December 2012
God With Us Wrap it Up!
Your Holiday Guide to “Maintain, Don’t Gain”
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Contents columns on the cover 12
God With Us Health and Wellness
Feature 6 Special ‘Twas the Night
Before a Fashionable Suburban Christmas
7
Marriage Matters
8
Shepherd’s Staff
16 Your
Holiday Guide to “Maintain, Don’t Gain!
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A More Meaningful Christmas Christmas: A Time of Tremendous Joy & Unsurpassed Sorrow
Says 10 Dave Tips for Surviving
Christmas
Financially Emergency Fund
Fresh Finds Wrap it up!
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in every issue 4 22
From the Publisher Quips & Quotes
22 Ad Directory
Faith Under Fire Father of Lights
to Home 15 Close The Meaning of Christmas Feet 17 Beautiful Bring Joy to the Eldery this Christmas
Bits 19 Little How to
Make Your Own Ornaments
Finds 20 Fresh Gifts From the Kitchen
December 2012
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from the publisher
God With Us The most wonderful time of the year for this family is Christmas... and a trip to the Dollar Tree. They pick out a couple of things and, “it’s the best day ever!” As long as they get to shop and buy something it’s a great day. This year we are starting a new tradition, since the youngest is almost six, an Advent Calendar with activities and random acts of kindness during the Christmas season. It is so important to me that our girls understand that Christmas, God with us, is more than the Dollar Tree being the best day ever. God with us is a love so much for others that He became like us. I hope we see beyond the shopping, gift giving and giving there is a reality that God is with us. What exactly does that mean? Vladimir Berzonsky writes “The Meaning of Christmas” in this month’s issue. “Christ Jesus who, being in the nature of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men...”(Philippians 2:5) We will never comprehend this wonder. However, what we can comprehend is exactly this God is with us. God is with us when Christmas is hard because of the economy. God is with us when the hardest time of year comes around and we miss our loved ones we long to see again. God is with us when family members are oversees fighting for our country. God’s being ‘with’ us, His presence in us, is a dynamic presence. It is a presence with purpose. I hope you realize God with you this month as you read through this issue. We are reminded of the peace that only comes from God and the light we long for each year that shines brighter than our neighbor’s house. You can also find other types of peace and joy when you spend that extra time making ornaments with your kids and making candy treats for your friends. It just may make it their, “best day ever.” Merry Christmas from all us at Faith & Family. Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Ashley Foster
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.” Luke 1:39-55
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You are invited to attend a
presented by:
C
hristmas Musical
Barksdale Baptist Church Choir Dec. 9th at 6:00p.m.
directed by:
Bro. Rob Stockton
Barksdale Baptist Church
extends an invitation to everyone to join us for a
Christmaseve candle service Dec.24th at5:30p.m.
by Pastor Calvin Hubbard
December 2012
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special feature
‘Twas the Night Before a Fashionable Suburban Christmas Editor’s Note: Just for fun!
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. But not because they were all snuggled in beds. They were consumed by suburban lifestyles instead! Mom’s working Junior League; Daughter’s flirting with boys. I work all the time just to bankroll their toys. And little son, Billy, though only thirteen, is at basketball practice or he’ll be thrown off the team. But we all have our cell phones, and we’re doin’ alright. Hey, the wife just “texted” me....“No supper tonight!” When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter I ran to the window to see what was the matter. But it wasn’t ole Santa, just my surly teen daughter, Backing over the garbage in the Lexus I bought her. “Come clean it up, Daddy!” she said and was gone, With Britney Spears singing some trashy love song. Son’s back from practice, he’s up in his bed. Not studying I’m sure, playing X-Box instead. His grades are the worst. He’s not even trying. If he says he’s takin’ his Ritalin, he’s lyin’! The wife’s on a tennis team, bunko and fitness. When not lunching at Char, she keeps coattails in business. She puts 8000 miles on her Land Rover each week, And is thinking about opening a Chi Chi boutique. (Which
means we’ll have to move to Eastover, I think.) The moon on the crest of the new fallen snow Gave a luster of midday to objects below. But then I saw something was deceiving my sight, No Snow—We had just gotten “Rolled” last night. (Besides no Christmas Snow here, since the War, am I right?) When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, Santa had come, he was never too late. (But he couldn’t use the chimney ‘cause the gas logs are fake.) So I opened the door or he’d set off the alarm. And those Wackenhut guys would sure do him harm. He was dressed all in fur. He was big, red and grand! And a large empty sack he held tight in his hand... “No more toys for you, my over worked friend. How you survive I cannot comprehend. You spend all your money and you have no more time. By three years of age your kids socially climbed. Everyone in your family has a cellular device. And your daughter’s closet looks like Maison Weiss. You never eat dinner with the family together. The mini skirt your ten year old wears is black leather. Your son is a hood and he’s flunking in school. They hate going to church ‘cause the preacher’s not cool.
