Dear Covenant Family -
What a week! Traffic is horrible, lines are long, people's patience running thin (okay my patience is thin, yours might be just fine) calorie count is huge, etc.
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." Not anything that looked like the first Christmas, but what has happened to Christmas over the years. I have seen signs on cars, "Keep Christ in Christmas". I would like to share a devotion forwarded to me recently that speaks of the current situation we find ourselves in.
This was the December 19th devotion from Robert Morgan's book,
My All in All:
"When Hitler rose to power in Germany, he wanted to take over the German church and dictate the nation's religion. Falsely accusing clergymen of various crimes, he had churchmen arrested and religious publications stopped. He encouraged marriage ceremonies to be conducted by state officials rather than by the church. In 1935, he outlawed obligatory prayer in schools, and he tried to replace Bibles with Nazi propaganda.
He had greater difficulty with the religious holidays because Germans had faithfully observed Easter and Christmas for centuries; so he set out to reinterpret their meaning. Easter became a holiday heralding the arrival of spring, and Christmas was turned into a pagan festival. Carols and nativity plays were banned from the schools in 1938, and even the name Christmas was changed to Yuletide.
Hitler failed, but the same sort of attempts are being made now in America as our society tries to strip Christmas of its meaning and outlaw its traditional observances in the public square.
Two thousand years ago, King Herod tried the same thing. Though he was one of the greatest builders of antiquity - leaving behind such fabulous ruins as Caesarea, Herodium, and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - he couldn't overcome a Baby's influence.
No power on earth can stop you from worshipping Jesus this season. Satan has tried from the beginning, but his efforts always fail. After all, we cannot spell Christmas without Christ - and with a capital C at that!"
This preacher adds a big Amen to this thought! Remember even the Grinch couldn't steal Christmas from our hearts.
Weekly Reminders
Since this is the week of Christmas, our normal routine has been changed.
NO WEDNESDAY activities. This gives you plenty of opportunity to do all your preparations for Christmas and still plan on being present along with some of your family and friends for one of our
Christmas Eve Services either at 4:00pm or 6:00pm on Christmas Eve. We will await to hear the good news about that Christ Child born into the world. We will celebrate with Holy Communion and have a service of Candle Lights, surrounded by beautiful poinsettias, and Christmas Colors. But it won't be complete without you there.
Let me thank Jennifer Tassin and all the folks involved in Last Sunday's Childrens Pageant. IT WAS GREAT! Hasn't our season been wonderful so far, with the Choir's Performance a few weeks ago, and now the children - almost complete - and will be with our Christmas Eve Services.
Don't forget the day after Christmas bring all your left over family and friends to church with you. Regular worship times. There will be a time of blessing of the toys and singing more Christmas Carols then we normally sing. Yes, we will be open for business the day after Christmas and hope to see you there. A great way to end the present year at worship with our church family.
Thnaks to all of you who helped make this year for ANGEL TREE the best one yet. Lots of gifts and food. Thank you for being the Body of Christ and reaching out to some of God's nedy around us.
Last but not least, a BIG THANK YOU FROM ALL THE STAFF FOR YOUR GENEROUS Monetary CHRISTMAS GIFT TO US ALL. WE KNOW WE ARE LOVED.
Yours truly,
Rev. Chris Blanchard
