| Author | Message | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 848 Registered: 3-2004 |
Christmas will be here soon and I want to wish each one of you a God filled, Joyful, Grace filled Christmas. I am reminded that Jesus is the reason for the season and I am so very grateful that this past year He has brought me into His arms and cradled me in true Christianity. It will be a year in January, towards the end, that I decided not to rejoin the SDA church and I found all of you. It has been an interesting, fascinating journey, full of all kinds of surprises, especially about the church that I left. But I want to dwell on what I found. I found Jesus and nothing could be more precious. I found all of you in all your stages of developing a relationship with our best friend, Jesus. It is so nice to see that we agree on the salvation issues and can agree to disagree when Biblical issues do not affect salvation. I am so thankful for each of you this Christmas, my first out of the SDA church. May God continue to bless you and teach you and fill each of you with His Holy Spirit. God bless each of you now and in the New Year. Diana | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 1251 Registered: 11-2002 |
Thank-you, Diana for the warm greeting and thanks so much for your prayers. Your comments and giving nature are truly a gift to this forum. I too have learned alot from this forum. I actually sit here in front of it with pad and pen and jot down the texts to look up later. I will usually also look up the different websites we share with each other. do not celebrate Christmas in my home. I do generally go to church on Christmas Eve and reflect on the significance of the event that gives us Christmas. Thanks again and may Gods blessing be upon each and every one of you, especially you, Dane during this hard time. | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 233 Registered: 6-2004 |
Say Merry Christmas to everyone until the term Happy Holidays becomes a relic. | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 79 Registered: 8-2004 |
Merry Christmas to all of you here, whether celebrating with family, friends, all alone, or in your heart! May the God of Peace flood your hearts with peace and joy. Thank you for being here! helovesme2 | ||
| Dd Registered user Username: Dd Post Number: 274 Registered: 7-2004 |
Thank you, my dear friends, for a wonderful spiritual journey I travelled with you this year. Enjoy the warmth of God's love and grace with your loved ones during this special Christmas season! | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 645 Registered: 7-2003 |
Merry Christmas, all. I may not be able to get back on until after the new year as we are moving starting tomorrow, but I will continue to think of you and pray for you. | ||
| Dd Registered user Username: Dd Post Number: 276 Registered: 7-2004 |
Melissa, Happy...moving...Birthday...Christmas...New Year with your family in your new home. We'll "see" you next year! | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 849 Registered: 3-2004 |
Melissa, I will be praying that your move is without any problems and gets done in record time. I pray God will bless you and keep you and your family this Christmas season. Diana | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1132 Registered: 12-2003 |
Melissa, I'll be pryaing for you, too. We'll miss you, but we look forward to hearing from you after the new year begins! Merry Christmas to everyone here--I am so thankful for all of you and for the ways God unites us with His Spirit even though we are physically separated. Praise God for sending Jesus! Colleen | ||
| Thomas1 Registered user Username: Thomas1 Post Number: 153 Registered: 4-2002 |
Every Friday, I do a humor piece that I email to friends and acquaintences. Many pass it on. The reason is twofold. First because we need to remind the world that we as Christians have more to laugh about than anyone on earth! And second is that a few times a year I send a "grabber" instead of the humor, in the hope that they will read it before they discard it. The message for Christmas eve, tomorrow, I will share with you. Perhps someone here will read and come. Perhaps you will know someone who can benefit. Such a night, Such a gift! We celebrate the gift of a child, born into humble beginnings. But how often we forget the real story. This was the night that God chose to come to this world. He did not come with power and awesome glory, but with the soft cry of a newborn infant. Born to a poor couple in the Mid east. Born among cattle and laid in a feed trough. He was not clothed in gold and fine wraps, but in rags, and laid on straw. Yet the real story of Christmas does not end on Christmas day. No, the real story of Christmas is told later, on a barren hill, in the middle of the city's garbage dump. On a rough cross, where a grown man who was the Christmas baby, was murdered. Naked, rejected, beaten nearly to death, spat on, despised, alone. The Son of God chose to die to purchase forgiveness, for every sin you will ever commit. And, three days later, He came from the empty tomb, Alive! to give you life that will never end. If you will accept the gift. His gift to you is not a baby in a manger, but total freedom and life that will never end, if you place your complete faith and trust in Him. It is the gift of the Cross. The gift of the empty tomb. The gift of a life of total freedom. Total Joy! The gift is free, totally without strings. Completely without cost. His gift is paid for by His Grace. His Grace is not cheap. It cost His Son's life. Yet it is beyond value, because nothing you could ever give or ever know, or ever do, would be enough. That's why He did it all for you. Ane offers it to you, Free. The choice is yours. Except the gift and you will live forever, with Him. If today is not a good day to ask Him for His gift, When will a better day be? Now you know what "Merry Christmas", can really mean. | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 87 Registered: 7-2004 |
Dear Thomas, Thank you so much for the lovely statement of God's love above. Belva | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1137 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thomas, thank you for sharing the above. As usual, you write with great insight and depth. God is amazing! Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 853 Registered: 3-2004 |
Thank you Thomas for the real meaning of Christmas and that it did not end with the birth of Jesus. God is awesome. Diana | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 261 Registered: 4-2000 |
