Wednesday, December 10, 2008

"A Real Christmas Miracle Story"

Dear Reader,

I found this beautiful and heart warming story to share with you, your children, grand-children, and friends during this "Season of Miracles." Jesus Christ came to the planet as a child, emptied, impoverished, and fully stripped of all glory in order that we might have peace in times of great distress and difficulty.

He also came to show us of the Love the Heavenly Father has for all of mankind so that they might be saved.

The following story echos all of this, and ever so beautifully expresses how the Lord knows where we all need to be in His plan to lead those around us who do not know Him...

...Home.


Enjoy!

In His Shadow,
Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com



IS ANYONE MISSING BABY JESUS?
Jean Gietzen


About a week before Christmas, the family bought a new nativity set. When they unpacked it, they found two figures of the Baby Jesus.

"Someone must have packed this wrong," the mother said, counting out the figures. "We have one Joseph, one Mary, three wise men, three shepherds, two lambs, a donkey, a cow, an angel and two babies. Oh, dear! I suppose some set down at the store is missing a Baby Jesus because we have two."

"You two run back down to the store and tell the manager that we have an extra Jesus. Tell him to put a sign on the remaining boxes, saying that if a set is missing a Baby Jesus, call 7126. Put on your warm coats. It is freezing out there."

The manager of the store copied down mother's message and the next time they were in the store they saw the cardboard sign that read, "If you are missing Baby Jesus, call 7126." All week long they waited for someone to call. Surely, they thought someone was missing that important figurine. Each time the phone rang, mother would say, "I'll bet that's about Jesus.", but it never was.

Father tried to explain there are thousands of these scattered over the country, and the figurine could be missing from a set in Florida or Texas or California. Those packing mistakes happen all the time. He suggested to just put the extra Jesus back in the box and forget about it.

"Put Baby Jesus back in the box! What a terrible thing to do!" said the children. "Surely someone will call," mother said. "We'll just keep the two of them together in the manger until someone calls."

When no call had come by 5:00 PM on Christmas Eve, mother insisted that father just run down to the store to see if there were any sets left. "You can see them right through the window, over on the counter," she said. "If they are all gone, I'll know someone is bound to call tonight."

"Run down to the store?" father thundered. "It's 15 below zero out there!" "Oh, Daddy, we'll go with you," Tommy and Mary began to put on their coats. Father gave a long sigh and headed for the front closet. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered.

Tommy and Mary ran ahead as father reluctantly walked out in the cold. Mary got to the store first and pressed her nose up to the store window. "They're all gone, Daddy," she shouted. "Every set must be sold."

"Hooray" Tommy said. "The mystery will now be solved tonight!"

Father heard the news still a half block away and immediately turned on his heel and headed back home. When they got back into the house, they noticed that mother was gone and so was the extra Baby Jesus figurine. "Someone must have called and she went out to deliver the figurine," my father reasoned, pulling off his boots. "You kids get ready for bed while I wrap mother's present."

Then the phone rang. Father yelled "answer the phone and tell 'em we found a home for Jesus." But it was mother calling with instructions for us to come to 205 Chestnut Street immediately, and bring three blankets, a box of cookies and some milk..

"Now what has she gotten us into?" my father groaned as we bundled up again. "205 Chestnut. Why that's across town. Wrap that milk up good in the blankets or it will turn to ice before we get there. Why can't we all just get on with Christmas? It's probably 20 below out there now. And the wind is picking up. Of all the crazy things to do on a night like this!"

When they got to the house at 205 Chestnut Street, it was the darkest one on the block. Only one tiny light burned in the living room and, the moment we set foot on the porch steps, my mother opened the door and shouted, "They're here, Oh thank God, you got here, Ray! You kids take those blankets into the living room and wrap up the little ones on the couch. I'll take the milk and cookies."

"Would you mind telling me what is going on, Ethel?" my father asked. "We have just walked through below zero weather with the wind in our faces all the way."

