Category: Christmas

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Christmas Alliance 2008

This year, the Christmas Alliance will be hosted/managed by Kat, of Cathouse Chat. See the linked post for details.

Today’s welcome to the season of Christmas 2008 is the advent hymn, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”–lyrics by Charles Wesley, tune by Rowland Prichard. The mp3 is a brief excerpt of the sadly OOP rendition of “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” by John Darnell. (You can probably find a used copy of Winterlude — Instrumentals for a Contemplative Christmas available at Amazon.com, though.)

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

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Christmas Break

Peaceful Christmas afternoon. A nice lunch of my Wonder Woman’s Swedish meatballs on egg noodles and some snowpeas, notalot else. Lovely Daughter brought some ‘special” hot cocoa mix–no tedious boiling and frothing of milk and chocolate today: today is an official “Third World County Central No-Stress Day”–as we’ve tried more and more to make our family gatherings.

Wonder Woman, Lovely Daughter and Son & Heir (yeh, just wait til he sees what he “inherits” *heh* “S&H, You need to change your dad’s diapers again… ” *LOL*), listening to Christmas music that S&H made available, Just started another batch of beer (the wort’s at a boil and will steep and cool for a bit after a while), sitting here at the kitchen computer (a PC-BSD box) just letting the ambiance bathe my spirit.

*sigh* More days like this would always be welcome, ya know?

Oh, didn’t manage to keep the ECTV (the entertainment center box with a decent amp and speakers attached) off today. But we’re not watching the dam*ed thing (yeh, that’s a theological hypothesis). S&H hooked up his XBox 360, cos he loaded several hundred megs of Xmas* mp3s on it and is using it as a temporary media server shooting them through the sound system, managing the “jukebox” with the TV.

Nice of him. I used to just burn a couple of new mix CDs. I guess I ought to see about building a media pc and running some Linux-compatible media software/hardware with it.

Of course, I could attach a real sound system to this lil kitchen PC-BSD box and program Kaffeine with a playlist…

Well, that sort of thing will just have to wait for a day that’s not today. Need to post this, get back to just basking in the family glow for a while longer.

Merry Christmas!

Continue reading “Christmas Break”

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“And a child shall lead them… “

[Another post from a former (well, I don’t post there much at all any more) blog, also from more than three years ago, struck me as appropriate for Christmas day. For after all, reconciliation, redemption and sanctification is the whole point of Christmas.]

2 Corinthians 5:17

I was in a curmudgeonly mood (as usual *heh*). Saw a (lame brained, pinheaded) celebrity quoted as saying that all he wanted was an “authentic life.” I commented to my daughter that all he needed for that was a total personality transplant, heck! a pre-frontal lobotomy!

Her comment?

“He just needs to know Christ.”

My lil ray of sunshine. (Grown woman: a “lil ray of sunshine”–she’ll speak to me about that. :-))

In need of a lobotomy to change your life? Choose Christ instead.

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Merry Christmas: On the Gripping Hand

So many reports this year of a “Merry Christmas War” between the factions of traditionalism on one hand and secularism on the other. On the gripping hand… Three years ago on another blog, I wrote the following.

Here’s a thought/shade of memory that’s almost always present whenever I say “Merry Christmas.” I can recall vividly the many times that I witnessed my maternal grandfather openly, extravagantly displaying the Christmas spirit—at all times of the year, in all kinds of places. Here’s a typical memory that surfaces or floats in the background whenever I say “Merry Christmas” to someone… and why it does.

Whenever I visited my maternal grandparents as a child or youth and the visit encompassed a Sunday, we went out to eat for Sunday “dinner” (lunch to much of the country :-)). Invariably, Dad-Dad would be the last to our table and the last out the door because he had to stop and chat briefly with every person he saw. The conversation, if it were with a stranger, would always at some point allow Dad-Dad (allow, nothing—he made it so! :-)) to bring up Jesus Christ, his Savior and Lord. Many of those conversations resulted in brief prayers and an exchange of contact information.

