Podcasts about his christmas

War Room Biden Pardons Pedophiles, Mass Murderers & Green Lights Bombings All Over the World as His Christmas to America 

In this special Christmas episode of The Crosswalk Devotional, we explore the deeper significance of Christ’s birth and the message He came to preach. Christmas is often associated with joy, gifts, and family celebrations, but at its heart, the season points to the life-changing message that Jesus brought to the world. Why did Jesus come to earth as a baby, and why does His preaching matter to us today? Join the Conversation:We’d love to hear your thoughts on the true meaning of Christmas and how Christ’s message impacts your life. Share with us on social media @LifeaudioPodcasting or via email. How do you keep Christ at the center of your Christmas celebrations? What part of His message do you find most meaningful during the holiday season? SUBSCRIBE to our sister podcasts:Your Daily Prayer: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-prayer/Your Daily Bible Verse: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-bible-verse/ Full Transcript Below: Why Christ Preached At Christmas Matters Most By Lynette Kittle “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice”-- Philippians 1:18 We may not like or approve of certain ways some Christian leaders, groups, organizations, and churches are proclaiming the Christmas story this year, yet we may want to take a step back and look at the whole picture. Although it’s difficult to observe, as often we can see how some seem to have ulterior motives rather than being motivated by the beauty of God’s message. Yet, still, they may be reaching out to those who may not have heard it before. Even if we don’t like their tactics and methods, we want to recognize that God is able to save those who hear His truth despite how it is being presented to them. It’s hard, too, for those of us who seek to handle God’s word with reverent fear and trembling and who understand the call and importance of handling it correctly to see others seeming to deal carelessly with it. Like 2 Timothy 2:15 instructs, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” Understanding God holds us accountable for the words we speak, write, and present to the world; we know He will also hold those responsible who are not so concerned in how they handle it. Like Jesus warned in Matthew 12:36, we are to be cautious. “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.” Praising God in the Midst of People’s Carelessness Still, despite their careless handling of His word, God is able to save through it, and for this we want to be thankful and praise God—not for the people who are doing so with little regard for how they present His truth, but for how He is able to reach out in remarkable ways through the most haphazardly ways His truth is presented. We want to keep in mind that the most important thing is that Christ is preached at Christmas, and that involves a broad spectrum of how it is accomplished. Like the Apostle Paul explained in Romans 10:14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” In the grand scheme of life, isn’t it better for those to hear Christ than not to hear at all, even if it’s not done in a way or method we would present it? God Has His Ways Because God has His ways of speaking to individuals’ hearts, we don’t know how He might move a person’s heart in the most unexpected time and place when it seems like nothing good could come from the situation. As a hospice chaplain, my husband shared what happened while he was leading a grief support group, and some of the members began saying why they don’t celebrate Christmas. Still, in their argument, they quoted Scripture and actually told the Christmas story to the group while trying to make a point against it. Thankfully, instead of attempting to shut the discussion down, God gave him insight and wisdom to recognize that in their attempt to discredit the story of God’s Christmas gift, they were actually spreading the truth of it to those in the group who may never have heard it before. Although the disgruntled group members didn’t realize it that evening, they were preaching Christ and possibly unknowingly through it, God was stirring hearts with the Good News of His Christmas gift of Salvation. Isaiah 55:8 describes how, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.” Intersecting Faith & Life: If troubled by how the Christmas story is being presented and represented in your community and the world at large, pray for God to reach through the carelessness and move individuals’ hearts to receive Him. Further Reading: At Christmas and Always God’s Word Never Fails https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/crosswalk-devo/at-christmas-and-always-gods-word-never-fails.html Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, which means Christmas music is officially taking over our airwaves. Two of the biggest names in the holiday music game are Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé. So, who deserves the coveted Christmas music crown? Mariah Carey, the Songbird Supreme, has been a Christmas staple since she released her iconic hit 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' in 1994. This modern classic has become synonymous with the holiday season, and its catchy melody and upbeat tempo make it impossible to get out of your head. On the other hand, Michael Bublé has been spreading holiday cheer with his smooth, velvety voice and classic sound. His Christmas album, released in 2011, features timeless tracks like 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells'. According to our resident expert, Jackie Deeble, East Coast Radio's Music Manager, Mariah takes the crown – hands down. “Mariah is the Christmas Queen. Every year she hits the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Just last week, ‘All I Want for Christmas' took the 11th spot on the World Charts,” he said. In fact, Jackie says Mariah took the crown from Boney M in 1994. “When she does her yearly defrosting videos, EVERYONE knows,” he concluded.

The Promise of ChristmasMatthew 2:1-12December 8, 2024Main Point: God is glorified through the perfect fulfilment of His Christmas prophesies.The prophesy of the Savior:1. Was of a virgin birth.2. Was of a descendant of Abraham.3. Was of a descendant of David.

There's a plethora of examples in the Bible with countless promises made and kept by a holy and incredible God. This is an inspiring fact Marty Machowski has expanded upon in his delightful Christmas devotional for families, Promises Made, Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas. Marty is an accomplished author of many Christian books and the family life pastor for Covenant Fellowship Church. His Christmas devotional is perfect for kids of all ages. Filled with beautiful illustrations and age-appropriate stories and lessons, families can read and enjoy one each day in December leading up to Christmas. “Many of my books have a multi-level age range,” Marty says. Other titles Marty has written include The Prophecy and the Hope, Dragon Seed, and The Light Before Christmas. TAKEAWAYS If you want to write your own Christian stories, there's only one way to start: by sitting down and putting your ideas on paper Write early in the peace of the morning for fresh inspiration The Light Before Christmas is an advent family devotional Promises Made, Promises Kept is published as a fun “upside down” design that can be flipped either direction

Guess what, folks? Christmas Clatter is returning for another round of holiday cheer! Todd's got some exciting stuff lined up for this season. He'll be spilling the tea on why the show's run is a bit shorter this year, and he's also going to share his thoughts on a new Christmas song by Brett Eldredge. Todd thinks it's an instant classic, so you know it's going to be good!Brett Eldredge, known for his smooth, rich voice, has become a holiday favorite with his Christmas music. He first introduced fans to his festive sound in 2016 with the release of *Glow*, an album blending timeless Christmas standards and original songs with a big band, jazz-inspired flair. Tracks like "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (featuring Meghan Trainor) showcased his crooner style, evoking the charm of Frank Sinatra.*Glow*'s success led to a deluxe edition in 2018, with additional tracks, and Eldredge has since headlined the *Glow* tour, bringing the spirit of his holiday music to live audiences. His Christmas sound is known for its nostalgic warmth, highlighted by brass, strings, and that classic swing rhythm, making it stand out among traditional country holiday offerings.In 2021, Eldredge followed up with *Mr. Christmas*, blending original songs, like the title track, with beloved holiday classics. Both albums were met with praise from fans who admire his ability to capture the magic of the season through big-band arrangements and jazz-infused melodies.Now, Eldredge is back with his third holiday album, *Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family)*. This new collection, released under his own label, Warm and Cozy Records, features eight original songs, including “Sweet December,” which Todd of Christmas Clatter has declared an instant classic.Brett Eldredge - Sweet December (feat. Kelly Clarkson) (Official Audio Video)The Essential Christmas PlaylistSpotify           YouTube Music          Apple MusicFollow us on social media for more festive content and updates:Instagram          Facebook

Talented musician Daniel DeBlanke, known professionally as Bombay Beach Revival, once ended up on tour with the legendary Prince. Yes, THAT Prince! He joins the show to talk about all things music related, including his unexpected choice for favorite Christmas movie. His Christmas songs are interjected throughout this episode, so listen in, and add yourself as a new fan to the "country-fried soul" music of Bombay Beach Revival. Bombay Beach Revival songs in this episode: 1. Christmas is Here 2. White Christmas 3. Merry Christmas 4. Trouble Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1W7pMXb6n6ZUUM9Axqi9tL?si=Ss9AjjO-TDG9RcXeh8b2VQ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIjRhXxcr11KDeLGtdKsyxQ

17. December 2023 Children's Program Hymn: “What Child Is This?” In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen. Children love to ask questions. Adults don't always like answering them. Sometimes, the questions are absurd and don't make sense. Sometimes, the answers are uncomfortable, and adults want to avoid answering. But as the children have heard me say, “There are no bad questions, only bad answers.”  An inquisitive and curious mind is God the Father's gift. Teaching is the art of stimulating conversation and investigating life's little and big things. This is part of delighting in God's creation. Even taxonomy can be fun, finding joy in naming the plants, animals, and stars. Who hasn't looked at the clouds and asked, “What does that look like?” God's gift of creation enchants us as children. At some point, we're told or conditioned to stop asking questions. What happened to the delight, joy, and discovery of learning something new? It's sad, really. There's so much to explore, pursue, enjoy, and delight in. And in learning and acknowledging that knowledge is a gift, we worship the giver of every good gift coming down from the Father of lights. Curiosity is a blessing, not a curse, no matter how many times the child asks the same question. God's Word is given for our delight, exploration, and investigation. Jesus wants us to wrestle with Him, asking questions and listening to His answers. Every day, we begin our school day by listening to Jesus' Word and then asking questions. Sometimes, the Word doesn't reveal the answer to our questions. Where Jesus is silent, we can't do anything but speculate. Guessing doesn't save us.  But some Jesus loves to have us ask Him questions about sin, death, faith, life, hope, and salvation. William Dix knew that when he wrote “What Child Is This?” one of his 300 hymns. Often used as a Christmas hymn, "What child is this?" begins with a four-phrase question, and stanza 2 has a two-phrase question, prompting the singer to answer them from the Scriptures.  “Jesus” is the answer in stanza 1, which is a survey of His nativity as He is greeted by angels “with anthems sweet” and by shepherds. Jesus is identified as Christ, King, and "son of Mary." We are to "bring Him laud," an uncommon but understandable word for "praise."  The answer to the question "Why lies He in such mean estate?" depends upon the meaning of the archaic and often confusing term "mean," understood here as "lowly," "inferior," or "humble." The "good Christian" observes this child in fear or reverent awe, for the Word made flesh asks us. He lies ignobly where animals feed in anticipation of His lowly, humble Passion, crucifixion, and death “for me, for you.” The line “the cross be borne” directs our hearts again to the purpose for which Christ was born.  Stanza 3 has no questions, but plenty of gifts are given in faith-filled response to the gift given by God in Christ, namely, salvation from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Faithful, loving hearts enthrone this King. The Wise Men brought three gifts: incense, gold, and myrrh. Everyone, from peasant to king, claims Him as his own, confessing Christ as Lord by faith.  “What Child Is This?” asks questions and directs us to the Scriptures for the answers. It encourages us to be children again, asking and inquiring from Jesus what His Christmas is all about. So, be children again. Explore, investigate, and delight as you hear the story of our Lord Jesus's nativity again. And join in joyful song as Dix brings us back to a celebration of the birth of our Lord; for Jesus, the babe, the Son of Mary, was born to die so sinners live in Him. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stjohnrandomlake/support

LIVE from the Huge Convention... I spoke with Mr. Christmas, JC! He was a speaker and went from Pressure Washing to Christmas lighting. His Christmas lighting business makes one million dollars per year! He shared a lot of tips on how to get started in Christmas lighting as well as universal business advise for any service business looking to start or grow. https://www.instagram.com/jc_chanowsky/ Contact Info Thanks for Listening!   2023 YouTube Rally @Equip Registration    Toro Grandstand Multi Force Attachments   More episode links below... https://linktr.ee/lawncarerookie   Podcast Merch https://teespring.com/stores/lcr-6   *THANKS to our Podcast Sponsor the Toro Company!  

On today's episode we are joined by Justin McGary. Justin grew up with humble beginnings, as an only child with parents who got a divorce when he was only four months old. With both his parents being entrepreneurs, he knew someday that he would probably start his own business. Growing up, whenever his mom wasn't working on her hairdressing business, she loved to go to concerts. His Christmas and birthday gifts were, a lot of times, tickets to go see one of our favorite acts perform. Early on he decided to purse a career in music. He noticed one distinct difference in EDM than the other music genres that he was a fan of was that EDM didn't have a FM radio station. Being the son of two very successful entrepreneurs, he thought creating one would be an amazing opportunity for a business. A few years later, he met his life coach / artist coach, Nik Cherwink. When they began to work together and he hired him as his coach, he was going through one of the hardest break ups he ever had. His coach encouraged him to start a podcast and exactly one month after that, the Underground Society Podcast was born.  The whole premise of the Underground Society is to help others who are in the same position he was back when my mom was taking him to concerts and he could only dream of having a career in the music industry. In this episode we discuss his story, his views on faith, and the future of the electronic music scene as it becomes more mainstream.   Connect with Justin: ·      Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinjmcgary/   Connect with Underground Society: ·      Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/undergroundsociety.edm/ ·      Website: https://www.undergroundsocietypodcast.com/   Connect with Drop Bass Not Bombs  ·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dropbassnotbombsnl/ ·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DropBassNotBombsNL ·       Website: https://dropbassnotbombs.nl/ MC Unicorn  ·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcunicornofficial/ ·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcunicornofficial  Rolita Couture – Use code MCUNICORN for 15% off ·       Affiliate Link: https://www.rolitacouture.com/?rfsn=6009866.521d60&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6009866.521d60 Dropzone Festival  ·       Tickets: https://dropzonefest.com/   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dropbassnotbombsnl/support

Tracy and Jazzer share a moment as a heaving Bull crowd cheers in the new year. Jazzer's looking forward to a cracker of a year, while Tracy would be happy if it was calm and uneventful. Elizabeth's impressed that Chelsea and Brad have come out with Tracy and Jazzer; her two have gone to Felpersham. Elizabeth explains to Kenton why she hasn't split from Vince. His Christmas present to her reminded her how sweet and thoughtful he can be. She knows her association with him is making things frosty between her and David and Ruth. Kenton advises that Vince needs to extend any olive branch he's offered Elizabeth to David and Ruth. Kenton asks what Lily and Freddie make of Vince, before the conversation turns to the anniversary of Nigel's death – 12 years this year. Despite other offers, Chelsea's chosen to spend New Year's Eve in Ambridge with her family who got her through the last year. After teasing her, Brad says that means a lot. As they watch the fireworks, Chelsea feels bad that they've ruined the prospect of a proposal between Tracy and Jazzer. She can see how much they love one another and wonders what she can do to get things back on track. Chelsea commandeers the microphone, and with Brad's help asks Jazzer if he will marry Tracy. Everyone turns to look at Tracy and Jazzer. Tracy's stunned and thinks Jazzer set it all up. They express their love for one another and announce they're getting married, sealing their declaration with a kiss.

