Category Archives: christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21).

It’s the music that’s captured my attention this Christmas. Old songs; new songs; new renditions of old songs. Perhaps more than any other Advent season I’ve experienced, this one was meant for music. It has paused me more than once and brought about the teary reflection of my heart.

Music has caught my attention. In particular, one verse from one familiar carol.

For lo, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold;
When with the ever circling years,
 Comes round the age of gold.
When peace shall over all the earth,
Its ancient splendors fling;
And the whole world give back the song…
Which now the angels sing.

The carol?

“It Came upon the Midnight Clear” written by Edmund Sears in 1858—a time in history when our country stood on the brink of civil war… civil unrest. A season when a great chasm existed between two public opinions with very little wiggle room in between. A season not unlike the one we’re living in currently.

Perhaps more than ever before, we need the witness of Mr. Sears’ “pen” as reflected in this song, especially this verse. He writes about a time fast approaching, a time spoken and written about by the prophetic poets of long ago. An up and coming age of gold when peace—an ancient peace—will unleash its fullness upon the earth so that the only response of its recipients can be…

Glory to God in the highest! Peace, now finally and forever, on earth. Very good and kindly intention toward all of God’s created—men, women, children, stranger, friend, sinner and saint alike.

Peace. Perfect peace. Found only in the Author of peace—Jesus Christ. And while we know a measure of his strength today, there is coming a day when Peace will reside over all the earth in finality. A “season” when the sky will split and Peace will descend upon his created to reign without objection. A forever filled with humbled hearts and submitted knees to the One who submitted his will to the will of his Father and entered into a fragile and needful humanity.

Without Christ’s entrance into our world, we’d have no exit into his. Read that again, and receive the depth of this truth.

The Gift and Peace of Christmas secures the future—the Golden Age where everything “ancient” births in its fullness to fling an everlasting “peace” back to its Creator in chorused thanks. How my heart and flesh long for the day when I give back to God and all of heaven the “greeting” they gave to me… to the world via a cloven sky some 2000 years ago. When I can say to him with all certainty…

Peace on earth.

Peace forever.

Peace for the journey.

The Golden Age is fast approaching, friends. Soon the wait will be over, and we’ll hold the witness of its entirety. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe as we gather at the manger in collective remembrance come Christmas morning. Would your heart, along with mine, be willing to take a few minutes on Christmas Day to give back to God the greeting he gave us at Bethlehem’s pause?

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

His favor rests with you.

Merry Christmas, friends. May the peace of Christ rule in your hearts this week. I’ll see you on the other side of Bethlehem.

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from my tree to yours…

from my tree to yours…


I don’t have much to tell you this evening.

It’s cold here; wet to boot—weather not fit for a night’s excursion to the mall or otherwise. No matter; the cash is about spent and the “to do” list almost finished. Cards are in the mail, and the buckeyes have been made. The house? Well, it could use a clean, but it will have to wait until another day when my “want to” catches up with my “need to.”

No, tonight is a night for much of nothing. For flannel jammies and a good movie or a good book. The jury’s still out as to which one will garner my attention.

There’s been a lot of that lately—attention grabbing moments vying for my notice, my time, my energies, my heart. Some of them I willingly engage; some I run from in swift retreat. They’re ample, abundant, and available enough for my continual involvement. But tonight, none of them matter much to me. None of them are strong enough to hold my interest or to sway my willingness.

Nope, tonight I just want to live with my life in solitude, away from the world and from the pressures encroaching upon my sanity. Tonight, I want to sit before my Christmas tree and drink in the peace of the season. It is, perhaps, the one thing that has kept my attention in these last few weeks.

The tree.

The tree keeps my attention.

When everything else “Christmas” dulls me, worries me, forces me to tears and to wanting to pack it all in for another year, the tree keeps me grounded and at peace with the day’s “hustle and bustle.” I only have to sit with it for a few minutes to find some beauty in the madness, to feel the warmth of its seasonal embrace.

