Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel (with lyrics)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

I spent a quiet and wonderful Thanksgiving Day with Jeff, Amy, and the two precious "grands". After lunch, the three of us nestled on the downstairs couch and watched a movie that, in the ending, seemed that the good had died so the wicked would perish also. Alicia and MaMa were tearing up and my boy, who seems to live life this way, announced "Let's look on the bright side of things!"

Chris Tomlin - Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus!"

I like the word, anticipation, don't you? Mr. Webster said it means "to look forward to, especially with pleasure." We see an excellent example of it, I think, in the eyes of the little children as they look forward to Christmas morning. They can "just hardly wait!"  In Genesis 3, after walking in sweet communion with their Creator and God, Adam and Eve fall to temptation and sin and we hear the dreaded word, curse, for the first time. From the first Book of the canon of Scripture to the last, we see the fall's consequences and Malachi ends his revelation with the same word, curse.

My A-Z Thanksgiving List!

For fourteen years, I taught a dear ladies' Sunday School class in which we studied many books of the Bible straight through, sometimes taking months. I love a thorough and topical study of the Scriptures. Many of them remarked that they looked forward to the time of the year when I would share the Thanksgiving lesson and I did too. The preparation for that Sunday would be fairly easy because I don't have to think too long to come up with a thankful list, no, rather, this pen that I hold in my hand would run out of ink first before I could write of all that the Lord has done for me. But, here we go with a few, ok?

Praying for the Perplexed!

Today, I have attempted to do many things- house things, retrieving my Christmas cds out of the closet, etc. and my mind and heart keep drawing me to His Word and this computer because my thoughts, today, are on people who are questioning the paths that God has chosen for them. And we have all been there, haven't we, to some degree or another?  I am reading Joni's new book entitled A Place of Healing; Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God's Sovereignty. At the beginning of one of the chapters, John Stott is quoted saying this: "The fact of suffering, undoubtedly, constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation."

Praying for the Poor!

This morning in my prayer time, I was meditating on a new blog I could share and turned to my Proverb passage for the day. I , along with my other Bible reading, try to read one chapter from Proverbs a day, much wisdom to be gleaned from that book and today was the 19th chapter. I began soaking in the wise words from this passage and noted that the word, poor, showed up 5 times. I, particularly, was captured by verse 17: "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD: and that which he hath given will He pay him again."

Praying for Parents!

Maybe one of the most challenging yet most fulfilling roles is that of parenting. I pray for parents today. I wasn't a perfect one in Mark's and Amy's formative years, looking back, I can identify many errors that I made and today, I still fail but believe that God and experience have taught me a few things in my journey from being a first-time parent at age 20 to now, 38 years later, enjoying the pleasure of being a grandmother. (Jeff set up my new blog site- how about those grandkids?) :) :) :) )

Praying for Pastors

I love pastors, God-called men who fill pulpits and shepherd the flock and are burning with a passion to walk worthy of the ministry that God has entrusted to their care. Danny and I both grew up in pastors' homes, my brother,Lamar, was one before health issues arose in his life, and now, my second son, Jeff pastors a congregation in Lawrenceville. I say that about those men to qualify that I know a little about the triumphs and the struggles in this particular arena.

Pray For One Another

On the heels of my last blog, concerning fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing trying circumstances at this present time, I thought it would be an opportune time to remind us that we are to pray for one another.  In the Epistle from James, one who is said to have been called "Old Camel Knees" because of the humps on his knees from praying often, he reminds us in 5:16 to "pray for one another." Some Bible teachers remind us that the theme from this book is practical Christian living and with the "one anothers" that I have been studying, that is my thrust lately- to remind us that there are some things we cannot do nor understand but there are others that we can and should for others, especially in these seemingly increasing dark days.

The LORD on our Side!

I, a struggling pilgrim, write to others who need a good word today. I hold in my lap, as I pen these few thoughts, the Good Word and find much comfort and encouragement for the journey these days in the blessed Psalms. This week, I have been reading through chapters 120-134, the ones entitled in my Bible, the Songs of Ascents, those probably sung by those who said they felt they were sojourning in Mesech and Kedar (their enemies and haters of peace-chap. 120) but they were setting their eyes and hearts toward Jerusalem (the city of peace) and more importantly, toward the King of Jerusalem, their LORD Who made heaven and earth. (chap. 121).