Isaiah 42:5-13

I really enjoyed this beautiful passage.  Read it as if God were really standing and talking to you.  He is Mighty and Awesome!!!  I serve a Righteous God.  Who do you Serve?

Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it,
"I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness,
I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you,
And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people,'As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

"I am the LORD, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images.
"Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."

Sing to the LORD a new song,
Sing His praise from the end of the earth!
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it.
You islands, and those who dwell on them.
Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices,
The settlements where Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud,
Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the LORD
and declare His praise in the coaselands.

The LORD will go forth like a warrior,
He will arouse His zeal like a man of war.
He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry.
He will prevail against His enimies.

Love in Christ,
Rebecca

Jesus Humbled Himself

Jesus humbled Himself.

He went from commanding angels...

To sleeping in the straw.

From holding stars...

To clutching Mary’s finger.

The palm that held the universe...

took the nail of a soldier.

Why?

Because that’s what love does.

The Gift of God.

The birth of Christ.

This is Christmas.

This is Love.

“This is how we know what Love is:

Jesus Christ laid down His life for us….”

1 John 3:16

Merry CHRISTmas! 

May you enjoy the celebration of the

Birth of the King's Son.

~Rebecca
P.S. I did not write this myself.  It was an e-mail I recieved that I added pictures to.  I thought it was very fitting for Christmas. RLH

Christmas Shopping

Ahhh, the joy of being done!  We are down to very little to do before Christ's Birthday arrives.  Some of us still have a bit to do to finish up gifts, but for the most part are finished.  We just got back from a wonderful evening doing our "Stocking Shopping".  Another tradition in the Heckendorn Herd.  We have taken up this tradition after reading about "Nick" who would leave money secretly to those who needed it.  Not letting the "left hand know what the right hand was doing" sort of thing.  
We have taken it to our family in that we go stocking shopping but don't allow people to know who got them what.  We all get our own baskets (except Caleb, who sticks around with Mom or Dad still.) and travel around the store staying away from members of our family finding our small treasures for each other's stockings.  We pay for it ourselves, sneak our bag into the car and hide it when we get home. 
 Christmas Eve we all take turns going into the living room where the stockings are and placing our little gifts in them.  It is a bunch of fun.  We enjoy the teasing and trying to "peak" and see what people have in their baskets. 

Tonight we went to Dollar Tree (which was just perfect!) then went to Krispy Kreme afterwards. :)  We had brewed a pot of decaf coffee and kept it hot in Mom's carafe.  We then went cruising around town drinking coffee and eating donuts looking at Christmas lights.   We didn't get home till 11!  But hey, that is when memories are made.  This is definitely a tradition we all enjoy. 

Well, it is almost tomorrow so I better get to bed.  Tomorrow holds making our Gingerbread Village and house cleaning. :D

Merry Christmas!
Rebecca

This comes from a Daily Devotional e-mail I get from Mark Hamby.  (with Lamplighter Publishing).  I thought I would share it as it was very good. 

Lending to The Lord

One of my spiritual mentors, Dr. John MacArthur, once told the story of a churchyard in England where a tombstone stands with this inscription: "Here lies a miser who lived for himself, and cared for nothing but gathering wealth; now where he is or how he fares, nobody knows and nobody cares."

In contrast, Dr. MacArthur shares, there is a plain tombstone at St. Paul's Cathedral in London with an inscription that reads, "Sacred to the memory of General Charles George Gordon, who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, his heart to God."

What a contrast! If you think about those who have changed the world for the better, you will find their story similar to the latter--they gave for the good of others. They understood the principle that Jesus taught: "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men put into your bosom. For with the same measure you mete, it will be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38).

Solomon understood this truth well when he wrote, in Proverbs 19, "Whoever is generous to the poor lends LORD, and he will repay him for his deed."

Did you catch that? When we give to the poor, we actually are lending to the Lord! Now that's a truth worth banking on.

So who are you trusting your money to?  God, or man?  What will your life leave behind you.  A Legacy, or a worthless tombstone?

Love in Christ,

Rebecca

Date with my Sister

Sarah and I had a wonderful day going shopping Wednesday!!!  We left here about 10:30 and stayed out till 9ish.  It was so fun!!!  We went out to lunch with Dad, went Christmas shopping, watched a movie, and had a treat.  It was a bunch of fun!!!  It is so nice to be able to do that with her.

We bought gifts for people, (sorry, I can't list those!) more gifts for people, a christmas project for the family to do, and had a blast! 

