She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name
Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the
Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold,
the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His
name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
I want to take this opportunity to wish you a very
merry Christmas from our family. We are
so very blessed. This Christmas we are
celebrating with Julie’s family in Georgia and enjoying sweet family time. Further, we have chosen to take a little
extra time to focus on the meaning and person of this holiday, that would be
Jesus.
2015 is about to come to a close in a little more
than 7 days. This year has brought
challenges, laughter and heart ache from many different angles. Much of these times, even the difficult ones,
I have been able to celebrate that God is alive and well, working and moving in
us, around us and in those around us.
That means that the coming year will bring even more challenges.
We are ready for them. Just over a week from now I will be asking
people to join me and our church leaders in a push to make our church’s new
campus a reality. Honestly I believe
that the church is not about bricks or mortar, buildings and budgets, but the
church is about the people. God died for
and gives abundant life to people, not things.
Hearts should be bursting with passion to do what God
calls to do, to love what God loves and to give and share what God has blessed
us with. That is much more than
money. In fact every area of our lives
ought to breathe and breed generosity.
Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and
righteous.
That verse and so
many others we read at Christmas time tell us the character of our God and our
Savior, the son of God. Generous. That describes our God. His grace flows generously. His love is given in generous portions. His people should be known for being
generous.
Several times as of
late I have been proud of my kids and family for their generosity, and that is
something I pray for a lot. I pray that
each of my family learn from what my heart cry is, to serve others and call out
their great, God-given potential.
This will be my 22nd
Christmas with Julie. Rebecca is 18
years old. Ruth is 17. Ryan is 12.
We have 2 dogs, Bella and Brodie.
We are blessed with incredible families, the Howells and the Harrisons,
that live a long way from us. Our church
family is the coolest, the greatest and often the sweetest. We have so many friends that are a blessing.
All of that to
simply say, God is good all the time, and we turn that in to the glory from God
praying that it becomes a spot light to shine on and point others to God. He is our reason. He is the only hope.
We want to wish you
a very, merry Christmas, and let you know that we love each of you. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your
life in person or online.
Have a blessed Jesus
celebration this Christmas day…
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