As we're in the period between Christmas and New Year, the gap between episodes is going to be longer than normal, and the podcast proper is going to be back on January the ninth. So nobody has to wait around for another fortnight for a new episode, I thought I'd upload some old Patreon bonus episodes to fill the gap. Every year around Christmas the bonus episodes I do tend to be on Christmas songs and so this week I'm uploading three of those. These are older episodes, so don't have the same production values as more recent episodes, and are also shorter than more recent bonuses, but I hope they're still worth listening to. Transcript It's the middle of December, as you have probably noticed, and that means it's a time when the airwaves in both the UK and the US are dominated by Christmas music. The music that's most prominent in the UK will have to wait until we get to the seventies for a discussion, but this week and next week in these bonus episodes I'll be looking at a few American Christmas classics: [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Here Comes Santa Claus"] If I'd been doing these Patreon bonus episodes from the beginning of the podcast, rather than waiting for the first six months or so to do them on a regular basis, I'd have covered Gene Autry in one by about the fourth episode. He's someone whose name you'll have heard a lot in the podcast -- he was an influence on all sorts of musicians we've looked at, in all areas of music. Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Cooke, Hank Ballard, Bo Diddley, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, and Les Paul all acknowledged him as someone they were trying to imitate in one way or another, and that's just the ones where I've been able to find clear confirmation. Autry was not, in any direct sense, a precursor to rock and roll. He didn't make records that included any of the elements that later became prominent in the new music, and he didn't have a rebellious image at all. But from the early 1930s to the early 1950s, he was the single biggest star in country music. He starred in many films, had his own radio show, had a line of comics about him, and he was so popular that even his *horse* had his own radio and TV show. British people from my generation may well remember Champion, The Wonder Horse still being repeated as kids' TV in the eighties. THAT's how big Gene Autry was, and so it's unsurprising that he influenced pretty much every singer of note in the rock and roll field. But he was also, along with Bing Crosby, one of the people who pioneered American secular Christmas music: [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer"] I specify "American" secular Christmas music here, because one thing that differs between the US and the UK when it comes to Christmas is the music that's ubiquitous. In the UK, Christmas music mostly means glam rock -- you hear Slade and Wizzard incessantly, and other 70s artists like Mud. In the US, though, it means primarily the music of the forties and fifties -- the music of people like Gene Autry. Autry started his career as just another country singer, who performed as "Oklahoma's Yodelling Cowboy". His early recordings were very much in the style of Jimmie Rodgers, and were very different from his later clean-cut image: [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Black Bottom Blues"] But in 1932 he had a hit with a song he wrote, which would soon become a standard of country music, a rather maudlin ballad called "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine": [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine"] As a result of that hit, Autry started appearing in films. The first film he appeared in was a serial -- The Phantom Empire -- in which he starred as a singing cowboy who is kidnapped by people from the underground super-science kingdom Murania, descendants of the lost tribe of Mu, and has to help them defend themselves from an evil scientist who wants to steal their radium. It may not surprise you that the writer of the film came up with the plot for it while on nitrous oxide, having a tooth extracted. Autry made another forty-four films in the next five years, and every year from 1937 through 1942 he was the top star of Western films in the US, as well as having a whole series of hits with songs like "Blueberry Hill": [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Blueberry Hill"] However, in 1942 he enlisted in the army, against the wishes of Republic, the film studio for whom he worked. They told him that if he was just going to go off and fight Nazis instead of making singing cowboy films, they were going to promote Roy Rogers instead. So from 1942 through 1945, Autry was off fighting in the Second World War. After he got back, he was the *second* most successful singing cowboy film star, after Rogers. It was in 1947 that Autry got the inspiration for the song that would define his career. He was riding his horse in a Christmas parade, known as the Santa Claus Lane parade, and he heard spectators saying "here comes Santa Claus": [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Here Comes Santa Claus"] "Here Comes Santa Claus" not only charted that Xmas, it charted the Xmas after as well. Given that Autry's recording career was slowly fading, it seemed to make sense for him to record another Christmas song about Santa and see if he could repeat his success: [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"] Not only did that go to number one -- and become the first number one of the fifties -- but "Here Comes Santa Claus" charted for the third year in a row. So of course, the next year (after an Easter single, "Peter Cottontail", which also charted, but didn't have the same repeat success as the Christmas songs), he recorded yet another Christmas single, "Frosty the Snowman": [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Frosty the Snowman"] The next year, he didn't release a Christmas single at all, and he seemed to lose momentum. In 1952 he released one final Christmas record, "Up on the Housetop": [Excerpt: Gene Autry, "Up on the Housetop"] But that had nothing like the success his earlier Christmas records had. He carried on making films and TV shows until the mid-fifties, and he finally retired in 1964. He died in 1998. His Christmas records still occasionally hit the charts in December, and regularly feature in the special Holiday charts Billboard publish every year.

You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell Him you have received His Christmas gift. -John Rice

At 7PM eastern time on December 18th, 1949 Jack Benny took to the air with what had become a programming staple: His Christmas shopping episode.

We had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting to pop superstar Orlando Samuel Daniels the former front man of the band Low Bridge. He tells us about the dramatic breakdown of the band and his transition into becoming a solo artist. As well as all the negatives that come with the music industry and being a public figure, we discuss what steps OSD takes to try and stay level headed and focused. His Christmas single RUDOLPH THE WHITE NOSE REINDEER is OUT NOW

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud in "The Blue Carbuncle" first broadcast in 1954 for syndication Suspense "Korean Christmas Carol" first broadcast December 20, 1959 on CBS Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon first broadcast November 29, 1938 by McGregor Syndication

Charles George Missions Presents: Day16 – Christmas Podcast – “We Are Mary and Joseph”Hello and welcome to Day 16, of CGMissions Christmas Podcast. Today's podcast is entitled “We Are Mary and Joseph.” Today, we will hear portions of a message sent via email from Father Mel Hemann. His Christmas letter is a call for all of us to remember what Christmas is about and that we have certain responsibilities to ourselves and to each other. Stay with us to the end of this podcast for Christmas music and announcements.But first, we will start with our Christmas Memory Share from Regina from Des Moines. She will share her favorite Christmas gift and memory. If you want to contact us or comment on this podcast, please visit our website at cgmissions.com/podcast where all episodes are available by category in series format. We can also be reached on Instagram at @cgmissions, and on YouTube @cgmissions. CGM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations may be made on our website: www.cgmissions.com

His Christmas books

Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44 Series: Already/Not Yet It's the first Sunday of Advent. During Advent, we become more aware of the Already/Not Yet condition in which we live since Jesus' first arrival. Today we talk about the eternal reconciled "mountaintop experience" God has on His Christmas wishlist, and how we can live the Already in the Not Yet until Jesus returns and makes it the Now. -------------------------- Scripture Reading: Paul Layte Message in a Basket: Rev Barbara Jernigan Main Message: Pastor Jenn (Rev Jennifer A G Layte)

Rich Chambers - Songwriter/Producer/Musician/Singer Does anyone still use the term "rock n' roll" anymore? Rich Chambers certainly does. In fact, he specializes in it, bringing us all the fun, excitement, and energy from the early days of rock n' roll in a uniquely fresh way built specifically for the 2020s.  Starting with the 2019 release of his Christmas album, “Santa's Rockin' Band,” Rich has been on a roll. His Christmas album produced one single, “the Snow Miser vs. Heat Miser,” which has been streamed more than one million times on Spotify to date. Following this has been six single releases beginning in January 2021, including his film festival award-winning video for his rock original, "I'm So Tired,” which has received accolades in over 50 film festivals across the globe for its hard-hitting social commentary. His most recent release is his guitar-driven version of the Beatles, “I Saw Her Standing There,” which debuted in March 2022 to high critical acclaim.  Rich's music videos have received a combined total of well over 500,000 views, and his Spotify streaming is clocking in at approximately 25,000 listeners a month and growing. With more single and album releases planned for 2022, Chambers is making his mark as a rock n' roll artist to watch for. As one music journalist recently said in the FLEX music blog about Chambers, who hails from Langley, British Columbia: "One of Canada's best-kept secrets, Rich Chambers could easily become a household name in a matter of months!" With bombastic guitars and a vocal style that oozes rock n' roll. Rich Chambers is giving us something that rock n' roll has not seen in quite some time—energy and fun. It's Rock n' Roll Reimagined. https://richchambers.com/ https://www.facebook.com/richchambersrocknroll https://www.instagram.com/richchambersrocknroll/ https://www.youtube.com/c/RichChambers (https://www.youtube.com/c/RichChambers) www.marlanasemenza.com Audio : Ariza Music Productions Transcription : Vision In Word Marlana   Does anyone still use the term rock and roll anymore, or chamber certainly does. In fact, he specializes in it bringing us all the fun excitement and energy from the early days of rock and roll in a uniquely fresh way built specifically for today, which is a songwriter, producer, musician and singer, whose music videos have received well over half a million views and his Spotify at approximately 25,000 listeners a month and growing with more single and album releases planned for 2022 chambers is making his mark as a rock and roll artist to watch for. Welcome Rich!  Rich Hey! Thanks for that. That's a cool introduction. I like that. Thank you. Marlana   What makes your story a bit unique is that you're actually circling back around to a passion that you couldn't let go of. So, talk to us a little bit about that. Rich Correct. I mean, I'm a middle-aged rocker. And it's like most musicians, I've been doing this since I was a little kid, I picked up the guitar at 10 and started writing songs of fourteen. And that's where I got absolutely hooked, songwriting was what did it for me. If it weren't for songwriting, I would just be a hobbyist guitar player and singer, but you put songwriting in the mix, and I went nuts with it. And that's been one of my huge passions is but like many, you know, life journeys, things happen. And when I got out of high school, I was going to be the next rock star. A few cheesy days later, and about a year into that I realize, oh, this is going nowhere. I didn't want the smartest things I could have ever done when I went back to school. And then I pursued went further on as a kid very barely passed high school, I finished a bachelor's degree, a master's degree in it for a while was actually toying with PhD work. And it's pretty good considering I barely...

Let me introduce you to our local celebrity Ta'j, better known by many directors as “Lil Denzel” Washington, is on the rise to stardom. Acting since the age of eight. Ta'j is a four-time nominee; two-time award winner for Best Child Actor at the First Annual PUFA (Philadelphia Urban Film Awards); and Best Performance in a short film at the Young Artist Academy (YAA).Ta'j is known for his character personality and confidence. One word to describe Ta'j would be “humbled.”Now, 14 years old, Ta'j still finds time to enjoy acting, sports, and video games when he is not on a set doing what he knows best—acting. He has been featured and a supporting actor in such projects as “Blue Bloods”, “Good Morning America”, “Jason's Letter”, “In New York”, “Homeland”, “Power”, “Seven Seconds”, and was cast for a lead role in a short film called, “The Smell of Summer” and a web series called, “The Facts of Life”.His Christmas commercial for Sammy's Fishbox on Facebook got over 100k views. He has also appeared in “BIC” and Giant Food Stores commercials. Ta'j is a two times nominee and a mini Oscar Award winner for best performance in a short film named, “SunnySide” at the 41st Young Artist Awards, where stars are made.Ta'j was honored to be casted in the “Kai Green Documentary”.Released in August, Ta'j plays the role of young Kai, who developed into one of the world's renown professional Bodybuilder. Leslie Kai Greene (born July 12, 1975), better known as Kai Greene or Kai L. Greene, is an American personal trainer, artist, actor, and retired professional bodybuilder. He came in second place at the 2012, 2013, and 2014 editions of the IFBB's Mr. Olympia competition and has not competed in it since, though he never formally announced his retirement.[2] He is often regarded as one of the best bodybuilders to have never won the competition.Last week, Ta'j latest film, “Nobody's Son” premiered to a full house. Ta'j played, trapped in a cruel worth of death, pain and deception 12-year-old, Daniel must do whatever it takes to survive the mean streets of Philadelphia.

