Christmas is just a few days away!!

During Advent, the student leadership team and I had the privilege of leading the church in Advent devotionals each week.  I am so proud of the kids who were willing to get up in front of the whole church and read.

At our last meeting, the kids helped me put together a video/slideshow for our final devotional.  The kids were awesome and totally got into this project. They were a joy to work with and I am thankful for them!! This week we are celebrating Jesus our Restorer.  Now, I’m not sure that’s a word… but the point is that Jesus came to RESTORE us, totally and completely.  I have been blessed to be set free from the chains which had paralyzed me in fear and self-protection. Only through coming to the feet of Jesus and giving up everything to Him have I found that freedom.

As you watch the video, think about the things that hold you back from bringing God glory in ministry and the things that keep relationships at arms length.  Ask God for freedom from those things.  He will bring it.

Matthew 1:21 says,

And you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Merry Christmas!

Changed Forever from Liz Griggs on Vimeo.

Hope you are all enjoying preparing for the Baby Jesus!  Do you have the Advent Calendar?  You can download it here.

This is the short devotional one of our 6th grade students read in church on Sunday:

Today, we begin to prepare our hearts for the Baby Jesus, our Salvation wrapped in a human body. This week we think about Jesus our Healer, who came to heal us from sickness and death and the effects of sin in our lives.

The Bible says,

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Let’s pray:

Dear Jesus,

Thank you that when you came to earth it was with the purpose of bringing us peace and healing.  You came knowing you would be wounded and crucified, yet you came as a little helpless baby.  Thank you for your healing power in our hearts, in our minds and in our bodies.

So, Jesus, we come to you today wounded and broken, in need of your healing.  We bring our broken hearts and bodies to you as a birthday gift for you, knowing that these are more precious to you than gold, frankincense and myrrh.  We trust you Lord with our hearts.  You can heal the hurt feelings, rejection and all bitterness.  We trust you Lord with our bodies.  You are the great physician, capable of healing the most stubborn of diseases.  We trust you because you are good and you are sovereign and you are trustworthy.

Baby Jesus, we worship at your manger and say, “Come into our hearts and heal us from the inside out.”

Amen.

Hello friends!

It’s my favorite time of year again!  Advent – preparing our hearts and homes for the coming of the Baby Jesus.  Jesus, Emmanuel – God with us!  There are so many awesome things about Jesus coming to earth as a human child… it’s hard to choose what to focus on!

Right now, our church is going through a series on restoration.  Last week, we learned about how Jesus came to bring us salvation.  So, this year, during Advent, we are celebrating Jesus, our salvation!

Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  Although we often treat salvation as a one-time deal — our ticket to heaven — the word here for save, “sozo”, is much more.  It includes deliverance, restoration, protection, preservation, healing and being made whole.  This year we hope to celebrate Jesus, who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  We will celebrate:

Jesus the Healer — He came to heal us from our sickness and death and from the effects of sin in our lives.

Jesus the Deliverer — He came to deliver us from bondage to sin and temptation.

Jesus the Protector — He came to protect us from the evil one and to be the very armor we wear in battle.

Jesus the Restorer — He came to restore us back to our original design, authority and intimacy with God.

You can download our Advent Calendar (click here), or you can pick up a copy at church in the Children’s Hallway.  There are lots of fun activities to do as a family to get ready for Christmas.  We encourage you to do as many as your family can manage during this often busy season.  We hope that you will make sure to carve out time each day to prioritize family and to prepare your hearts and homes for welcoming the Christ-child this Christmas.

There are two traditions you can use with this calendar.  The first is to just simply do the activities on the calendar. You can combine it with a fun Advent calendar or Christmas countdown you have at home or just cross off the days on this calendar until you get to Christmas. The second way is along with an Advent wreath. The wreath does not have to be fancy: there are 4 candles in the wreath (usually 3 purple and 1 pink) and 1 candle in the center of the wreath that is white. Each day at home the candles are lit, perhaps before the evening meal — one candle the first week, and then another each following week until December 25^th. The pink candle is usually lit on the third Sunday of Advent. As the candles are lit, refer to this calendar for devotionals or activities to do when you light your wreath each night. All candles, including the white candle, are lit on Christmas Eve.  The white candle signifies the birth of Christ.

