Merry Christmas to one and all

Merry Christmas to one and all,

God, bless everyone with joy that comes from knowing and believing in YOU. You have given so much. You gave us JESUS, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin named Mary, born in the normal human way except that Jesus’ occurred while mother and “father” was sitting in a cave that was used as a barn. She wrapped Jesus in His “swaddling clothes” and laid Him in a feeding trough. Use our celebration of Jesus’ birth as a declaration to the world just like the angels to the shepherds. And lead us to follow, just like the shepherds did to the place of Jesus’ birth and tell the world about Jesus. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

There are two parts to our celebration of the birth of Jesus. The first part is to celebrate; to sing carols, have candles, and hear the Christmas message. The second part is to tell.

What do we tell? To borrow from “Go, Tell it on the Mountain,” that “Jesus Christ is born.”

We tell it to all who may or may not want to hear the message. Think about the shepherds. They weren’t caring about the town of Bethlehem. They were protecting the sheep from predators. Then God interrupted their work with a message of salvation that will be for all people. After the angels left, they left to see what the message was all about. After they celebrated with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, they went and told the same message to a town bursting at the seams with people because of the census.

Their lives were completely changed. The shepherds wanted every else to know the life changing message.

And is that not our responsibility and joy? Yes, it is. We know the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We know Him intimately because we hear from Him, we pray to Him, and we serve for Him. We know the grace that God gave in the babe of Bethlehem. We know and live in it every day.

Let us say today, that we will, to the best of our skills, talents, and gifts, share the message of hope and promise that God gave to us in Jesus. And let us make a goal like this:

To share and model the faith that we have in God to one person/family who does not know the message so that they know what we know by Christmas 2026.

Have a joyous and grace fill Christmas this year and let’s have a great 2026.

And don’t forget:

Advent Services on Sunday: December 7^th, 14^th, and 21^st at 10:30am

Advent Services on Wednesday: December 3^rd, 10^th, and 17^th at 6:30pm

Christmas Eve service on Wednesday December 24^th at 6:30pm

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Robert