OzThoughts Friday 26th December 2008

OzThoughts Friday 26th December 2008

The wrappings have been torn off. The gifts revealed. The food has been shared and the contact with loved ones enjoyed. So that was Christmas! Well, it was Christmas Day but Christmas continues.

I noticed shops at one center were tearing down their Christmas decorations on Christmas Eve afternoon. I guess they move into their next season of encouragement for customers to “swipe the plastic”. Christmas is done for them. Maybe all that is left of Christmas will be the long lines of people with returns when they reopen for business today.

Christmas continues in the Church. I believe this coming Sunday is called “Low Sunday”. I have not followed it through but one suggestion I have seen is that it is called that because only the “faithful” attend. After the huge crowds of Christmas Eve and Christmas day services, the numbers may not only seem low but be low.

Christmas continues. I was talking to some who will meet over the next week with members of the extended family “to do Christmas” with them .

Christmas continues. If as some suggest “Jesus is the reason for the season” then Jesus the Babe of Bethlehem was not a one day wonder. If we with others find good basis in The Bible for the thinking that the reason for the season was God’s love for us that continues. If as one gentlemen told a huge crowd of people gathered to sing Christmas Carols that at Christmas we celebrate Jesus death for us, then it stretches right through to Easter.

Christmas is a personal season. So we decide if it continues for us. God’s love comes to us in the love we find inn the Babe of Bethlehem and the Christ of Calvary. Christmas love continues as we worship God and share that love with others in His Holy Name. We can put away the wrapping, pull down the trees and lights, decide we won’t eat so much next Christmas and in all this the love of the God of Christmas continues.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for Christmas. Thank you for what it means to me. May your love through Jesus continue to be evident in my life, my home and in my friendships with others. Amen.

Philippians 2 (The Message)
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Wonderful story of love!
Tell it to me again;
Wonderful story of love!
Wake the immortal strain.
Angels with rapture announce it,
Shepherds with wonder receive it;
Sinner, O won't you believe it?
Wonderful story of love!
Chorus
Wonderful! Wonderful!
Wonderful story, wonderful story of love!

Wonderful story of love!
Though you are far away;
Wonderful story of love!
Still he doth call today.
Calling from Calvary's mountain,
Down from the crystal bright fountain,
E'en from the dawn of creation;
Wonderful story of love!

Wonderful story of love!
Jesus provides a rest;
Wonderful story of love!
For all the pure and blest;
Rest in those mansions above us,
With those who've gone on before us,
Singing the rapturous chorus;
Wonderful story of love!
Author: John Merritte Driver (1858-1918)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 139


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