On this Christmas Day, we welcome in the fabulous singer/songwriter/mutli-instrumentalist John McCutcheon!John has a new album out, 'Bucket List'. We discuss meditation - both the standard way, and how music can be meditative. His Christmas song, Christmas in the Trenches, which explores the impromptu soccer game between British and German troops in the First World War.We also discuss the amazing Pete Seeger, and how brave he was during the Red Scare. Really enjoyed this one! Be sure to like and subscribe! I'm back on February 1, 2022https://www.folkmusic.com/

Christmas is right around the corner; a time for family, friends, meals and movies. Speaking of movies, Keith Robinson, actor & singer is talking about his role as Joe in the Hallmark Christmas movie “Sister Swap, A Christmas in the City”. He lets us in on how much of him and his character Joe have in common, his work processes and his self giving ratio of logic to fun. We talk about the importance of work-ing out and how it affects him, his morning routine and his upcoming Christmas plans. His Christmas single “Nothing Like Christmas Day” (yes ladies he sings too) is available now on all streaming plat-forms and the video drops today so make sure you see this extremely talented man do what he do! Stay connected with him @Keithsings on social media and see what else he is up to.

Joe Duca – Evergreen Director, Indie Filmmaker - Award-winning indie writer-director Joe Duca toured with his debut feature-length film, Evergreen (2020), winner of the Houston Broadcast Critics Association's Best Picture, Best Actress, & Best Supporting Actress Awards, Hunter Mountain Film Festival's Best Director, and the Fort Worth Indie Film Showcases Audience Choice Award, among others, prior to landing distribution through Indiecan Pictures, and a December 2020 release. Watch Evergreen on Amazon at He and our Pete A Turner discuss his indie film, how he likes to get to know the cast before shooting in order to get the best of them, how you don’t always enjoy doing what you love, how long he thinks legendary actors will “live on” through their legacy and more. For the  of this episode head to Please support the Break It Down Show by doing a monthly subscription to the show  All of the money you invest goes directly to supporting the show! ​Haiku Indie filmmaker His Christmas film ain't cliché Go watch Evergreen ​​Similar episodes: - - - Join us in supporting Save the Brave as we battle PTSD.  Executive Producer/Host: Pete A Turner  Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev  The Break It Down Show is your favorite best, new podcast, featuring 5 episodes a week with great interviews highlighting world-class guests from a wide array of shows.

This charming radio broadcast of Christmas on the Moon series follows the bed-time story of protagonist, Jonathan Thomas. The series played one episode a day in 1938 between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the help of his teddy bear and man on the moon, Jonathan sets out to rescue kidnapped Santa Claus. There can be no Christmas without Santa Claus, so when our hero finds out that he has been kidnapped and taken to the moon there is no time to spare! Like any Christmas serial, Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon is best enjoyed with your kids, one day at a time between Thanksgiving and the Most Special Day Of The Year.

Our Christmas Service is always a special time, and that was especially true this year. Pastor Lance shared out of Galatians 4:4-5, focusing how how grateful we should be that God never "cancelled" any part of His Christmas plan! His purpose for taking on flesh and dwelling among mankind propelled Him into action. Because He loved us so much, He stepped down into our world, as a helpless Baby, to live, die, and rise again. Mary and Joseph had signed on to what God wanted to do through them, they were available for this incredible plan. While we do indeed look forward to Christ's return, Pastor Lance reminds us that the Lord is not done with us yet. What does He want to pour out onto us today? How does He want to use us where we're at now? Just as Joseph and Mary were obedient and submitted to this mighty plan of redemption, so too must we obey in order to receive the blessings found in being at the center of His perfect will.

Charles George Missions Presents: Day16 – Christmas Podcast – “We Are Mary and Joseph”Hello and welcome to Day 16, of CGMissions Christmas Podcast. Today’s podcast is entitled “We Are Mary and Joseph.” Today, we will hear portions of a message sent via email from Father Mel Hemann. His Christmas letter is a call for all of us to remember what Christmas is about and that we have certain responsibilities to ourselves and to each other. Stay with us to the end of this podcast for Christmas music and announcements.But first, we will start with our Christmas Memory Share from Regina from Des Moines. She will share her favorite Christmas gift and memory. [Listen to podcast to hear Regina's Memory Share.]ClosingThank you for being with us on CGM Christmas Podcast. Join us again tomorrow when we will again share scriptures celebrating Jesus’ birth, hear an uplifting Christmas memory from another contributor, and listen to songs from our album “CGM We Love Christmas.” This is Stephanie Wright. May God’s love, peace, and protection be with you until next time, and remember, “Don’t let anything steal your Christmas.” To contact us please send an email to cgmpresents@gmail.comThe album “We Love Christmas” is a production of Charles George Missions and Macattack Productions and may be ordered on Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, and other platforms.Stephanie Wright is the media coordinator for Charles George Missions, Inc. She is the wife of Apostle Charles G. Wright. She is a mother, grandmother, daughter, attorney, pilot, podcaster, and loves the Lord. To learn more about Stephanie, visit CGM's website at https://www.cgmissions.com/meet-the-media-director/

In today's episode, I talked to Joe Cassidy. Who happens to be my uncle! He is an actor, musician, and overall one of the coolest people I know. We discussed his experiences in musicals (on and off broadway) as well as some defining career moments. He did impressions and told fun stories about different productions he's been involved with. You can see some of Joe's work by checking out Our Cartoon President where he voices John Roberts. He has appeared in Blue Bloods, The Code, Law and Order, and more. His Christmas album, Simply Christmas is available on all music platforms. ('Tis the season). Thank you for listening to the pod. For more information you can go to @ gricespeaks_toomuch_probably on instagram!

The entrepreneurial Jimmy Fred Hudson has been call the king of Redneck haiku, a backwoods Leonard Cohen , a rhythmic Edgar Alan Poe and a ton of other not so nice names. His Christmas record, Nutcracker Sweat, has become a mystical Christmas classic. From the far reaches of upper Cleveland county to the lowest lows of the low country , when not incarcerated, Jimmy Fred is a songwriting legend. According to Jimmy Fred anyway --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sandy-carlton/message