You have five cars when some don’t have any. And seven TV’s in one house is too many!” The jolly ole elf had a grand plan tonight. A way for our family to get back our life! “I’m bringing the greatest gift of them all. A big sack to haul all this stuff back to the mall!” I’ll haul off a sleigh full, then hand off another. I’m going to force you to TALK TO EACH OTHER!” Then he spoke not a word but went straight to his work. He took CD’s and TV’s and turned with a jerk... Gone Two; Gone iPod; Gone Dell and Hitaci; Gone Hammacher Sclemmer, Horcow and Versace! And, of the next part I could never be sure, But I swear he took all the wife’s Juicy Couture. From the back of our porch to the front of our hall He took away, took away, took away all. And then before my incredulous eyes, He took all my camouflaged hunting supplies! He filed his big sack with a satisfied pose, And with all of our junk, up the chimney he rose. Then sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a call The poor reindeer all strained just to take off with it all. But I heard him exclaim, ere he rode out of sight, I’ve got all your stuff, but it will be alright.” A family was made to live with each other Not frantically racing around “texting” their mother. Needless to say my whole family FREAKED! “Where are all our precious electronics,” they shrieked. “What will my friends say? I’ll be an outcast!” The wife said the whole town would think us “low class”. So Santa’s idea was not quite a winner, But I said, we can discuss it and we sat down...to DINNER! And for the first time in decades, I felt alright. HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT! - Dr. John Cox is a clinical psychologist. Visit the webpage for Dr. Cox’s book at www.thebigpicture.com
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MarriageMatters
A More Meaningful Christmas The holidays are here and I don’t know about you but I want this year to be so meaningful. I don’t want to look back on the holidays and be sad to think that we spent such li�le �me focusing on the real reason we celebrate. Why do we celebrate? The world has taken the meaning from us and it is up to us to place it back in the center of our holidays. In Luke 1:32, the angel has appeared to Mary and is telling her that she will conceive and give birth to Jesus. Look at what the angel said...” He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” That is why we celebrate! God loved us enough to send us Jesus so we could have life everlas�ng, hope and a love that endures forever. How can we incorporate that good news into our Christmas fes�vi�es: 1. SLOW down and give the family �me to recognize why we celebrate. I was with my granddaughter a few weeks ago. I am certain her parents rehearsed this with her, but she asked me, “DeeDee, do you know why I exist?” I was immediately ready to respond. I said, “Morgan Lily, you exist for me to love you forever and ever.” She
said, “No, DeeDee, I exist to glorify God!” How is that for a 4 year old pu�ng you in your place? We all tend to forget that our reason for being here and our reason for Christmas are to rejoice and thank God for his incredible gi� of Jesus. Before you open presents, talk about the greatest gi� we have been given. Pray and specifically thank God for his gi� to us. Don’t neglect the most important aspect of Christmas. 2. LOVE is the center of the Christmas celebra�on. Giving gi�s has taken precedence over love. We tend to show our love by giving gi�s to those we love, but what about making an effort to love on those you love and tell them how much they mean to you. A hug, a smile...those go a long way in the crazy chaos of Christmas. Gi�s will come and go but we hold on to words forever. Speak up this year.....allow the sweetest, most important words to come out of your mouth!!! 3. Last, emphasize the HOPE we have as Chris�ans. The world is depressing and unpredictable, but our eternal home is very secure. As you sit around the Christmas table this year, stop and share what you hope will happen to those that sit around your table. Be an encourager and let each other know how they can pray for one
another and the hope we have because we do not walk alone. God delights in hearing our hearts and he is always there to listen. The sweetest moments in my life have been hearing those that love me, pray over me. Give that gi� this year! You only have one chance to change THIS Christmas! Do not miss the opportunity to be sure we are celebra�ng the real reason for the season. Enjoy every song, every light, every meal, every gi�...but be sure you realize there is so much more to give!!!! How blessed we are that God looked down and loved us so much that he would send a baby into this world that would change lives!!!! I exist to glorify God...do you? Have a blessed and MEANINGFUL Christmas!!!!
