12/21/14 Sunday's Notes

Merry Christmas...No, let me try that again...MERRY CHRISTMAS! As December 25th draws so wonderfully close, my heart fills with joy.  As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I love celebrating Christ's birth and today just added to that joy.  Our church family enjoyed the most scrumptious Christmas brunch this morning and then topped it off with our annual Christmas program.  What a blessing to hear all of the singing and praising going on this morning.  I, myself, cannot sing worth beans and the only instrument I can play (as you can probably guess) is the radio! So, for me, I loved hearing all of the voices that can actually sing, along with the beautiful piano playing and then some banjo music to round it all out. Thank you to everyone that participated in today's festivities.

The program was filled with folks reciting poems about gifts.  Not the kind of gifts you'll find tucked under your Christmas tree, but a better more valuable kind of gifts.  The gifts are those that God gave to us and then in return the gifts that our feeble little selves can give back to God.  Here's a brief list of the ones I jotted down from today's program:

Gifts that God freely gave/gives to us:
  1.  Christ - The baby born to save us
  2.  Love - Sacrificial love
  3.  The Word of God - Clarity for us of Gods plan
  4.  Grace - The redeeming grace of God - comes by faith alone
  5.  Forgiveness of Sins - again, comes by faith alone
  6.  Rest & Peace - for those who belong to him
  7.  Eternal Life

Gifts we can give to God:
  1.  Empty Hands
  2.  Praise & Thanksgiving
  3.  Open Hearts - longing for the righteousness of God
  4.  Love - Surrendering our desires, our lives to God

Sure, this list could go on and on, but let's keep in mind that the gift of Christ is the greatest gift of all.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.   (ESV)

Have a blessed week and a very, Merry Christmas!