The Feast of Dedication--Hanukkah

Did you know Jesus celebrated Hanukkah? I didn't know that before this past few months. It got me thinking.

 In fact there has been a whole strain of events that have gotten me thinking about our relationship to Judaism, the Jews, God's people, and the paths He had them travel in order to both preserve them, sanctify them, relate to them, and ultimately save them. How does this relate to us as believers? Does it relate to us as believers? Is Hanukkah even something we should consider celebrating or is it a tradition of old that doesn't apply to us as Gentile believers?

I'm finding, we are very misinformed or have greatly misunderstood the OT as Modern Christians, and we have lost so many of the beautiful feasts and festivals God put into place to create pictures of His greatness and His ultimate provision of Salvation.

 As a Gentile believer I have been grafted into the Salvation intended and planned for the Jews. God has adopted me into His Chosen People. How beautiful. And, if that is so, why then would I put to rest the traditions and celebrations God laid out in scripture for His People? Rather, I contend we should have adopted them and incorporated them into our worship.

 Although we are no longer under the Law, because Jesus came to fulfill it, we can practice the law along with the feasts and festivals in order to Worship the still, unchanged, Magnificent God. The same God who pursued and preserved the Jews, displaying for them His great Love through feasts, festivals, traditions, and practices.

So, we come to Hanukkah. It is just one of the first of the Judaic celebrations we've sought to know more about.

It is the Feast of Dedication, put into place about 160 years before Jesus. Fulfilling prophecy laid out in Daniel.   It is a festival of lighting candles for eight days to remember the dedication of the temple and the relighting of the lampstand which God commanded should never go out (Exodus 27:20-21).

Judah the Hammer set out with an Army (the Freedom Fighters) to defeat Antiochus Epiphanies. Antiochus Epiphanies ruled over Israel and commanded all Jews to renounce their way of life, practice pagan observances, and live like the Greeks. He erected the "abomination of desolation" in the temple. Thus defiling the temple God had built and persecuting the rights of the Jews to obey God's law.

Many Jews turned their back on their God to avoid persecution from Antiochus, but some stood firm, facing death, death of their children, and their families in order to stand against Antiochus. Judah the Hammer, a priest, and his family led the war against Antiochus Epiphanies defeating them only through God's perfect strength and will.

We don't face being killed for our faith today. But, we do face subtle indoctrination to succumb to the Satan's plans and give in to humanist, progressive ideology. Will we be those who give in or will we have courage, individually and as families. to stand for God, even if no one else is standing?

Once Judah the Hammer defeated Antiochus, they went to restore and rebuild the Temple, set into place the altars God had designed, and found 1 cruse of oil.  Traditionally 1 cruse of oil would only last 1 day, but in this case God provided yet another miracle and the light lasted 8 days while they rebuilt and rededicated the temple to their One True God.

As the Jews move through the 8 days of Hanukkah they remember God's ever faithfulness and the dedication of the Temple, the significance of the Light, and the Temple.

As we (Christians) move through the 8 days, lighting the candles, placing the light in the window, and remembering Gods preservation and salvation of the Jews and the dedication of His people, we can see a completeness to the picture through Christ.

We can see Jesus as the Light, the resurrected Temple, our own bodies as the Temple of the Spirit and the fulfillment of this picture by Jesus the Messiah and His death on the Cross.  We can see the need and desire to rededicate ourselves to Him each day, each season, and the value of the practices laid out by God as a beautifully painted picture of His Grace, Mercy, Love, and Atonement.  We see evidence of God through the Jewish People.  Through the preservation of the promise, the Covenant, and we, as Christians, get to partake in this Covenant with His people.

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A great little snippet from Above Rubies:
Jesus Christ, the Son of God was never reticent to speak the truth, even in the face of death. When he came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Dedication, he was walking in Solomon's Porch (on the eastern side of the temple) and people gathered around him. 