Steve & Debbie Wilson
www.marriagemattersnow.com
318-455-4219
SBFaithandFamily@gmail.com
December 2012
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Christmas
A Time of Tremendous Joy and Unsurpassed Sorrow
A
t times the most joyous occasions can have the most heartfelt distress and grief tied to them. As a boy growing up in a middle-class world, I remember times that excited my heart with joy, but the real reason I remember is because it brought that “bring me back to reality” dose of life. Oh yes, the fun, the fond memories, the experience of sheer joy are so cherished by us all and I know we all try to cover the not so good with the good. We can all relate this time of year to those who so fondly remember happy times with loved ones so long ago or even more recently and yet, they have to deal with the reality of not having them here with them anymore. I pray that the joy and the precious memories won’t be overshadowed by the loss and that those memories will carry each of you to a place of peace and joy that only God can give you.
I was at service not so long ago when the question was asked “What is the definition of peace?” Well, I was ready because I had seen a church sign just the week before that said “Peace is not the absence of problems in your life but rather the presence of God”. I had never thought of it that way, but it spoke volumes! The presence of God, what does that really mean? How can that knowledge help us? How can it come about in our lives? When God came to this earth in the form of a baby born in Bethlehem, He brought the ultimate peace to mankind. Could it be that on that joyous night, the happiness in His mother’s heart was tempered with the knowledge that He must pay the ultimate sacrifice for her and all who need Him as Savior. The mere mention of His precious name brought peace on that night and today it brings peace in the hearts of men. Sometimes we see it work the other way, as we face struggles and strife in our lives, He brings peace in the midst of our storm. As I sat at my mother’s funeral ten years ago, I took solace in knowing He was there with me and that true peace came with His presence. So, during this Christmas season let it be known that peace came at Christmas. The peace that the world cannot give. The peace that can only come when you have the right relationship with Christ. Jesus said, ”Peace I give you” and peace came at Christmas! Rob Stockton Associate Pastor of Pastoral Ministries & Minister of Music
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Dave
Says... Financial Straight Talk with Dave
Ramsey
Tips for Surviving Christmas Financially 1. Remember it’s in December every yeardon’t let it sneak up on you. Start planning in February by putting back little bit aside each month to cover Question: the cost of gifts. Mike asks if he can spend 2. Make a list of everyone you his baby emergency fund on are buying a gift for and put a Christmas if he knows he can dollar amount by every name. replace it in January. Total it at the bottom. This is your Christmas budget. The people in the mall have a plan Dave Ramsey’s advice: Absolutely not. Don’t have to get your money get a game your family down to nothing. plan for your shopping so you That would be financial can keep some money. There suicide. If it’s the only money is no excuse for financing you have and you use a little Christmas. bit for Christmas, that’s 3. Pay cash put the total from fine. But using all of it opens your budget in an envelope the door to disaster. If you and when the cash is gone need some extra money for stop spending. This will help Christmas, work an extra job keep you on budget because if you overspend on Aunt Sue, Uncle Harry won’t get a gift. 4. Sixty-nine percent of American’s bought a gift for themselves last year. DON’T BUY YOURSELF A GIFT! This is the season to give not to receive from yourself.
Emergency Fund
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ights of ather F L
Why do you think we are obsessed with lights? Stores and malls deck their halls with lavish illuminated displays, ensuring that customers are drawn in to spend holiday cash or max out their credit cards. And homeowners spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars outfitting their dwellings with suits of light. Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas lights! In fact, I would have fairy lights strung on every tree and house all year ‘round. Could it be that we – as humans and believers - are drawn to the light because HE is light? Being made in His image, our spirits simply seek the primal spring. So walk with me through this short list of Scriptures (there are many more). Imagine every verse as one light along an endless string that God plugged in long before you were born. They will still be shining brightly throughout eternity. No batteries needed! Genesis 1:3-4 Then God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. [God’s first words brought light into our physical world. The light source was Himself.] Ex 13:21 The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. Luke 2:28-32 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now
The American Rose Center Chapel
dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Mt 17:2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. John 3:19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” Eph 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light. Col 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. I John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
Christmas in Roseland runs Friday, Saturday, Sunday through December 23 from 5:30-10:00 p.m. Lighted displays, Christmas Cards to the Community, photos with Santa, the Roseland Express Train, and Friday Family Fun Nights. www.christmasinroseland.org
Rev. 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. Rev. 22:5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. [The light source is still the glory of the Godhead.] If you want to add pure, holy light to your Christmas celebration, light a candle in the night. Read these Scriptures aloud and watch how darkness of every kind flees. Or, take them and spend some time in the Rose Center Chapel meditating and thanking God for His Light and Love. Merry CHRISTmas, my dear readers!
