Nancy is pregnant with our first child :)

We’re due around July 20th (Lord willing)

We are excited beyond belief.

Nancy is doing amazingly well

We’d appreciate your prayers.

Merry Christmas :)

A little while back, I posted an excerpt of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Christmas. For the sake of completion, I found some more of that excerpt. Founders Ministries has a great collection of Spurgeons intros to Christmas messages on their blog. It’s worth checking out. Some great snips:

“…I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day.” “…I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred.” “…However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring people.” “…This is the season when we are expected to be happy; and my heart’s desire is, that in the highest and best sense, you who are believers may be “merry.” ”

Now, the complete intro from which I took a snip:

“We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior’s birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. … It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. … Probably the fact is that the “holy” days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men’s thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men’s superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.”

Other great quotes:

THIS is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Savior Jesus Christ was born on that day and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred. However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus. We do not wish to be classed with those “Who with more care keep holiday The wrong, than others the right way.”

Observe, this morning, the sacred joy of Mary that you may imitate it. This is a season when all men expect us to be joyous. We compliment each other with the desire that we may have a “Merry Christmas.” Some Christians who are a little squeamish, do not like the word “merry.” It is a right good old Saxon word, having the joy of childhood and the mirth of manhood in it, it brings before one’s mind the old song of the waits, and the midnight peal of bells, the holly and the blazing log. I love it for its place in that most tender of all parables, where it is written, that, when the long-lost prodigal returned to his father safe and sound, “They began to be merry.” This is the season when we are expected to be happy; and my heart’s desire is, that in the highest and best sense, you who are believers may be “merry.” Mary’s heart was merry within her; but here was the mark of her joy, it was all holy merriment, it was every drop of it sacred mirth. It was not such merriment as worldlings will revel in to-day and to-morrow, but such merriment as the angels have around the throne, where they sing, “Glory to God in the highest,” while we sing “On earth peace, goodwill towards men.” Such merry hearts have a continual feast. I want you, ye children of the bride-chamber, to possess to-day and to-morrow, yea, all your days, the high and consecrated bliss of Mary, that you may not only read her words, but use them for yourselves, ever experiencing their meaning: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”

Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of Mercy Me. They are a good band, just not my thing. They have had several songs however, that really moved me. “I Can Only Imagine” was obviously one, “Word of God Speak” also hit for some reason.

This season though, their version of “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day” just seems to fit really well.

Take a listen (download it from iTunes!)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Words: Henry Longfellow. 1864. Original Music: John B. Calkin, 1872

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

††

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

†† From: CyberHymnal

Historical Note: This hymn was writ­ten dur­ing the Amer­i­can civil war, as re­flect­ed by the sense of des­pair in the next to last stan­za. Stan­zas 4-5 speak of the bat­tle, and are usual­ly omit­ted from hymn­als:

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Introducing RockWorship.com. The result of a couple months hard work.

“Rockworship.com (and gcworship.com) is intended to be a resource and discussion site for worship leaders in the Great Commission Association. Hopefully it will also be a blessing to the body of Christ at large.”

I heard this on the radio today for the first time (I think?). I had to stop and make sure I wasn’t on one of the Christian radio stations in the area.

I have nothing but high praise for the Goo Goo Dolls for this song. Not sure exactly where they’re coming from in writing this, or whether they meant it to be as theologically accurate (from a certain perspective) or not, but it is an amazing song, and I fully plan on playing it at church ASAP this season.

You can currently hear a clip on The Goo Goo Dolls Web Site

Download it from iTunes: Better Days – Single

Goo Goo Dolls – Better Days And you ask me what I want this year And I try to make this kind and clear Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days Cuz I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings And designer love and empty things Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days So take these words And sing out loud Cuz everyone is forgiven now Cuz tonight’s the night the world begins again And it’s someplace simple where we could live And something only you can give And thats faith and trust and peace while we’re alive And the one poor child that saved this world And there’s 10 million more who probably could If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them So take these words And sing out loud Cuz everyone is forgiven now Cuz tonight’s the night the world begins again I wish everyone was loved tonight And somehow stop this endless fight Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days So take these words And sing out loud Cuz everyone is forgiven now Cuz tonight’s the night the world begins again Cuz tonight’s the night the world begins again

[tags]goo goo dolls, music, christmas, better days[/tags]