Jesus knew the Jews would be remembering more than the rededication of the temple and the lighting of the

 Menorah again. They were remembering the great victory over Antiochus Epiphanes, but also how he lifted himself to be god over them. It was Antiochus himself who added "Epiphanes" to his name, which means "God manifest" which was utter blasphemy to the Jews.

In the midst of this thinking Jesus boldly and publically declared, "I and my Father are one (John 10:30). In other words, He confessed that He was God, which of course, He was! This was too much for the Jews who, remembering Antiochus Epiphanes the evil blasphemer, took up stones to stone him (John 10:22-33).

It was no coincidence that Jesus chose this timing to speak these words. Everything about Hanukah speaks of standing up for truth even in the face of danger.

God no longer lives in the Holy of Holies in the temple, but in our bodies, which are the temple of His Holy Spirit. In fact, we are not just the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the "naos" which is the Holy of Holies (1 Corinthians 6:19 and 2 Corinthians 6:16). What an indescribable truth! 

Our "naos" may not be desolate, but it is very easy for us to allow things to come into our lives which grieve the Holy Spirit and spoil and dirty our temple.

It is a lovely idea to have a rededication of our temples one night during Hanukah. Choose which morning or evening you would like to do together as a family. Explain to your children about it, and then ask each one of them to confess to the Lord anything in their lives that grieves the Holy Spirit and to rededicate their body temple to the Lord. This includes mom and dad too, of course. When we have all dedicated ourselves individually, then the father can rededicate the whole family to be living sacrifice to the Lord and to be set apart for His purposes (Romans 12:1-2). I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily as you experience this dedication service in your home. 

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Scriptures for Hanukkah
Day 1
God is the Source of Light
Genesis 1:3-5
Exodus 27:20-21, cf. Leviticus 24:1-4
Psalm 36:9
John 10:22-33
Matthew 6:22-23

Day 2Jesus is the Light of the World
John 1:4-9
John 3:19-21
John 8:12
John 12:44-46

Day 3
Shine your Light
Proverbs 4:18
Isaiah 58:6-8, 10
Isaiah 60:1-2
Matthew 5:14-16
Philippians 2:14-15

Day 4
The Word of God is our Light
Psalm 19:7-11
Psalm 119:105, 130
Proverbs 6:20-24
Ephesians 1:17-18

Day 5
Walk in the Light
Isaiah 2:5
1 John 1:6-9
1 John 2:8-11
Romans 13:12-14
Ephesians 5:8-20

Day 6
We are to be a Great Light
Psalm 18:28
Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matthew 4:12-17
2 Corinthians 4:6-7
1 Peter 2:9

Day 7
God is my Light
Psalm 27:1
Psalm 37:3-6
Psalm 89:15-16
Psalm 112:4
Micah 7:8
Acts 26:18

Day 8
God is the Light of Heaven
Isaiah 24:23
Isaiah 60:19-20
Revelation 21:22-25
Revelation 22:3-5

Why we are Choosing to Celebrate Shabbat

We were recently inspired by some friends of ours concerning the celebration of Shabbat. They were kind enough to invite us all over for the tradition they have been participating in for over 15 years.

For some time now I have been feeling a tugging to learn more about the Torah, the Jews, God's Chosen, and the Feasts and Festivals He called His people to participate within. To study the deep significant of the OT in a way I haven't before. Knowing full well that elements of each feast and festival represented deep truths related to His divinity and His Character as well as His purpose for His people.

I feel that as modern day Christians we have abandoned our true place as Gentiles, grafted in to the Jewish covenant through Jesus. This somehow has translated into us developing our own traditions for the church, it's people, and we have left behind the traditions and remembrances God first called His Chosen people to participate within.

Each of them displaying important factors of His Will and Purpose and who He wills for us to be with Him. Modern Christian has moved past the Torah b/c they see that Christ fulfilled the Law, but then we sacrifice so many of the blessings God wanted to poor out on us through the OT pictures, practices, and traditions. The idea is that we are not celebrating Jewish festivals and feasts but rather God's.

