing to our hearts and our hurts, to our lives.

God promises hope in this time of preparation.  Receive it with graceful silence and awestruck wonder.  

Let Heaven and nature sing...

My prayer:  Oh God, helps us see the wonder of your miracle birth, Jesus, in this time of preparation, to bring hope alive in our hearts and hurts, again.  Remind us of the wonderful story of your Words.  And in the silent nights, the lonely hours, the dark times of our problems, God may you meet us here with the hope of Jesus.  Each and every time.  Today.  Tomorrow, and for all eternity. Lord, Jesus come.

Let Heaven and nature sing in our broken and unspoken places.

Where will we put Christmas this year?

You would have to be living in a cave or be a hermit on the mountains to not know that Christmas is upon us. Just check out Facebook and see the many varied ways you all have started your Christmas countdown.

I’m still looking for where I am going to put Christmas this year.  Well, that is the Christmas tree.  Every year I go through this process.  

I face the space battle of where to put the tree.  My daughter Lindsay asks me nearly every day if I have put up the tree yet.  She is waiting for me to say yes, “It’s done.”  It’s her rule, since her birthday is December 7th, that the Christmas tree must be put up and decorated before we celebrate her birthday.  I don’t know how she got to write that rule in our family but she did.  

It’s really her way of waiting for her birthday to arrive.  That’s how she prioritizes the annual day of her life celebrated.  Honestly we all look forward to that one day we too are celebrated, don’t we? 

Celebrations…the days leading up to them seem so long… in the wait.  We wait for the yearly celebrations, the annual Christmas work parties, the 5-10-15-year high school reunions, the family photos to land in our mailbox with all the amazing year’s events crammed in an 8.5 x 11 festive copied letter.  We wait for news from the doctor’s diagnosis, the blood test to be positive or negative, we wait for the pain or cold medication to kick in, and we wait and watch the popcorn pop in the microwave.  

We wait for a baby to arrive.  We wait on and for just about everything.  I waited in a line to save money on some Black Friday sales.    

We don’t mind it seems, unless it’s the immediate answers that we demand of God.

….let’s talk about waiting.  

How often do we get impatient when we have to wait on God?  Have you ever found yourself wondering “when” in your prayers?  

Ahem…well I have.  And every time God answers, oh so gently, according to His loving character.  He taps me on the shoulder reminding me that He invented time.  All the minutes are His, so what are you waiting on God for? 

This morning I read in Luke about a devoted man, Simeon, who waited his lifetime to see the face of his Savior.  Wow….how he must have cried out to God so many times knowing that once he did see the promise of the Messiah King, he would die.  He waited his entire life for one day, one event, one day anticipating and hoping to see the Promised King?  

Consider his wait…he was old, he was “righteous and devout”, he was obedient, he showed up for service to the Lord every day.  “He waited for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” ~ Luke 2:25-26

Simeon waited.  He waited all of his life to see Jesus.  He waited to hold the tiny King in his arms.  He waited for that day with much anticipation.  

What causes a man to wait all of his life for this one day of celebration?  

He believed in the promise of the King.  He believed Hope would come down and rescue the Israelites.  He believed the writers of old who prophesied.  He chained his faith to the only Hope that was believable.  He believed in the promise.  He believed in the consolation of the people who prayed.

According to theasarus.com consolation means relief or comfort.  Simeon believed because the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, impressed upon his heart that Comfort was coming.  Promises are believable when they come by way of holy messengers.  God’s word is chock full of promises.  And each and every one of them are believable.  And worth waiting for.

So let’s talk about waiting…shall we?

All those days of waiting and wondering “when” were immediately erased when Simeon beheld the Promise in his arms.  Simeon waited, the coming of our Savior.   I would imagine he savored in the wait…his heart building with anticipation of Hope, coming to earth for a great celebration.  A great birth.

So now, thinking of waiting for this Christmas celebration has a whole new perspective.  

My prayer:  Oh God, may these days of celebration bring the awakening of our souls, may we tarry in your Holiness, so that we can see the face of Jesus, His Holiness through the decorations, the gifts, the preparations, the specials, the decorated walls and pews…to see you Jesus, to behold you, to make room for you in our hearts and our homes.  Awaken our hearts to make room for you.

Come Lord Jesus come, let us prepare Him room.  May we wait well and with anticipation of Hope today and every day.