At Christmastime I like reading a book that relaxes me, restores my hope and washes me with the sweetness of the coming of the Lord.  That is what Remembering Christmas is all about.  Rick Denton is a young guy that built a life away from all the reminders of family and Christ.  Not so unlike many of us in our 20’s.  Through a crisis at home, Rick is forced to give up his vacation time to watch his parent’s Christian Bookstore during the holidays.  Through a long array of characters and of course a little romance, Rick is reintroduced to his parents and his Lord.  If you need a good Christmas book to snuggle up with, give Remembering Christmas a try.

http://www.danwalshbooks.com/index.html

“Christmas is the surprise of light coming back, Easter is the surprise of spring returning.  Our faith is the ability to be open to surprises.”

Is Christmas getting crazy?  Need a little time to exhale?  Sit back and listen to this precious song–Winter Snow with Audrey Assad and Chris Tomlin.  I love the quiet rhythm and the deep rich tones of their voices.  It makes me feel the peacefulness that surely was intended when the angels sang about peace on earth.  Think about the truths of these words as you prepare your heart for the Christ Child.

Could’ve come like a mighty storm
With all the strength of a hurricane
You could’ve come like a forest fire
With the power of heaven in Your flame

But You came like a winter snow
Quiet and soft and slow
Falling from the sky in the night
To the earth below

You could’ve swept in like a tidal wave
Or an ocean to ravish our hearts
You could have come through like a roaring flood
To wipe away the things we’ve scarred

But You came like a winter snow
(Yes, You did)
You were quiet
You were soft and slow
Falling from the sky in the night
To the earth below

Video is perfectly set to grab you and pull you into the peace and quiet the song intends.  Take a minute from the craziness to enjoy…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHiAmL8-b0

“In the Christian story God descends to reascend… He goes down to come up again and bring the whole world up with Him.  One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders.”

Prostate Support Group

TOPIC: Communication

LOCATION:

David C Pratt Cancer Center, Suite 1440, John Krey Cancer Information Center

St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, 607 S. New Ballas Rd, 63141

Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM

BREAST CANCER MONTHLY NETWORKING GROUP – RSVP Preferred (Food Provided)

TOPIC: Coping with Holiday Stress

LOCATION:

Cancer Support Community

1058 Old Des Peres Road
Saint Louis, Missouri 63131

TIME: 5:30 – 7:00 PM

MORE INFO: 314-238-2000

A monthly educational and networking group in collaboration with St. John’s Mercy Medical Center– for women newly diagnosed as well as those who are post-treatment for breast cancer.  Facilitated by Kathy Bearman, LCSW.

Do you ever have questions about angels, demons, and all the mysterious things about spiritual warfare? But is it hard to find the gumption to plow through a whole Bible study?  Your in luck.  Wade J. Carey has written A Walk Through the Market as a novel that doesn’t just illustrate the workings of spiritual warfare, it teaches the reader one verse at a time.  Really- the book is packed with over 100 verses so the readers feet are firmly planted in the Word.

The novel begins as Wyatt Hunter goes to Seattle’s Pike Place Market for his morning coffee and meets Mick- a friendly, up beat guy that claims he’s an angel.  And not just any angel, he’s the angel sent to give Wyatt a mission from God.  Through out the day, Wyatt learns from Mick the role humans play in spiritual warfare, faces down a demon and eventually receives his mission from God.  The relationship between Wyatt and the angel is endearing, leaving the reader yearning for a Mick to pop into their life.  However, the meat of the novel is the scriptures that just pour over you leaving you fortified by the Truth of God’s Word and yearning to know more.

http://www.crossbooks.com/bookstore/BookStoreBookDetails.aspx?bookid=59819

If you are looking for a roommate, you should be careful how much information you put into the newspaper ad.  You probably want to tell the size of the place, the fact they’ll have a private bath and the finer qualities of your neighborhood.  But you may not want to mention that you typically leave your shoes lying around the house, or that you commonly have day old cereal bowls on the coffee table.  And you might skip over the fact that you’ve been known to wander the place late at night singing Barry Manilow songs.  Even Manilow fans can’t take his songs at 3 AM.