"Never mind all that now," my mother interrupted. "There is no heat in this house and this young mother is so upset she doesn't know what to do. Her husband walked out on her and those poor little children will have a very bleak Christmas, so don't you complain. I told her you could fix that oil furnace in a jiffy."

My mother strode off to the kitchen to warm the milk while my brother and I wrapped up the five little children who were huddled together on the couch. The children's mother explained to my father that her husband had run off, taking bedding, clothing, and almost every piece of furniture, but she had been doing all right until the furnace broke down.

"I been din washin' and ironin' for people and cleanin' the five and dime," she said. "I saw your number every day there, on those boxes on the counter. When the furnace went out, that number kept going' through my mind... 7162... 7162."

"Said on the box that if a person was missin' Jesus, they should call you. That's how I knew you were good Christian people, willin' to help folks. I figured that maybe you would help me, too. So I stopped at the grocery store tonight and I called your missus. I'm not missin' Jesus, mister, because I sure love the Lord. But I am missin' heat. I have no money to fix that furnace."

"Okay, Okay" said father. "You've come to the right place. Now lets see. You've got a little oil burner over there in the dining room. Shouldn't be too hard to fix. Probably just a clogged flue. I'll look it over, see what it needs."

Mother came into the living room carrying a plate of cookies and warm milk. As she set the cups down on the coffee table, I noticed the figure of Baby Jesus lying in the center of the table. It was the only sign of Christmas in the house. The children stared with wide eyed with wonder at the plate of cookies my mother sat before them.

Father finally got the oil burner working but said, "you need more oil." "I'll make a few calls tonight and get some oil."

"Yes sir, you came to the right place," said the woman...

On the way home, father did not complain about the cold weather and had barely set foot inside the door when he was on the phone. "Ed, hey, how are ya, Ed? Yes, Merry Christmas to you, too. Say, Ed, we have kind of an unusual situation here. I know you've got that pick-up truck. Do you still have some oil in that barrel on your truck?"

"You do?"

By this time the rest of the family were pulling clothes out of their closets and toys off of their shelves. It was long after their bedtime when they were wrapping gifts. The pickup came. On it were chairs, three lamps, blankets and gifts. Even though it was 30 below, Father let them ride along in the back of the truck.

No one ever did call about the missing figure in the nativity set, but as I grow older I realize that it wasn't a packing mistake at all. Jesus saves, that's what He does.


By Jean Gietzen
Based on her writings on the internet from the book "If You're Missing Baby Jesus". Published by and available at Random House (www.randomhouse.com) and other online booksellers.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

“THE SAFE VOICE OF THE FATHER IS CALLING TO US”


~ By Mary Lindow

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.”
Psalm 69:1-3


THERE ARE MANY THINGS GOING ON
IN THE MIDST OF GOD'S PEOPLE…

So many believers have gone through pain and devastation because of betrayal and disappointment in those with whom they have at one time “walked with” in the Lord.

“For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it.
Nor is it one that hates me who has exalted himself against me;
Then I could hide from him.

But it was you, a man my equal,
My companion and my acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together,
And walked to the house of God among the people.”
Psalm 55:12-14


DEGREES OF SEPARATION AND DECEPTION

Church leaders and members or friends separate. Their unresolved issues and wounds infect others around them. With their tongue and pen, (and emails)!.. their resentment and bitterness spread in uncontrollable proportions.

Christians in other ministries and relationships receive the bad report and often, they don't even know the people involved but - because they have inclined their ears to hear the suggested and well-placed evil reports, the conversation poisons them like toxic waste in their soul. If unchecked, this becomes a hideous, malignant cancer-like cell eventually damaging their mind and above all, their spiritual discernment.


“Who is wise? He will realize these things.
Who is discerning? He will understand them.”