Dianne B. Howell
Shreveport, LA
Every Tuesday and Thursday 9:00am-2:00pm
Barksdale Baptist Church December 2012
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God With Us F
or many of us, the songs and hymns of Christmas hold a very special place in our heart. They make us think of our children, late night services, nativity scenes and, especially, Christmas morning! A lot of the music written about the holiday season does not contain theological considerations, however, much of the music does speak to us about the miracle of Christmas – God is with us!
“Today doth Bethlehem receive Him Who sitteth with the Father for ever”. This was not the first birth of the One “who lay in a manger.” First He was begotten of His Father “before all ages” as God; moreover He was begotten of the Father alone, without His Mother. In Bethlehem He was born as men are born, but in contrast to all the sons of earth He was born of His Mother alone, without an earthly father. Having proclaimed “Christ is born!” we as the faithful are called upon to praise
“...the Son who was born of the Father In this article we will explore some of the Before all ages, and in this latter day ancient lyrics that early Christians sang as Was made incarnate of the Virgin they worshipped the birth of our Lord, God Without seed; Christ our God”. and Savior Jesus Christ. It is through song that our traditions are often carried from The feeling of the human mind’s one generation to the next. So, let us begin powerlessness to comprehend this union of by declaring: Divine majesty and human insignificance, this glorious mystery, is before us. A dark “Christ is born! Glorify Him! cave had replaced the resplendent heavens; Christ descends from the heavens, the earthly Virgin had taken the place of welcome Him! the Cherubim as the “throne” of the Lord Christ is now on earth, O be jubilant! of Glory; a little manger had become the Sing to the Lord, the whole earth, receptacle of the omnipresent God Who And sing praises to Him with joy, O ye could never be contained in space: people, For He has been exalted!” “I behold a strange but very glorious mystery: The Church does not limit her vision to Heaven -- the cave; earthly happenings alone at Christmas. The throne of the Cherubim -- the Virgin. In hymns she contemplates the events of The manger -- the receptacle in which Christ’s life on earth from a dual perspective. Christ our God, Beyond the birth of a child in the poverty Whom nothing can contain, is lying”. of a obscure cave, beyond the laying of the infant in a manger instead of a child’s But nowhere does the attitude of reverence crib, beyond His poor mother’s anxiety and before this incomprehensible union of alarm over His fate, supermundane events things heavenly and earthly find a more emerge -- events which are outside this forceful expression than in the 6th century world’s natural order: Greek hymn-writer, St. Romanos Melodus.
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Every word in it is full of meaning and one brilliant image follows another: “Today the Virgin brings forth the Supersubstantial One And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One”. Mary gave birth but remained a virgin, and gave existence to the One who is above all that exists in the world. And in the cave the earth provided a sanctuary for the One whom, as a general rule, men may not even approach. Next, the second part of this song gives us two pictures of events which unfolded simultaneously and harmoniously on earth and in heaven. In heaven the angels glorify God in unison with the shepherds on earth, and the Wise Men move across the earth according to the direction taken by the heavenly star. The meaning of all this is that the Child whose life on earth was as yet only a few hours old is at the same time God, who existed before time itself and yet was born now for our salvation: “For our sakes, God, Who is before all the ages, is born a little Child”. What does the coming to earth of the Son of God really mean? Above all it means that people are illumined, that spiritual light is bestowed upon them. This idea is continually being put forward in our Christmas hymnody. One song for Christmas explains the basic meaning of the celebration: “Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, Has illumined the world like the Light of Wisdom”.
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God enlightens each of us in the way that is most accessible and understandable to the particular person. And when He wished to enlighten the Wise Men, whose custom it was to observe the stars and their movements, He sent them an unusual star which guided them to the Christ. “... They who worshipped the stars were through a star, Taught to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, And to know Thee, the Day-Spring from on high”. The star of Bethlehem gave the Wise Men an opportunity to see the rise of the Sun of Righteousness. But the light of Christ’s righteousness is not an earthly light. Its motion was not from out of the earth towards the firmament of heaven, but from above downwards. Shining high above the earth, it descended thereon from the heights of heaven and illumined the world with Divine light. It was the DaySpring from on high. And all who have sat in spiritual darkness and waited for the true light have, like the Wise Men, come to know this extraordinary Day-Spring of the Sun of Righteousness.