You see we all have qualities that are hard to live with.  What does that say about your spouse? If there was anyone on the planet that could make a list of reasons NOT to live with you, it would be them.  Do you leave the cap off the toothpaste?  Do you always have to have the last word or do you keep your complaints to yourself and brood around the house?  Are you a bear in the morning or a zombie at night?  Do you forget little things you should remember or do you blow up at little things you should forget?  How long of a list could your spouse make?  At 27 years of marriage, my husband could make one so long he’d have to buy a new hard drive to store it all!  And yet- AND YET- he’s still living with me.  My question is why?  Why does the person that knows the most reasons to never want to live with us stay?

That, my friend, is the reflection of Christ in our marriages.  Christ uses marriages to reveal Himself.  One time, God revealed His true character through the marriage of a prophet Hosea.  God told Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer.  After they were married, she left Him and had another mans child.  And do you know what God told Hosea to do?  He told Hosea to go get Gomer and bring her home.

Now if anyone had a list of reasons not to live with someone, it’s Hosea.  So why did God tell him to go get her?  Because God wants you to know will ALWAYS go get you too even though He has a huge list of reasons to not stick by you.  God knows everything.  He doesn’t just know that you leave the top off the toothpaste.  He knows that you do it on purpose.  He knows your every thought , word, and deed.  And yet- AND YET- He’s still with you.  With your every step, with your every breath.

God’s  never walking away from you, never divorcing you and never neglecting you.  Never.  He has bought you with His Son’s blood and no matter how far you wander away, no matter how long the list of reasons He should let you go, He will bring you home.  Every time.  Every Time.

I’ve started working out…again.  Each revival of my exercise strategy finds me relearning all the right and wrong ways to exercise.  Like drinking water.  More often than not, I find myself rushing off to my aerobics class without my water bottle.  I think “I can handle it.” until I’m dripping with sweat in the middle of my class and I see the other ladies sipping on their cool, refreshing bottles of water.  Then I remember a ton of reasons why I should drink water when I exercise and I definitely not handling it very well.

You see even in something as simple as a water bottle my blasted self-sufficiency gets in the way.  Why at the first sign of needing help do I hear that voice in my head saying “ I can handle it”.  I will tell you the main place these thoughts get in the way: my marriage.

Nowhere does the Bible tell us to become a door mat for our spouse but it does tell us to “need” our spouse.  Like Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:24, married couples are to “become one flesh.”   Can you imagine needing someone like you need your own flesh, your own body?

Needing your spouse is like needing water during a workout.   You can try to get through a good workout thinking you don’t need water but everything in your body knows you do.  Likewise, couples resist needing each other.  Why? Because , needing someone is scary.   Whether from fear of abandonment, the need for self-sufficiency or believing your spouse doesn’t want to be needed it’s easy to find reasons to hold back.  Or maybe you know you need your spouse, but you don’t want them to know you need them.

The problem with holding back in your marriage is that we all need to be needed.  Don’t leave room for your spouse to feel needed by someone else.  Show them they are needed with your words.  You’d be amazed at the impact of thanking someone for taking out the garbage or washing the dishes even though they’ve done it a thousand times.  What if your spouse knew you were proud of them for the way they treat your kids or how they handled something at work?  Apprecitaion, thankfulness, pride are all ways of saying “You’re important.  I need you.”  Saying “You’re someone I can depend on” or “ I like coming home to you.” can bless a marriage in amazing ways.

The crazy thing about showing your spouse you need them is that it’s not just good for them, it’s essential for you.  Think about how hard it is to live in a marriage not letting yourself need your partner.  Ask Jesus to help you move through your fear to find the replenishment in your marriage you so desperately need.   Self-sufficiency is not all it’s cracked up to be.  Let your spouse replenish you after the hard workouts that make up our lives.  It’s OK to let yourself need your spouse.  After all, that’s the way God intended your marriage to be.

Much more than a historical romance, Lisa Tawn Bergren creates a complex suspenseful mystery set 1800’s Colorado Territory.  The novel opens with the main character, Odessa St Clair, dying of consumption on a train to Colorado Springs to find the “cure”.  An intricate plot develops with murder, silver mines and a collection of creepy guys that keeps the reader involved.  Having a dashing rancher also battling consumption doesn’t hurt one bit!  Beyond turning to her faith for help with the troubles around her, this heroine turns to God for each precious breath.  I found the character very engrossing.  What if I knew I needed God with every breath?   The characters of Odessa’s brother (a boxer) and sister (an opera singer) are fully developed with key roles in Odessa’s story leaving me eager to read the rest of the trilogy.

Check out this short book video for a closer look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8CAfRSFtBk