The tree forces my notice and holds it therein. I cannot live Christmas without it. I can live without the outside decorations, the knickity-knack nightmare I claim as holiday décor, and even the Christmas pottery I’ve collected over the years. But the tree? Well, it’s a keeper. Not because it is stunningly decorated, but rather because it is stunningly peaceful.

The tree is where my heart anchors after a long day’s flight of fancy.

The tree keeps my attention.

And I suppose, there is a sermon somewhere in all of that. I’ll let you write it, friends. Something about a tree and its light, its peace and its capacity to keep ones’ attention. We could live without the rest of it, but the tree?

Well, it’s the lynchpin of our faith.

The tree keeps my attention. I pray it keeps yours as well. May its witness burn brightly in your heart this night and as you walk ever closer to Bethlehem’s beholding.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches.

Lovely, indeed. As always…

peace for the journey,

PS: Did you know that husband and me made the Endean Family Christmas letter this year? First time in history I’ve been included in anyone else’s Christmas letter other than my own. I’m pretty sure we’ve “arrived”–well, at least in their hearts. Stay warm, friends!

adoring faith…

Faith.

Mine has been challenged as of late. My spirit has been burdened by a great many things in recent weeks. I suppose the challenge to my faith has always been there—alive and present within me. But as I’ve paid closer attention to faith’s cultivation, to its proving genuine in my life from the “inside-out” rather than the other way around, I’ve noticed a shift in the temperature. The heat is on, and God is in charge of the thermostat.

Anytime one makes a commitment to growth in and with Jesus Christ, God’s going to run with it—all the way through to a good and final finish. When we put our hands to the plow and our hearts to the task of personal sacred transformation, God is faithful to do the same. His hands and his heart operate from pure intention, and he, better than us, understands the length and breadth and depth of what is required to “fit us for heaven to live with him there.”

When we offer our lives to the refining fires of faith, we make a costly surrender. Rarely will it be a smooth ride; instead, it will be a journey fraught with difficulty. Not because our Father delights in our pain, but rather because he delights in our perfection—in our drawing ever closer to his image. Thus, he takes the dailyness of our routine and interjects it with ample opportunities for faith’s cultivation.

We can squander them, or we can throw out the welcome mat to them believing that their entrance into our lives is good training ground for kingdom come.

I don’t know about you, but I want some kingdom come in my life, friends. Some “down the road” kind of glory that shines with the witness of a life that matures with the struggles rather than breaks down beneath their strain. I don’t want these past few weeks in my life to “read” as wasted, unaccounted for, needless and without purpose. Instead, I want God to strengthen me with his power, his resolve, his might, and his fierce determination to make it all count.

I may not like the “tests,” but I adore the One who allows them their work in me. I hang onto that truth when nothing else makes sense and the pain of it all nearly scatters my faith to the wind. Nearly. When my faith threatens its retreat, when it screams its resistance and its questions all the more, I cling to this anchor that has held me, kept me, grounded me, and sustained me through some of the darkest seasons of my journey.

The one fact that doesn’t retreat, doesn’t resist, doesn’t ask questions.

I adore my Father.

I don’t always understand him, but I adore him. I can’t always hear him, but I adore him. I may not always be able to see him, touch him, feel him or find him, but I always adore him. And because of that I adoration, I choose to bow to him. I choose to fall forward rather than backward. To look ahead instead of behind. To believe that today’s adoration is enough to carry me through to tomorrow’s continuation of the same, and that whatever agenda finds its way into my faith’s cultivation, it won’t be enough to shake my adulation of the Divine.

I may not have the certainty and surety of how this season in my life is going to finish, but I am certain of my adoration for the One who will finish it with me. And, perhaps, that adoration says more about my faith than I currently understand. Perhaps my faith is stronger, more potent and more vibrant than it currently feels.

Perhaps adoration is the precursor for exponential growth in and with Jesus Christ.

If so, then I’m on my way to something bigger, friends. Something grander. Something far beyond what my faith presently believes. Tonight, I’m anchored in my adoration for my King. I cannot escape my love for him; I can only give in to it and offer it to him as the best and truest witness of my heart. All else may burn to ashes, but my love for God remains.