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! "When the Lord of Glory came to this earth, he was born in a cave where men sheltered the beasts. The cave in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem may be that same cave, or it may not be. That we will never know for certain. But there is something beautiful in the symbolism that the church where the cave is has a door so low that all must stoop to enter. It is supremely fitting that every man should approach the infant Jesus upon his knees." (William Barclay, The Birthplace of the King) My wife Sylvia had the honor of being in Bethlehem during one of her trips to the Holy Land. May you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and a happy new year! Dennis Fischer | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1140 Registered: 12-2003 |
Merry Christmas to all here! The Baby whom we honor today is called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Praise God for His unimaginable gift and sacrifice and for the new life and reality He gives us through Jesus! Colleen | ||
| Dane Registered user Username: Dane Post Number: 86 Registered: 4-2004 |
May we all have a blessed Christmas. Dane | ||
| Bob Registered user Username: Bob Post Number: 6 Registered: 7-2000 |
I want to add my Christmas greetings to everyone, and to share with you a thought from Oswald Chambers' book, "My Utmost for His Highest" - "'Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.' (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "Ye must be born again." This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me." For those of you not yet familiar with Chambers' insights on Christian living , his book, in daily readings, may be found at the following link: http://www.myutmost.org/ Bob | ||
| Goldenbear Registered user Username: Goldenbear Post Number: 28 Registered: 12-2004 |
One of the fellows in my weekly bible study made the comment yesterday as I was leaving work, "This must be a very special Christmas for you?" I asked why he would say that. He countered that it would be the first Christmas out from under the burden of legalism and truly celebrate the birth of our Lord and contemplate what grace was all about. You know, it is a very blessed Christmas Day. | ||
| Tracey Registered user Username: Tracey Post Number: 128 Registered: 9-2004 |
Merry Christmas Gang! I will be touching base with you all. Just a side note.. This month's issue of Proclamation! was really good! I wish I had other issues now! Colleen's article was so insightful and wonderful and interesting to read.. I had no idea she wrote like that! And you're such a cutie Colleen.. Nice photo of you. Christmas was much better than I expected.. A few Happy Holidays were said but there were a few Merry Christmases said also. I am trying not to be sensitive to everything.. haha! C's grace over our Christmas meal was awesome! HE talked about the birth of Jesus and him being our salvation and thanking God for His birth and for the opportunity to acknowledge it on Christmas Day and Christmas time. My heart leaped and I told him it was a wonderful prayer. He is referring to Jesus more and more. I think Jesus is becoming more real to him. Cautiously excited frankly!  His family (mom) is a little nervous.. I think she sees the changes that God is making in him, however subtle they are to me, and it makes her nervous. She's a dear woman though, I overheard her saying "I'm just trying to keep my family together". I think she feels him changing and doesn't know if it's the new girl in his life or what. I know it's the Lord and I just try to be the example. I missed you all and I'll be around! Traey | ||
| Chris Registered user Username: Chris Post Number: 510 Registered: 7-2003 |
Tracey, You've hit on an interesting point. Many Adventist families see any deviation from Adventism as being a direct threat to their family. It is very important within Adventism to have successfully raised your children "in the truth". It is humiliating in the extreme to be the parent of a child who has become "a Sunday-Keeper". As I write this, it dawns on me that I have perhaps not shown enough compassion to my in-laws. They have indeed been sorely humilated within their circle of friends and in their church by the defection of my family. They live with pain, embarrassment, and much gossip everyday as a result. They believe they have now been eternally seperated from their daughter. It is indeed a sad situation, but it's very hard to know how to make it better since the situation is created by the erroneous beliefs inherrent in Adventism. More than likely C's mom greatly fears going through what she has seen other parents of "Sunday-Keepers" go through. Although there are many factors that are likely holding C back from moving away from Adventism, family ties and the fear of family reactions are two very powerful chains. Chris | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1148 Registered: 12-2003 |
Welcome back, Tracey! I'm glad you had a great vacation. Chris is 100% right in his analysis of Adventist parents' reactions. C's mom will relate to C's growing in Jesus and away from Adventism as to a fatal disease, something to be resisted and fought at all costs. In fact, it's worse than a fatal disease, because leaving Adventism not only removes the defecter from family fellowship, it puts a black shadow over the family's reputation. Our Adventist family still see us, but we do not share expereinces or even family "talk" as we used to. They also feel no compulsion to "be nice" and have often opened up their hostility and anger or cold judgmentalness to other guests in our home. (Hence the fact that we share fewer events with them!) And Chris is also right that it's really hard to know how to make it better. C will likely lose his close relationship with his mother (which you've alluded to) if he leaves, and she will feel personally and spiritually devastated and angry. And, yes, Tracey--you will likely be blamed--perhaps for the rest of your life! Knowing Jesus and living in His freedom, however, is so much greater than the pain and disappointment we experience because of our decision to follow Him. Praying for you and C, Tracey! Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 863 Registered: 3-2004 |
Welcome back Tracey, It is good to hear of the changes C has made. I know God is working in him to change him. I continue to pray for the both of you. I cannot testify to how SDA family treats those who leave because none of my immediate family are practicing SDAs. For that I am very thankful. Keep us posted. God is awesome. Diana |
