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December 25, 2025

    Christmas and The Cross 

    To incarnate, from which we get the word, incarnation, means: “to embody in flesh; invest with a bodily form.” From a Latin word meaning “to make into flesh.”

    Have you ever wondered what was going through Christ’s mind before Holy Spirit transformed Him into a microscopic seed and carried Him to the womb of a young girl? The Son of God was about to become human. Did He wonder how it would feel to no longer be omnipresent? Omniscient? Omnipotent? Did He wonder how physical pain would feel? Hunger? Thirst? Weariness? Cold? Heartache? Loss? 

    Christ knew He would have to swim in amniotic fluids, fight His way through a birth canal, be fed, be bathed, learn to crawl, develop balance and walking skills, form words, grow, and gain knowledge. For the first time, He would experience sleep, hunger, pain, scrapes, blisters, and callouses. He would enter the realm of time. He would bleed; He was breakable.

    One has to wonder if Jesus ever reconsidered the plan. Since He was “the Lamb slain” before we were even created (Revelation 13:8), I don’t suppose He did. Yet, just before Holy Spirit held Him and began the transformation, there must have been at least an emotional, “Here we go…I’m about to be human!” And then He was - there was no turning back.

    Numerous questions come to mind as I consider Christ’s humanness:

    • As a child, when did the first awareness of who He was begin to set in?

    • When did He first look up at a star-filled sky and think, I made that.

    • When did He first recall saying, “Let there be…”

    • When did the calculus of our solar system begin creeping back into His memory?

    • Did He ever have a nightmare?

    • When did He stop asking Mary questions and start explaining things to her?

    • Did His siblings wonder at His gifts, intellect?

    • Who was His best friend growing up?

    • What did His laugh sound like?

    • What was His favorite color…food? Was there any food - which He, of course, created - that He didn’t like?!

    • At what age did His carpentry skills begin superseding those of Joseph? Did they ever joke about it?

    • How old was He when Joseph died? Did He know it was coming? How did He deal with the pain?

    • How did He react the first time He saw a serpent…or first observed pride, cruelty, violence, or greed?

    • When He heard lightning, did He smile? (Luke 10:18)

    • And when did the love that motivated His humanness - the passion for His eternal bride - begin welling up in His chest?

    • As He fashioned wood in His carpenter shop, did He ever pause and gaze pensively toward a hill in Jerusalem?

    • Did He ever wince when He drove nails?

    We will never truly understand the ramifications, intricacies, and complexities of the incarnation. Merging the limitations of “humanness” with an infinite God simply can’t be computed by human brains. Indeed, Paul referenced Christ as God’s “indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). But it is healthy to ponder it, nonetheless. We must, in fact. It is imperative that we consider the cost to Christ. It’s essential that we wonder at such love, marvel at the plan, and stand in awe at its audacity.

    So today, take some time to reflect on it. Sing, or listen to Silent Night, Away In A Manger, O Holy Night, or your favorite Christmas carol, and consider the words. Recapture the wonder. Read the story again in Luke’s gospel. Close your eyes and try to envision Mary’s angelic visitation. Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes - how hard would it be to believe Mary’s story? No wonder He, too, needed a heavenly visitation. Envision the stars, the stable, the manger, the Christ-child. Then, converse with Abba and Jesus. Thank them…for Christmas, yes, but also for the Cross, the end of His earthly journey and the beginning of our salvation.

    Merry Christmas!

    [Today is our last Give Him 15 post until Monday, January 5. We provide our staff a break to spend time with their families from Christmas through the New Year. Blessings!]

    Click on the link below to watch the full video.


     
     

    December 24, 2025

      Holy Night, Indeed

      Here is some trivia for you. Do you have any guesses about what may have been the first song broadcast from space? The crew of Gemini 6 snuck bells and a harmonica onboard. On December 16, 1965, after reporting a “strange object” moving in the skies from north to south, they played a few lines of Jingle Bells. You can click here to hear the astronauts.(1)

      Have you ever wondered what the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was really about? “Though a host of modern internet sites and some magazine articles have tried to reduce ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ to little more than a silly Christmas carol, most scholars of the Catholic Church deem it a very important surviving example of a time when that denomination used codes to disguise their teachings in order to avoid persecution.

      They contend that it was “originally a poem written by Catholic clerics, and transformed into a carol at a time when celebrating the twelve days of Christmas was one of the most important holiday customs.”(2)

      The complete explanation of why each day’s “gift code” was chosen to represent the spiritual truth it pictures can be found through this link, but here is what each gift represented:(3)

      • The partridge in a pear tree represents Jesus.

      • Two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testaments.

      • Three French hens represent faith, hope, and love, and also the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

      • The four calling birds are the four gospels.

      • The five golden rings represent the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch.

      • Each egg of the six geese-a-laying is a day in creation when God “hatched” or formed the world.

      • Hidden in the seven swans-a-swimming are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (as the Catholics count them).

      • The eight maids-a-milking represent the eight Beatitudes (from Matthew 5:3-10).

      • Nine ladies dancing were the fruits of the Spirit.

      • Ten lords-a-leaping were code for the Ten Commandments.

      • The eleven pipers piping signify the eleven faithful disciples.

      • The twelve drummers drumming are the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed.

      From my research, it doesn’t appear that this explanation can be proven, though it does have many believers. And it’s so good I’m just gonna go with it!

      O Holy Night

      And then there is my all-time favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night.” Can there be more poignant words than these?

      “Long lay the world in sin and error pining,


      Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.


