OzThoughts – Christmas Eve

OzThoughts – Christmas Eve

This Christmas may our Saviour
enfold you with His Love;
May He fill your heart
with gladness
and blessings from above.

Ray and Denice

rayreese@hotmail.com
OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au

John 1:9-14 (New Living Translation)
9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human[a] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.[b] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_3263.mp3 ]

O holy night! the stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth;
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees!
O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night,
when Christ was born!
O night divine, 0 night, 0 night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand;
So, led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men
from the Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our friend;
He knows our need,
He guardeth us from danger;
Behold your King! before the lowly bend!
Behold your King! before the lowly bend!


Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4945.mp3 ]

Everyday they pass me by,
I can see it in their eyes.
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where?

On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries,
Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize, people need the Lord?

We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right.
What could be too great a cost
For sharing Life with one who's lost?

Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear.
They must hear the Words of Life
Only we can share.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize that we must give our lives,
For peo-ple need the Lord.

People need the Lord.

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Where is Christ in Christmas?

“Where is Christ in Christmas?” they ask.
I am too busy to answer as I do another task.
I have decorated the house and the tree
Oh yes they said this year they would help me.
However again I am stuck with all the chores
Things to do and things to make without a pause
Then after that there is the Christmas cake to make
And I mustn’t forget the fruit mince pies to bake.

“Where is Christ in Christmas?” I now ponder
As I do my Christmas chores my mind does wander.
“Where is Christ?” the wise men asked of Herod the King
But he joined the chorus who would ask the same thing
“Where is he?” said his parents on their way from Jerusalem
When suddenly they found he wasn’t travelling with them.
He was in the Temple among the wisest men of God
Doing His Father’s will He did not find at all so odd.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I now begin a list
To think of those who Christ never missed
I think of crowds but he found Bartimeus blind,
The lepers and a man in the tombstones out of his mind
A boy with his lunch and a woman at Jacob’s Well
And a woman who touched the hem he made well.
It is strange how a carpenter tells of seeds in the ground
And the one sheep, one coin and a son that must be found.



Where is Christ in Christmas? How could I face
The comments if he came to stay at my place?
Some said he will stay with them in Jericho
Surely to one of the Temple Priest’s place he’ll go.
However after all their preparations and endless fuss
He goes off with that little Tax Collector Zacchaeus.
Oh how it irritates the religious leaders when
Jesus says he is more at home with sinful men.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I think again
Surely he will be with the influential men?
The Pharisees, and scribes, the whole pious lot
Who say they live their lives without a sinful blot.
I hear he’s gone with Matthew and his friends to dine.
Drink more likely with that lot so fond of their wine.
Then when they wake to take in the morning’s fresh air
They find He is out in the garden alone and at prayer.

Where is Christ in Christmas? The thought arises
That he is off to Bethany before the sun rises
To spend the time there with Mary and Martha
(Why wasn’t Lazarus their brother called Arthur?)
“Where was Christ?” they asked when Lazarus died
But Jesus raised him to live as He too wept and cried.
They say that Martha is busy about the house doing chores
But Mary spends all her time with Jesus she adores.

Where is Christ in Christmas? It seems to me
That he is not always where we want Him to be.
We look for him in churches with or without a steeple
But more often he is out there among the people
I saw him the other day with a lady old and tired
Not a woman by her dress or manner admired
But there he was with her without any great fuss
Helping her with all her parcels to catch her bus.

Where is Christ in Christmas? Surely I dream
But to me it really, yes, it really did seem
In the shopping mall he was sitting in red
As a young blind and crippled child was led
To request a simple toy on this old man’s knee
And bring a tear to the eye of many more than me.
It may be my crazy imagination running wild
But surely it was Christ who hugged that child.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I simply pray
Christ be with us all on this Christmas day.
With my family and the crowds to church I will go
Personally to worship Christ and Him better to know.
I really want to know and see Christ in every place
To see Him in the Christmas joy on every face.
Thank Him that even in every necessary chore
I can come and you my Lord, Jesus Christ adore.
Author: Ray Reese (Christmas 2003)

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They Came At Christmas

In white shirts and caps on a truck they came
And stopped our kids’ street cricket game
They played a Christmas song or two
And then they called for us to sing
So we kids sang to everyone’s delight
Of baby Jesus birth on a Silent Night

Another Christmas they came again
After mum had told us with heartfelt pain
That this Christmas there would be no toys
And we were the saddest of girls and boys.
Mum told us there were many like us
And that we would not make a fuss
But simply enjoy whatever we could.