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesReclaiming Easter (Part 1) - The Miracle of EasterReclaiming Easter (Part 2) - Regaining the High GroundReclaiming Easter (Part 3) - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...EasterFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Regaining the High Ground Guest:                         Barbara Rainey        From the series:       Reclaiming Easter (Day 2 of 4)Air date:                     March 17, 2015  Bob: The cross is the universal symbol of the Christian faith; but through the years and in different countries, all around the world, there have been different styles of crosses that have represented Christianity. Barbara Rainey says, “That's a good thing.” Barbara: Jesus is universal—He's not American / He's not Western. He's for everyone—from every tongue, and every tribe and every nation, from every era. I wanted to have crosses that were international—that sort of brought us back to the idea that Jesus is for all people, for all time. Christ has been pushing into country after country, around the world, since He left us. The message is continuing to go on into every nation and every language. Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, March 17th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. This is the season of the year when all of us should be surveying the wondrous cross. We'll talk on today's program about how we can make the cross more central to our celebration of Easter. Stay tuned. 1:00 And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. The guy, who leads worship at our church, knows that, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, he is going to be leading two hymns: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” and— Dennis: I want to guess! It's one of the Gettys' songs. Bob: No. Dennis: Really!? Bob: “We Gather Together.” Dennis: But you're kind of a Getty groupie. Bob: I would not call me a groupie. [Laughter] Dennis: A Getty groupie—that kind of has a sound to it; doesn't it? Bob: I am—I have a great appreciation for their work, and we sing a lot of their hymns in our worship service. But on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, it's always “We Gather Together” and “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.” 2:00 The next Sunday, which is always the first Sunday of Advent, we always sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and we sing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” You have to sing those on the first Sunday in Advent.  On Palm Sunday, which is coming up, here in a couple of weeks—on Palm Sunday, we always sing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor, to Thee Redeemer King.” Do you remember that song? It's about the kids and the palm branches. [Singing] “All glory, laud, and honor to Thee, Redeemer King!” Have you heard this? Dennis: Vaguely. Barbara: Yes! Bob: [Singing] “…to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.” There is something about those traditions. Michael, the worship leader, is very gracious to indulge us older folks who say, “We have to sing these things.” [Laughter] There's something about those traditions that are rich with meaning. Barbara: That's right. Dennis: No doubt about it. And the voice you're hearing say, “Amen,” over here is my wife, Barbara.  3:00 Welcome back to the broadcast. Barbara: Thank you. Dennis: The most requested guest we have on FamilyLife Today. In fact— Bob: Dennis requests you every time he can. He says, “Can we have Barbara on some more?” [Laughter] Dennis: Yes! No doubt about it. [Laughter] We're all about Easter and wanting to regain the high ground— Bob: Yes. Dennis: —the holy ground for the Easter season. You've got a big idea, Barbara. It's all about contrasting what Christmas is all about with Easter—just kind of calling families to focus on something really fresh and new this Easter season. Barbara: Well, my big idea is that God would grant us the favor in helping us, as believers, raise our awareness of the importance of the holiday of Easter. We put so much energy, money, time, and effort into Christmas—and there's nothing wrong with that—but, by comparison, we spend very little time, very little money, very little energy, and very little preparation to celebrate the greatest moment of history, which is Resurrection Sunday. 4:00 I'm hopeful that, over the course of time, as God grants favor, that we can help believers understand the importance of this holiday—the magnificence of what Christ has done for us—and then help them understand some new and fun ways that they can celebrate that day and make it meaningful because, as you just said, Bob, it's their traditions that help tie those things to hearts. The more our kids understand the truth of why we celebrate / why we do what we do, the more it becomes embedded in their hearts and in their souls. They go: “This is important! This has to mean something; otherwise, Mom and Dad and the other adults wouldn't have made such a big deal about it.” Dennis: You know, we spend the entire month of December preparing for Christmas Day—it's all about giving. You think we need to be spending the weeks, leading up to Easter, focusing on what theme around Easter? Barbara: Focusing on the theme of forgiveness.  5:00 Forgiveness is something we all need. We all need it, individually, because we all have offended God, at our core, because of our selfishness. We all, individually, need forgiveness.  Every one of us needs forgiveness, and we need to understand how it works—we need to understand how to give it / how to grant it—we need to understand the whole process because, in relationships with people, we need to practice forgiveness—so in your marriage / in your home with your kids—your kids need to learn how to forgive one another—at school with kids on the playground, and classmates, and bullies, and teachers who aren't fair, and all of that stuff—business relationships. We all need to understand and practice forgiveness—those of us who are called by Christ—focusing on forgiveness at Easter because of what Christ did for us and then the practical application into our lives of how we can be better forgivers. Dennis: And I think that's what a family is all about—that is following Christ—is learning how to forgive and love people, just as God, in Christ, loved and forgave us. 6:00 Bob: And this is something that has been a passion of yours for—well, it's a growing passion—because I've heard you talk about this pretty much every spring for the last couple of years, at least. Barbara: Right. Bob: You have been raising the banner on Easter— Barbara: Yes. Bob: —and saying: “Let's draw some attention to this holiday. Let's use it as a discipling tool in our home.” Barbara: Yes. Bob: And not just for our kids because our hearts need to be drawn back to this theme as well. Barbara: Oh, absolutely. Yes, I think that it is a growing thing for me—it is a growing passion that I have. When our children were little, I remember wanting to make more of Easter and wanted to do more for Easter; but I didn't really know what to do, and I was so busy and overwhelmed, and so I couldn't—I didn't do anything. Dennis: So you've created something called Behold the Lamb. Barbara: Yes. After our kids left, I had the time and the freedom to be able to think creatively, “What would I have liked to have had, when I was a mom, raising kids?”  7:00 One of the things that we created is Behold the Lamb. It comes in this cute little metal tin—inside are eight cards. What I like about those is—I can picture myself doing that with my kids, when they were at home and they were growing up, because each of them have a very short little lesson—I guess, for lack of a better word—that you can probably read in three minutes/four minutes. It doesn't take very long. Dennis: I've done it with our grandkids. Barbara: Yes. Dennis: They're all around the statements that Christ made: “I AM.” Barbara: Exactly. Dennis: “I am the Messiah,” “I am the Bread of Life,” “I am the Light of the World,” “I am the Door.” I took one of our grandkids through this—it took me less than five minutes. I know because my grandchild stayed on my lap the entire time and didn't crawl off. Barbara: Yes. Dennis: It was interesting that you were able to communicate the importance of what it meant when Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life,” in a practical way to him—or her—and bring them into the celebration of Easter. Barbara: Yes; it gives moms and dads something that's very easy to do—  8:00 —pick out a card, read a card as the kids are packing their lunches or you're eating breakfast or whatever. Just read it very quickly or have one of your kids read it while you're driving in the car to school. It sort of sets the tone, not only for the day, but it's a way to do something meaningful every day of Holy Week, leading up to Easter. Bob: Yes. You mentioned there are eight of these cards. The thought would be that you could get the cardholder out— Barbara: Yes. Bob: —on Palm Sunday. Barbara: Yes. Bob: That would be when you would read the first of the eight cards. Barbara: That's correct. Bob: One a day; and then, on Easter Sunday, eight days later, you get to “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” You get a chance to unfold the resurrection of Christ; right? Barbara: Correct. What it does is—it allows you, as parents, to engage your kids in the meaning of Easter on those days leading up to Easter. There's something to read every day for those eight days up until Easter Sunday.  Bob: Is this something you can read to a five-year-old, or a ten- year-old, or a fifteen-year-old? 9:00 Barbara: I think you can read to as young as a five year-olds, yes—through eighteen. You know, the eighteen-year-olds—I don't think they're going to be bored by it because it's short—they're not going to roll their eyes and go, “Oh, it's another story about David and Goliath!” These are stories about what Christ did each of the days of His last week of life. So, when you look at that and you think about Jesus coming into the Temple, an eighteen-year-old/sixteen-year-old—they can imagine what that might have been like because He knew He was about to be executed. Bob: Yes. Barbara: As you lead your children into thinking about these, you just don't know, when they get off the bus or when they're walking between classes, what they're thinking about. It's a way to invest, spiritually, in your children, leading up to Easter. Dennis: You actually got an email from a radio listener—. Barbara: I did! Dennis: —who wrote quite a story about a little boy by the name of Nathan. Barbara: Nathan, yes.  10:00 His mom wrote a really long story about the whole process, but the bottom line is that she used the Behold the Lamb cards. As God would have it, when they read the Palm Sunday story, Nathan decided that that was the impetus for him wanting to receive Christ.  Dennis: Yes, I'm reading it. The little boy turned to his mom and said: “Mom, you're talking about things that are eternal. When I die, will I go to heaven?” So it gave the mom an opportunity to talk about how Jesus is the door—He is the way, the truth, and the life. He's how you get to heaven, and you can have a personal relationship with Him. She led him to Christ, at that point. It was the end of a lot of conversations she had had with that little boy. Barbara: Yes. Bob: These cards can go back in the card holder, but you've also—you've got—what is it?—a chain?  Barbara: Yes; if you buy it, it comes with what we call a “chain garland.” It's a chain that has 15 little metal clips. You can clip the cards on the chain and hang it on your fireplace mantle or you can hang it on a wall—or you can put little push pin tacks on the wall and hang it on that. It's a way that you can—almost like counting down the days to Christmas.  11:00 You hang up a card, one each day, until Easter Sunday. Bob: Yes. Barbara: Kids like that. Kids like counting down the days until—I mean, they count the days until their birthday, they count down the days until school is out, and they count down the days until they can go to camp. There's something about building anticipation that's important for all of us. As you read these cards and you hang them up, one by one, you're building the sense of anticipation for the grand finale, which is Easter Sunday. It helps prepare kids' hearts for understanding that this is really a big deal. Bob: I was counting down the days to the jelly beans. Barbara: Yes, jelly beans at Easter.  Bob: You didn't like jelly beans?! Barbara: No, I didn't like jelly beans. Bob: Did you like—  Barbara: Chocolate eggs! [Laughter] Dennis: You've got to keep in mind that this was before they created the kind of jelly beans they have today. Bob: The gourmet jelly beans! Dennis: Yes, no doubt about it. Barbara: Well, I might have liked the gourmet jelly beans, but I didn't like the originals. [Laughter] Bob: In addition to the garland that's hanging in the home—that is reminding you that Easter is just around the corner, you also have designed crosses.  12:00 Listeners, who were listening at Christmastime, remember that we talked about seven crosses/ornaments that could be hung on your Christmas tree. They're called Adorenaments®.  Barbara: Yes. Bob: You actually had Easter in mind when you made the Christmas ornaments; right? Barbara: We did because the thing about the names of Christ that I think is so important is that we need to know the names of Christ every day of the year, not just at Christmas or not just at some other holiday. We need to be reminded of who He is and what He has done for us. When we created the crosses, we wanted to be able to find a way for them to be displayed at Easter. As we decorate our homes for Christmas, we wanted to have some things that people could put up at Easter that, again, are visual reminders that help us remember what the Easter holiday is all about.  We have a set of three crosses for Easter. You can put them on your dining room table and create a really nice arrangement, say on Palm Sunday, and it is there all week.  13:00 It's a reminder to the family, all week long, that: “This is Easter week,” / “This is Holy week. This is really a big deal.” You can put them on your kitchen counter—you can line them up in a window or put them on the fireplace mantle. The sky's the limit, really, as to how you want to use them. Bob: You're not hanging them on a tree Barbara: No. Bob: You've got stands for them— Barbara: Yes. Bob: —so they can sit on the stands. They're three different heights— Barbara: Yes, they're graduated heights. Bob: —so there's a little bit of an artistic touch to it; right? Barbara: Exactly! That was very nice of you—I appreciate that. [Laughter] Dennis: And the cool thing about this is—when Barbara set out to create Adorenaments, she did so around the names of Christ. The first year was around His Christmas names, from Luke and Isaiah. Barbara: Yes. Dennis: The next year was His royal names—each of the Adorenaments is in the shape of a different crown. This year, you've chosen different crosses from different periods/different eras of church history. Each of these three crosses bears a different name. 14:00 Barbara: Correct. One of the reasons that—it was really fun to do, I have to say—to do the research on all the different kinds of crosses. If you've not ever done it, just google “crosses” and look at how many different shapes, and sizes, and designs there are. It's very fascinating, but it was fun to do the research. Part of the reason I wanted to do it is because Jesus is universal—He's not American / He's not Western. He's for everyone—from every tribe, and every tongue, and every nation—from every era. I wanted to have crosses that were international—that sort of brought us back to the idea that Jesus is for all people, for all time.  We have a Celtic cross. We have an Armenian cross. We have an Ethiopian cross. We have the Jerusalem cross. The idea is— Dennis: One of them is right here—it's the anchor cross. Barbara: Oh, yes. I forgot the anchor cross. The idea is that each shape of the cross also has history to it because Christ has been pushing into country after country, around the world, since He left us. The message is continuing to go on into every nation and every language. 15:00 Bob: The three names that you've selected to display at Eastertime are Great High Priest, Mediator, and Messiah. Barbara: Yes, correct. Bob: Messiah is one we all know—Jesus is the Messiah. That's pretty common. Barbara: Yes. Bob: But I'm not sure that people really stop and think about what it means that Jesus was—and is—the Messiah, the Promised One of God. Barbara: Yes. What is so interesting is that Jesus was promised, from the very beginning. I don't think that's as common to all of us, as believers, as it should be. From the very beginning, He was promised—the Jewish people knew it. They knew He was promised, and they looked for centuries for the coming Messiah. They knew that the Messiah was going to come and deliver them.  Messiah actually means “Anointed One” in Hebrew. It also means “Savior.” The term, “Messiah,” was a term that was used often in the Bible to refer to this “Coming One.”  16:00 We know Him as Jesus—Jewish believers know Him as Jesus. But most of the Jews do not know who He is yet—they still think He is yet to come. Bob: Jews in the Old Testament had developed a picture of who the coming Messiah would be—what He would look like / what He would act like. Barbara: Yes. Bob: It was really just one aspect of His Messianic ministry. Barbara: Yes, the Jews in the Old Testament thought the Messiah was going to come as a conquering King—He was going to deliver them. They had been oppressed over, and over, and over again. They really hung onto those prophecies of Him coming as their deliverer; but they overlooked the fact that Jesus is also spoken of, in the Old Testament, as one who was going to come and be their “Suffering Servant.” He was also going to be their sacrifice. That missed their eyes and their understanding—most of them. Bob: Which is why—when Jesus was declared as the Messiah /when people said, “Could He be the Messiah?” others looked and said, “No, He can't be because He's not here with a sword.” 