I thank God for my Sister.  Much as she drives me nuts some days, I do appreciate the difference between the two of us.  The God-given differences.  What can I say?  She is my Sister! If anyone has anything bad to say about her I have first right to beat them up.  :evil grin:

Love in Christ,
Rebecca

Christmas

Christmas.  You think of Lights, Snow, Hot Chocolate, Evenings with Family, Family time, shopping, Giggles as you hide gifts, Bows, Happiness, Joy, Singing, Baking, Smiles, Trees, “White Christmas”, and “A Christmas Carol”. It’s Christmas time!!

If there is one thing I love, it is Christmas and December.  I am finally allowed to play Christmas songs all I want!  (Hahaha)  I love decorating and getting the Christmas tree up!!  We make it a big family event.  Mom passes out ornaments that we get to put on the tree, Dad string lights around the room with one of ussens helping.  Yeah, I really enjoy it. 

One of the things I have always appreciated that Mom and Dad do is make Jesus our focus, and others next.   One year Caleb was so excited- excited for everyone to open the presents HE made!!!  We all loved that!!  Our focus is on others, not ourselves.  We have never done Santa Claus and I think that is part of the reason we focus more on others. 

^Daddy reading The Birth story^

On Christmas morning our thing we do before opening presents is read Jesus’ birth story.  We start out first thing with that as our focus.  Then we open our presents one at a time so that we can see everyone’s reactions.  “Oh, wonder what you got!!”  “Mom, mom, look!  Here is your present I made; you’re going to love it!”  We celebrate Christmas as a big party for Jesus.  As His Holy and God-sent birth.  As His wonderful gift to us! 

Another fun family tradition that we do is a treasure hunt.  J Mom and Dad make one for us kiddos.  Ha-ha, the first one started years ago, when Josh was little.  Well, they put the first clue in a bunch of fabric and wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree to us.  I opened it up and it said “Go Bush Your Teeth”.  Well, I started crying because it was Christmas, we just finished opening our presents and I didn’t want to leave everyone and go brush my teeth!!!  Hahaha!!  Mom finally convinced me that I needed to go, and had fun at my surprised face when what I found the next clue!!!  I think I just about had Sarah crying from “having to go brush our teeth….”   :D

Here are some pictures from last years treasure hunt.....

   ^Caleb isn't sure what the clue meant.... ^

                                        

                                                 

 

                             

Merry Christmas!!!!

Love in Christ,

Rebecca

Handel's Messiah

Today is our first performance of Handel's Messiah!!  We have one performance today at three, and two more next weekend- one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.  Yay!!!  I really think it has gone well this year.  We didn't have a big orchestra at first, but our Director was able to find a few more.  We have some big drums that really sound great when we sing Hallelujah and a couple of other songs.  Gives you big goose bumps!!! 

Here is a bit of history about Handel; (taken from my score)
The Messiah, Handel's most successful and best-known oratorio, was composed in the year 1741 in twenty-four days, from August the 22nd to September the 14th.  It was first performed at a concert given for charitable purposes at Dublin, Ireland, on April the 13th, 1742, Handel conducting the performance in person.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't write a whole score in 24 days!!!  He was definitely blessed by God.  It is still used and it is pretty much the same score he wrote 269 years ago!  Go you tube Handel's Messiah and enjoy listening to the great masterpieces- or better yet, go find a local group! 

Love in Christ,
Rebecca

Christmas Decorating!

Sunday we didn't have church as everyone couldn't get together, so we stayed home and decorated!!!  We still have a bit of decorating to do, but we have the "big" ones up.  :)  God really blessed me this time, too.  I always love have the lights with the garland (or whatever it is) around the ceiling.  Last year we didn't have enough lights and never got around to buying any.  This year we decided we were just going to use whatever we have and not buy anymore.  Soooo, I wasn't going to get my lights around the ceiling, again.  Then we found a whole bunch of outside colored lights!  We decided we would much rather have lights inside than out, and thus I got my lights!!!  It was sweet to be reminded that even in our silly things- as decorating- God really provides everything for us.  (No, I am not getting into any theological debate about whether that was really Him or not.  It isn't what my point is)   It was nice after a hard year to have that reminder.  :) 

^Our first bit of decorating was Lady!^

^Mom passing out ornaments^

^Josh and Caleb putting on ornaments^

^Joshua's Handsome deer^          ^Josh always has to put a "dainty" bow on Dad's deer!^

^this is an old ornament from my Mom's side of the family.^

  

^Lady isn't much of a lady with that snarl^

(She was just grinning, no one got hurt! )

^Daddy's buddy^

^Caleb took this shot of his eye.  Funny fellow^

^Our tree!^

^Joshua with a pretty tinsel in his hair!^

^Caleb^

Haha, Sarah was saying something funny and "drastic" while I was taking a shot of her pretty glitter shirt!  Needless to say, this is the one that gets posted..... :)

Now I can officially sing all the Christmas songs I want.....

Love In Christ,

Rebecca