Placemats and card books…

 

I thought this was to be yesterday’s, but computer glitches and outages prevented that. Actually, apparently God had a better plan…Which is always the case…

Placemats….and card books….

Years and years ago, when I was hosting a child evangelism group in my home, one of the suggestions to share about Christmas and why we celebrate it, was to make a wordless book using Christmas cards…you know, those cards we are sending less and less of…

If you go through your cards, you can separate the nativity ones from the fun, cute generic Christmas cards…

I made that book, which was later sent with all my Child Evangelism materials to Mongolia…but it was a fun project and was shared many times…the birth of Christ and his humble beginnings…

Later, another friend shared how she did basically did the same thing, only making placemats…the story of the nativity on one side with the generic ones on the back side of poster board, laminating them to use at mealtime …

Every mealtime bringing focus to this special season…Jesus’ birth…our Saviour born in a simple stable, heralded by angels, worshiped by shepherds…sought by wisemen…our gift long awaited…purposed from the beginning….our way to eternal life with Him because of faith in Him…

Thank YOU….

 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isa.7.14

 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. 

The virgin’s name was Mary. 

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 

So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 

Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 

For no word from God will ever fail.” 

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Luke.1.26-38

 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

1Pet.3.15

https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/5-carols-that-keep-our-focus-on-christ-this-christmas.html??utm_source=Today%27s+Bible+Breakout&utm_campaign=Today%27s+Topical+Bible+Study+-+BibleStudyTools.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=9013926&recip=488704412&aps=d491a43856e21b587867b447453a930de9780b237aec2d5b87b5802fcc4d8c3d&lctg=488704412

Love one another…

 Love one another…

This is where I started this am, 2 John…but of course I had to look up “ love one another”…

The following came up….

 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. 

I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. 

As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

2John.1.5-6

 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John.13.34-35

 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Rom.12.10

 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

Rom.13.8

 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

2Cor.13.11

 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Gal.5.13

  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Eph.4.2

 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

1Thess.4.9

 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

2Thess.1.3

 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

1Pet.1.22,1Pet.3.8

 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1John.3.11,23

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1John.4.7, 11,12

Since this season is about gift giving, love is definitely high on the list…God’s gift of love to each…and by his love we can love others…

Thank YOU….

Love one another…scripture song…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqM2Ujl7Aas

Lavish…

 

Lavish…

The word lavish, itself, just sounds extravagant…abundant, pouring over…

Reading 1 John 3, I just let the words pour over my mind, soul…what promises, what great love…even in the down and hard times, those words are an encouragement…God loves us…he doesn’t forsake, leave us in the dust, turn his back….he lavishes…

Thank YOU….

 lavish-expending or bestowing profusely, expended or produced in abundance, marked by profusion or excess…Merriam Webster.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 

And that is what we are! 

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. 

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

1John.3.1-3

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 

In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. 

With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Eph.1.3-10

 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. 

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Luke.6.38

Behold what manner of love….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojHxW3zMGyU&t=12s

And this is love…

 And this is love….

It is hard to watch the news anymore…although we do need to be informed…there is so much darkness, fear, hatred, division that spews out (exactly what Satan is)…

But, darkness cannot overshadow the light that shines as well…there is good news of goodness, kindness, celebration, sometimes hidden away in the back pages…or in the mission’s reports from various far away lands…

Still reading in 1 John…how we know what love is…God’s 

Love which transcends all…overcomes…is victorious…everlasting…transformative..and we know that he sent his Son to show his love…

Christmas to celebrate his birth….Easter to celebrate his sacrifice and victory…these are love…planned for us…while we were yet sinners in need of a Saviour…

Thank YOU….

 

 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us….

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

We love because he first loved us.

1John.3.16a,1John.3.23,1John.4.9,1John.4.10,1John.4.19

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John.3.16-17

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John.6.29

 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.

John.8.42

 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

John.17.3

 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

Acts.10.36

 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom.5.8

 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

1Cor.15.3

 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Gal.4.4-5

God is love….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-B7YTpJLo 

Good good Father…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gSugruC1jQ

Advocate….

 Advocate….

“One who pleads for cause of another”…Merriam Webster…

 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1John.2.1-2

We have had a lot of estate planning in our family…I saw it with my grandparents, then my parents, ourselves and now I see my children doing it…piles of paperwork, it seems, to pass on inheritances, take care of people… making sure everyone and everything is taken care of in the way we want…and once your get it all done, there seems to be a need for revision or updating periodically when family dynamics change, laws change, etc….

Choosing a trusted advocate can be daunting at times for some families and other families the choice is easy…

When it comes to our eternal lives, we have a fully trustworthy advocate…God…

Job spoke of his advocate…

 Even now my witness is in heaven;my advocate is on high.

Job.16.19

John wrote several times of our advocate…

 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. 

The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. 

But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John.14.16-17, 26

 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

John.15.26

 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 

When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

John.16.7-11

Our advocate bears truth, our witness…our counselor, our defender…and cares for us much more than any earthly advocate…our final “estate” planner…

Thank YOU that you stand for us…

Watching over…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF5AtWyknG8

Gifts again…

 

Gifts again…

As Christmas is quickly approaching, our minds turn to shopping, gifts to buy, gifts to receive…we look at the newspapers for sales, ask for wish lists, looking for the best sales, the right things, the surprises…

Also, realizing that most of us have so much and we look at creative lists of things for “those who have everything “…the wares are endless…the sales books fill our mail, facebook is filled with ads, the computer has ads with each thing we look at…

In quietness of soul, we realize that God has abundantly blessed us, even in harder times…He is the giver of the best…we can use what we have to serve…faithfully…

Thank YOU….

 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Jas.1.17

 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1Pet.4.10

Gifts from God…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfLGfuINnG4

Giving Tuesday…,

 Giving Tuesday….

Now that we have spent and spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday…

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 

As it is written:“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;their righteousness endures forever.” 

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 

And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2Cor.9:6-15

Thank YOU..

Thank You for giving to the Lord….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVzeS5i8WQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVzeS5i8WQ