Tag: Christmas

My Christmas Rhyme

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

This is day 2 of Bible Geek Gone Wild’s 12 Days of Christmas promotion. I’ve already won one free book, and am trying for some more.

I’d encourage everyone to stay tuned to Shaun’s blog these next 11 days, because I hear the prizes to be had (mostly lots of free books compliments of many fine Christian book publishers) are many and worthwhile.

Shaun has been keeping us all on our toes, as entering the contests aren’t as simple as leaving a comment. Yesterday we had to share a Christmas memory. Today you have to answer a brief Bible trivia quiz, or come up with a short (2-6 lines) Christmas poem (or rhyme, or jingle). You can do both today since there are two contests. I’m wondering, are there three contests tomorrow??

Well, I’d be fine with no one else entering these contests as I’d love to hog all the free books for myself. But it IS Christmas after all! So join in the fun and try your hand at a Christmas jingle today, or if you don’t see this post until Monday, I’m sure there will be some challenging means of entering a contest that you can have fun with then….

So here’s my Christmas rhyme entry. If you have a short one of your own, share it in the comments here after you get done submitting it for the contest.

All the joys of Christmas time–
Decorations and the pine,
Friends and loved ones gathering,
Gifts and cheer and caroling–
May these not avert our gaze.
Ponder Christ the babe, and praise!

A Special Christmas Memory

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

This morning, I entered the first of 12 contests at Bible Geek Gone Wild. Shaun Tabatt is running a 12 Days of Christmas promotion there as an excuse to give away lots of free books.

Today’s contest asked the entrants to share a favorite Christmas memory. I’m usually not good with memories, but the one I have was a blessing to me in the remembering And I thought it’d be a great memory to blog about as well. So here goes…

It’s hard to pick a favorite memory. But one stands out from my childhood days.

My sister was either 2 or 3, and for me it was still a new thing to have a cute little sister (I was 6 years older than she). I believe Mom had her dressed up in a little red nightgown with a night cap on. The special gift for her was to be a Cabbage Patch doll. Rather than wrapping it up, Mom had it just sitting under the tree.

When I saw the gift, I was overcome with excitement for how little Katie would respond. Sure enough, she got up and rushed out to the tree and her eyes lit up with wonder and she grabbed her doll, treasuring it as only a little toddler can.

I think that Christmas was when I first learned that Christmas giving is not about me getting stuff, but about family and friends sharing love with one another. As the years passed from that day, the giving rather than receiving of gifts became more and more what I looked forward to at Christmas.

Now as a father of my own four little girls, I can’t wait to see the sparkle in their eyes this Christmas!

Christmas Gift Idea

~ fundyreformed ~ 2 Comments

How would you like to support missions with one of your Christmas gift choices? My grandfather is marketing a special hand-crafted wood paddle, proceeds of which benefit the Dorcas Fund–a fund to help widows and orphans in Zambia, Africa.

The paddle has an inspirational message: “Up a creek without a paddle? Seek me.   ~God.” The paddles are going for $22 each (includes shipping), now through December 15th.

You can see more pictures of the paddle and get full details here.

Christmas Miscellanies

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

Wow, we’re talking about Christmas already. Time sure flies!

More and more businesses are removing “Christmas” from Christmas. Happy Holidays from Costco and others…. Personally, however, I’m not too disturbed when our secular nation rejects a Christian holiday. For the first 300 years of Christianity all secular nations rejected all Christian holidays, and they persecuted us to boot.

R.C. Sproul’s radio broadcast Renewing Your Mind is offering daily specials. Yesterday I gave a gift to receive a copy of Sproul’s new kid’s book, The Prince’s Poison Cup. They gave an audio cd of it along with the book. Today, for any gift, you can get a new Christmas music CD (The Word Became Flesh), with narration of the Christmas story. Check it out.

I read an interesting post over at Parchment and Pen challenging many of the traditional trappings to the Christmas story. You think Christ was born in a lonely stable built into a cave away from the town? With no happy relatives there assisting? They say think again. Makes me want to research this topic out even further….

Finally, I’m going to strongly suggest that you stay tuned to BibleGeekGoneWild.com. Shaun Tabatt has an announcement to make this weekend. Something about tons of free book offers in the 12 days before Christmas. It may be in your best interest to follow his blog over the next couple of weeeks 😉 . UPDATE: here’s the link to Shaun’s announcement.

Reasons for Christmas

~ fundyreformed ~ 7 Comments

Today during the Sunday sermon, I was reminded of some of the explicit reasons given for Christmas in 1 John. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. So reasons given for Jesus coming into the world, are reasons for Christmas.

As we all celebrate Christmas, and I hope you really celebrate Jesus this Christmas. The reasons given below for Jesus’ incarnation (his taking on human flesh and being born in the manger), should help us reflect on the wonder that Jesus did come. And they should help us to prize the Cross and Resurrection as we rejoice over the babe in the manger.

…[Jesus] appeared to take away sins… (1 John 3:5)

…The Reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (3:8)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4:9-10)

…the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (4:14)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true… (5:20)