Every year millions of people all around the world ring in the New Year with resolutions.  We vow to start doing this or stop doing that, and everything seems right with the world for about a week – maybe two.  Then, inevitably, something goes wrong with our resolutions and we revert back to our old habits and ways and give no more thought to our resolutions until next year roles around.  So this year, rather than make more resolutions, I thought I would offer up a New Year’s prayer.  Acknowledging that, in myself, I am not capable of keeping resolutions, but with God all things are possible, here are my resolutions/prayers for the coming year:

Dear God, please help me…

• …to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and constant in prayer.
• …to shine your light to a darkened world.
• …to remember in all situations that I am your child.
• …to serve you as an ambassador in this world.
• …to recognize that I am chosen by you.
• …to teach my children your word and about you that they may know all that you have done for me.
• …to live every day to bring glory to your name.
• …to model you to the kids you have entrusted to me both in my home and at church.
• …to never lose sight of my spiritual journey with you.
• …to make the time to spend with you each day in your Word and in prayer.
• …to turn to you in times of trouble.
• …to praise you in times of excess.
• …to be the husband that you intended me to be to my wife.
• …to teach your word in such a way that little ears would hear and little hearts would understand.
• …to be bold in proclaiming you to others.
• …to love you with all my heart, all my mind, all my strength and all my soul!

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In case you missed it earlier this month, the latest Children’s Ministry Think Tank was just published over at Ministry-to-Children.com. I was going to promote it then, but I didn’t want to interrupt the whole Christmas Carol Advent The Think Tank got into the Christmas spirit this month to have a look at what Santa has to do with the holiday. I contributed my thoughts to the question again this installment along with several others involved in Children’s Ministry.

The question for this installment was:

How do you handle the whole issue of Santa Claus in your ministry? How would you redirect a group of children at church who are debating his existence? What advice would you give Christan parents & grandparents about Santa?

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Video

History

This song was written and performed by Go Fish and appears on their Christmas album called Snow which was released in 2006.  We actually kicked off our Christmas Song Advent with a Go Fish song (Christmas With A Capital “C”) and it seems appropriate to end with this one which reminds us that Christmas may be about the birth of Christ, but in the end we must never lose sight of the cross!

Commentary & Analysis

This song isn’t as well known, but I couldn’t think of a better way to finish off this Christmas Carol Advent than with this song from Go Fish.  This song reminds us, on Christmas Day, that this holiday is actually quite secondary to the death and resurrection of Christ.  Over the last 25 days, we have looked at a number of songs celebrating the manger, the angels, the shepherds and the wise men.  Those are an integral part of Christmas celebration, but we should never lose sight of the cross of Christ where God paid the penalty for our sins so that we could be reconciled to him forever.  It’s about accepting him as our Lord and savior so that we can, through his death, be born again into the kingdom of God.  While we celebrate a babe born in the straw, we must remember the stone that was rolled away to find an empty tomb “so we can have real life someday.”  The second set of verses turns from the traditional, and biblical facets of Christmas, to remind us that the current trimmings (family, presents, snow, decorations and the feelings they all elicit), while nice are also not what Christmas is really about.  No matter how much we enjoy Christmas, and we should, we have to remember that it is only the beginning of Christ’s time on earth, and it was the end of his time here that gives us the opportunity at eternal life.

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1 MORE DAY UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Video

History

Silent Night was penned in German (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) by the Austrian Priest Father Joseph Mohr.  The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, and the song was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on December 24, 1818.

Commentary & Analysis

This is one of my favorite Christmas Carols and one of my favorite songs of all time.  Interestingly, the whole idea behind this song, a “silent night” is not addressed anywhere in the Bible.  There is no indication of atmosphere when Christ was born.  More likely, the phrase “silent night, holy night” is based on the nature of God based on passages like 1 Kings 19:11-12 when God showed himself to Elijah:

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2 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Video

History

“O Holy Night” was originally a French carol (“Cantique De Noel”) was penned as a poem in 1847 by Placide de Roguemaure based on his interpretation of what it would have been like to be present at the birth of Christ based on the account in the Gospel of Luke.  The music was composed by Adolphe-Charles Adam.  It

Commentary & Analysis

The first verse of this famous Christmas Carol capture the state of the world prior to the birth of Christ (“Long lay a world in sin and error pining”) and at the birth of Christ (“for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”)  I am always struck in the first verse of this song by the juxtaposition of the thrill of hope and a weary world.  We live in a world tainted by sin that does not work the way God created it to work.  We live in a world that, for the most part, rejects its creator.  We live in a world of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, lie, cheating, stealing, death, tears, anguish and indescribable pain.  I think weary captures the tenor of this world and those of us who live in it.  We are worn out by the grind, by the pain, by the longing for something better.  In a lonely manger, in a small town, without human fanfare, a small child was born.  That child, Jesus, was the Son of God sent to absolve us of our sin by his death on the cross.  That child was, and is, the hope of the world.  The only appropriate response we can offer to the gift of a savior is to fall on our knees in worship and adoration – it was a holy night indeed!

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3 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Video

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83huFAMOte0&feature=PlayList&p=CFF70EC088CC7224&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11]

History

This song based on the Hymn “Angels from the Realms of Glory” was written by Bebo Norman for his Christmas CD entitled Christmas…From The Realms of Glory. That CD was released in 2007.

Commentary & Analysis

This month, we have looked at Christmas from the standpoint of shepherds, wise men, Mary, and a spectator in Bethlehem, amongst others.  This song tells the story of Christmas from heaven’s perspective.  The first verse speaks to the angels from creation to proclaiming the Messiah’s birth.  The chorus is a call to the only rightful response to the coming Messiah – one of worship.  In the second verse, we see a heavenly view of the shepherds.  Rather than  focusing on the awe and wonder of the shepherds, this verse recounts what the shepherds were privileged to see – the very light of God come in infant form to live with his creation.  The final verse looks forward to Christ’s second coming when his work shall finally be completed and his eternal kingdom established.  This song places Christmas in its rightful position in God’s larger story from Genesis to Revelation.

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4 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Video

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4FK1uXm_U]

History

Mary’s Boy Child was written by Jester Hairston in 1956 and recorded by Harry Belafonte that same year.

Commentary & Analysis

This one is a little more offbeat as Christmas songs go, but I love the very first line in that it reminds us of our source of all truth when it comes to Christmas.  No matter what society tries to change the holiday into, not matter what fallacies have come to be accepted because of their inclusion in Christmas songs, no matter how many stories are written are about Santa Claus and his elves, the only real source of information on Christmas is the Bible – “..so the Holy Bible say.”

This song presents Christmas in its simplest terms, a baby (Jesus) was born in a manger in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph on Christmas Day.  Through his life, and death, we are reconciled to God, conquer death and live forever in his presence.  The angels announced the coming of this eternal King to lowly shepherds.

Questions for further Reflection / Devotion

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