Just because the Jews have failed to see Jesus as the true Messiah, does not mean the feasts and festivals were in vain and have lost their meaning. In fact, through Jesus we can see the true significance and the picture of ultimate Grace found within them fulfilled through Jesus.

shab·bat 
/SHäˈbät/ 
  
The Jewish Sabbath 

For six days you may perform melachah, but the seventh day is a complete Sabbath, holy to the L-RD ... it is an eternal sign that in six days, the L-RD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. Exodus 31:15-17 

The word Shabbat is used to reference both the meal we share as a family as we usher in the Sabbath on Friday night to Remember, and the day of rest on Saturday to Observe the only thing in Creation the Lord called Holy.

Even more significant to us as Christians, grafted in to the Jews promise and covenant by God, as Gentiles, we experience the fullness of the Lord's will as He laid out the feasts and festivals for His Chosen People, because we know Jesus became the fullness of His Will.

There are two important parts of Shabbat: To Remember and Observe.
 

Remember:
To remember God is the creator of both the heavens and the earth and all living things.
To remember the freedom found through the Exodus.

We do this through the Shabbat meal, which has several parts, to usher in the Sabbath day.

Observe:
To refrain from "typical work" or labor and strain.
To observe the day as Holy unto the Lord and spend time together as a family, in joy and celebration, without the pressures of our "typical" behaviors and responsibilities.
To spend time in His word.

To spend time in Prayer.

We do this through the day of Rest as the Lord first displayed and modeled for us.

The Meal:
There are several movements of tradition as we move throughout the meal time, to mark and remember both God's creation and His provision both through the Exodus and through Christ the Savior. Each of them has a Hebrew prayer to usher in the next tradition, and is greatly grounded in Jewish purpose.
1. Washing of hands--we wash away the icky feelings from the week, forgive and renew.

2.Charity--we give of our abundance to those less fortunate, into a Charity box, which we hold until the time comes in which another's need arises.

3. Approaching the table for prayer, then lighting the candles to usher in the Sabbath (done by the woman of the home). 1 Candle represents Remembering the other Observing.

4.The taking of the wine--The Abundance of God's provisions poured out to us, also the blood of Christ provided to us as atonement for sin.

5.The breaking of the braided bread (Challah) with Salt--The provision of the Man-nah in the Exodus, 2 loaves on Friday, by God along with Christ's body, broken for us. The Salt is a symbol that it never goes bad or rots, it preserves.

6.The Father blesses each child of the family and then reads a blessing over his wife.

7.We say a final prayer, ending with saying loudly "Shabbot Shalom".

8.We engage in our family meal, giving everyone the opportunity to share about their week (High's of the week).

9.We discuss God's abundant blessings both in the OT and the New and how it relates to us as Christians in the light of being grafted into the Jews Chosen Position with the Lord. How this then implies what our true traditions, celebrations and remembrances should be.

10. Lighting of the candles on Saturday to Usher our the Darkness and bring in the Light. Both the light of provision in darkness given to the Jews upon the Exile, the Light given upon Creation and the Light given in Jesus Christ. Moving through these prayers, traditions and sharing in the markers to remember God and our Savior now as the fulfillment of the Law, we are blessed and reminded of God's character, love, provision, plan, and our position in Him.

Below I pasted some information about Shabbat from a Jewish website. There is tons of information available.

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The Nature of Shabbat

The Sabbath (or Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew) is one of the best known and least understood of all Jewish observances. People who do not observe Shabbat think of it as a day filled with stifling restrictions, or as a day of prayer like the Christian Sabbath. But to those who observe Shabbat, it is a precious gift from G-d, a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when we can set aside all of our weekday concerns and devote ourselves to higher pursuits. In Jewish literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is described as a bride or queen, as in the popular Shabbat hymn Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah (come, my beloved, to meet the [Sabbath] bride). It is said "more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel." Shabbat is the most important ritual observance in Judaism. It is the only ritual observance instituted in the Ten Commandments.