17:00 Barbara: —“with a sword.” Bob: “He's not here on a horse, charging in and toppling political structures.” Barbara: Yes. Dennis: “He's not a politician.” Bob: There is a day coming when He'll come on a horse with a sword. Barbara: He will! That's right. Bob: So His Messianic ministry will fulfill that picture. Barbara: Yes. Bob: But they missed the first coming; didn't they? Barbara: They did. That's a part of why Easter is such a wonderful celebration because we, not only celebrate what He did for us on the cross, but we celebrate that He's coming back because that first part of what He was to do is fulfilled and now we're waiting on the second part—we're waiting on Him to come back again. I think, at Easter, we not only celebrate what He did for us in the past, but it's a time to look forward to what He is going to do in the future. It may be a very near future too. We've been waiting for a long time, and it may be just around the corner. That makes celebrating Easter even more fun. 18:00 Dennis: It does. And I don't think I've asked you, even though I watched you create these: “Why did you pick the anchor cross?”—which is really pretty interesting; isn't it Bob? I don't think I'd ever seen this until Barbara created this—but it's a cross that, literally, is in the shape of an anchor—I didn't know there was one. “Where did you find it; and why did you decide to put ‘Messiah' on that cross?” Barbara: Well, two answers to that question. As I was looking through for different shapes of crosses, I found the anchor cross. When I saw it, I remembered that, when I was a child and I went through confirmation class in my church—I don't know if it was my parents or somebody else—but somebody gave me a charm for my charm bracelet. Charm bracelets were really a big deal then. The charm consisted of three small charms, all looped together on one ring. There was a cross, which represented faith; there was a heart, which represented love; and then there was an anchor. At the time, I had no idea what the anchor meant; but I came to learn that the anchor represents hope. In 1 Corinthians, we hear “faith, hope, and love, these three.” 19:00 So, faith is the cross, love is the heart, and the anchor is hope. There's a verse in Hebrews, where it talks about Jesus being “the anchor of our soul.” It talks about—we have hope because of Jesus being the anchor. It was just obvious to put “Messiah” on the anchor cross because the Messiah is our Savior—He is our hope / He is our anchor. Because of Him, we can be sure and we can have a steadfast faith that will not waver because of what He has done for us. Bob: Each of these ornaments that you can display on a stand—there is a card for each one that explains, not only the name that's displayed, but a little bit about the cross. If your kids are looking and say, “That looks like an anchor,” you have an opportunity, as a mom or a dad to say, “Well, let me read this to you,” and explain to them what's going on. Barbara: Yes; because I think we have lost—in the modern church, we have lost a lot of our historical Christianity. The anchor cross has been around almost since the time of Christ.  20:00 It's been around for a long, long time. I had forgotten all about it. I don't think too many people even know what it stands for and why it's important. I think we need to recapture some of that. I'm hopeful that the focus on Jesus as our Messiah and He is also our anchor—He holds our faith steadfast because of what He does—I hope that becomes more common knowledge in the church as we talk about who He is and what He did. Dennis: And I think one of the things we don't talk a lot about today is the Savior's different names. You know, each of these names gives us a different facet. It's almost like He is a diamond and each of these names is a facet of His glory and of His character. You come to know Him by virtue of His names, and what He's like, and who He is—then, passing those names onto our children to introduce them to Him as well. 21:00 Messiah gets at the heart of the issue. He came to save us from our sins—that's what Easter is all about.  Bob: And I really think people need to get a visual of what we've been talking about. I mean, we can describe the resources you've been working on, Barbara, but folks need to see what these crosses look like—what the anchor cross looks like, and what the Ethiopian cross looks like, and the stands that they can hang on, and the other resources that you've been working on. There's the Easter banner—there's the Behold the Lamb chain with the cards that attach to that. You've got a lot of Easter resources that you've been working on.  Barbara: Yes. Bob: If folks go to EverThineHome.com, they can see the complete collection. We've put a website together so that folks can see all that you've been doing. Again, it is EverThineHome.com to see FamilyLife's collection of resources that have been designed by Barbara Rainey.  22:00 You can also call if you have any questions about these resources, or you can order over the phone. Our toll-free number is 1-800-FL-TODAY. That's 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then, the word, “TODAY.” Or, again, go to the Ever Thine Home website, which is EverThineHome.com. You know, we have talked, for years, here on FamilyLife Today, about how strategic holidays can be in a family's life—how you can take advantage of these naturally-occurring dates on a calendar to share biblical truth with your kids—use as a discipling opportunity. In fact, it was a couple of decades ago that we developed a resource called Resurrection Eggs® that puts symbols from Holy Week in these 12 eggs and allow children to learn the Easter story by opening these eggs, one egg at a time, and learning what the donkey means, and learning why there's a crown of thorns, or learning why there are nails included in the eggs. 23:00 We've heard some great stories about how parents and grandparents have used this resource with their children, their grandchildren, neighbor kids, kids at school. We thought, this year, we'd love to send a set of Resurrection Eggs to any listener who will put these eggs to good use. If you'd like a set, all we would ask is that you would make a donation to help support this ministry; and we are happy to send a set to you. We are listener-supported—we depend on your donations to do the work we do. If you will go to FamilyLifeToday.com, and click the link that says, “I CARE,” and make an online donation—be as generous as you can possibly be—we will send you a set of Resurrection Eggs as our thank-you gift for your financial support.  Again, the website: FamilyLifeToday.com. Click the link that says, “I CARE,” and make an online donation; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY. Make your donation over the phone and request a set of Resurrection Eggs.  24:00 Of course, you can mail a donation to FamilyLife at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR. Our zip code is 72223. Make sure you let us know that you are interested in a set of Resurrection Eggs when you mail a donation, and we'll get them mailed to you.  And we hope you can join us again tomorrow when we're going to talk more about the names of Jesus that we ought to be meditating on as we head toward the celebration of His resurrection. I hope you can tune in for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.  Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 1) - A Call to AdventCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 2) - Being StillCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 3) - Introducing Your Kids to the SaviorCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 4) - His Savior NamesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 5) - Remembering Christ at ChristmasFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Remembering Christ at Christmas Guests:                      Dennis and Barbara Rainey and Laura Rainey Dries    From the series:       Celebrating Advent (Day 5 of 5)Air date:                     December 2, 2016  Bob: The season of Advent is a time for us to be thinking about when Jesus came and about the fact that He is coming again. Here's Barbara Rainey.  Barbara: We know that when He came—His first advent—when He came and was born as a baby in a manger, He came to serve us, He came to redeem us, and He came to deliver us. He was still King in all eternity, but He didn't walk on earth as the King. He walked on earth as a Servant and as a Savior; but someday, He will come back. There will be a second advent of Jesus Christ. And when He comes back again, He will come back as King of kings and Lord of lords.  Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Friday, December 2nd. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey. I'm Bob Lepine. In the songs we sing during this part of the year, in our traditions, and even in how we decorate our homes, there's an opportunity for us to be making spiritual statements and reminding ourselves and others of the reason for this season. We'll explore that more today. Stay with us.  1:00 And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Friday edition. Here it is December. I always think of December as a good time just for reflection—although, typically, not the first part of December. Usually, it's the end of December when you have a few minutes to catch your breath and kind of reflect on what the year has been. Usually, the first part of the month, you've got— Dennis: It's a sprint.  Bob: —you've just got so much going on. But this has been a great year for us, at FamilyLife. We've been celebrating our 40th anniversary as a ministry this year. It has been fun for us to take some time and just look back on how we've seen God at work in this ministry for four decades.  Dennis: And I was recently looking back on how God worked in the past 12 months.  2.00 Bob, you know, we impacted a record number of people—18.8 million visited our website; listened to FamilyLife Today / Real FamilyLife®; have been to an Art of Marriage® / a Weekend to Remember® event; bought Passport2Purity®. We're making an impact in the most important institution in our country. I believe that mission is the mission of the hour.  If you believe it as well, could I challenge you, here at yearend, to stand with us with a generous gift to keep FamilyLife Today coming on strong on this station to make a difference in the marriages and families in your community?  You may be investing in another family who is raising the son or daughter who marries your son or daughter. So, why don't you participate with us in this mission of strengthening the most basic unit of our nation, the family?—and doing it—listen to me— 3.00 —doing it around the person of Jesus Christ and the truth of the Bible. I believe this is needed, now, as never before.  Bob: You can make a donation by going, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com; or call us to make a donation at 1-800-FL-TODAY; or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today. Our address is PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; and our zip code is 72223.  Now, this Sunday is going to be—actually, it's going to be the first Sunday in December, but it's the second Sunday in the Advent season. You know, Christmas is on a Sunday this year.  Dennis: That's right.  Bob: Will your church cancel, or will they have services?  Do you know?   Dennis: That's a good question!   Barbara: I don't know.  Bob: It's always hard to know what to do, because Christmas morning is such a family time. There are so many traditions that to try to say, “Okay; we want to go to church too,” just feels out of the normal rhythm—I mean, I get that.  4.00 Dennis: Yes; and I'm thinking of one child in our family who—if I would have said, “You know, we're all just going to get cleaned up and go to church first before we get about celebrating Christmas,”— Bob: Yes?   Dennis: —I think this child—she might have completely split in half. [Laughter]   Bob: Disinherited herself from the family— Barbara: Yes; she would have.  Bob: —and said, “I'm joining somebody else's family for this Christmas.”   Dennis: In fact, she's out in the production area of our studio here—Laura. We've asked Laura to come in here, recently, a couple of times. So, Laura, would you come into the studio and just explain how difficult it was for you to wait—the concept of waiting?   Bob: And while you're coming in—and Laura, welcome, by the way—welcome back into the studio. While you are coming in, can we just acknowledge that there might be a heredity link to Laura's impatience that, maybe, somebody—[Laughter] Dennis: Now, why would we want to meddle in that stuff?   5.00 Bob: Barbara, would you like to explain why there might have been a heredity link to this?  [Laughter] Do you know anybody else who might have gotten impatient around Christmastime?   Barbara: It wasn't me. [Laughter]  I know that!  Laura: Who it was? Barbara: Maybe, that's it—maybe, it's being the youngest in the family; because I was the firstborn. My mother remembers this—I hoarded my presents / I kept them to the side. I opened them very slowly, because I wanted it to last all day long. But Dennis was not that way.  Bob: I wasn't either—I was the last born. So, I was the one who thought 5.30 was the appropriate time to go open presents on Christmas morning.  Laura: Absolutely.  Bob: Right?   Dennis: Before the sun was up?   Bob: Well, you know me—morning time is not my— Dennis: Oh, yes.  Bob: —favorite time; but on Christmas morning— Barbara: It was your favorite time!   Bob: —it was a whole different deal. So, getting up early on Christmas, I was all about that as well.  Dennis: There are going to be some people, though, who listen to what we're talking about here—they are going to say, “You guys—you are heretics that you wouldn't go to church on Christmas morning.”  6.00 Laura, would you just comment on what that would have done to you if I'd had said. “Okay; Laura, let's go to church. You can wait another two hours to open the presents”?   Laura: I probably would have cried; because I cried already whenever my older siblings would tease me and be like. “I've got to take a shower,” “I've got to dry my hair,”… Barbara: Because they were teenagers when you were five.  Laura: Yes; “We've got to eat breakfast.”   Bob: So, is there—was there an imposed start time?  [Laughter] Did you have a time you had to stay in bed until?   Laura: Oh, I'm sure that we did. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but I'm fairly certain I was the first one knocking on my parents' door.  Bob: Did you have a routine for going to the tree?  Did everybody have to go together?   Laura: We did. Well, we switched it up every single year. It depended on whatever Dad—his creativity.  Bob: Whatever he came up with.  Laura: Whatever he came up with. And so, one year, it would be—youngest to oldest—which was always my favorite because I got to see in—I got to look around the living room. I tried not to peek, but it was really hard.  7.00 My little five-year-old heart couldn't handle it. One year, it was oldest to youngest; and that was traumatic. Then, boys wind up first and then girls. You know, he got creative with it.  Dennis: I think what God was doing, though, Laura, was—He was preparing you to wait until you were 31 to get married.  Barbara: Oh, maybe, that's it!  [Laughter] Laura: Maybe, that's what He was doing.  Dennis: He was building the discipline in you.  Laura: If only I knew, back in the day, that's what was happening.  Dennis: She's celebrating this Christmas with her new love-of-her-life, Josh. They'll undoubtedly come visit us, Bob—I would think they'll come visit us.  Bob: So, that's a question. “Where are you celebrating Christmas?  Have you worked it out yet?”   Laura: We have. We spent Thanksgiving with my mom's family at the farm. Then, this year, we will spend Christmas with his family; but we—his family celebrates Christmas Eve. So, Christmas Eve is the time where we exchange gifts and have a delicious dinner.  8.00 Little Rock's not too far away. So, we might just hop on I-40 on Christmas morning and pop over to see my parents.  Bob: Or just drive over Christmas Eve night, because you can leave at midnight. [Laughter]   Laura: Right; exactly. Yes! We could be Santa.  Dennis: You could be there, waiting on the steps— Laura: That's right!   Dennis: —to open presents.  Barbara: Yes; you and Josh could get in line. That would be a new twist.  Laura: Matching PJ's. [Laughter]  Can't wait!   Dennis: Well, we're laughing about these traditions, but Barbara has created a new tradition for families to help them bring the reality of Jesus Christ into your Christmas celebration. She's created a number of Adorenaments®. They're ornaments that are all based upon the names of Christ.  The first year was His Christmas names from Luke, Chapter 2, and Isaiah. The second year was His royal names—we're going to talk about that in a moment. The third year was His Savior names. The fourth year—the names of Christ in some of the most widely-used languages around the world.  9.00 And this year, your new Adorenaments are, actually, not metal—these are globes. They are actually heavy as well.  Barbara: Yes; they are round globes, and they have the continents on them so it looks like the planet, earth. On each one of the four globes is a name of Christ that reminds us why He came to earth when He was born in Bethlehem.  One of them says, “Jesus is the Light of the World.”  One of them says, “Jesus is the Messenger,” because He came to bring us the message of good news. One of them says, “Jesus is the Son,” because He came and was born as the Son of God. And the fourth one is “Jesus is the Word.”  We learn in John that Jesus is the Word, and He came to dwell among us. So, each of those four names tell us something about why Jesus came and was born in a manger in Bethlehem for us, who live on planet earth.  Bob: I mentioned that this Sunday is the second Sunday in the Advent season.  10.00 Some churches will address Advent / others don't. Advent really just means “coming.”  It's about a period of waiting and anticipation for the coming of Jesus. Christmas is referred to as His first advent,— Barbara: That's right.  