“The ways of the LORD are right;
The righteous walk in them,
But the rebellious stumble in them.”
Hosea 14:9


The age-old serpent, the ultimate enemy of our souls, has not lost the art of deception even after centuries! He, even now, can cause God's people, including the sincere ones, to miss the mark if they are willing to only hear one side of a story!


A MURDEROUS STAMPED AT WAL-MART?

The frenzied consumer culture we are seeing as a result of selfishness and feeding upon fear has begun to reach a newly fevered pitch.

People getting trampled to death while others are “herding” their way to the discounted Hi-Definition Televisions reflects the hardness of heart and disrespect for the needs and lives of those around us.

This type of behavior is a prime example of even how believers have become “selectively “ hard of hearing when it comes to serving one another, or encouraging one another, or having patience with one another!

One moment we are asking for forgiveness and prayer, and in nearly the next breath, slanderous retorts are spoken out in anger.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,
Fighting and slander, along with every form of nastiness.
Ephesians 4:31

Once bitter words are spoken or written, they cannot be retracted.
Sadly, those who often shout the loudest about being maligned are often the perpetrators of assassinating the characters of those whom have been in disagreement with them or who have possibly warned them about a need for a course correction.

“He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,
And whoever spreads slander is a fool.”
Proverbs 10:18


TODAY MANY THINGS HAVE DEGENERATED INTO BLURRED INSIGNIFICANCE AND UNCERTAINTY.

The beauty of what God's purpose in His people really is meant to passionately reflect is missing. Things that are now being said and done do not mean what they did mean originally in His Word.
Twisting of truth to fits one’s own idea of God’s will has become acceptable and is often left unchallenged.

So many spiritual and scriptural terms are put into motion, but they are not in the same dimension and point of view, which are in the Divine plan!


THE TRAGEDY IS THAT SO MANY WELL-MEANING BELIEVERS HAVE GONE ON WITH THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF SEARCHING FOR THE WILL OF THE LORD AND THEY FAIL TO SEE THAT THE POWER OF HIS RADIANT LIFE IS MISSING!

The Apostle Paul warned us in his letter to Timothy about this….

" This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come…Having the form of godliness (true religion) but denying the power there of. "

MY HEART IS BROKEN TO SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE HAPPENING ALL AROUND US.

So much is falling short of its original design. There is so much labor and "rallying" being pumped out there and it is being poured into the Self Promotion Machine" more than any time in the history of God's people! Yet the toil is ending in heartbreaking disappointment!


SAINTS, ONLY THOSE DEVOTED TO HUMILITY AND HONOR
can be saved from this deadly poison that lulls those longing to be entertained and pampered into apathy and spiritual paralysis!

God's faithful ones in this hour should seek him and that which is upon his heart. What the Lord is doing in this era is so different …
…and we should be sensitive to Him!

He is looking for His People of the “Secret Place” in which the power of resurrection may freely function.

The Apostle Paul said "according to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20b).

These People will have to be men and women who have “seen”!
They shall be like "a voice in the wilderness".


IT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CLEAR
THAT GOD MUST DO A FRESH THING WITH HIS REMNANT.

And the actual “thing” is that He is drawing them to seek the Lord Himself and His recognizable presence! Away from the throng,
nearer to the Word, bowed in repentance and prayer.

The Psalmist said,
"When You said oh Lord, Seek My face;
My heart said unto You, Your face, Lord will I seek."


WILL YOU SET YOUR HEART TO SEEK HIM?

Oh that God may find His Davids in this crucial hour that will set their faces towards Him at the command of His voice!
Without it, Humankind will continue its fall and decline into further confusion, tragedy, and self-preservation.


LET US RUN IMMEDIATELY…
… TO THE THRONE OF GRACE AND MERCY!

Now! While our hearts are freshly tenderized and troubled over the recent events in the earth!

There is the safe voice of the Father calling us. Let us respond with ears to Hear and hearts that obey.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:16

Duplication and sharing of this writing is permitted provided that complete article and website information for Mary Lindow is included. Thank you.
2008
www.marylindow.com