      A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,


      For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!”(4)

      And the moving third stanza, with the stirring words of love and freedom, reaches deep into the human soul. Here are the words of this wonderful song in their entirety, followed by a link to “The Nativity Story” with Josh Groban’s classic version of “O Holy Night.” Do yourself a favor: find a time when you can stop everything you’re doing, and both watch and listen to this five-minute video. It is NOT just him singing. You will be glad you did. This song will be today’s prayer and decree.

      O Holy Night

      “O holy night! The stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn! Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born! O night, O holy night, O night divine!

      Led by the light of faith serenely beaming, With glowing hearts by His cradle, we stand. So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here came the Wise Men from Orient land. The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our Friend. He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King, before Him lowly bend! Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

      Truly, He taught us to love one another; His law is love, and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, And in His name, all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we; Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!”(5)

      Click the link below to watch the full video.

       
       

      December 23, 2025

        The Unintended Christmas Carol 

        We are only a couple of days from Christmas. Many believers, like myself, are unhappy with much of the commercialization of Christmas. However, it is also true that there is no other time of year when Christ’s name and the glory of His birth fill the airwaves with such frequency. If we allow it, the season can be a great reset for us each year as we consider Christ’s great gift to us. As you listen to the Christmas Carols, here is some interesting information to consider about three of our favorites.

        Carol #1

        In 1719, Isaac Watts wrote what has been the most-published Christmas hymn in North America. However, it was not written as a Christmas carol but as a poem about the reigning King Jesus, based not on the birth of Christ, but on Psalm 98. “Stanza three…alludes to Genesis 3:17-19…speaks of Christ’s blessings extending victoriously over the realm of sin…Stanza four celebrates Christ’s rule over the nations…called to celebrate because God’s faithfulness to the house of Israel has brought salvation to the world.”(1) Here are the words to this famous hymn:

        Joy to the World

        “Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;


        Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, 

        And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.




        Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;


        While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains; 

        Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.



        No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;


        He comes to make His blessings flow, Far as the curse is found, 

        Far as, far as the curse is found.




        He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove


        The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love, 


        And wonders, wonders, of His love.”(2)

        Carol #2

        “Phillip Brooks was a distinguished man of faith and intellect. A Boston-born Episcopalian preacher, he’d earned a Doctorate of Divinity from the University of Oxford, taught at Yale University, and publicly advocated against slavery during the Civil War. But he’s best known for penning a famous Christmas carol after a life-changing journey.

        “In 1865, Brooks rode on horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, where he participated in the Church of the Nativity’s five-hour-long Christmas Eve celebration, complete with hymns. Returning home, this experience proved so profound that he channeled it into the song sung in churches to this day. Its first public performance was held three years after he wrote it, performed by the children’s choir of his church [The Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia] on December 27.”(3)

        Until then, this musical was still only a poem. Brooks asked his organist, Lewis Redner, to write the music. Here is Redner’s interesting explanation of how the music came to him:

        “As Christmas of 1868 approached, Mr. Brooks told me that he had written a simple little carol for the Christmas Sunday School service, and he asked me to write the tune to it. Mr. Brooks came to me on Friday and said, ‘Redner, have you ground out that music yet?’ I replied, ‘No,’ but that he should have it by Sunday. On the Saturday night previous, my brain was all confused about the tune. I thought more about my Sunday school lesson than I did about the music. But I was roused from sleep late in the night, hearing angelic music whispering in my ear, and seizing a piece of music paper, I jotted down the treble of the tune as we now have it, and on Sunday morning before going to church, I filled in the harmony. Neither Mr. Brooks nor I ever thought the carol or the music to it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868.”(4) How wrong they were!

        O Little Town of Bethlehem

        “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

        For Christ is born of Mary; and, gathered all above,while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond’ring love.O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,and praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.

        How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv’n!So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav’n.No ear may hear His coming but in this world of sin,where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

        O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!”(5)

        Carol #3

        Do you know what is the world’s most-recorded Christmas song, with more than 137,000 known recordings?(6)

        In 1818, “Father Joseph Mohr, in Austria, is preparing the music for [Christmas Eve] midnight mass and asks his friend Franz Gruber, a schoolteacher, to write a guitar accompaniment for a poem that he had written two years earlier. That night, the two men sang their brand new song at St. Nicholas church, and one of our best-loved Christmas carols was born. A version of the song recorded by Bing Crosby in 1935 sold a whopping 30 million copies.”(7)

        What prompted the song? “The words were written in 1816…not long after the Napoleonic wars had taken their toll. The priest went for a walk, and he looked out over a very quiet, winter-laden town. He was inspired...the town was at peace.”(8) And this provoked the classic, “Silent Night.”

        Silent Night

        “Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright

        Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child, 

        Holy Infant, so tender and mild

        Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.


        Silent night, holy night, Shepherds quake at the sight

        Glories stream from heaven afar

        Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia

        Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.


        Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love's pure light

        Radiant beams from Thy holy face

        With the dawn of redeeming grace

        Jesus Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth.”(9)

        Do yourself a favor and use the link below the prayer to listen to Chris Tomlin’s version of Silent Night. You’ll be glad you did.

        Pray with me:

        Jesus, we thank You, along with Isaac Watts, for coming to earth and making Your blessings flow, far as the curse is found. Your right hand has gained the victory for You (Psalm 98:1), and You have made known Your salvation and revealed Your righteousness to the nations (verse 2). You tell us to “shout joyfully,” breaking forth with praise (verse 4); that the seas roar, the rivers clap, and the mountains sing for joy (verses 7-8) because Christ is coming to judge the earth with righteousness and equity (verse 9).

        As we ponder the wonder of Your great gift to us, Father, we thank You, along with Phillip Brooks, for the everlasting light that shone in the dark streets of Bethlehem. In that quiet town, on that night so long ago, the hopes and fears of all the years met in the birth of our Savior. Thank You for this great gift.

        Click on the link below to watch the full video.

         
         
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