In modern America, we take the five-day work-week so much for granted that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times. The weekly day of rest has no parallel in any other ancient civilization. In ancient times, leisure was for the wealthy and the ruling classes only, never for the serving or laboring classes. In addition, the very idea of rest each week was unimaginable. The Greeks thought Jews were lazy because we insisted on having a "holiday" every seventh day. Shabbat involves two interrelated commandments: to remember (zakhor) Shabbat, and to observe (shamor) Shabbat.

Zakhor: To Remember

Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it (Hebrew: Zakhor et yom ha-Shabbat l'kad'sho)-Exodus 20:8

We are commanded to remember Shabbat; but remembering means much more than merely not forgetting to observe Shabbat. It also means to remember the significance of Shabbat, both as a commemoration of creation and as a commemoration of our freedom from slavery in Egypt
In Exodus 20:11, after Fourth Commandment is first instituted, G-d explains, "because for six days, the L-rd made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day, he rested; therefore, the L-rd blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it." By resting on the seventh day and sanctifying it, we remember and acknowledge that G-d is the creator of heaven and earth and all living things. We also emulate the divine example, by refraining from work on the seventh day, as G-d did. If G-d's work can be set aside for a day of rest, how can we believe that our own work is too important to set aside temporarily? In Deuteronomy 5:15, while Moses reiterates the Ten Commandments, he notes the second thing that we must remember on Shabbat: "remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-rd, your G-d brought you forth from there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore the L-rd your G-d commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." What does the Exodus have to do with resting on the seventh day? It's all about freedom. As I said before, in ancient times, leisure was confined to certain classes; slaves did not get days off. Thus, by resting on Shabbat, we are reminded that we are free. But in a more general sense, Shabbat frees us from our weekday concerns, from our deadlines and schedules and commitments. During the week, we are slaves to our jobs, to our creditors, to our need to provide for ourselves; on Shabbat, we are freed from these concerns, much as our ancestors were freed from slavery in Egypt.

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As believers we get to also remember the freedom given in Christ from sin, through the Cross. We are given the gift of experiencing the fullness of the message God prepared for the Jews through the atonement of Christ, the Son of God. How much more do we see the full beauty and the experience the completeness of God's perfect will?

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Shamor: To Observe

Observe the Sabbath day to sanctify it (Hebrew: Shamor et yom ha-Shabbat l'kad'sho)-Deuteronomy 5:12

Of course, no discussion of Shabbat would be complete without a discussion of the work that is forbidden on Shabbat. This is another aspect of Shabbat that is grossly misunderstood by people who do not observe it. Most Americans see the word "work" and think of it in the English sense of the word: physical labor and effort, or employment. Under this definition, turning on a light would be permitted, because it does not require effort, but would not be permitted to lead Shabbat services, because leading services is his employment. Jewish law prohibits the former and permits the latter. Many Americans therefore conclude that Jewish law doesn't make any sense. The problem lies not in Jewish law, but in the definition that Americans are using. The Torah does not prohibit "work" in the 20th century English sense of the word. The Torah prohibits "melachah" Mem-Lamed-Alef-Kaf-Hei, which is usually translated as "work," but does not mean precisely the same thing as the English word. Before you can begin to understand the Shabbat restrictions, you must understand the word "melachah." Melachah generally refers to the kind of work that is creative, or that exercises control or dominion over your environment. The word may be related to "melekh" Mem-Lamed-Kaf. The quintessential example of melachah is the work of creating the universe, which G-d ceased from on the seventh day. Note that G-d's work did not require a great physical effort: he spoke, and it was done. The word melachah is rarely used in scripture outside of the context of Shabbat and holiday restrictions. The only other repeated use of the word is in the discussion of the building of the sanctuary and its vessels in the wilderness. Exodus Ch. 31, 35-38. Notably, the Shabbat restrictions are reiterated during this discussion (Ex. 31:13), thus we can infer that the work of creating the sanctuary had to be stopped for Shabbat.