The gifts of grace in the Holy Mysteries which strengthen enfeebled humanity, cure men, and regenerate them to a Godlike life, were imparted by Christ in the final, culminating days of His earthly mission and are linked to His death on the cross and Resurrection. But these last things were prepared for by Christ’s entire earthly life from Bethlehem to Golgotha. The Coming of Christ was the beginning of the salvation of mankind. We, as believers, sing of Christ’s Nativity as the morning of men’s salvation, as the dawn after a long and anxious night -- the dawn with which the new, shining day in the life of the human race has already started. The triumphal hymn of the Feast of Christmas is the “Gloria” sung by the angels to the Shepherds, to herald the coming of the Messiah. “Glory in the Highest to God, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14).
According to the text of the second chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel the “good tidings” proclaimed by the angels was not a repetition from the heavens of things that were well-known before. The innumerable heavenly host, which appeared suddenly in the wake of the Angel who had stood before “Our Saviour hath visited us from on the shepherds of Bethlehem confirmed his high... “tidings of great joy, which shall be to all And we who were plunged in darkness people.” (Luke2:10). They also sang of the and shadows new, marvelous act of God’s goodwill, His Have found the truth, sending the Saviour to this earth. This was For the Lord hath been born of the the meaning of their good news: “Glory to Virgin”. God in the Highest; salvation had come to Christians address this prayer of praise a sinful earth with the birth of the Christ and thanksgiving to the Infant born in Child, the loving-kindness of God had descended upon men.” Bethlehem: The extraordinary and wondrous Birth from a Pure Virgin is one of the fundamental “Glory and praise to the One born themes of Christmas hymnody. The Eternal on earth Who hath divinized earthly One entered into the womb of His creation. human nature.” How can this be?
“The fire of the Godhead scorched not the Virgin, When He entered into Her womb”. Despite the birth of Christ, Mary was preserved a virgin like the Burning Bush on Mt. Sinai that was not consumed but remained in flames. In the Scriptures we see her maternal love. Her tenderness as a mother toward Her wondrous Infant Child, whom as Her son She held in Her arms at Her breast, but before whom She bowed in worship as before “the Son of the Highest.” Like the contemporary song, ‘Mary Did You Know,’ the ancient Church sang a similar song: “O my child, child of sweetness, How is it that I hold Thee, Almighty? And how that I feed Thee, Who givest bread to all men? How is it that I swaddle Thee, Who with the clouds encompasseth the whole earth”. She who “knew not a man” and yet gave birth to the Incorporeal God is at once mother and virgin. Paradise is now once again opened to us. If sin entered the world through Eve, it is also through the New Eve (the Mother of our God) that victory over sin has come into the world. This truth likewise summons us to sing: “Let us glorify in song the true GodBearer Through who sinners have been reconciled with God”. Mary represents the point at which the Godhead came into direct contact with Old Testament humanity. She is in this respect the living symbol of all the triumphant joy of Christmas, which is the celebration of God’s reestablished union with men. God, who had driven our forefathers out continued on pg. 19
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The Meaning of Christmas “The Source of life and of Salvation from despair and the condition for the existence of the whole world is contained in only these three words: ‘The Word became Flesh’ [John 1:14]” (Feodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed drafts)
T
he question, “What does Christmas mean?” has as many answers as people in our society. Opportunity for merchants, vacation days for school children, parties and exchange of gifts even for non-Christians, since it has become a national holiday even in a nation that forbids official recognition. All including Christians, define the event by their own understanding, and by doing so limit the meaning of Christmas. There can be no definition, because the birth of the Son of God transcends every attempt to explain the inexplicable or comprehend the incomprehensible. We can only thank the Holy Trinity for the nativity of the Messiah and celebrate His life on earth.
to the inexplicable event without even trying to elucidate the wonder. “Heaven and earth join in celebration... Wise men and shepherds welcome Him... Angels and humans sing with joy...” The glorious hymn of laudation: “God is with us!” requires an explanation, because that phrase has been misused, wrongly applied and abused by some Christians through the ages. What it does not mean is that God endorses a nation or purpose against His other children.