Bob: —because there is a second advent coming.  Barbara: There will be a second advent. That's really what this set of ornaments—this set of names that we're going to talk about today—is all about. It's about Jesus as our King. We know that when He came—His first advent—when He came and was born as a baby in a manger, He came to serve us; He came to redeem us; He came to deliver us. He was still King in all eternity, but He didn't walk on earth as the King. He walked on earth as a Servant and as a Savior.  But someday, as you referred to, He will come back. There will be a second advent of Jesus Christ. And when He comes back again, He will come back as King— 11.00 —King of kings and Lord of lords.  And the ornaments that we are talking about today are a series of crowns—they are seven crowns—and each of them has one of his royal names on them. We, as believers, need to look forward to that. Just as we have a sense of anticipation—that we were talking about earlier—in the month of December, looking forward to Christmas Day as a remembrance of His first advent—God wants us to live with a sense of anticipation, every day of our lives, as we think about His coming back again.  And when He comes back again, He will not come as a baby. He will come as a King, and that's what these ornaments help us remember.  Dennis: And I've just pulled out two that Barbara rushed by, because these are just powerful names—King of kings, Lord of lords. It's only used two times in Scripture. This is not a casual name that was given to Christ. The Apostle Paul used it as he wrote to Timothy, and the Apostle John wrote about it in the Book of Revelation. 12.00 Now, I want you to just, again, think about that title—King of kings / all tens of thousands of those kings who lived and died. This King came; He died; He rose again from the grave; and He's coming back. There is a second advent that will be spectacular.  Bob: Well, if you live in a kingdom, the king is the one with supreme authority. Whatever the king says goes. If Jesus is the King of kings, then, His authority trumps all other authority. We talked earlier this year, on FamilyLife Today, about the fact that we do live as citizens of a different kingdom—the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the King. Our allegiance—before our allegiance to our country or to our family, even—our highest allegiance goes to the kingdom of heaven.  Barbara: That's right.  13.00 That's why it is good for us to remember, at Christmas, that Jesus is a King. He is our King, and He owns us if we belong to Him. We owe Him our allegiance and our loyalty. Remembering that He is a King—and didn't just come as a baby—but He is coming back as a King is good for us to focus on at Christmas when we think about all of the different names of Jesus Christ. There are names that refer to Him and His royalty as the King. It's good for us to remember that.  Dennis: And if you want to read—I bet you, as a listener, haven't been spending much time here—but if you want to read a spectacular setting that occurs near the end of the Book of Revelation, go to Chapter 19 and look at, beginning at verse 11, where there is a rider on a white horse. And this is the place where the title, King of kings and Lord of lords, comes out.  14.00 It's basically a battle between God and evil—it's the final battle. It is Jesus Christ who is on the white horse, coming to conquer. He is not—as Barbara said—He is not the Suffering Servant who came to be the Lamb—on this particular occasion, He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords; and He is coming to take over. It's spectacular.  It says in verse 16, “On the robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, King of kings, Lord of lords.”  I think the key question is. “Do you know Him?  Do you know the King?  Do you have a relationship with Him?”  This is going to happen—this is more real than this studio that we are broadcasting from. It's more real than the car you're sitting in; or the house that you're listening to this radio broadcast in; or walking, listening, as you take a walk, on your device.  15.00 This is sure and certain. This will become reality.  Bob: We have an experience that we both have shared, but we didn't share it together. I remember being in New York, back in the 1980s. I was there during the Christmas season and there on a Sunday. I got tickets to go see the Radio City Christmas Pageant. It was the last show of the night, and they still had some tickets available. One ticket—that's all I needed. I went to see it, and it was fun—it's like a big variety show, like the old TV variety shows.  But I was surprised—and you had the same experience—I was surprised there was a spiritual element to this Christmas pageant at Radio City Music Hall in New York City that I thought. “Oh! They know what this is really all about.”   Barbara: Yes; Dennis and I went for the first time— 16.00 —I don't know—was it the ‘80s, or was it the ‘90s?   Dennis: I don't remember.  Barbara: We went and got tickets, and we thought the same thing that you did. We thought. “This is entertaining. This is beautiful. It's lavish / it's amazing—it's fun.” Then, it turned on a dime, when there was a pause in the action on stage and the lights dimmed. All of a sudden, they began to display a nativity scene—a live nativity scene. In came the shepherds and in came the—and they had real sheep—and in came Mary and Joseph. They had the stable scene; and then, down the aisles came a procession with camels, and the kings, and their servants.  We were—I remember I was just as stunned as you were. We were wide-eyed, because we had no idea that this was a part of the program. They went down the aisle, and the music was appropriate. The lighting and all of this— Bob: I thought I was at church for a minute.  Barbara: Yes; it felt like church!   Bob: Yes!   Barbara: I couldn't believe we were in New York City, watching this amazing display of the Christmas story in front of us with live animals— 17.00 —I mean, it was spectacular.  Dennis: And at some point, after they made the turn—I don't remember exactly how it started—but they began to read a poem called One Solitary Life. And I just remember it was a powerful, emotional moment—that, here, in the most powerful city in the world, people were going to stop / they were going to recognize who Christ is. And this show, which was to entertain the wealthy, the powerful, and the elite—people from all walks of life—recognized the Savior.  I hadn't read this in a while—I pulled it up, online; and I read it. I just want to read it to our listeners, just to remind you of the power of our King.  He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him.  18.00He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only thirty-three. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.  19.00 When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone; and today, Jesus is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that One Solitary Life. Bob: The Christmas season is all about—not just the birth of Jesus— 20.00 —but the coming of Jesus and the reason for His coming—His redemptive work / the message of the gospel—ultimately, the cross and the resurrection. And that's what we're hoping all of us will keep at the forefront of our holiday celebration over the next few weeks.  I want to, again, encourage you—if you've not seen the work that Barbara Rainey has been doing in creating ornaments that can hang on your tree that proclaim the names of Jesus, go to FamilyLifeToday.com. This year's set of ornaments—four globe-shaped ornaments—that talk about Jesus as the Son, the Messenger, the Word, and the Light. And of course, we have previous sets available as well. We have 30 ornaments total, and you can see them all when you go to FamilyLifeToday.com. You can order from us online, or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY to order. Again, it's 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then, the word, “TODAY.”   21.00 By the way, if you have the FamilyLife Today mobile app on your smartphone or on your tablet, that app is going to have some special content loaded into it. I think it already does have some devotionals and some ways that you can engage people in conversation during the holiday season to have conversations about Jesus at Christmastime. If you don't already have the app, it is free. Go to your app store and download it. It gives you instant access to FamilyLife Today anytime you'd like to listen. Past editions of the program are available, as well, along with special content like we're featuring this month that's all about Christmas. Again, get the FamilyLife app when you go to your app store and download it to your device.  Now, this weekend, we've got two Weekend to Remember® getaways taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / Albany, New York. We've got hundreds of couples getting ready to kick off a fun, romantic weekend together. Then, next weekend, we wrap up the fall with getaways in Charleston, South Carolina, and out in the Valley of the Sun— 22.00 —in Phoenix, Arizona. And of course, we'll start up our Weekend to Remember getaway season just before Valentine's Day in February. Please pray for the couples who are attending the getaways this weekend. And if you'd like to give a getaway gift certificate as a Christmas gift, go to FamilyLifeToday.com. More information is available there.  And finally, don't forget the matching-gift opportunity that we're hoping to take advantage of during the month of December. All month long, we've asked our friend, Michelle Hill, to keep tabs on our matching gift and let us know each day how we're doing in terms of being able to take advantage of this matching-gift offer. And she is here today with details of the match and an update on how we're doing. Michelle?   Michelle: Hey, Bob. Well, we are just getting started; but I'm pretty excited because we are already receiving our first matched donations.  23.00 As I said yesterday, those gifts are being effectively tripled from that matching-gift fund of $1.25 million.  Now, just in case folks missed it, let me just explain it again. Say you give $10 to FamilyLife. Well, that's great / that's awesome; because there is $20 added to your 10. Your $10 becomes a $30-contribution to FamilyLife. And the bottom line—when you give, the benefit to FamilyLife is effectively tripled.  Bob: Thanks, Michelle. We look forward to your updates throughout December. And if you can help with a donation today, go online at FamilyLifeToday.com; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY; or mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223.  With that, we hope you have a great weekend. Hope you and your family are able to worship together in your local church this weekend.  24.00 And I hope you can join us on Monday when we're going to hear from a number of Christian leaders about how they'd do life differently if they were doing it all over again—and a number of other interesting questions—that our friend, John Gauger, asked these Christian leaders. We'll be hearing from people like Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Tim Keller, Joni Eareckson Tada, Tony Evans, and others. It should be an interesting program. I hope you can tune in for it.  I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back Monday for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.  Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesHow Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 1) - Putting Christ FirstHow Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 2) - Making Jesus Our FocusFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Making Jesus Our Focus Guest:                        Barbara Rainey                    From the series:       How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Day 2 of 2)Air date:                     December 2, 2014  Bob: When you get to December 26th, and you look back on the last couple of weeks, how will you determine whether the time leading up to Christmas was a success? Barbara Rainey says you've got to have your priorities right. Barbara: Moms can look at all the things on their list—they can look at the cookies, and the Christmas cards, and the gifts, and all of that stuff—and decide, “What is really most important?” If, at the top of your list, you say, “Teaching my kids about Christ in the month of December,” some of those other things on your list might have to go. If you don't get the cookies done, no one's going to remember; but your kids might remember some of what they heard about Jesus. That's worth more than any of the traditions you're trying to keep. Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, December 2nd. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We want to do what we can do today to help out so that, when you do get to December 26th, you can look back and say, “That was a good Christmas season.”  Stay tuned. 1:00 Bob: And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. So, is it true that you moved, years ago, out to the end of a street so you wouldn't have to put up lights on your—[Laughter] That's what I was told—you said, “I want to be where I don't have to go through that every year.” Dennis: We moved into the country, just over the hill—[Laughter] —so no one drives by our house.  Bob: We do have your wife, Barbara, joining us again on FamilyLife Today. Barbara, welcome to FamilyLife Today. Barbara: Thanks—Bob.  Bob: We're glad you're joining us this week because we want to talk about how overwhelming Christmas can be / the holiday season can be—particularly, for moms—particularly, when you have kids of all ages with all kinds of priorities of their own.  2:00 This is a season of the year where, not only are the activities highlighted, but you've got an objective around trying to get ready for the big day that includes buying presents and decorating the home. Decorating the home is something that—I've been in your home at Christmas. Dennis: Oh, my! Oh, yes—in fact, here's what happens. [Laughter] About the first of November, she says, “I think I want you to go to the attic and pull down all of the boxes.” Barbara: That is not true! Dennis: Now this takes a small, load-bearing piece of equipment called a “husband” to go get the boxes. Bob: Yes. Dennis: It's a piece of work at our place. Bob: And the transformation of your home into Christmas mode—is it a full-day job to get the decorating done?  Barbara: Well, yes. If I started in the morning and went all day, it probably would; but I don't stay that focused, so it's pieces of several days. Bob: So, for pieces of several days, you are going to be consumed for part of that with decorating the house.  3:00 Were you doing this when the kids were little?  Barbara: Yes. Bob: How did you do it?! Barbara: I let other things go because it was more important to me than other things. Bob: What was important? Why were you decorating the house? Barbara: I think the reason—and I did this when I was a kid too—my mother, bless her heart, was very, very generous with allowing me to express my creativity and my artistic vision for what our house should look like. She let me decorate our house when I was a kid. I set up a card table in my bedroom. I was the gift-wrapping queen of the whole house—I wrapped my own gifts / I wrapped gifts for everybody else because I wanted it to be magical—I wanted it to be beautiful. I just had this vision of what it should be like. Bob: Now, you're decorating everybody's house—that's what you're doing! [Laughter] This whole—all of these resources you've been working on in Ever Thine Home®—you just want to decorate everybody's house in the world; don't you? 4:00 Barbara: No, I really don't want to decorate everybody else's house. [Laughter] I want everybody's Christmas trees—people who are putting up Christmas trees—and I realize not everybody puts up a Christmas tree—but for those who do—I think our Christmas trees should be about Christ. That's really what I want. Bob: Over the last three years, you have created ornaments to put on Christmas trees. We call them Adorenaments®. The first year, you put out a set of seven ornaments that were all about the Christmas names of Christ—  Barbara: Yes. Bob: —from Luke, Chapter 2, and from Isaiah, Chapter 9. Then, last year, the royal names. Those were the shapes of crowns. Barbara: Correct. Bob: And you've got a third set of ornaments / seven ornaments this year. These are the Savior names. Where did you come up with the list of seven Savior names? Barbara: You know, choosing seven is tough because there are some that can go both ways. Bob: Right. Barbara: But I just started—as I've been reading through the Bible, every time I see a name of Christ, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, I've just got this running list—I've been throwing them on there.  5:00 Then I'll look at it and kind of go, “Okay, which ones are…?”—anyway, I've just kind of created these categories. Bob: “Which ones are grouped together?”—is that what you're doing? Barbara: Yes, I'm just grouping the names that I'm finding together by topic. So, for instance, last year—His royal names: King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Lion of Judah, and Son of David. Those are about His rulership. Those are about His royalty / His dominion that He has and will have. All of those made sense to go together as a group. This year, the names include “Anointed One.” Jesus was anointed and set apart, from before time began, to be our Savior—to die for us. Another name that is a Savior name is “Chief Cornerstone.” That's a name that talks about His place as the foundation of the Christian faith and the foundation of our lives, as believers.  