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As believers we can see and often hear that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and we are not bound to the same observances as the Jews were in the OT. Although, this may be true, there are fabulous blessings available when we honor the things the Lord has set out to honor and those things Jesus himself honored, being the Messiah.
We may not see or interpret the word "work" the same considering we no longer build sanctuary's or temples, but, we can see in our busy modern lives the need to honor the Lord's day of rest. He called in Holy. When we do so, we enjoy both a sense of accomplishment from preparing for Shabbat throughout the week and then rest when we spend the day Observing the Lord's perfect picture painted through the OT, which displays His Character, beauty, authority and governing over the Earth.
For our family we see a handful of blessings being offered by getting back to the feasts and festivals, specifically Shabbat, the Lord laid out for us, as Gentiles, adopted into His Chosen People.

1. A weekly family time of Remembrance and Observance which displays for us both God's divine nature and provision along with Christ's fulfillment of the Lord's will.

2.Tradition which offers teaching and instructing in the ways of God's people, which connects us more closely with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

3. Spending the week with Intentionality to draw in the Shabbat meal on Friday night and the day of rest on Saturday. We must be more diligent as a family to prepare to experience Shabbat together.
4. Keeping my family coming together on a regular basis, hopefully as they grow, and possibly leave home. Establishing a tradition they look forward to and enjoy so they too will bring their families over once they grow.

5. An opportunity to teach reverence and respect for the Lord's Holy things. To dress up in honor of Him. To act out of love for him.

We do not see celebrating Shabbat weekly as an act of obedience or religiousness that earns favor with God, but rather out of our deep love for Him and His Son Jesus, displaying our respect for the days He designed and remarked in scripture as significant and Holy. It is an act of Love. A reverence of the fulfillment of the Saviors sacrifice in light of the picture God was painting from the beginning.

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Ebay is a great place to purchase the items you would need/desire to celebrate the meal time (Challah (bread) cover, candlesticks, Handwashing Cup, Charity Box, Bread plates, Wine Fountains, etc.).

   

The Deceiver and Distractions

He, the deceiver, is good at bringing moments of distraction into our daily lives which tend to linger too long and pause on the way out with a final whispering word as to keep your eyes turned away from what truly matters.

Our lives are busy...maybe not always on the go and often we find ourselves at home, but the moments are moving, often fleeting, always in motion towards the next bridge, path, fork in the road.  We often forget to pause, breathe and take it all in.

God allows the motion to come in and sharpen us, refine our fight and our will in the war.  But, then the deceiver whispers again...distractions...the turning of the head for even just a moment can cause our motion, our natural motion to shift just slightly off course.

We must hear the Father's call to find our course.  We must breathe...find the rhythm of the Master, the motion of the Son.

It's a minor shift off track but is rocks the very center of the motion God allows to come in and sharpen us.

To see the moments, the minutes, the trials, the sharpening as anything less than controlled and held by the Father we would be believing a lie...yet another distraction.

I so often hear myself echoing back after instructing the children or reproaching them for inappropriate actions and I realize...I did not allow the Father to refine me in the moment.  I allowed the moment to distract me from the opportunity...

How can I breathe and let the moments refine me?

Willingly I experience refining after the fact but in the moment I often fail to fight and seek God's will in the war.

I'm regretful for those moments not handled so well, the ones where I overreacted, acted impatiently all while asking them to show patience and grace.  Lord, help them to be blind to my hypocrisy...its unintentional and often repented for as I walk this path as a mother.

I've run out of redo's.  Cole is turning 7 this summer, he'll begin to remember how I react, how I talk, how I make him feel.  Any grace period that exists although most likely just a ghost, has begun to end.

