advent

this year we are trying a new thing as a family and celebrating advent with candles and all. now, we don't have a wreath, but we have pretty homemade candles the boys made me last year for christmas, and we light them as we are going through a family advent plan once a week leading up to christmas eve.

i have done advent bible reading plans for each day of december in the past, and got a lot out of it centering my heart on Jesus during a time that could either be full of worship for His coming and anticipation of His second coming or full of stress and pressure. this year i wanted to do something that involved the kids in centering our hearts as a family.

advent simply means coming or waiting. we celebrate Jesus' first coming. we wait for Jesus' second coming. if christmas becomes about gifts, or traditions, or stuff (either in the having or the lack), we have really missed the point.

with all that i have been through this past year, i wait and eagerly anticipate His second coming more than ever. this is not escapism. this is what Jesus told the apostles to preach to all the world - that there is forgiveness for sin with repentance, and to have faith in the day when He will come again and make all things right. so, i set my gaze and my hopes this christmas on true hope - His return.

bless you and your family this season!

oh come, oh come Emmanuel!

charis

when christmas seems dark this year

christmas can be a very painful and lonely time for many people.  christmas can remind us of loss or loneliness.  i know in conneticut there are a bunch of people who, if they never experienced this dynamic before, are experiencing this very thing this year.

in the darkest nights we often are tempted to shake our fist in the air and ask the questions seeping with accusation, "where was God when...?  if there really is a loving God who is all powerful then...?  why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?"

we have all been there or will be there, whether we have the guts to verbalize our latent accusations again our very Creator.

this christmas, i believe God wants to reveal to us, His beloved creation, that He really is Immanuel - God with us.

take the next 10 minutes, or keep this page open until you have 10 minutes, and watch john piper read the poem he wrote about the innkeeper who housed mary and joseph the night Jesus was born.

does God care about senseless tragedy?  john piper would venture to say yes, yes He does.

i would tell you, my friend, the very same thing.  watch, take out a tissue or two (don't say i didn't warn you), and be encouraged.

wishing you a merry christmas in your dark hours where the Immanuel draws near and shows you His compassion for your pain.

charis


John Piper Reads "The Innkeeper" (English subtitles) from Desiring God on Vimeo.

keeping faith in the Reason for the season

christmas can so easily become one big swirl of commercialism and hype.  i know that we all fall into the trap of the lists of gifts, parties, deadlines, baking, etc becoming THE focus.  in fact, while i am typing right now, i am also feverishly trying to work on a knit scarf for my oldest son... read more


come over to 5 minutes for faith today where i am sharing about one of my favorite christmas traditions that helps me keep focused during my favorite time of year.

let me know you stopped by!  hope you are having a wonderful christmas season!

charis

let us not forget

it is this time of year that my heart is drawn once again to meditate on the advent.

did you know that advent simply means "coming?" it is a time of expectant waiting and preparation. 

oh how i feel it!  my heart is being drawn to think on His coming - God made flesh who dwelt among us - and to prepare and wait in eager anticipation His coming again. 

this time of year i am back in the gospels. i want to fill my thoughts with the very realness of Jesus walking on this dust, being made of the dust just like us. i want my heart to really believe that He came. 

He came. 

Immanuel - God with us - He came. 

do you know what that means that God dressed Himself in this broken humanity that we live in every. single. day. to show us what He is like? does this bring tears to your eyes like it does to mine?  the Almighty God who is the very Creator of everything that exists - the very One who will judge all that has breath, and has every right to do so - humbled Himself to the very lowest place and dwelt among us (phil 2). 

He came. He really did what seems so impossible to my logical thinking mind. 

oh how that makes my heart ache. 

you see, i live in such very real brokenness. just like you. so often my heart wants to rise up in accusation against my very God that He is somehow indifferent to my pain. my heartache. my disappointments. 

so often i resist shaking my fist in the air asking, "do you even see me here? do you even care?"

and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  john 1:14

and He does see. He cares. He came. Immanuel. He drew near.

yay Lord! we greet Thee,
born this happy morning,
o Jesus! to Thee be all glory given.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
o come, let us adore Him,
o come, let us adore Him,
o come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

and He knows. He really knows our sorrow and our brokenness and our grief. and He holds all our tears in a bottle (ps 56:8). He must have a big bottle for mine.