You see, Dad-Dad knew that the meaning and message of Christmas wasn’t some warm, fuzzy , nebulous “goodwill to men” that we share at a holiday time, or a time of sharing love with family and friends. No, the meaning of Christmas is the Incarnation and all that implies: sinful man, doomed to an eternity in hell; a loving God who became man in the form of a baby boy in order to redeem this sinful world by His life and propitiary death, and to provide victory and hope through His resurrection.

When I asked him one time why he always stopped to talk to so many people, many of whom he did not—before!—know, on the way to his table (or out the door), he told me that he didn’t want to be the one—missed!—opportunity that perhaps one person may have had to hear the gospel.

“Merry Christmas” is a prayer that God will bless the hearer with a saving knowledge of the life and work, the death, burial and resurrection, the daily presence of One who

” …being in the form of God, did not think being equal with God something to cling to, but made Himself of no reputation, became a servant, coming as a man, And as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross…”

That’s the message “Merry Christmas” holds for those who know Him: We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. The Light of the World, the Hope of the Nations.

Peace, goodwill toward men.

Merry Christmas.

Noted at The Christmas Alliance. REMINDER: check out The Carnival of Christmas at Cathouse Chat.

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The Gift

The Gift

Trees and lights and bells and carols;
Bright-wrapped packages, piled high;
Winter’s sharp blow joins the heralds:
“Christmas-time is nigh!”

Mailmen hurry; shoppers scurry;
Time is fleeing – Oh! So fast!
Parties gather, loud and merry,
Grander than in Christmas’ past.

Pause a moment to remember
That a Savior’s simple birth
Still stirs angel wings in susur’–
“Peace to men; good will on earth!”

Now the Father’s hands that molded
The first Adam in the clay,
Gently ’round a manger folded,
Cradle a Baby in the hay.

So the Greatest Gift extended,
Gift of love and peace to all,
“God’s great love to man descended”
Calls us to a manger stall.

©1990 David Needham

Noted at The Christmas Alliance and submitted to The Carnival of Christmas, hosted this year by Cathouse Chat

Continue reading “The Gift”

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Who Is He in Yonder Stall?

Benjamin Russell Hanby is probably best known in popular society, if at all, for the great yawner, “Up On the Housetop” (click, click, click…), that merry paean to “Old Saint Nick” often sung at the yuletide.

But Hanby had a deeper side. In fact, he wrote one of the clearest expositions of the life and work of Christ that is available in easily accessible song, “Who Is He in Yonder Stall.”

Who is He in yonder stall
At whose feet the shepherds fall?
Who is He, in deep distress,
Fasting in the wilderness?

Refrain:

‘Tis the Lord, O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of glory;
At His feet, we humbly fall,
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Who is He the people bless?
For His words of gentleness?
Who is He to whom they bring?
All the sick and sorrowing?

(Refrain)

Who is He that stands and weeps
At the grave where Lazarus sleeps?
Who is He the gathering throng
Greet with loud triumphant song?

(Refrain)

Lo, at midnight who is He
Prays in dark Gethsemane?
Who is He on yonder tree
Dies in grief and agony?

(Refrain)

Who is He that from the grave
Comes to heal and help and save?
Who is He that from his throne
Rules through all the world alone?

Refrain:

‘Tis the Lord, O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of glory;
At His feet, we humbly fall,
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

I prefer hearing this sung as a series of questions posed by various choirs and soloists with the refrain sung once at the end in answer to all the questions posed, but that’s not how Hanby wrote it, so usually when I selected this hymn for use, I’d just have the congregation sing it as Hanby wrote it: one verse (question) and the answer repeated again and again in the refrain.

It’s a simple story, simply told and easily grasped.

‘Tis the Lord, O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of glory;
At His feet, we humbly fall,
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Here’s an excerpt of the song as performed (I think–don’t hold me to this) in the early 1990s by the Moody Bible Institute choir/band:



Click here for standalone player

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A 15th Century Christmas Message

Today’s Christmas-related post is clipped from Chip Stam’s “Worship Quote of the Week.” Click the link to subscribe.

FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CHRISTMAS SERMON

Seek the Lord, while he may be found; call on him, while he is near” (Isa. 55:6). Arise, all you faithful of Christ: eagerly gather for this reverent observance of the Lord’s birth. For this is the most holy night on which the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ, chose to be born of the glorious Virgin Mary. Arise, therefore, all, and watch. Prepare your hearts and pray. The Lord has come. Come and adore. Seek Jesus, and you will find him. Knock at the door and it will be opened to you. Enter the house and you will see. Our King has arrived. Christ has been born to us. Come, let us adore and fall down before him: for he it is who made us. Come, you angels and archangels: chant and rejoice and sing psalms. Be glad, you just in the Lord: sing a hymn to our God. Proclaim his works among the nations. God has come in the flesh. He who is never away from us in the divine is with us in human nature. Come, little and great, old and aged, youths and maidens: sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wonders this day. Lift up your hearts with your hands to heaven and above all rejoicing give glory to his praise.

The Lord is with us: do not be sad. Put on the garments of gladness and joy, you chosen ones of God. Cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. As in the light of day, so let us watch this sacred night. Let us rejoice and exult. Let us sing songs and hymns. Let us praise God our Savior. Let us offer him our vows. Let us present him the service of our mouth, The Lord is with us, depart not, weary not, but stand strongly, and sing psalms to him with cheerfulness. . . .

Therefore be glad and rejoice, daughter of Zion. Give praise, O Jerusalem. For this day true peace has come down from heaven to appease and restore the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth. This day the true Light has shone on the earth to enlighten everyone that believes in him. This day there is great joy in Israel, for Christ is born in Bethlehem. This day throughout the world the heavens are flowing with honey; for from the mouth of the learned comes very sweet speeches by which the weak are refreshed, the devout consoled, the ignorant instructed, the slothful aroused, the faithful strengthened, and unbelievers put to shame.

Today the angels rejoice, the archangels exult, and all the just are expressing adoration and spiritual joy. Today night is turned into day and great brightness, for to those with righteous hearts a light has risen up in darkness, the merciful and compassionate Lord. . . . And when the day shall have dawned, may the Sun of Justice, who is born shine in the hearts of all those who love him, and may fresh devotion again rise in the hearts of all who celebrate. . . .

O blessed and joyful birth, which has changed the curse of our first parents into blessing and has turned their grief into everlasting joy. This night is truly worthy of the awe and love of all people, the night in which Christ permitted himself to be delivered in order to deliver all.

Blessed therefore be the holy Trinity, by whose goodness and wisdom the dignity of humanity has been restored and the cunning of the devil deceived. I bless you, heavenly Father, who sent your beloved Son into the world for our redemption. I bless you only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, who to redeem us assumed our nature. I bless you, Holy Spirit, the paraclete, who gloriously and wondrously perfected all the mysteries of our redemption from the beginning to the end. To you be infinite praise and glory, to you be honor and empire, O supreme, eternal Trinity, by whose providence and ordering so sweet and solemn a festival has come to us. Amen.

—Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), from Proclaiming the Christmas Gospel: Ancient Sermons and Hymns for Contemporary Christian Inspiration. Edited by John D. Witvliet and David Vroege. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004, pages 102-4. ISBN 0-8010-6405-8.

Linked to the Christmas Alliance and submitted to the Carnival of Christmas.

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Send the Grinches a Christmas Card? Maybe…

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

It’s become a popular yearly tradition now to send the Anti-Christian Liars Union grinches a Christmas card. I personally think its ineffective, and that the money you waste on a stamp for the organization to toss in the shredder would be better served towards a good cause. So, I encourage you to save that money, dig a little deeper, and contribute to an organization that fights the ACLU and defends Christmas. The Alliance Defense Fund, and the ACLJ are both great organizations that defend Christmas each year. The Alliance Defense Fund does it for free. Why not help groups like that out this year?

However, from experience last year…I know that many will insist on sending the ACLU a Christmas card. After all, it is tradition. If that is how you want to make your message…we have some great greeting cards and postcards available at our online store. Plenty of other great Christmas gifts too.

Send your Christmas card to the ACLU at:

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York , NY 10004

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