Gott mit uns, for example, was a battle cry of Nazi Germany equal to the present day war shout of radical Muslims: Allahu akhbar! as those flying Christmas is a mystery, a glorious event into the Twin Towers yelled. “With us” is in history, the awesome phenomenon the joyous awareness of the awesome when “Christ Jesus Who, being in the mystery that Creator became Creature, very nature of God, did not consider it the Eternal condescended to human limits robbery to be equal with God, but made including death, love beyond all human Himself of no reputation, taking the form comprehension has manifested itself in of a bond-servant and coming in the Christ Jesus the Son of God Who became likeness of men...” (Philippians 2:5). The the Son of Man for our sake. kenotic condescension of the Holy Trinity Christ appears on earth as the most expressed by the evangelist John, “The Word became flesh,” can only be explained precious Gift that we cannot hope to by the word “love.” Such a divine love for recompense, certainly never earn or human beings transcends the ability to comprehend. Why does God love us grasp with our limited capacity, which is so much, and how can we repay Him? why the church services for this season, Nobody, not even the Lord Almighty, filled with joy, wonder and gratitude, point offers gifts without expecting something
in return. We know there is nothing we have as our own except the present of freedom. We are not robots, and even if “our days are like grass...” (Psalm 103:15), nevertheless, in our brief life span we have time to consider the gift of life and the Source of life. We can come to the realization that this lifetime may be short, but the promise of the gift of eternity is part of the reason for the incarnation of the Son of God. Salvation is Christ’s purpose for His birth. Christ is life, and yet He died so that we might share eternal life with Him. Yet another mystery. He offers us life everlasting, but He does not insist we accept it—or Him. He “stands at the door and knocks,” but it is for us to open to Him or leave Him outside. Such respect is almost too much; however, He treats us with a freedom that we feel we do not deserve or that we may not appreciate. We throw away our freedom with excess of passions, with some form of addiction to drugs, alcohol, overindulgence, wallowing in despair or foolish behavior—and Jesus remains standing outside the door of our heart, patiently waiting to be invited inside. How can He love us that much?
Vladimir Berzonsky
December 2012
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Health and Wellness
Your Holiday Guide to “Maintain, Don’t Gain” Thanksgiving has come and gone, you are trying to convince yourself that you are ʻstillʼ bloated from Thanksgiving dinner. Itʼs just water weight, or the dryer must be shrinking your clothes. Unfortunately, the culprit is splurging on Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers. The countdown to Christmas and the New Year has begun. Soon you will be gathering for parties and tempted by food everywhere!
Many studies show the average holiday weight gain is from 5 to 10 pounds. The goal should be to stay within two to three pounds of your starting weight during these tough weeks. If you want to improve your physical, mental health and well-being, “Maintain, Donʼt Gain” can help you set and achieve meaningful goals. See tips and guidelines below.
Holiday Party Pointers • Plan ahead; eat light during other meals to balance the calories. • Bring a friend along to help hold you accountable. • Drink water throughout the day and a glass before the party. This will help you to feel full. • Get away from the buffet table! • Keep a journal of all you have eaten so you know where you stand before the party. You don’t realize how fast those snacks add up.
Holiday Shopping and Exercise Tips • Try to do at least 30 minutes of exercise �rst thing in the morning. • Have a Wii-�t or Just Dance marathon • Keep up with your current workout program. • Park far away from the mall entrance to add more steps. • Go shopping after you eat, the extra steps will help burn calories. • Weigh in often so that you can keep better track of how you’re doing. Scales never lie. • If going shopping plan to have lunch at home. When you eat out the calories are usually 600-900 more than you thought.
Enjoy your holiday season! You do not want to spend the month worried about what you eat, however, you donʼt want the pounds to sneak up either. Keep in mind - everything in moderation- and you will do just fine.
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Bring Joy to the Elderly This Christmas T
he Christmas season is a time of fellowship and fun festivities. However, for many it can feel like the loneliest time of the year. A group often overlooked but in need of holiday cheer is the elderly. The scripture tells us in Matthew 25:40, “The King will rely, “Truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Find out how you can donate your time or services to the elderly this Christmas, and know you are also serving the Lord. Many of the residents at Nursing Homes and retirement centers do not have family nearby or family at all. Whether it’s your own elderly family members, a neighbor, a stranger in an assisted living community or a shut-in, make time this season to bring joy to someone’s day. Just a simple act of kindness could change someone’s holiday.
How to Help at Assisted Living Communities:
• Help residents wrap and send gifts and send Christmas cards. • Decorate rooms/apartments and the hallways for the holidays. • Bring your children to spread some cheer. • Carolers are always welcome. • Bring a school or church group to do a festive program for residents. • Volunteer to help at parties within the community. • Help residents send e-mails to family. • Volunteer to visit and make cookies with residents. How to Help a Shut-In: • Many elders would just enjoy conversing with others, and you stopping by just to chat can make their day. • If you and your family are attending a holiday
Little Bits
musical production or driving around your neighborhood to look at Christmas lights, offer to pick them up to go with you. • While cooking for your family, make an extra plate to deliver. Get the kids involved by having them decorate cookies to take as well. • Many elders would love to have their home decorated with lights and a tree for Christmas, but physical limitations keep them from it. Help by offering to assist them in decorating their house, but please remember to help take down decorations after the holidays. • The best place to find out how to help shutins and who they are in your community is to check with a local church or ministry. • A great gift to deliver is a gift basket. Ideas for what to include might be fresh fruit, hot cider packets, crossword puzzles and a good book or devotional.