I MUST find the strength to push out the distractions, CALL forth the will to wage the war, to be refined, to take a breathe in all moments and speak only words that matter.

God, bring the refining moments and help me to move with the motion that is filled with you. To find YOU in all things...the chance to show you, serve you, reflect you and most importantly fill myself with you so it will pour out as the natural motion of our lives takes place.

There is no space to allow distraction to settle, although it often comes, when the space is filled with YOU.

Absent....then Easter

I don't even know how longs it's been since I wrote. It seems like forever. No One Thousand Gifts, No poetic writings of my trials as a mother or my joys. I've gone silent over the past few months. Things have been...strange.

I'd like to blame homeschooling. It sent us into a new schedule, placed new demands upon my time, my free "me" time, caused me to cherish a quick nap when I can grab one.

The holidays came and went with a whirlwind...why do I fear this will all happen again too soon. It's already April for goodness sakes. April...

We have a January birthday, twinkies in March, trips to the dunes as a family...sometimes it's a blur. But, a lovely, blessed, crazy, sometimes manic blur...

I'm a perfectionist, I think we've talked about this before. My ever demanding need to keep things consistent, updated, and perfected. When too much time goes by without writing or sitting down to share on our family blog (which operates much more like a timeline of events than this particular blog) I tend to then avoid it because I'm uncomfortable with the imperfection.

Isn't is crazy? Blogging doesn't have to be perfect. It's just a simple window to my heart. Something I actually use to leave behind a piece of myself for my children. It's a journal. But I started and restarted journals as a kid when too much time went by. I couldn't stand the lapsing in time. I wanted to be a perfect, neat, tidy, wonderful little journaler (is this a word?). What world is that from?

But, as is to be expected, here I am again picking up after a month of being away and tons of inconsistencies before that. God is refining me through even something as simple as this!

Easter
I've laid low this year about Easter. Much less than the year before have I talked and read about the coming celebration. Maybe I'm tired or maybe it's just a year to be quiet.

Christmas was quiet this year and for that I'm grateful. It simplified God's love for us. Made the whole thing just about God coming to earth. No confusion or too much information (which I think I've done before with the Jesse Tree and readings).

Easter is following this same smoothly, quiet path.

My oldest randomly asked me when were going to do Passover, by marking our doors with red paint and sharing in the model God set in motion long before Jesus was actually nailed to the cross. They get the picture. My sweet, sinful, distract able little children see the picture painted by God in Egypt and then again in Isaac and then again on the cross.

It amazes me. There is no confusion to them. It is as clear as day. Jesus is the blood on the walls, the lamb in Isaac's place, the final payment of our sin at Galgotha.

We began to read this morning to start our school day in Matthew of Jesus being crucified. It is a simple version of the events, not too filled with details in case they get distracted, when they get distracted.

Within minutes the questions are flooding from their mouths. "Who helped Jesus carry the cross?", "Was Jesus' brother there to watch him die?", "Was his mommy sad?", "Where was his daddy?", "Where did he go after he died before he rose from the tomb?", "Does he live in heaven now?", "He loves us so much mom.".

I asked my children if they would be willing to die for the whole world, beyond the people they love and who love them. My oldest who is still 6 (even though I like to treat him like he is already 7), pondered this carefully and then matter of factly said, "No. They don't deserve it."

It was as though God simply handed me the smoothest line of questions and answers in order to perfectly paint for my children the ultimate and love and sacrifice Jesus gave to us on the cross. I couldn't have planned it better. I simply obeyed the tugging from the Lord to read to them from the Bible. Something I don't do enough b/c they tend to get bored.

God is faithful.

We then took a hike up the hill at a nearby church to see the cross and see the tomb, to ponder even more what He did for us that day. What God had planned from the moment Adam took the apple in His desperate desire to draw us back to Him. To bridge the gap between the creator and the created.

