The Immeasurable Love of Christ.

"...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God"

( Ephesians 3:17-19)

The love of Christ is immeasureable.

The breadth of His love extends to all people.

The length of His love extends to the lowest of our human need.

The height of His love extends to the highest heaven.

Christ's love for us covers all dimensions. The love He has for us surpasses all knowledge. His love for us transcends everything we can comprehend or imagine.

He loves us with an everlasting love. An unconditional love. A perfect love.

His love gives us roots to plant deep so we can be firmly grounded in Him.

Firmly grounded in His Word. Firmly grounded in His love. Firmly grounded in our faith.

He loves us with an indwelling love. He abides in us and gives us the ability to love others.

"We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)

Because of His love -

We keep His commandments.(1 John 5:2)

We love others. (1 John 4:7)

We have no fear. (1 John 4:18)

We are His children. (1 John 3:1)

Because of His love for us -

We can experience victory over sin and death through the shed blood of His precious Son.

I pray that during this time of year, we keep our focus on the baby in the manger. The birth of our Savior. The Christ-child.  I pray that we long to draw nearer to Him and yearn for the deeper things in Christ. May the love that God has for us, cause us to love more. May we keep the season all about the Son of God. Let's celebrate the gift of Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us.

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Father, thank you for loving me. Thank you for the unending, eternity reaching, unconditional love that you showed all mankind on the cross. Thank you for loving me when I am unloveable. Help me to love others. Help me to love like you love. Thank you precious Lord for loving me well. You are awesome and mighty and powerful. You are my everything. You are indeed the reason for the season.

CHRISTmas..... it's all about JESUS!

Do you have any empty boxes?

I sat in front of the tree on Christmas Eve night. The house was quiet. I was the only one still awake. And I started thinking... I looked at all our decorations from 24 years of collecting, the white lights all aglow. The blinking angel on top of the tree which quit blinking that night..Passels of presents under the tree wrapped and ready to be eagerly opened in the morning. The day that we so anxiously look forward to would soon be here and then as quick as it came it would be over.

All the list making, the cards we sent out, the shopping, the money spent, more shopping, the wrapping of presents, the stuffing of stockings, the christmas caroling. All the preparation of food and candy and cookies. All these things that preoccuppied our time and lives would soon be behind us.

We allow all this to raise our stress levels, tire ourselves out and spend more that we need to spend. We get so overwhelmed by it all that sometimes we are ready for it to be over before it even starts. That in itself is the saddest part of the whole thing.

We miss the reason we celebrate. We miss the immaculate conception. We miss the angel. We miss Mary and Joseph. We miss the star. We miss the shepherds and wise men. We miss the baby in the manger. We miss Jesus.

We put so much of ourselves into the "things" that we think make up Christmas, that we neglect the only thing that matters.

The birth of our Savior. Born in a stable in Bethlehem. Born to become King. Born to save us from our sins. Born to die. Born to rise. Born to come again. Hallelujah!

Now, it's the morning after Christmas and all that's left is remanents of paper, empty wallets, empty stockings, empty boxes.

Let's fill our boxes back up with praise, worship, giving, love, forgiveness and kindness. Let's keep our boxes full of Jesus so that we don't miss Him in our daily lives. Let's fill our hearts to overflowing with the love of Christ. Let's fill our boxes with gifts to lay at the feet of Jesus.

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, God with us" (Matthew 1:23)

Loving my Jesus,
Beth

Christmas memories

My precious girls - Melissa, Ashlie, Megan 2008

My sweet babies Christmas 1993

My sweet babies Christmas 1994

I love the Christmas season and I love the memories that are stored in my heart from when I was a little girl all the way up until now. When my 3 girls were growing up, my husband and I focused on creating memories for them. It was important to us that when they grew up and left home (which at the time seemed AGES away) they would be able to remember and relive, with fondness, the time they spent in our home. Those years have passed much too quickly and there are times when I wish we could go back and just have a "do-over" if you know what I mean.