Let us celebrate the Baby who is God’s salvation wrapped in a human body.  Jesus – our Salvation.

(Advent starts this Sunday, Nov 27th!)

Well, today officially marks the end of the Christmas season.  (Although, this coming Sunday is still Epiphany Sunday, so I say stretch it out as long as you can!)  Today is the 12th day of Christmas, or Epiphany.

I didn’t get a chance to put up any devotionals for you during this Christmas season (the 12 days following Christmas), but I did find this cute way to turn the words of the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, into something meaningful. Click here for the link.

The word epiphany means appearance or manifestation.  This is the day we also celebrate the wise men finally arriving to worship Jesus and the revelation of who Jesus really was… the Messiah!

Read Matthew 2:1-12 and Luke 2:25-32.

The wise men (or Magi) brought gifts to Jesus that showed his royalty.  Simeon received a fulfilled promise from God (that he would see the Messiah) and he prophesied Jesus’ ultimate purpose: salvation for both the Gentiles and Israel.

Let’s meditate on these things of God today: He keeps His promises; He is worthy of our everything (not just what we don’t want); He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us; He reveals Himself to us in all sorts of ways and wants us to worship and glorify Him with all that we are.

Praise Him for all these things! He is good!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Take time to read the Christmas story today.  (Either from a story book or the Bible. We had our 1st grader read Christmas in the Manger to us this morning.)  Remind yourselves of the things you’ve learned during Advent.  Sing some Christmas songs and enjoy being together as a family.

Praise God for this incomprehensible gift of love towards us!  The Baby Jesus, God with us, came for the sole purpose of saving us from our sins and restoring our relationship with God.  Merry Christmas!!!

It’s CHRISTMAS time!!!!!!!  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is this week.  I’m not ready… can we have 5, maybe 6, weeks of Advent?  I haven’t done enough anticipating.

Okay, I’m back to reality. Now everyone is done with school and the traveling starts.  We will have family come and stay with us… and I’m excited!  Our activities are mostly done and I’m hoping to spend a little more time with my family this week getting ready for the coming of the Christ child.

Here is the devotion for this 4th week of Advent:

(Light all four of the colored candles, three purple and one pink.)  As you light the previous candles, have your family review what each candle stands for and see if they can tell you something of significance about that candle.

The fourth week’s candle is the Angels’ candle.

Read Luke 8:14-20 as a family.

(Depending on your children’s ages, you could also look at Luke 1, Matthew 1:18-24 and Matthew 2:13-23.  If your children are younger, please read these passages for yourself and marvel at the amazing work of God that first Christmas.)

This fourth candle reminds us of the angels and the hope we have in Christ.  When we light it, we anticipate Christ’s second coming.  We remember His first coming… a helpless baby – God of the universe, humbling Himself to conquer sin and death, save mankind and restore our relationship with Him.  Now we anticipate when He will come again… riding on the clouds – with a loud command and the trumpet call of God to raise the dead and judge all (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

We are commanded in Scripture to be ready because we do not know when this will happen… except that it will happen suddenly. (Check out Matthew 24:36-44.)

How do you keep yourself ready so you are not caught unawares?  One way to do that is to make Jesus the most important and exciting thing we talk about.  So, start talking about how awesome He is with your kids.  In my life I have found that when it comes to Jesus (or even a friend or family member) the more I talk about how incredible I think He is and the amazing things He has done or taught me, the more I fall in love with Him and anticipate Him coming back.

So, talk with your family about what you love about Jesus.  (The easy answer is to say that He died for your sins… but why is that so important to you?)  Ask for explanation.  Your kids may not be able to articulate their underlying motivations, and that’s okay!  Just don’t let it stop when they’ve answered the question.  Use it as a jumping off point to start a conversation.  Enjoy hearing what your kids love about your Savior… I know they will love hearing why you love Him so much.

Merry Christmas!!

As we begin this third week of Advent, many of us have Christmas parties, school projects, class parties, teachers’ gifts, baking, shopping, etc., etc. on our list of to-do’s. I know I am looking forward to a break from school where my daughter will be home all day long!  We can really get into more Christmas preparations and spending lots and lots of time as a family.  Celebrating Advent has been a really good time to not let us forget that we are to be preparing for the coming of the Christ child, not just a bunch of parties.  I have enjoyed our times of singing as a family as well as the great discussions I’ve had with my daughter.

