As a family, we love to celebrate Christmas, not the tinsel and glamor, but the preciousness of gathering together as a family. We also love to remember the most amazing event in the world when God sent His Son to this world—into the womb of a woman and to be born as a little baby.
Bible commentators agree that Jesus was not born at this Christmas time when the world remembers His birth. He would most probably have been born about the month of September during the Feast of Tabernacles. However, this is most probably that time that He was divinely conceived by the power of the of Holy Ghost. Incredible. God coming to the earth as a "seed" from the Father. I am in awe.
We sing the words of O Holy Night:
“Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!”
I am sure you are like me and can do nothing less than fall to your knees in wonder and worship!
However, we also love to celebrate Hanukkah which, this year, begins tonight on Christmas Eve. We love to light the Hanukkah candles each night and to also read Scriptures about the Light during our morning and evening devotions.
Hanukkah begins tonight and tomorrow is Day One. We celebrate it for eight days. Why do we celebrate Hanukkah?
1. It is a celebration that Jesus celebrated. Read John 10:22, 23.
2. Hanukkah in the Hebrew means "dedication." God's temple was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC, but the Maccabees family led a revolt against the Seleucid armies and called the nation back to God. After they had driven them out of Judea and Jerusalem, the Maccabees consecrated and rededicated the temple. However, God no longer lives in a temple in Jerusalem, but lives in the temple of our hearts. We like to use Hanukkah as time to rededicate the temple of our lives to God.
3. It is called the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22) and also the Festival of Lights. It celebrates the re-lighting of the Menorah. They could only find enough oil for one day, but miraculously the lights kept burning for eight days while they prepared the anointing oil, specifically commanded in the Scriptures. Because this celebration remembers the relighting of the menorah, we like to read Scriptures about God and Christ who are the light and how He also wants us to be His light in this world. We do this at our Family Devotions each morning and evening. And each night we light a Hanukkah candle.
I will post the Scriptures in a separate post for you to print out for the next eight days. Read and meditate on them in your personal devotional time. Then choose the ones you would like to use with your family. For each day, you may like to take half the Scriptures at Family Devotions in the morning and the other half in the evening, or whatever works out in your home.
If you have older children, it's a lovely idea for each one to have their own Bible and give a Scripture for each one to read aloud--and to share what they feel God is saying through the Scriptures. If you have little ones, you may only want to take one, or one or two Scriptures from the list and talk about it.
And don't forget to ask your children questions as you read the Scriptures. This is how you learn together.
During the eight days of Hanukkah, I will also send out a post each day telling you a little story about Hanukkah that relates to us as mothers, or a revelation from the Scriptures about the meaning of Hanukkah. By the way, you may like to take time to read the history of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha. The books in the Apocrypha were not chosen to be part of the cannon of Scripture but the books of Maccabees, 1, 2, 3, and 4 are great historical reading and tell how the Jewish nation was saved from extinction at that time. I am sure God used these brave men to protect His natural people and especially the coming Messiah. No wonder our Savior, Jesus Christ celebrated Hanukkah.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
I have just discovered the second stanza to the carol, O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL. I had never seen it before, but love the words.
I am sure you will enjoy this poem from Val Stares, who is the Director of Above Rubies in Australia.
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.
What are you filled with this Christmas? Many folks have cars filled with gifts, homes filled with decorations, tables filled with food, and stockings filled with things we will never use. We are filled to over the top. However, when we read about the birth of Jesus we find that instead of being filled with the things of the world, they were filled with the Holy Ghost!
Here is another lovely poem from my friend, Val Halloran:
I love the prophetic words of Christ in Psalm 40:7, 8: “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” All through eternity, Jesus Christ was already the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). He bore the weight of this burden all through eternity until God’s perfect moment in history.
I love the last stanza from Christina G. Rossetti's beautiful song, "In the Bleak Midwinter" which she wrote in 1872. My children learned this poem when they were young. You may like to encourage your children to learn it, too.
God told Simeon that he would not die until He had seen the Messiah! When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord, dear old Simeon perceived that this baby was THE MESSIAH for which he had been waiting. He took Jesus up in his arms and proclaimed: "For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A LIGHT TO LIGHTEN THE GENTILES, and the glory of thy people Israel" (Luk
We are currently in the season of remembering the most wonderful celebration in the history of the world--when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth as a little baby. We know that this was not the actual time of his birth, but it is the time we remember His miraculous incarnation.
I love to discover new words. In fact, I quite like making up new words. Sometimes we must find new words to describe very special and beautiful things. Here are some words to fill your home.
The greatest blessing, stability, and power of the nation are godly homes--homes where the husband and wife love one another and together seek to raise godly children to influence the world. Satan also knows the power of the home and therefore tries to woo women away from their greatest place of influence.
Yesterday’s post talked about Jesus coming to this earth. But Jesus is a “coming” Savior. He continues to come to us. He is our Bridegroom who delights to come to us. We behold the picture in Song of Solomon 2:8: “The voice of my beloved! Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” He bounds toward us, leaping, and skipping. No holding back.
These blessed words, these powerful, prophetic words, “Lo, I come” are the ultimate message of Christmas. These Messianic words are prophesied in Psalm 40:7, 8: “Then said I, LO, I COME: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.” They are repeated twice in the New Testament in the passage in Hebrews 10:5-9.
The kitchen is where we do a lot of taste testing, isn’t it? We have to taste the meals we create to make sure they are palatable and have a great flavor.
We often feel unsettled in our hearts because of what is happening in our lives or because of what is going on in the world. We live in an unsettled and changing world. But the glorious truth is that, if we are born again into God’s family, we belong to an unshakeable kingdom (Hebrews 12:27:28).
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How often we remind our children of The Golden Rule? What a difference it makes in our home if each one lives by this rule. It is a rule which we expect all people in society to live by. Of course, it comes from the Bible: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
The Bible talks a lot about banners. Banners are a sign of victory. We should be always heralding the banners of God’s truth in our home, in the church, and in the world. When banners are not waving, it is a sign of defeat! Never compromise the banners of God’s truth, even in the face of opposition and persecution! Keep them flying high.
Some people think that Dad can take the place of Mom at home. I would like to lovingly address this. I believe we should make all our decisions in the light of future generations. We dare not make any decision just because it seems "good" for the present, for every decision affects generations to come.
What I share with you below may seem archaic. Even unbelievable in this society in which we live. However, it reveals how the bar of God's standard continues to lower in every generation.