They came this time without the band
But they brought to us a Christmas grand
They put bags and boxes on our kitchen table.
They said they knew we were not able
To have the Christmas we would like
Because dad’s workplace was on strike.
Now their love gifts meant without his pay
We could celebrate with joy on Christmas Day.

Another Christmas they came to our place
They came again without the band
And they carried no gifts in their hand
But they came on a mission of love
They with tears said from their God above
And we knew they could do no more
Than pray for our dear brother lost in war.


Again this Christmas throughout this land
The Salvos will come with song and band.
They will come to some with food and toys
And somehow share in many Christmas joys.
They come that they might with everyone share
The very essence of the Christmas season where
In Bethlehem’s stable God’s gift Jesus was born.
Author: Ray Reese (Christmas 2003).

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The Australian Family at Christmas

The bush flies retreat to who knows where
The Currawongs strange cries fill the air
Mosquitoes arrive in swarms with a loud hum.
And the kids wonder if Christmas beetles will come
As they often do as the day ends with a darkening sky
In the south lightening plays in dark clouds up high
Dad says “this is Christmas and the weather’s humid”
And mums says “hey someone can you open this lid”?

Soon a Christmas beetle crashes into the door screen
And the kids gather to admire its glistening sheen
Silvers and blues and reds with greens and over all gold
Soon young John has caught it in his firm hand’s hold
To let it live out its last hours admired in a bottle
A long way from its native gum tree or wattle.
Dad turns steak and sausages on the barbecue
While Mum “says do you kids want salad, too”?

So continues another Aussie Christmas play
At the end of yet another hot summer’s day
There is no written script to learn at all
But almost everything it seems is by recall
Of some ritual acts our forebears laid down
When they came to build in bush and town
Dad turns a steak and says “this here steak’s done”
And mum in reply says “we’ve got food by the ton”.

At church they have been saying Christmas is changing
That people today don’t know the essential thing
Of why we stop the things we do and celebrate
With food and drink and things that taste great
People don’t know why they sing seasonal songs at night
In the park with thousands of others at “Carols by Candlelight”
Dad says out loud “the kids about Christmas don’t have a clue”
Mum says “I think if you ask them, you will find that’s not true”.

So this Christmas night around the almost empty meal table
Dad decides to test if the kids know Christmas fact from fable
Why do we sing of snow and of Santa with reindeer?
And why do we worry so much about presents dear?
John clutching his precious beetle in its jar
Says “oh well Dad that’s a Christmas from places far”
Dad says “on Christmas night I want you kids to think…”
And mum says “who wants another ice cold drink”?

The lightning seems to be getting closer in its play
As Jodie says we celebrate in a modern Aussie way
Its fun to sing of snow, Santa sleighs and jingle bells
But we sing of six white boomers and rusty utes as well.
Santa comes in shorts and stops for a chilled drink or three
And every kid here too eagerly asks “what will he bring me”?
Dad says”that’s very well but why does he always come”?
Mum says “there’s still ice cream left. Who wants some”?

Jodie says “well Dad we love to have our games and fun”
Johns chimes in “yes and I love my toys. Yes every one.”
And young Suzie lisps “I didn’t get my two front teeth
But I know Jesus came at Christmas so we can have ‘peath’”
Jodie laughs “Peath! Yes! Peace for everyone is what God gives
That’s the best gift at Christmas –that’s why the baby Jesus lives”
Dad says “you are the very best of kids and I will tell you why”
But mum says “I think I hear angels singing quietly in the sky…”

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace” they again sing
And a whole choir of crickets and cicadas join in before they take wing
Flying foxes flapping by loudly chatter a song that only they understand
A frogmouth flies by and dad swipes a mosquito that lands on his hand.
John looking at his beetle in the jar says “God I am sure made this pretty thing
And he gave Jesus that we might like the wise men to him our gifts bring”
Dad says “yes we are so far away both in time and in this great land”
Mums says “the washing ups to be done who’ll give a hand”?
Author: Ray Reese (Christmas 2003)

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