6:00 Another Savior name is “Great High Priest.” I love “Great High Priest” because—if you know anything about Jewish history / you know anything about the nation of Israel—for centuries, there was a great high priest who went into the temple and made sacrifices—year after year, after year, after year, after year—it was never enough. So, when Jesus came, He came as our Great High Priest—He sacrificed His life for us, once for all. One of my favorite phrases in Scripture is “once for all”—I absolutely love it! Another name is “Lamb of God.” This is a phrase that many of us also recognize and really understand about Jesus. John the Baptist said that of Jesus. When he saw Him, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John recognized that Jesus was, not only the Great High Priest, but He, in His body, was the actual sacrifice—the sacrificial lamb—on our behalf. So, “Lamb of God” is another Savior name. 7:00 Another one is “Mediator.” That's probably a name that's not as commonly recognized by believers—maybe, I'm assuming something that's not true; but it wasn't one that was especially familiar to me—but “Mediator.” We understand the concept of mediator: When kids get into a fight on the playground, usually a teacher or an aide has to help resolve the problem. Adults get into arguments and they have to have a judge or a lawyer—I mean, we're all cognizant of the term “mediator” and what it means.Well, that's what Jesus did for us—He mediated. He came to be the go-between between us and His Father. So “Mediator” is another Savior name. Then there's “Messiah.” Messiah is the Jewish name for Savior. I love thinking about Jesus as my Messiah—not just as my Savior—but as my Messiah because He died for His people, but also for us, as Gentiles. So, Messiah is one.8:00 And, then, the last one of the seven is “Redeemer.” Redeemer is a word that's used throughout Scripture to talk about purchasing us back. It's really a strong word. In the book of Ruth—the story of Ruth—the redeemer was a key part of that story. Jesus came to be our redeemer—to purchase us back from our broken, fallen state that we can't get out of on our own. He came to fix it so that we could, then, be brought back to the Father. Dennis: And, Bob, the thing I love about these names is that they're all on a wooden plaque, on unique crosses from history. For instance, Redeemer is on a Celtic cross from Ireland. It has a circle that encompasses the cross, which has significance to the country of Ireland and some of their spiritual ancestry there. 9:00 “Messiah” is on a cross that's my favorite out of all of them. It's an anchor cross. I have to read—you know, all of these Adorenaments come with a book that give you a devotional to read each day that takes three or four minutes to read the whole thing. The anchor cross says this: “The anchor cross has symbolized hope since the early days of the church. Hebrews 6: 19-20 tells us, ‘We have this a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place where Jesus has gone on our behalf.' As an anchor holds a ship in place, so the anchor of Christ's work as Messiah holds us steady in the winds of life. This hope does not disappoint.” I just think, “How cool it is that—throughout history, there was a cross in the shape of an anchor.” 10:00 “Mediator” is the St. Thomas cross—cool cross that has a dove coming in from the top. The “Lamb of God” is the Jerusalem cross. As you were sharing about that a moment ago, Barbara, I thought, “It's significant that the Lamb of God came to Jerusalem because that's where they sacrificed the lambs in the Holy of Holies on behalf of the sin of the people on an annual basis.” The last three are: The “Great High Priest” is the Ethiopian cross; the “Chief Cornerstone” is the Coptic cross; and the “Anointed One” is the trefoil cross. Bob: And if people want to see these different cross designs and the Adorenaments, they can go to EverThineHome.com. They're on display there. Of course, you can order from the website if you want.  I'm just curious—because I've been to your home. On the front table, at Christmas, there's usually a little stand that's got a 45 record there; right? Do you know what I'm talking about? Barbara: Yes, I do. I'm impressed that you remember those details. 11:00 Bob: It is red vinyl. I can't remember if it's Rockin' around the Christmas Tree or something like that. Barbara: Actually, it's probably The First Noel.  Bob: Okay; but you have, decorating your home, snowmen, and snowflakes, and— Barbara: Actually, I used to.  Bob: Yes, I've seen it change over the years. Barbara: Yes, it has changed over the years. I used to have snowmen, and I used to have some Santas around—I used to have some of those things. I think it's because I couldn't find anything else. I just kind of went along with what was available. I had a little snowman collection that I put up—I had some of those things. Really and truly, there's absolutely nothing wrong with all of that. I don't want anybody to feel guilty if you've got Santas and snowmen because there's really nothing wrong with it; but I really wanted more, and I just couldn't find anything else. I still put that little red vinyl record up because it is a record from my childhood. We used to play those things—my brothers and I—over and over again. The side that says, The First Noel, I prop up and I put that one up because it is about Christ.  12:00 I'm changing in these years of my life to making our home more focused on Christ at Christmas and less on the traditional things that populate all of the stores, and all of the malls, and all of the airwaves, even for that matter. Bob: We have some ornaments at our house—I don't remember how old this one is—but it's Snoopy on top of a Christmas present, hanging on the tree. We've had it for years. It's kind of one of those heirloom-type ornaments, at this point. Are you still putting stuff like that on your Christmas tree? Barbara: I'm not because most of the ornaments that were like that—that we had—were my kids'.  Bob: You dispersed them. Barbara: Each of my kids, when they left home and had their own homes, I boxed up their ornaments and gave them their ornaments. So, for just Dennis and me, I don't put them on the tree. I still have them, and I'll probably give the ones that are left to my children.  13:00 But I mean, there are so many people who put up multiple Christmas trees—that it's really easy to have a tree with all of your sentimental ornaments—the ones that you've inherited, or the ones like the Snoopy, or whatever—and then to have a tree that focuses on Christ. I have a really good friend, here at the ministry—when his wife saw the new ornaments and the star that we've created this year to go on the top that says, “I am the bright morning star”—which I absolutely love—and the garland that says the same thing—and she saw all of that and she said: “I want a tree about Jesus this year. I want all of this stuff on my tree.” They're still going to put their kids' ornaments on a tree in another room. Bob: So, they're doing two trees? Barbara: Yes. Bob: So, you've just added difficulty to the whole thing! [Laughter] Now we've got to have two trees! Barbara: Okay—okay, okay! Well, there are a lot of people who do multiple trees already anyway; so I'm not adding for a lot of people—that's normative. Bob: Well, I want to tell you that Mary Ann was really excited about the tree topper—about the star. Barbara: Oh, was she? That's encouraging.  Bob: Yes. I mean, we've had an angel at the top of our tree before—  Barbara: Yes. Bob: —and there's nothing wrong, again, with an angel at the top of the tree. Barbara: Right; sure. 14:00 Bob: But the star is just the perfect topper. She was really excited and loved that you have added that to the collection. Barbara: Well, thanks. And I have loved it, too, because I've just—for a long time—I have loved that verse in Revelation, where He says, “I am the bright and morning star.” I just thought: “A star lit the way to the manger for the wise men—the star is—and He is the star. It's like: ‘That is what needs to be at the top of the tree.'” I wanted one at the top of my tree. I couldn't find one—so we made one. Bob: What about—are your kids—are they turning their homes into the same kind of a Jesus-centered approach to Christmas or are they co-mingling? Barbara: They're co-mingling. They're not doing it as exclusively as I am but, when I've been to their homes, they have their ornaments that they're kids are collecting or that their kids made at school—you know, the little paper plates with their picture in the middle. They've got all of that stuff on their tree.  15:00 And they have the Christmas names, and the royal names, and they will have the crosses on their trees this year. Bob: Well, they'd better if they want any presents from Mom and Dad. [Laughter] They know where their—[Laughter] Barbara: Exactly. [Laughter] Dennis: Well, Barbara has made it easy for families to be able to include these in your traditions. You've got some pointers at the beginning of the little devotional about what to do with elementary-aged children—to pull the name out / talk about the name with the children—maybe consider memorizing a passage of Scripture that's in the devotional book. Barbara: And here's another reason why I think it's so important to do this. It's not just to make Jesus the center of your Christmas celebration, although that is reason enough. Every Christmas—I remember, when our kids were growing up—not only did we have extra stress because of the parties and all of the stuff that we add to our lives in the month of December—but we also had more issues with selfishness because Christmas, and Santa Claus, and all of that stuff feeds our innate selfishness.  16:00 So, not only do we have these pressures and these stresses, but we've also got a whole lot more selfishness going on—at least, it seemed that way at our house. And so, to be able to talk to our children about why we need Jesus, as our Savior, at Christmas—because we're being selfish, and we're thinking about ourselves, and we're thinking about what we want and what we're going to get—we're not thinking about giving / we're not thinking about Jesus. It's a prime teaching opportunity for moms and dads. Bob: Were there other things you did when your kids were growing up to try to give them an others-centeredness at Christmas time? Barbara: Yes. One of the things that I remember from my own childhood, vividly, is that my brothers and I would get the Sears Roebuck catalog that came in the mail, which was about three or four inches thick.  Bob: I remember, yes. Barbara: We would spend hours poring over it and marking pages: “I want this," and “I want this.” I'm sure it kept us occupied, and my mother didn't mind that for a while; but what it did was it fed this selfishness that Christmas is all about me. It was all about what I was going to get—I couldn't wait to get my presents.  17:00 It just fed a side of me that I didn't like when I got to be an adult. I was going, “This is not right.” I realized, after I had become a Christian—that this focus on me and what I wanted was not what God wanted for me. So, when our children were little, Dennis and I decided that we wanted to try to kind of shift that a little bit. We taught our children to—I didn't let them look through the big catalogs, for one, because I knew that would just feed their selfishness—but we also made it a focus to teach our kids to think about gifts they could give to their siblings, and/or their grandparents, and/or us—but, specifically, for their siblings because that's the hardest relationship anyway.  We taught them to think about what they could give to their brothers and sisters rather than what they were going to get. Of course, Dennis and I had to help them buy for each other or make something for each other, which can be fraught with problems too; but, nonetheless, that was a goal for us.  18:00 So then, on Christmas morning, instead of everybody rushing into the living room and pulling everything out from under the tree and a free-for-all—  Dennis: —that has their name on it and kind of pull it over in the corner in a stash. Barbara: Yes, and you just have this present-fest, so to speak—you're tearing into it—and it's all about, “What am I going to get?”  We had our kids go and get all of the gifts under the tree that they bought for someone else. Ashley got the pile of the things that she got for her siblings, and Benjamin did the same, and Samuel did the same. And then we took turns giving gifts. If Ashley was the first one to give, she would decide which gift she wanted to give to which one of her siblings. We all watched so that the focus was on that person and what that person got—we all celebrated what that person got. Then it was their turn to give. So, if she gave to Samuel, it was Samuel's turn to pick out a gift and decide who he wanted to give to next.  19:00 Part of the fun of that is that it helped them not think as much about themselves. It really trained them to think about giving. The other fun benefit—that Dennis and I, neither one thought about on the front-end—is that it made Christmas last for hours. Bob: Yes. Barbara: Instead of it being over in a flurry—in 15 minutes of paper flying through the air and you're done—we sometimes didn't finish until noon. Dennis: Yes, and I remember one time it didn't finish for a couple of days. [Laughter] I mean, it took forever. I was smiling earlier when you were talking about how Christmas can get us all focused on ourselves. We used to have a tradition in our family where we would put everybody's name in a hat. You would draw out the name of someone where you were a “Secret Santa.”  Barbara: We called them “KKs.” Dennis: It's amazing how many arguments you can get into, as a family, around that because you have a young child who drew your name—“I'm not getting anything!!” You know: “They're no longer here!” or they're just selfish—they haven't thought of anybody. [Laughter]  20:00 Christmas is a time that can bring out—in the midst of the exhaustion—it can bring out—  Barbara: The worst! Dennis: —the worst in us. There's another reason why I think we need, again, to put the focus back on Jesus Christ and call our kids to have Him live His life in them and through them as they celebrate the holidays. Bob: I had one of my Facebook® friends, who used to work, here at FamilyLife, who just sent me this picture not long ago—let me see if I can pull this up on the phone. You recognize that old shot; don't you? [Laughter]  Barbara: Yes! [Laughter] Bob: I'm wondering if we can—  Barbara: So how many decades ago would that be? Laura looks like she's five. Dennis: Oh, wow! Bob: You can't turn that and get it—it flops every time you turn it. Barbara: So that's about 25 years ago. Yikes!—that's a long time ago. Bob: Can we put that up on the website? Dennis: That's a long time ago. I think you can.  Bob: That will be fun. Dennis: And it's proof that you can get every eye open.  Barbara: That's right; you can. Dennis: This was back in the day of film. [Laughter] Barbara: This was before Photoshop. Dennis: We would take seven or eight rolls of film because of our son, Samuel. [Laughter] His pictures were called “The Many Faces of Samuel Rainey.”  21:00 Barbara: Yes, his delight was to make faces at the camera. Bob: Well, if you want to see the one shot that everybody was smiling on—back about 25 years ago—you can go to FamilyLifeToday.com. We have it posted there. Barbara: And you'll notice how neatly and perfectly we're dressed, too, because that was a priority for me as well—sadly. Dennis: Oh, my goodness.  Bob: That looks like that took a lot of time too. Dennis: Oh, yes! Barbara: Yes, yes, yes—I know! Dennis: It started about June or— Barbara: It did not! [Laughter] Bob: And if you are interested in seeing what Barbara's been working on, you can go to EverThineHome.com—see the new set of ornaments that have been designed for this year—the Adorenaments that are the Savior names of Jesus: Messiah, Redeemer, Chief Cornerstone, Great High Priest, Anointed One, Lamb of God, and Mediator—all in the shape of crosses. You can see past years' of Adorenaments as well—His Christmas names and His royal names. You can see them; and you can order, online, at EverThineHome.com.  22:00 I know that gift-giving is one of the priorities that is on all of our minds during the month of December as we often budget for, and think about and shop for, and wrap gifts that we give to friends, or to family members, and loved ones during the Christmas season. And I know many of our listeners have included FamilyLife Today in past years on your gift-giving list. We know that because more than 50 percent of the funding necessary to operate FamilyLife, throughout the year, comes to us during the month of December, as a lot of people make a yearend contribution in support of this ministry. We're grateful for your financial support. In fact, what you give to FamilyLife in December really determines what the next year is going to look like for us—how much ministry we'll be able to do in the year ahead is often determined by the giving that happens in December.  We've had some friends of the ministry come to us recently—they are aware of that dynamic.  23:00 They've said, “We'd like to encourage FamilyLife Today listeners to be as generous as possible during December.” They have agreed that, this month, they will match every donation that we receive, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, up to a total of $2,000,000. Of course, we are very grateful for their generosity; and we want to take full advantage of this matching-gift opportunity.  That's why we're asking you: “Would you consider adding FamilyLife Today to your gift-giving list for December? Would you go today to FamilyLifeToday.com and make a yearend contribution in support of this ministry?” You can click in the upper right-hand corner of our website, where it says, “I Care,” and make an online donation. Or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make a donation over the phone. Or you can mail a donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; and, again, our zip code is 72223.  24:00 Thanks, in advance, for whatever you're able to do. Keep in mind, your donation is being doubled this month. Please pray that we'll be able to take full advantage of that matching-gift opportunity.  And I hope you can join us back tomorrow. We're going to continue to think about the names of Christ at Christmas. We'll have some friends here to help us think through all of the exalted titles that belong to Jesus. I hope you can tune in for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow. Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com   