Here is this week’s devotion:

(Light the first and second purple candles and now also light the pink candle.)  On this third week of Advent, we also light the Shepherd’s candle.

Read Luke 2:8-20.

When we light this third candle, we understand that, like the shepherds, we can come to Christ, believing He is who He says He is, and tell everyone of the things He has done.  After being told by angels what had happened, then seeing it for themselves, the shepherds could not contain themselves.  They went around telling everyone what they had seen and what they now knew.

Sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” as a family.

My thoughts on shepherds…
This evening, I had the privilege of attending a huge Christmas production at a church in Tucson.  They had a live nativity that was put together as a choir beautifully sang about Emmanuel, God with us, and worshiping Christ the King.  It was incredibly moving, but as I was driving home, I was pondering why it moved me so much.  Was it just the music?  I know that have a soft spot for good choral music.  Then I started thinking about the shepherds.  Much like choosing the lowliest of towns to have the King of Kings enter the world (see last week’s post), God also chose some of the lowliest people to welcome His Son.  I pictured in my head this ragamuffin group of stinky sheep-herders sitting around picking their teeth, listening to the bleating of sheep and each other’s snores when God’s messenger appears to them and gives them the calling of a lifetime.  “Go to Bethlehem, find a baby wrapped in rags, in a feeding trough, in an animal shelter.  Seriously.  This baby is God’s Son, the Messiah, Christ the Lord.”  Then the most amazing choir ever heard bursts from the heavens singing the glory of God.  This is the kind of calling you do not ignore, so they get up and go to Bethlehem and check it out.  They discover it’s all true and they go and praise God, giving Him glory, telling everyone what they had seen and heard.  They were a little excited… and who wouldn’t be in that situation???

Then I had this thought:  The first people called to worship Christ the Messiah were a bunch of stinky animal herders.  In order to obey their calling, the lowly came and made themselves lower by bowing to a baby… a BABY!! lying in the dirty feeding trough of an animal.  And then they went out telling people how awesome God is!  There was no Pharisaical attitude of being the ones called.  No! This was about God, come in human form, fulfilling the promises He had been making for centuries.  I was reminded of a prayer that a dear friend and mentor recently wrote:

O my God, Your word fulfill.
I surrender.  Do as You will.
Break what must be broken.
Kill what needs to die.
Be my Resurrection and my Life.
I go low, beneath You hand.
Kneeling is the only way to stand.
I am Yours.

As God calls us in our own lives, how do we respond?  Do we respond my making ourselves low?  Or do we demand of God “What’s in it for me?”  Do we recognize our own stinky, sheep-herderness and yet make ourselves low under God’s humble throne?  Jesus didn’t come with trumpet fanfare to regally ascend to an ornate throne of earthly power and wealth and might.  He came humbly to a carpenter family, to an animal-trough throne in a rinky-dink town, to a bunch of stinky shepherds as a completely helpless baby… and He calls us to humble ourselves and follow Him.

THIS is why I love Christmas.

I hope everyone had a full and fun week of celebrating Advent with their families.  To be honest, we didn’t get to all of the activities on the Advent Calendar, but I’m not giving up!  We’ll just pick back up this week with our activities.  I have to remember that it’s not about making sure all the boxes are checked, but about spending time with my family preparing for the coming of Christ.

Here is the devotional for this week (the second Sunday of Advent):

(Light the first purple candle again, and then also the second purple candle.) This week we light the second candle, the Bethlehem candle.  This points to preparations being made for the coming of Christ.  Although there was no room for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem (Jesus was born in a stable), it was just what God had planned.  He orchestrated Mary and Joseph needing to travel to Bethlehem for the census at just the right time so that the prophecies about Jesus would be fulfilled.

Read Micah 5:2-5.

Bethlehem doesn’t seem like a place where the King of Kings should be born.  It was small and not very profitable.  It was home to one of the smallest clans of Judah.  But, it was in the humblest of places that God chose to begin the most amazing thing in history!

