Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Day 2 Already!?!?

Hello friends!!

Did you start yesterday??? Did it occur to you that we would be talking about Christmas already??? I know that sounds funny--- but I didn't realize we would actually start talking about Christmas in early November. But I'm ready now! The shock is over and I'm ready to start working towards Christmas and the celebration of Jesus' birth.

Since today is officially day 2, let's jump in there ---

You know where they're talking about the Nativity scene??? And they say the wise men didn't come til 2 years later, so they're probably on like a distant coffee table?? This was the set-up in my house growing up!!! My mom had the wise men on a different piece of furniture because it would "take them longer to get there" Too funny!

What is the first mental image that comes into your head when you start thinking about Christmas? I want this to be the first part of the comments that you all leave to this post. Is it a memory, is it an idea, is it a picture??? What is it for you???

I love how at the end of this day's chapter they talk about how Jesus birth is the start of the celebration! Let's make this the start of our celebration of Him too. I loved how we shared scriptures that we could be praying for each other. I feel so close to you guys, especially you ladies that are far away, when I know how I can be praying for your hearts --- thanks for sharing! Anyway --- :) --- let's look for another scripture that describes Jesus in a way that feels close your heart right now. Since we are celebrating His birth, I'd love for us to share different verses that describe him and are special to us in this season of our lives.

So to recap --- Christmas mental image and Jesus scripture. Excited to hear from you all!!!

I made up a schedule of our reading, in Excel, because I am a little bit of a nerd. However I could not cut and paste it into our blog as easily as I thought, and quickly became discouraged. But the general idea is that we will read 6 days a week, and take Sundays off. This will put us finishing right at Christmas.

Hope you all are doing well! Have a great day!

4 comments:

  1. Ok, so I'll start :)

    My first thought about Christmas is the food. And not just that it's delicious, but there's so much thought that goes into it. We still make a soup that my Grandma used to make every year for Christmas eve. My mom makes things that she knows we love, because she loves us so much and wants to make it special. And the Starbucks holiday drinks just put me in a good mood. Mine's definitely food.

    My verse that really speaks to me about Jesus right now is in Colossians 1:15 --

    "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together."

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  2. at this very moment, my first thought about Christmas is how excited i am to be home with my family. only 32 more days. im so ready to bake with my mom, go shopping with my sister, go to movies with my little brother, laugh with my dad, spend time in coffee shops while it snows outside and i listen to christmas music. maybe im just ready to be home but the holiday season isn't the same being in another country. im ready to fly home.

    as for my verse...beth, this is so great, this verse has been one of the verses that has hung on my bathroom mirror in honduras, that i look at every morning and night. also, here is a paragraph that i read in a book recently that really spoke to me that i think goes with this verse...

    "He is creatively present 264 trillion miles from Earth on the Star Upsilon Andromedae, NO thought can contain Him, NO word can express Him. He transcends all human concepts, considerations and expectations. He is beyond-our-midst, and through in our midst still beyond anything we can intellectualize or imagine. Jesus Christ will ALWAYS be a scandal to the mirky, immodest, theory making of the intelligents because He cannot be comprehended by the rational scientific and finite mind." Brenden Manning

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  3. You know... the more i pray/think about this verse the more greatful I am for that last part. Where it says "in Him all things hold together" ----shouldn't that just be a relief for us??? I think I feel like sometimes it is my job to hold everything together, and that's so not the case! He's holding "it" all together....and we're in the "it"!!! :)

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  4. When I think of Christmas I immediately think of hope. As in right after Halloween the reality of Christmas begins to rush towards me. It is not yet Thanksgiving and already I am chomping at the bit to get the house ready and the tree decorated. I have this excited expectation for the Christmas season and all that it entails. The air getting colder, wreaths appearing on doors, wood-smoke curling from chimneys making everything smell like winter (which comes later in Virginia. . .;) Everyday my daughter asks, “Mommy, how many days until Christmas?”

    “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you . . .”

    1Peter 1:3-4

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