Things started to change for us when Christmas 2002 rolled around. It was no longer just the 5 of us, but we had a new granddaughter in the mix. What a glorious addition to the family and what joy that precious little bundle brought to our household. But the Christmases of the past were forever changed. By the next year, there were only 4 of us around the tree on Christmas morning. Our oldest daughter, Megan, was at her own home with her husband and daughter beginning the process of making her own memories. By the time Christmas 2006 came around my youngest daughter, Ashlie,was newly married and beginning her own traditions in her own home, so we were a little family of 3 around our tree that year. Christmas morning is now very different than in the past. Our daughter Melissa, who is now 22, wants to sleep late on Christmas morning and the anticipation and excitement of it all just isn't the same. I don't have any little ones at home. I don't have 3 sweet little girls waking me up early to see what's under the tree. I don't have toys to put together Christmas Eve night after the girls have gone to bed. But I still have my memories.

When I asked my girls to tell me some things that really stood out in their minds about their childhood Christmases, not one of them mentioned anything about gifts and what they did or didn't get. Here were their memories:

1. Decorating the tree Thanksgiving weekend (until this year!)
2. Listening to Christmas music while we decorated the tree.
3. Drinking hot cocoa (made from a mix) while decorating. Melissa wanted to know one year "How else would you make it?"
4. Shaking the presents and trying to guess what was in the packages.
5. Opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve (always pajamas to wear that night).

6. Baking Christmas cookies with sprinkles and lots of icing.
7. Homemade cinnamon rolls Christmas morning.
8. Me always having to pour that first cup of coffee before we began opening gifts.
9. Their daddy handing out gifts one at a time. (We all had to watch each person open each gift...)
10. Reading the Christmas story out of Luke.
11. Having "ice-skating" contests in the living room in front of the tree while we listened to Christmas music. Poor Ashlie always had to win the bronze medal, because she was the baby and didn't care...
12. Laughing, fun, togetherness.

I miss those days, but I am proud of the young women that my girls have become. I am glad that through the Grace of my Lord, He equipped me and my husband to hand down to them the most precious gift of all. We taught our children from very early on about Jesus. We taught them the Word. We went to church as a family. We loved them. We cherished our times (good and not so good) together. We gave them roots.

So, even though there are no more "ice-skating" contests in front of the tree, no little girls begging to open "just one more present" before Christmas, no more happy squeals Christmas morning, I look forward to this time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. There is nothing that can bring us any more joy than Jesus. He is the greatest gift. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is truly the reason for the season. May I always keep my eyes on Him.

"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11,12)

In His Redemptive Grace,

Beth

A Way in the Manger

For the 1st time in 25 years my tree did NOT get put up and decorated Thanksgiving weekend as tradition dictates. I am not really sure what caused this lapse in my usually structured life, but I do know it has slightly reeked some havoc on the OCD tendencies inside of me. Since I missed that "window of opportunity" I now await the arrival of my middle daughter who is still in the midst of finals in Baton Rouge. I've gotten past the initial feeling of despair that came when I realized the magnitude of my error and now am focusing on the prevention of my hyperventilating as I try not to dwell on the fact that I have to move my love seat to another location to accomodate the tree. But that's another story...

As I think about Christmas and the birth of Jesus, I think about Mary. She was highly favored by God. She alone carried the Christ Child. She gave birth to the Savior of the world. I sometimes overlook the fact that Jesus was Mary's precious little baby! He was her pride and joy. That tiny newborn babe that she delivered brought hope to us all. With HIS birth was the birth of eternal life. He was Heaven's perfect lamb. I think about Mary kissing his glorious little face and that she was kissing the face of God. The Holy presence of God was in that tiny little manger in the form of a baby. Jesus.

Praise you Jesus for making a way in that manger for me. You are my deliverer, my God, my King. May I never put my focus anywhere else but on You.






"And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger" - Luke 2:7

In His Reedeming Love,

Beth