Happy New Year

From our home to yours, we send wishes for a Happy New Year. May you breathe deeply and step from the old into the new with a sense of joyous anticipation. We are most blessed who can wake each morning to fresh beginnings - to old things passed away and all things made new. Who can wake free from fear and worry, knowing there is One who loves us unconditionally and holds us tightly - close to His heart.

"I do not advise that we end the year on a somber note. The march, not the dirge, has ever been the music of Christianity. If we are good students in the school of life, there is much that the years have to teach us. But the Christian is more than a student, more than a philosopher. He is a believer, and the object of his faith makes the difference, the mighty difference. Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation."
A.W. Tozer - The Warfare of the Spirit

Happy New Year dear friends,
Linda

What Will We Do With Jesus?

"How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is give."

There is no question that He came, this wondrous gift. Reliable witnesses tell us Jesus lived on this earth over two thousand years ago.

For years He quietly worked at the trade his earthly father taught him. At the age of thirty, he put down His carpenter's tools and began His ministry as an itinerant preacher. He gathered a group of young men around Him and traveled the dusty roads healing, teaching, performing miracles, raising the dead.

All of that almost paled in comparison to the things He said. He declared that He was the Messiah - the Son of God. He had come to restore the relationship between God and man; to bring us the gift of eternal life.  It didn't sit well with the spiritual leaders of His day.

Three years into His ministry He was arrested on trumped up charges, tried and found guilty. They beat Him and hung Him on a cross between two thieves. His friends put His lifeless body in a borrowed tomb and mourned the loss of the One on whom they had hung all their hope.

Three days later He appeared to them. Witnesses tell of seeing Him, the scars of crucifixion still fresh on His hands and  feet and in His side. For forty days He once again walked this earth talking, forgiving, preparing. Then these same people watched in awe-struck wonder as He ascended into heaven with the angel's promise of His return ringing in their ears.

No, there is no question that He came. The question is what will we do with Him? Will we dismiss Him as a figment of the imagination of hundreds of witness? Will we, with a shrug of the shoulders, call Him as a good man - but just a bit delusional? Will we shake our heads and say He was truly the worst deceiver ever to have walked the face of the earth?

Or will we, with open hands and heart, believe He was who He said He was? Will we accept this most precious of gifts, given with more love than we can possibly comprehend?

"Unto us a Son is given." To us - to you and me. What will we do with the gift?

Praying this Christmas finds your heart filled with the wonder and love of a Savior who came to redeem us.

Blessings,
Linda

The Magnificat

"Oh how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For He took notice of His lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy
and He has done great things for me."

Thanking Him for the Gift He so lovingly gave to us all. 
Thanking Him for all of you, my precious friends. Words cannot adequately express the blessing you are to me. You are a precious gift.

With love,
Linda

His Plan

They were living in difficult times. The oppressive boot of Rome had come down heavily on Palestine. The people staggered beneath the weight of poverty and unjust taxation. To make matters worse, the Emperor, Caesar Augustus, had  issued a decree that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. Quite a proposal even for one who considered himself to be a god.

It would require everyone to travel to the city of his ancestors to register for a census that would enable Rome to tax them even further. For one young couple, it would mean traveling seventy miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem – a difficult journey under the best of circumstances, nearly impossible for a teenage girl only days away from giving birth to her first child.

What went through Joseph’s mind as he looked with tender eyes at his young fiancee? Did he question God’s timing in all of this? Did his mind reel with  imagined scenarios of what could go wrong? Suppose Mary’s labor begins on the road to Bethlehem? Suppose she has complications? How will I keep her safe?
Or did he remember the words of the prophet – words he had surely read:

“But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”  Micah 5:2

Please continue reading at Laced With Grace. Thank you so much kind friends.

Blessings,
Linda

Security

A few weeks ago one of our neighbors was robbed. Someone broke into their home, the place where they felt safe and secure, and stole some precious things. Suddenly nothing in our peaceful, quiet neighborhood was as it had been. Our sense of security was shaken. Ironically, gates were locked, doors shut tight and alarm systems armed - the very things we had put our trust in and the very things that failed to keep one of us safe.