As we worship our King who humbled Himself so hugely to restore our relationship with Him, let us hold on with desperation to the grace He gives us and approach His throne and His manger with confidence in His love.

Sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” together.

Here is a great little article on Jesus, our Shepherd-King, by Charles Spurgeon.

One of the families in our church sent me some pictures of what they are doing as this year for Advent.  (Thanks so much!)

Here is their Advent Wreath:

Here is their Advent Countdown Calendar:

Here are some books that they like to use as a family:

“Who is Coming to Our House?” by Joseph Slate & Ashley Wolff

“Christmas in the Manger” by Nola Buck & Felicia Bond

“My Christmas Gift to Jesus” by Dandi Daley Mackall & Rachael O’Neill

“Getting Ready for Christmas” by Yolanda Browne & Patrick Girouard

I’d love to hear how the Advent celebrations are going in your family! Send pictures or post comments!  I pray that you and your family will be blessed and transformed as you prepare for Jesus’ birth.

Sunday, November 28th is the first week of Advent this year.  I hope you have plans to celebrate the coming of the Christ child in some way today.

Our family will be using the Faith Quest Advent Calendar and an Advent wreath.  (Click here to download the Advent Calendar.)

Here is the devotion for the first week:

The first candle we light is the Prophecy Candle. (Light the first purple candle.)  It reminds us that Christ’s coming was revealed by God through the prophets hundreds of years before He was born.  Let us remember that Christ came as the light of the world and that He is the light in our lives.  Because of Him coming, we no longer dwell in darkness.

Read Isaiah 9:1-7.

Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, God gave the prophet Isaiah these promises about the coming Messiah.  We are walking in darkness and death until we experience the light of God’s presence; God will lift the burdens of the oppressed.  And all of this is brought to us in the form of a Baby.  This incredibly amazing Baby is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  He is the Beginning and the End, and not only is He Emmanuel, God with us right now, but He will come again.  As we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth, let us worship the King of Kings and put Him first, as King of our lives.

Sing “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” together.

As you are celebrating Advent together as a family, here is a neat Advent album suggested by one of the parent’s at our church.  You can listen to the whole thing online for free.  (Check out the “Matthew Begats” song.  It’s a keeper!)

Tomorrow I fully plan to be up to my elbows in pie crust, rolls, turkey, stuffing, etc.  So, I thought I’d give you a little gift of two, yes TWO, Advent ideas today.

This first one, the Moving Nativity, is something that I remember the best of all the things my mom did with us when I was little.  (I think I was maybe 5 yrs old the first and most memorable time we did this.)  We set up our empty manger and stable in the family room.  My mom decorated our FisherPrice Little People with pieces of fabric to be the people in the nativity and hid them around the house.  We had to hunt them down and then, each day/week of Advent, we moved them closer to the manger.  They all arrived at the manger on Christmas Eve when the Baby Jesus came, and the Wise Men showed up on Epiphany (January 6).  This could be done in conjunction with your Advent Wreath or Calendar, and you don’t have to have a Nativity set to do this activity: make some out of pipe cleaners or decorate popsicle sticks or print some clip art and cut it out.

The other Advent idea I have for you today is the Jesse Tree.  This activity is probably best to do with school-aged children and older.  The Jesse Tree is a way to celebrate and meditate on the promises that Jesus fulfilled and is going to fulfill.

• John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Story of Jesus doesn’t start in the New Testament. His story is woven throughout scripture. In Isaiah 11, it tells us that the Messiah will come from the stump of Jesse.
• Decorate your Christmas tree or use a branch or even a sturdy house plant with symbols representing what the Old Testament prophets said about the coming Messiah.
• Pre-make the Jesse Tree ornaments and teach the scriptures as you decorate the tree or hunt for the clues together and have your children create ornaments to demonstrate the promises. (They could draw and cut out or fashion out of pipe cleaners or find household items to hang.)
• You could come up with 24 ornaments and use them as part of your Advent Calendar activities.
• Please contact me (liz@fcov.org) for a list of prophecy references to get you started.

I hope that you all have enough ideas to get you going for Advent.  It starts THIS SUNDAY (Nov 28)!!  I am really looking forward to celebrating with my kids and passing on the traditions I learned as a child that have shaped me as an adult.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!