Christmas Gospel Program

Last night we had the joy of watching our children and other children in our church take place in the Christmas Program.We had 2 shepherds, 1 angel, and 3 readers who were privileged to be apart of the program and they worked hard memorizing their lines and reviewing their verses and songs in the weeks leading up to last night. The presentation was written by one of the high school gals in our church and it was truly the most gospel centered Children's Christmas Program that Bryan and I have ever seen! The night started in Genesis and ended with the cross. We tend to see Jesus as the babe in the manger on Christmas and can forget that it was all to make a way to the cross. Last night, we were continually reminded!

And that truly is my prayer this Christmas season...that my heart would be fixed on CHRIST and the work that He did on our behalf. That my thoughts would be on the incarnation and the wonder of Emmanuel, God with us. That I would not be distracted, overwhelmed, scattered, hardened, or desensitized to the true wonder of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer!

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting great reminders from others that I have saved, copied and pull out each Christmas in an effort to guard my heart and keep my planning and thoughts "Christward".

Today...it's from John Piper:

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:

Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

* grace gets bigger;
* Christ gets greater;
* his death gets more wonderful;
* his resurrection gets more astonishing;
* the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
* the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
* its global extent gets wider;
* your own sin gets uglier;
* the devil gets more evil;
* the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
* its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
* and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

Pray that it won’t. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)