He catches each.
                       one.
                          as.
                             it.
                               falls.
                                   down. like. rain. 
when our pain becomes too much to bear, He does not look away

                                       ...even when in our own weakness, we look away.

He was despised and forsaken of men, 
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; 
and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, 
and we did not esteem Him. isaiah 53:3

and i cannot tell you, in the very middle of this broken life i live, how this time of advent becomes so real and alive to me. this is the thrill of hope - that He will not leave us as orphans (john 14:18). 

and i long, more than ever before, for His second advent - with expectant waiting i prepare for His coming.

my Immanuel.

He will make the wrong things right. and there are so. many. wrong. things.

too many wrong things.

o come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
our spirits by Thine advent here
disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death's dark shadows put to flight.
rejoice! rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to thee, o israel.

we can dare to put our hope in Him. this time of year isn't about gifts. it isn't about traditions. it isn't even about family. it is about Him - it is about His coming that was and His coming that will be.

o come to us, 
abide with us,
our Lord Immanuel.

oh let us not forget.

charis

the great work of God

during the past several weeks leading up to christmas day i have been reading the gospels and some of the old testament prophesies regarding the coming of the Messiah. my prayer this year during advent has been that the Holy Spirit would open my heart to really believe in Jesus - that He is a man who walked on this earth and all that is said of Him and by Him is true, that He is fully God who came down to be near you and me and offer us the hope of a resurrection life when He comes back, and that He knows me and cares about me in my own little life here in northern california raising lots of little boys and spending my time building a house of prayer that will hopefully sustain until He returns. open my heart to believe - this is my prayer this year above all others.

i was reading in john 6 the other day and the words of Jesus struck me deep.  the crowds had been coming to Him and asking Him to teach them and show them miracles. they then asked Him the question that seems to be on my heart lately,

what should we do in order to perform the works of God?

isn't that a question all of us ask? so much to do and so little time to do it, and so often the nagging question arises inside, is all i am putting my energy into really worth it? what should i be doing? what should be my focus and do i need to adjust in some way? 

i have been asking myself this question often lately as time seems so finite and the most limited commodity i have been given, and i really desire to be found faithful with it. i want to do the great works of God. i want to be found pleasing. at the end of the day when the dishes aren't done, the floors are dirty, the laundry piled high, the kids grouchy and crying, and the ministry in a seeming holding pattern, what is it that really counts?

Jesus' answer to the crowds is His answer to us all:

here's what the work of God is: to trust in the One He sent.

it is really that simple... and it is that difficult. at the end of the day when i come to the end of myself and am faced with my inevitable inability to be the savior of the world, or even of myself, the great work of God that i can do is to trust in Jesus.

and perhaps this is why He said we must be like a child to inherit the kingdom of God - we must come and trust that He is who He says He is, that He is real, and that He can and will save us when we cannot save ourselves.

since trusting in Him is the highest work we are called to do, may He send His Spirit to strengthen our weak hearts to believe.

go today and do the great work of God.

believe this Christmas in the One He sent.

blessings.

charis 

this post is linked up at

a social media christmas

i was reading a friend of mine's blog (she has a great sense of humor, so i love to frequently read her little stories about life for a good laugh) and she had a link to a really cool video ignitermedia.com created about the christmas story of Jesus' birth as if it was during the social media era we live in.  i decided to put the video below so all of you could enjoy what my husband and i enjoyed watching last night.  at first i thought, oh how cute.  by the end i had tears in my eyes.  it was just one more reminder to me that this isn't just a story.  this is real and Jesus really came as a baby to be Emmanuel - God with us.

merry christmas!  may the truth of the story of christmas hit your heart in a new way as well!

have you had a renewed revelation of the reality of the christmas story this year?  what has gripped your heart in a new way this year while celebrating the christmas season? 

please share in the comments below.

charis

a few of my favorite things

 christmas... ah... christmas.

contrary to the commercial concept of this time of year of spending money, going further in debt, stressing about the crowds and busyness and keeping up with the jones's... christmas is to me is a time of traditions, family, and most of all Christ. christmas is my favorite time of year.

sights and smells and sounds create a warmth inside and a remembrance of happy times past as well as reflection of the declaration in the skies many years ago of tidings of great joy!  peace on earth!  goodwill towards men!

i can fall into the same temptation as everyone else of being so busy and consumed with the ever-growing checklist of all that december can bring, that i can lose sight of what this is my favorite time of year.  

and so, i want to share with all my readers, ... a few of my favorite things. 