I saw the cross today through my children. I put the pieces together again in a renewed way and then reminded us all that it isn't just about eternity. It has to be about today. Living out the gospel today. Loving, sharing, forgiving...

I asked them, "If the cross and the gospel are the most important things in our life, do we share them with others like we should?". Cole, stated, "No, I don't." I asked him why. "Because I get nervous."

Me too buddy. Me too. It's true. We don't want to offend, put off, seem weird...Well, I don't want to do that. But, the gospel is the most living and breathing thing we as Christians have to share.

In what ways has the Gospel moved you today?

Walking the Road to the Cross

 

I close my eyes and I try to imagine what those final days were like for Christ as He entered into Jerusalem hailed as a King on a lowly, humble Donkey, knowing deep the wounds that would soon pierce his skin and the nails that would purge sin from the world.



I can easily feel the emotions Mary must have felt as her Son, The Son (an experience I couldn't even begin to imagine), the one birthed pink from her womb that night in the stable while she was but a girl, is being led to the Cross scourged and stained with red.



Breathe...
Breathe...

My throat swells and I swallow hard as I consider her pain, as her pain reflected his pain and oh how we even wince when our little ones fall or scrape a knee and yet her son, The Son, bled freely and poured fourth grace and mercy with each drip that ran His skin.

 

I can taste the dust, hear the hails of hatred poured out towards Him while He carried His cross on broken, bleeding, barely hanging skin.

Look what we are capable of?

The atrocity of it all...us, His dearly beloved, capable of such hate, anger, and evil.  Oh how He must weep...


So it begins today...remembering

I remember

I draw it in

I close my eyes and listen

I remember His sacrifice

I remember His Love

I remember Him

Walking the path towards the cross with Him as Lent begins today...

“Lent isn’t about forfeiting as much as it’s about formation. We renounce to be reborn; we let go to become ‘little Christs’. It’s about this: We break away to become.”

~Ann  

Spending the next forty days sinking deep into my depravity and lingering long with His love.

“Worse… at times… I don’t even want to keep the law. Lent’s revealing my depravity, my impotence. The utter death of my flesh. I can do nothing. My Lent convicts: I am a lawbreaker. ” 

"I am one of the disciples grieving – a life grieving His absence, a life grieving the black before the light, a life grieving death that will hungrily seize resurrection. Lent gives me this gift: the deeper I know the pit of my sin, the deeper I’ll drink from the draughts of joy."

~Ann  

Holiday Blessings

It is January already and not just January but almost February.  I know, I know, it has been so long since I've posted.  I must say that November and December kept me quite busy and although I don't find that to be much of an excuse at all it is the reality.  I often wanted to sit down and post and found that without the stillness of my home during naptime I couldn't concentrate enough to pour my heart out to God.  What a fallen woman I am that I feel like I need quiet time in order to successfully write to my Lord.  After all that is what this blog is all about, lifting up praise to my Father in Heaven for all His blessings in my life.  Forgive me father for staying away for so long.

Well with distance and absence I've also acquired a large amount of things to talk about here.  With the holiday season there were so many blessings, gifts, favorites and little snippets of life to explore.  The more time went by the harder it began to consider reflecting on them all!  It is a terrible cycle of falling behind and then letting that keep me from catching up!

Christmas this year was wonderful.  Justin and I thoroughly enjoyed the children and the process of teaching them about the meaning of Christmas.  We desire to put Christ at the center of our holiday traditions instead of an afterthought.

We put a few more age appropriate traditions into our Christmas readiness making sure to always turn their hearts back to Jesus.

Children can't help but get excited about the presents of Christmas morning and truly, I think Justin and I are always more excited than they are to give them something we know they will love.  We chose gifts carefully, with much research and we are very specific about giving them things we think they will love, not just giving them thing for the sake of having things!  When possible we made sure to remind them that we get presents b/c it is Jesus birthday and we get 3 presents each because the wise men gave Jesus 3 gifts for his birthday.  To their ability I am assured they understand.