How to Make your own Ornaments
Not fond of the expensive store bought ornaments this year? Start a new tradition with your children by making salt dough ornaments. This is super easy an only requires a few ingredients and cookie cutters. Want your house to smell like Christmas? Add Cinnamon to your dough and Your whole house will smell once you hang these ornaments.
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Put 1/2 cup table salt, 1/2 cup water, and 1 cup allpurpose flour into a mixer, and blend together until a sticky dough forms. If you want to experiment with color, you can substitute 1/2 cup of dark tea or coffee for the water. Make sure all of the flour is incorporated. Take the dough out, and knead for 7 to 10 minutes on a well-floured surface. Once it feels smooth and elastic, you are ready to start making ornaments. This amount of dough was enough
to make sixteen ornaments. The recipe can easily be doubled, but be sure to keep any dough you are not using wrapped in plastic wrap, and work quickly – salt dough does not like to sit. Salt dough is extremely flexible and forgiving, so you can make o r n a m e n t s from it in a variety of ways. I roll it out like sugar cookie dough until it is about 1/4” thick, and then use your favorite cookie cutters – a gnome and some snowflakes – to make a variety of shapes.
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Once the ornaments are formed, poke them with a bamboo skewer to make holes to hang them from Once you have the holes in, it is time to pop them in the oven. Essentially, you want to dry out all of the moisture in them, so they go in a 200 degree oven for 4-6 hours – you can even leave them in overnight. Once they are hardened, take them out and let them cool completely.
One of the lovely things about these ornaments is that they can be finished in a variety of ways – they take kindly to paints and pens of all sort. If you want your ornaments to last years and years, coat them with 34 very thin coats of polyurethane gloss varnish. Make sure to cover every exposed surface.
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continued from pg. 13 of Paradise, had set them far apart from Himself. Now, with the birth of Christ, He has again come to men, just as He once came to them in Paradise. It has become possible again for men to be in communion with God. The barrier between, Heaven and earth has fallen and so we sing along with Adam and Eve: “The wall of partition is destroyed, The flaming sword is dropped, The Cherubim withdraw from the Tree of Life, And I partake of the fruits of Paradise, Whence, for my disobedience, I was driven forth”. The underlying feeling of Christmas is one of peace. This is a result of the reconciliation and new unity between heaven and earth: “Heaven and earth now are united through Christ’s Birth! Now is God come down to earth And man arisen to the heaven”. This unity is the source of general exultation -- a note which resounds vigorously in the Christmas hymnody: “Today Christ is born in Bethlehem of the Virgin. Today He who is without a beginning begins, And the Word is made flesh. The powers of Heaven rejoice, The earth and her people are jubilant; The Wise Men bring gifts to the Lord, The shepherds marvel at the One who is born; And we sing without ceasing: “Glory to God in the Highest, And on earth peace, (God’s) good will toward men”.
There is one solitary note, however, which breaks into these hymns of general rejoicing like a forewarning of future lamentations. The Wise Men came to worship the Incarnate God and devotedly offered Him their gifts -- gold, because He is the King of ages; frankincense, because He is the God of all men; but then they also brought Him myrrh, with which the Jews were accustomed to anoint their dead, because He was to “lie three days in death.” The heart of the Mary must have been seized by a premonition of that which awaited the innocent Child who was sleeping peacefully in the manger. This minor note of sadness is drowned, however, in the general chorus of exultation. Heaven and earth rejoice together and this does not mean simply that the angels’ singing harmonises with that of the shepherds. The Church does not even view so-called “inanimate nature” as indifferent to the higher world. The Creator has willed the existence of a special link between them. At an earlier time man’s sinfulness had brought general disorder into nature, but now all nature leaps for joy, rejoicing at the overcoming of this sin:
and spoken with men. There have been many subsequent attempts to obscure the pure silver light of the Star of Bethlehem in human consciousness. But the centuries of the Christian era have not passed by in vain. And if the Christmas hymns continue to resound each year in churches scattered all over the world and to be sung as they were sung many hundreds of years ago by the grandfathers and forbears of the present generation, this means that the light shed by the Christmas Star is deeply rooted in human hearts and shines on in them undimmed with the knowledge that God is with us! May you and yours enjoy a very Merry Christmas! Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
“Today the whole creation rejoices and is jubilant, For Christ is born of the Virgin”. In the Christmas hymnody the Star is not merely the voice which made known to the world the Saviour’s appearance. It is also a sign, a symbol of this appearance, just as the Cross is the symbol of victory over the forces of darkness. Then, too, the Star is a symbol of Christ Himself, “the Star which rose from Jacob”. For more than 19 centuries Christ has been shining down upon mankind as a guiding star, not as a myth or mirage, but as the living God, who has been on earth
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Gifts from the Kitchen
The holiday season would not be the same without decadent candies, cookies and sweet breads. Homemade goodies for gift giving do not take much time. Plan a cooking day with your family member to prepare these treats.