From today until tomorrow. From this year until the next. From now until forever.

I adore my God. Thus, I pray…

Thank you, Father, for being so easy to love. For the certainty of my adoration toward you that weathers my faith’s cultivation. I cannot explain the depth of what I feel for you. It precedes sense and surpasses human understanding. I am thankful for its continuing anchor in my heart that solidifies my progression toward you and that answers all of the doubts I have concerning my refining process. Keep me to my adoration, to my love and to my worship of you, despite the many challenges to my faith. Faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these (for me and according to your Word) will always be love. Let my love for you be the guiding light to lead me home. Amen.

~elaine

Copyright © December 2009 – Elaine Olsen

Exemplify’s Christmas Issue

Take some time today to download the December/Christmas issue of Exemplify by clicking here. There are two separate sections to peruse through. Kristen graciously asked me to submit something for the issue. You can find my article entitled, Everlasting Peace, in the second section. I’m looking forward to reading it all this weekend! Thanks, Kristen, for all of the hard work you put into ministering to us via your magazine. You and “it” are gifts to the world!

Be blessed today, friends; I’ll be back tomorrow to post a piece from my current work-in-progress. As always…

peace for the journey,

born again in me this morning…

 

***

“Yea, Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning…”

Those were the familiar words that greeted me as I headed out on my morning run. The air was crisp, the sun brilliant–a fitting backdrop for Chris Tomlin’s rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful” from his newest release, Glory in the Highest. I spent the next hour cycling through the entire CD with a few repeats along the way (have I mentioned to you that I am the slowest runner in the free world?).

Over and over again, I kept hearing the words “born this happy morning…” and then another phrase–one that surfaced from the deepest well within me reserved for the Divine.

Born again in me this morning, born again in me this morning.

It was all I could do to stay upright rather than falling prostrate on the pavement in grateful thanks for the truth that Jesus Christ is born again in me this morning. He’s born again in you as well. If your eyes opened to the grace of a new day (and I imagine that to be the case if you’re reading this), then Jesus Christ should be as fresh and as new to you this day as he was in those first moments when you knew him as Lord, Savior, Messiah, Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, King of your heart.

His mangered arrival isn’t an isolated event–set in stone some 2000 years ago as a specific date in time to mark his entrance into this world. His arrival is today, just as real and as potent as it was on a starry night in Bethlehem. The Christ-child that was held in his mother’s arms intends for us to hold him in ours. To pick him up in his humanness… his Godness and to cradle him close to our hearts. To feel the gentle whispers of his tender breath upon our cheeks and to embrace the penetrating grace radiating from his glance.

When we get that, when we realize that Bethlehem is as much a part of our story as Calvary is, then we are given the grand and glorious invitation to come and to adore him. If we are amongst the faithful, then we should come each day to the manger, to the cross, to the tomb, and then to our worship. It’s our story to live. It’s our mantle to wear. It’s our privilege to tell.

Everyday, born again and afresh in us each morning. May today be a day that begins with a Bethlehem pause and that finishes with the same. Our Savior is so worthy of our notice. As always…

peace for the journey.

~elaine

PS: I want to mention a couple of great things going on in blog land this week.

1. Exemplify is hosting a Christmas spectacular in the month of December. Click here to check out all the details and the current giveaway of Casting Crowns’ Christmas CD.

2. My new blogging friend, Jackie at Fresh Oil Today, is hosting a Christmas giveaway at her blog. Check it out and sign up to win.

3. Thanks to all of you who endured my Black Friday video and found the hidden clue within regarding the giveaway. Those of you who left a comment along those lines were qualified for a name drawing to win Chris Tomlin’s CD “Glory in the Highest” and Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling”. The winners are…

Chris Tomlin CD – Cheryl B. from Cheryl’s R&R

Jesus Calling – Donna from Donna’s Booknook.

Congratulations ladies; please e-mail me your addresses, and I’ll get these to you this week!

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