For holiday traditions this year we did the following:

1. Read, "Room for a Little One" nightly leading up to Christmas
2. Read, "A Christmas Nativity"
3. Built a Jesse Tree with Ornaments and coloring pages to support the images
4. Angel Tree Giving
5. Small Christmas Crafts to encourage excitement about the holiday ($5 crafts from Michaels)
6. Opened Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve
7. Watched a NEW Christmas Movie (Chipmunks Christmas)
8. Cole gave each of his siblings a gift to encourage giving
9. Sploozebells with our Cousins
10. A Movie with Dad at the Movie Theatre the week after Christmas (Chipmunks Squeakual)
11. Making a Birthday Cake for Jesus

It was a wonderful holiday and on Christmas each of the kids knew we were celebrating Jesus' birthday.  We put out a baby doll (that we originally intended to place in a manger in the morning but unfortunately never got around to making the manger. Dad gave it an attempt with our friend Zach Shepherd and it didn't quite turn out.) Next year we will be sure to place baby Jesus in a manger in the morning for the kids to see.

As I get older and I take more seriously, through my maturity, that my children have been placed into my care by God, to raise up in Him and given to Him to live lives devoted to Him I see how each holiday or event is an opportunity to guide them further towards the truth.  My duty is to build this truth up in their hearts so that when they are older they will have unshakeable faith in Christ.  Christmas has become one of the most wonderful opportunities to show my children Jesus.  I found this statement at Biblestudents.com concerning Christ's birth.

Salvation Foretold
The faithful of Israel and surrounding lands seemed to be aware of this promise of the Messiah, the perfect child from the lineage of Abraham, that would bring them all salvation. This promise contained the thought that a holy child would be born, and that in some way, not explained in the promise, this child would bring the blessing the world needed. The expectation was based upon the promise God made to Abraham, saying, "In thee and in thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. 28:14 From that time forward Abraham began to look for the promised child. He looked first of all to his own children, and was finally informed that it would not be one of his children directly, but that through their children, at some remote date, this child should be born. From that time onward, all the Israelites were waiting for the birth of the child that should bring the blessing. Every mother amongst the Israelites was very solicitous that she might be the mother of a son rather than a daughter, that perchance she might be the mother of this promised child.
But why was Messiah necessary? Why wait at all for the birth of the child? In no other way could mankind be blessed. It would be impossible to bless mankind except by releasing them from sin and death. Hence, the Scriptures tell us of God’s sympathy; that God looked down from His holy habitation, and beheld our sorrow, and heard, figuratively, "the groaning of the prisoner" —humanity— all groaning and travailing under this penalty of death. Psa 102:20 But God’s sympathy was manifested; and we read that, "He looked down and beheld that there was no eye to pity and no arm to save" and with "His own arm He brought salvation." Isa. 59:16 This is what was promised to Abraham — that one should come from his posterity who would be the Savior of the world....it was necessary that Jesus should become the "man Christ Jesus," in order "that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for every man." Heb. 2:9 

This reminds us all that the truly greatest Gift of the holiday season was the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We pray that our holiday traditions would provide a path towards forming memories with our children but not that those traditions would take priority over the true reason we celebrate Christmas.  We would never want to fall victim to allowing traditions to cause us to lose sight of our Lord.   Only that our traditions and family events during the holiday would draw us nearer to Christ and reveal more of Him to us.

I like it put this way, "Let us resolve then, that this season, we will not allow the frenzy of the world and the traditions of men to darken the great light that our God has graciously given. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light..." Isa. 9:2"

I pray Jesus that you would draw us nearer to your heart, quench the thirst only satisfied by you, call my children by name to serve you Father and in this short time that I might reflect your light into their lives that they may seek you, find you and become a Child of God. Amen--