 

snowy evergreens.  there is something enchanting about evergreens kissed with sparkling snow even for someone like me who dislikes being cold.  my sibling and i started a new tradition for this next generation of our family of going up to the very close snow capped mountains to cut down a christmas tree and play in the snow (since it doesn't snow where we live much more than once every couple years and it is even more rare for any of that to stick!).  even though i am too much of a wimp to live in it, it is nice to live surrounded on 3 sides by snow covered mountains so we can take a short drive to enjoy the snow, but come back to a warm snow-free house. 

silent night.  every year, and i mean every year, my grandma (who is the most amazing pianist i know) plays a version of silent night on the piano that she has had memorized since she was 8.  this in not one of the simple silent night sing-a-long arrangements, but a beautiful classical style, using the entire keyboard length, with running scales, delicate treble clef bells sounds, and deep resounding bass notes version of silent night.  and equally enjoyable to listening to her play is to watch her beautiful piano hands dance on the ivory keys.

decorations.  my grandma made us a christmas dome adorned with almost 100 small ornaments around wooden blocks custom to our individual family.  she made these for all her kids and grandkids as they had families of their own.  on mine is a grand piano, a guitar, a jeep, a toy train, and other things specific to our little family.  on the top of each one she always puts the nativity scene because, after all, Jesus is the center of christmas.  this nativity scene is one of many that adorn my house as our main decoration of choice to remind us wherever we look what this season is really about: Jesus, God eternal and yet Emmanuel, God with us, dwelling with us to bridge the gap between a Holy God and sinful humanity and becoming both the ultimate miracle and sacrifice that we may know God.

lefse. a traditional norwegian flat bread called lefse made from potatoes, cream, butter, flour, and salt, adorns our tables at christmas time.  it is tradition for generations in my family in addition to many butter based norwegian cookies.  we norwegians love us some butter!  special foods are one of my favorite things about this time of year.

a look of wonder.  i love the priceless looks of children who are full of wonder and excitement during christmas.  the best part of giving gifts is to see them filled with delight and giggles.  sparkling shiny eyes fill a parent's heart with joy.  i am reminded that God is our Father and He too delights in giving good gifts to His children!

the music of laughter.  i love all the sounds of delight and joy during family gatherings.  i especially enjoy the laughter of my husband.  my mom once said when we were newly married that she especially enjoyed watching bill watch tv because of how heartily he would laugh.  (not having a tv any of our married life, we only watch it over at their house.)  and laughter is contagious!  i once told bill that my dad is the one who makes the hard things of life better, and that he is the one that makes me laugh in the thick of it all.  christmas and time with family can especially be a time of laughter and joy, no matter what hard circumstances of life may surround us.

love.  what a time to remember God's love for us, our love to Him in return, and the overflow to love for others.  i love my family.  i love my children.  i am thankful that God gave me a family who have never neglected to show, live, and tell me i love you.  others may not have had the same experience growing up in an obviously affectionate family, but now is always a perfect time to start with the next generation!
 

snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes.  i cannot resist the sweet faces of my children.  i cannot resist the love and joy and thankfulness that wells up inside when i watch them experience the sights and sounds and smells with the newness of being a child.  it reminds me to slow down, to reflect, to come as a child, that i too may experience the majesty of His creation.

life.  one of my favorite things is this little guy will get to experience Christmas for the first time.  being surrounded this year by so many trials, i do not take for granted this new little life that the Lord entrusted to us at a time such as this.  i found out i was pregnant with him in the midst of one of the hardest assaults on hope i have ever had in my life.  just a couple weeks before the Lord gave me a word for the new year that centered on the word life.  it was cool to me at the time but took on a whole new level of meaning when in the days following i found out about some serious health battles my dad was facing.  i clung to the word of life God spoke to me, Him not being surprised like i was at the health battle we as a family would have to walk through.   i also clung to the positive pregnancy test i took a few weeks later, the day before my dad had to have surgery, just a small testimony that He would bring life out of all these trials.  hope.  and hope that does not disappoint us.  that doesn't mean that everything in life just gets magically better and nothing bad or faith-trying ever happens.  people get sick.  loved ones die.  relationships have strains.  resources dry up.  hope flickers even in the best of us.  and yet, He promises to bring life, and life more abundantly to all who believe on His name.


...and this promise of life is definitely my favorite thing.

what are some of your favorites things about christmas?

charis