REINDEER COOKIES Flip a gingerbread down for a reindeer!
man upside
You can start homemade gingerbread or you can purchase the pre-mixed dough at your local grocery store. Once you have rolled out your dough take a gingerbread man cookie cutter and cut out the gingerbread men, the bake according to the instructions. Once they are baked and cooked, you are ready to create your reindeer cookies. To make a reindeer, turn a gingerbread man upside down. Add face, ears, and antlers with icing, gumdrops, red hots are any other type candy.
SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH DIP Sugar cookies just got a whole lot better – in dip form! Use a packaged sugar cookie mix as a shortcut to whip up a batch of sugar cookie dough dip. Great with pretzels, graham crackers, or... cookies! Recipe can be scaled up or down – just keep the same 3-2-1 ratio of ingredients. Prep time: 5 minutes. Cook time: N/A
3 cups sugar cookie mix 2 cups plain yogurt 1 cup Cool Whip 1. In a large mixing bowl, stir the sugar cookie mix, yogurt, and Cool Whip with a wire whisk until smooth. 2. Store in an airtight container until serving.
SANTA HAT PRETZELS Mini Twist Pretzels White Chocolate Almond Bark Red Sanding Sugar Mini Marshmallows 1. Melt the white chocolate almond bark according to the directions on the package. 2. Dip each mini twist pretzel halfway into the melted white chocolate almond bark. 3. Dip each almond bark covered pretzel into the red sanding sugar until only a small amount of the almond bark is showing. Place on waxed paper. 4. Cut the mini marshmallows in half. Use additional melted almond bark to adhere a mini marshmallow half onto the side of each pretzel. Allow time for the almond bark to set.
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Wrap it Up!
Presentation is everything! If you are like me you have given birthday gifts in Target bags. Help make your gift this year beautiful on the inside & out. Here are a few tips. GIFT WRAP WITH A CHALKBOARD LOOK Start with Black Shadow Stripe Kraft Gift Wrap. It looks just like a chalkboard. Use a regular pencil to sketch out your design then trace over it with chalk marker. Finish the gift with Burlap Twine.
PHOTO GIFT TAG Have some extra Christmas Cards? Use these as a Gift Tag.
SIMPLE WRAP This is too simple to skip! Wrap your gift with butcher block paper and stamp away with Alphabet stamps. Tie a thin ribbon around the gift and you are finished.
WAX PAPER BOW Take four sheets of wax paper and cut roughly into 12x12 squares. Layer on top of each other and then fold back and forth like a fan and then tie in the center with a bit of twine. Decide what size you want the bow to be and then trip the ends accordlingly. Then, gently start to pull apart the different layers of the flowers. Fluff it up to your liking and then use some glue to sports to affix to your package.
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Wise Words
Quips and Quotes It is Christmas Eve in Heaven; In the background, angels sing; ‘Round the Heavenly throne, Saints gather; One by one their gifts they bringHeavenly frankincense and myrrh Brought from Wise Men from afar; Hearts aglow with love and worship From Shepherds who first saw the star. Mem’ries of His prayers and teachings Shine through the apostles eyes As they pause to pay their tribute For His love-filled sacrifice. Mary’s smile greets all of them; “Rabboni!” cries the Magdalene, Kneeling now in rapturous worship Of the One who made her clean;
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Now comes Lazarus and his sisters, Belov’d by Christ in Bethany; Following them is Jericho’s blind man Whose faith in Christ caused him to see. All the Saints bow down in worshipHumble, thankful, full of praise; All the angels lift their voices As the Star extends its rays To the sin-filled world below, Reminding men of Love that can Point the way to Bethlehem, Point true paths of peace to man. It is Christmas Eve in Heaven; It is Christmas Eve on Earth; Let men bring their gifts in honor Of the Christ Child’s humble birth... Holy Virgin Mary draws the curtain Over years of memories, Pins it with the Star of Heaven; Bows once more in prayer for peace. -Shirley Robinson Flynn, Religious Christmas Stories for Children
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