The Choice Is Yours!  Stress Or Joy?  Christmas really can be a stressful time.  It does not have to be and it shouldn’t be, but it often is.  We love the parties, presents and preparations, but we also have a tendency to allow these along with the other challenges of life to take us off track and out of God’s will.

Christmas can and will bring frustration if you allow it to and you will allow it to, if you focus on the wrong things.  It is so easy to get focused on the wrong things.  It is very important that we remember what really matters and what really matters is that there is a God and He loves us and He has a plan for our lives.

God wants our lives to be filled with JOY!  Christmas is about how much God loves this world and the people in it!  John 3:16 says “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life!”   Joy is about so much more than happiness.  Happiness has to do with what happens to you and can change according to circumstances.  Joy is an inner sense of well-being that abides even when the circumstances of life are unfavorable.

If you want to have and to keep joy in your life, then you must receive Jesus.  You must allow Him to reign and call the shots.   And you must be willing to change the direction of your life.  There is joy for this world, because the Lord has come, so let earth receive her King!

One of the things that I really love about Christmas is gifts. I love to give and I love to receive.  I honestly think that I enjoy the giving part as much, if not more than the receiving part.  A beautiful gift that comes through the gift of Jesus is God’s grace and it is amazing!  God wants to bless us with His “unmerited favor”.  We can’t earn it and we don’t deserve it, but He offers it to us!

Grace to be best understood, has to be experienced. I agree with John Newton, I am a wretch!  “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost, but now I am found.  Was blind, but now I see!”

Blown Away! The fact that God would love me enough to give His Son as a sacrifice for my sins.  The reality that God forgives me for all of my sin and holds nothing against me.  The opportunity to serve Him in ministry with gifts that He has provided to represent and bless.  It is all possible, only by the grace of God!

2 Corinthians 12:9 says: “God’s grace is sufficient.  God’s power is perfected in weakness, therefore I will boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

God’s grace is sufficient! He sees our arrogance and loves us anyway.  He is aware of our faults and short-comings, but makes the choice to see us as holy.  He is hurt by our sinfulness, yet is always ready, willing and able to love us without condition!

God Love Is Bigger Than Our Sin! God does not allow sin to chase Him away, instead it causes Him to chase after us!  God has made the choice to pursue us.  This is what Christmas is all about.  God’s gift of an intentional pursuit of a real, personal, meaningful relationship with each of us.

God loves you!  Enjoy the gift of His love!

It’s great to be back from a little blog break!  I figured that since everyone else was going to be taking breaks that I might as well take one and I enjoyed it, but missed getting to talk to you guys or ya’ll for those of us in the south.

We just finished up our month of Thanksgiving and now we are headed full steam ahead into Christmas.  How many of you already have the decoration thing going?  I love Christmas!  I love the lights – I even “redneck” up my truck with lights.  I love the music – one of my favorites is “Mele Kalikimaka!” by Bing Crosby And The Andrew Sisters.  Here are the words:  “Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day.  That’s the island greeting that we send to you – From the land where palm trees sway.  Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright.  The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night.   Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way To say “Merry Christmas to you.”  And I love presents!  I love to give them and receive them!

As we head into this season of hustle and bustle, let’s all make sure to remember and remind each other of what really makes Christmas special and that is the gift of God only Son to you and me!

To remind you of all of God’s goodness – enjoy the song and video from Youtube!