I had been thinking about security and what it means when the unthinkable happened in an elementary school classroom. All the right security measures were in place, and they failed.

It is, I think, the nature of the world we live in. The things we put our trust in prove to be so inadequate. Inadequate to protect and inadequate to satisfy. There is only one who meets every need. He came into this fragile world and turned it all upside-down. It is in our vulnerability we find safety. It is in our weakness we find strength. It is in Him, and Him alone, we find the security we long for.

He came and nothing has ever been the same. He gathers us into arms that once stretched the length of a wooden cross-beam and holds us, and all that is most dear to us, in perfect safety. Evil may do its worst, but it cannot take away the security we have in Him. He is eternal life and hope and peace.

Blessings,
Linda

The little Santa is a Christmas decoration from my childhood. He is old and faded, but somehow he is quite lovely.

What Became of the Shepherds?

"That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. 'Don't be afraid!' he said. 'I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior - yes, the Messiah, the Lord - has been born today in Bethlehem, the City of David. And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.'
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others - the armies of heaven - praising God and saying,
'Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.'
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, 'Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.'
They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joesph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing Him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherd's story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them."
Luke 2: 8-20

There the story of the shepherds ends. What a story it is. Heaven itself opened up to these humble men and the glory of the Lord surrounded them. Surely their lives could never be the same.

I have thought about them - about what happened in the days following those miraculous encounters. The scriptures tell us they went back to their flocks, back to their ordinary lives. Did they wonder what would happen next? As the days slipped into weeks and eventually into years, and the images of that long ago night began to fade, did they begin to have nagging little questions and perhaps a bit of doubt? During the long lonely nights on the very same hillside, did their gaze shift heavenward hoping for a further sign? Did they long to hear news of the baby and His parents? Were they discouraged when it looked as though He had simply vanished?

Thirty years later, did word reach them about the young carpenter from Nazareth who said He was the Messiah? Did they hear of the miracles and did their hearts race at the news? Were they waiting expectantly for the Promised One to take His rightful place? Did their hearts break when news of His crucifixion reached their little town?

I wonder (I hope)if the news of His resurrection somehow reached them. If it did, did the vision of that long ago night burst into their hearts once again? Did they see, in their mind's eye, that little baby now become their Savior? Did they rejoice once again knowing the long wait was over; the promise was fulfilled? Fulfilled in a way they could not possibly have foreseen. How could they have known that the little baby they saw that long ago night would one day live in their hearts? It was even more glorious than they had imagined.

What does this story of the shepherds have for us? What would they like us to know and understand? Perhaps it is this:

Have you ever had a glorious word from the Lord, a promise that He spoke to your heart? Perhaps the promise of something you had prayed for with great urgency or a dream He birthed in your heart. Not only did you have that word, but it was confirmed in ways that could only be from Him. You believed and waited for the promise to take form.

Days slipped into weeks, weeks into years, and you began to doubt that you heard correctly. Discouragement filled your heart, and you thought the promise would never materialize. But remember...

The shepherds didn't know what had become of the baby. They didn't know that "...the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was on Him." (Luke 2: 40) While they waited, the promise was taking form. While they wondered when He would appear again, He was working at a carpenter's bench. When they grew discouraged, He stepped onto the stage and began the work His Father has sent Him to do.

While we wait, the Father is working. In His way and in His time, He will do what He has promised.

"Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise."

Hebrews 10:23

Blessings,

Linda

This one is from the archives.

The Light

The Light shone through the darkness
 Radiance in the form of tiny babe.
And darkness, cowering in the corners,
Tried its best to extinguish the Light,
Heart-rending cries of mothers
split the darkness;
Mourning the loss of innocence,
While the tiny spark lived on.

Darkness has its day,
Slithering out of corners,
Ever seeking to overtake,
But the Light shines still.
Darkness cowers in the radiance,
And our hearts find hope .