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesHow Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 1) - Putting Christ FirstHow Pinterest Stole Christmas (Part 2) - Making Jesus Our FocusFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Putting Christ First Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    From the series:       How Pinterest Stole Christmas (Day 1 of 2)Air date:                     December 1, 2014     Bob: Let's be honest. The Christmas season can be overwhelming; can't it? Barbara Rainey remembers, as she was raising her children, all of the expectations she placed on herself—expectations about gift-giving. Barbara: I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to the people that delivered our mail. I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to their piano teacher, and the list went on and on. I was imposing a standard on myself—and it was probably all skewed up and all wrong. I was, at some level, looking for affirmation from people; or, at some level, I was probably looking for someone to give me a pat on the back that I was the best mom in the world—I don't know. So, I'm often my worst enemy. I think a lot of women are like that. We're often our own worst enemy. We have expectations of ourself that God does not have of us. Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, December 1st. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We'll talk today about making the holiday season a little more manageable.  1:00 It all starts by having your priorities straight. Stay tuned. And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. You know, you get to the end of the Thanksgiving celebration—the weekend is over—and you feel like, [big sigh] “I can take a breath.” Dennis: And then you turn the calendar— Bob: That's right! Dennis: --and it's upon you—the Christmas rush! Bob: “I can't stop for anything!”  Dennis: It would be interesting to have a stress meter, especially on young moms who are really trying to make Christmas the holiday of holidays during the year. Bob: Maybe it's an Ever Thine Home® product you can create—a stress meter. [Laughter] Dennis: Barbara joins us on FamilyLife Today. Welcome back to the broadcast, Sweetheart. Barbara: Thanks. Glad to be here. Bob: This season of the year—Thanksgiving/Christmas—this is your favorite time of the year. Barbara: It is. Bob: And it's also a time of the year that you always dread. Barbara: It's the craziest; yes. 2:00 Bob: For most moms, they feel a burden during this season to want to pull off a great family holiday thing. That burden can just punch them in the gut; can't it? Barbara: Well, it makes it impossible. It's truly impossible to create the kind of Christmas that can be imagined. Most moms and women imagine creating something that's truly memorable, and it's meaningful, and it touches our lives. We get up in the morning—we're full of energy—we play carols, and we bake cookies, and we take them to our neighbors. We do something for the postman and for all the teachers. We just have a desire to do all of that, and it's just overwhelming. I ended up, every year, feeling like a failure in so many ways. Bob: And now you're blaming Pinterest® for the whole thing; right? Barbara: Well, I didn't—I just stop and think, “What would it have been like had I had Pinterest?”— 3:00 —because I'm thinking it was bad enough with my own expectations that I put on myself to make Christmas memorable for my kids and to do all these things that, in my mind, would communicate love to all these people in our lives. If I had had Pinterest, I don't know what would have happened to me—I would have had a nervous breakdown—I don't know. Dennis: A million of your closest friends would have taken their images of what they're doing, and you would have compared what you're doing unfavorably. Barbara: Oh, for sure I would have. Of course, I would have because all women do that—we always are comparing our homes, and our kids, and our clothes, and our yards, and our everything with other women. From a distance, we always fall short—so, at Christmas, it's no different.  I would have gotten on Pinterest, ostensibly, to look for some really cool ideas because there are recipes, and decorating ideas, and crafts—you name it—it's on Pinterest. I would have gotten on, looking for those things, thinking, “This is going to help me,” when, in fact, it probably would have squashed me and killed me. 4:00 Dennis: So, you've taken all of your theological background/your gift in art, and you have designed something else for moms to do? Barbara: Well, the reason—yes, I have. [Laughter] Yes, now that you put it that way. But here's the deal—I think what we women—because it's not just young moms / because I feel the same thing today, although to a lesser degree, because I don't have kids—but I think what we women want to do is: We feel a desire, and I think it's a good desire, to make the holidays—our Christian holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter—to make them meaningful because we know that there is great, deep, eternal meaning in the incarnation of Christ and His resurrection at Easter. So, because we know that, we think: “Okay, if I bake all these cookies…” or “If I give all these gifts…” or “If I decorate my house so that it's really, really special with lots of lights, it will make it meaningful.”  5:00 Obviously, it is different from our everyday, normal routine. But you can't find meaning in the superficial. I think we get confused, as women, thinking that adding all these things—these exterior things—is going to impart meaning / it's going to make something special. Well, maybe it does make it special, at a certain level; but it doesn't connect us to the eternal. I think that's what we're longing for in our hearts—is to be connected to the eternal. Bob: When we were raising our kids, we'd come to this season of the year—and here were the things that we kind of had to juggle—we had family traditions that really had no spiritual significance at all. Barbara: Yes—but we don't want to let them go. Bob: No.  Barbara: “We can't give up Mom's cookie recipe or Grandma's whatever.” Bob: For us—fajitas on Christmas Eve were a big deal. Barbara: That's right. Bob: Now, you get nothing spiritual out of fajitas; but that was important. Dennis: Yes—now wait a second. [Laughter] That's an important part of the holiday. 6:00 Bob: Then we had all of the kids' school stuff going on—whether it's a Christmas pageant, or the church cantata, or those things. Then we had all of the business or social—the small group Christmas party, the FamilyLife Christmas party that's going on, the teen Christmas party—so we had all of that happening. By the time you loaded everything into the schedule, the opportunity to do anything meaningful and spiritual with the family—there was just no time left. Barbara: And it's not just time—there's no energy left. There's no emotional energy or the ability to infuse it with life. I think we get so depleted, emotionally and spiritually, because we're investing so much in these activities and in these physical manifestations of our celebration. 7:00 Dennis: And what I wish our listeners had some idea of—is the amount of time Barbara has prayed, worked, and labored over these resources to teach your children to make Christ the center of the Christmas holidays—just to see the care she has gone to, not only in the beautiful artistic design, but in the research that is done. Some of our listeners know that a couple years ago you started designing Adorenaments® as a way to make the Christmas tree declare Christ. Barbara: Right. Dennis: Adorenaments were the names of Christ. The first year, it was the Christmas names; and then the second year were His royal names. Our listeners have responded. We get comments, all the time, from people coming up, saying, “You've helped us put Christ back into Christmas and have turned our Christmas tree into a tool to declare Christ to our friends, our family members, our neighbors.”  8:00 Now, this year, you've taken it another step further. You've created a third set of seven Adorenaments that declare His Savior names. Explain why you chose the Savior names. Barbara: Well, you can't separate Christmas from Easter because, when Jesus came to earth, He was born to die. We don't think about that at Christmas—we like the sweet baby in the manger, we like the angels, we like all the things that have been woven into the story that make us feel really good—but we have to remember that He didn't come just to make us feel good. He came to redeem us, and that redemption meant His life. It meant He had to suffer and die on the cross for us in order to purchase us back to a relationship with Him and the Father.  So, while I was really excited about doing Jesus' Christmas names, which are the names from Isaiah and the Luke story in Luke— 9:00 —and while I loved doing His royal names, which are the names etched into crowns like King of kings and Lord of lords and Lion of Judah—there is something about the Savior names that are indispensable in understanding who Christ is. I'm really excited about His Savior names this year because there are seven of His names that represent His salvation work for us. Each one is on a different shape of a cross—so even though we don't tend to associate the cross with Christmas—they have to go together. So, as a family, one of the things that you can do to impart that meaning / those moments of spiritual depth or discussion in your family is to talk about the names of Christ, during the month of December, as you're hanging your tree. Or you could read the little book as part of devotions or before school. There are a host of different ways you can do it.  10:00 I think what women are longing for—in all of the things that they see on Pinterest, and the things that they see in magazines, and that they talk about with their friends—is they want that meaning. They want to put Christ back in Christmas. They just don't know how to do that. Bob: Dennis talked about the prayer that you put into this and the hours that you've worked on this. You really had, as I see it, two objectives in mind. One was that you wanted to give moms and dads something that—as you said, they're exhausted / they're overwhelmed—this is something that they don't have to spend a lot of time preparing for. Barbara: That's right. Bob: It's kind of a turn-key spiritual opportunity for the family that's already built into activity you're going to be doing. Barbara: That's right. Bob: You're going to be trimming the Christmas tree—so here's a way to bring some spiritual sense to what you're doing. And then you wanted it to be really pretty. You wanted it—[Laughter] Barbara: Bob, you know me well, now! Yes, I wanted it to be very pretty. 11:00 Bob: And I have to tell you—I have really thought the ornaments in past years were beautiful—these are my favorites—the ones you've done this year. You've said they're crosses, but they're just really elegant-looking. I love what you've done with the ornaments in this year. Barbara: Well, thanks, I appreciate that. I'm encouraged to hear you say that, but I'm hearing that from lots and lots of people. Everyone who sees them says, “They're my favorite.” I think it's because we know and understand that the cross is central to our faith. So, when we see the cross done beautifully, it elevates and adds elegance to the truth of the Scripture. I just think that helps us worship because God is a beautiful God. Bob: And we should just say—if folks are interested in seeing—because it's hard to describe these on radio—but folks can go to EverThineHome.com and they can see exactly what we're talking about. They can see the ornaments and how they're available. Part of what you're hoping is—that when they come down from the Christmas tree, they'll get put back up around the home a few months later; right? 12:00 Barbara: Yes. We're actually creating some stands. You can purchase, if you want to, a set of three stands. You can take your favorite three crosses and put them on the stands, and put them on a shelf or on your fireplace mantel, and leave them up all year long. Dennis: And I'm going to add my voice to both of you and say this is my favorite too. The reason is, they're not only beautiful, but the names are powerful names. Every time I think about what you've done, Sweetheart, I think about—I really do—I think about this a lot—from Philippians 2, it says, “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him”—that's Jesus—“the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  13:00 The name of Jesus is really important—it tells us about the God-Man. It tells us what He came to do. The thing that really is—I just think is really fun about this is—you've not just chosen any cross—you've chosen seven crosses from distinct periods of history, and many of them are from different continents. Barbara: As I started looking at the different kinds of cross shapes, I realized that there are different crosses from different cultures. For instance, one of the crosses that I ended up using is called the Coptic cross. The Coptic cross is and has been used by the Coptic Christians, who live in Egypt, for almost since the time of Christ. It's been around for centuries, and it has a distinct shape—it's always been that shape—and that's a symbol, to them, of their faith in Christ. There's also the Ethiopian cross, which is also a part of that culture and has been a part of that culture for centuries.  14:00 It was fun to find these different historical crosses because I think it reminds us that Christianity is an international faith—it's not just an American western faith—we get so narrow in our thinking. These crosses open our eyes to see that there are people, all around the world, who believe in Christ and who follow Him. They have different symbols—all forms of the cross—and we can be united around that. Bob: So, the devotional book that comes with the set of seven, not only talks about the name that is on the cross, but it also talks about the design of the cross and gives parents an opportunity, with their kids, to talk about the attributes of Jesus—but also to talk about the universality of the Christian faith—and the fact that we have brothers and sisters who live in Egypt, and who live in Ethiopia, and who live in places, all around the world, and worship the Savior. 15:00 Barbara: Right. I just think: “What a wonderful opportunity for families to be able to talk about these things,” because that's essentially what I longed for when I was a mom, raising our kids—when Dennis and I were parenting, full-time. I wanted something that would help me communicate biblical truth to my kids at Christmas, and I couldn't find anything.  We read the Luke 2 story. Sometimes, our kids acted it out; but I just wanted more than that. That's a part of the reason that I'm really excited about this because moms can look at all the things on their list—they can look at the cookies, and the Christmas cards, and the gifts, and all of that stuff—and decide, “What is really most important?” If at the top of your list, you say, “Teaching my kids about Christ in the month of December,” some of those other things on your list might have to go. In the long run, if you teach your kids about Christ at Christmas—if you read the stories of His names—His Savior names, or His Christmas names, or His royal names—you will have done the most important thing in the month of December.  16:00 If you don't get the cookies done, no one's going to remember. If you don't get that last whatever, nobody's going to really remember. But your kids might remember some of what they heard about Jesus, and that's worth more than any of the traditions you're trying to keep. Bob: So, if you're sitting down with a young mom, and she's saying, “I'm already starting to feel overwhelmed by the season,”— Barbara: And they are. Bob: —you would coach her to kind of list the priorities and figure out: “What are the essential ones?” and “What are the ones you can throw overboard if you need to?” Barbara: Yes. It's like my friend, Lysa TerKeurst, says in her book, The Best Yes, it's: “What is the most important? What are the things that would please God the most?” Learning about Him is going to be the most important thing—that's going to be the activity or the event that is going to be the most lasting in your family. So, you put those things that are the most important at the top. You make sure those happen, even if some of the other things that you really care about, emotionally—like making Mom's Christmas cookies or whatever it is that you care about emotionally— 17:00 —those things you say, “Okay, God, I'm willing to let those go.” Bob: But it could be that the kids, in terms of what they're begging you for, is not “Let's sit down and do devotions around the names of Jesus.” It's, “Let's make the Christmas cookies.” Barbara: But there are things that moms put on their list that their kids aren't begging for because, see, one of the things I like so much about Lysa's book is—she said, “I'm often my own worst enemy.” There were lots of things that were on my list that my kids weren't begging me for. Bob: Like what? Barbara: Well, I mentioned, earlier, taking gifts to all these people. Why I felt like I needed to do that I don't know, but I wanted to take some kind of meaningful gift to all of my kids' teachers. We had six—so we had a lot of teachers. I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to the people that delivered our mail. I wanted to say, “Thank you,” to their piano teacher—the list went on and on. I was imposing a standard on myself, and it was probably all skewed up and all wrong. 18:00 I was, at some level, looking for affirmation from people; or, at some level, I was probably looking for someone to give me a pat on the back that I was the best mom in the world—I don't know. I just know that I was putting expectations on myself—I was putting them on myself. My husband wasn't putting them on me. My kids weren't saying, “Oh, Mom, we have to take gifts to all these people.” They were saying, “We've got to make Grandma's cookies,” but they weren't saying all those other things. So, I'm often my own worst enemy. I think a lot of women are like that—we're often our own worst enemy. We have expectations of ourself that God does not have of us. Bob: Today, you just send the kids to school with some ornaments that they've gotten— Barbara: I would. I would, absolutely I would. I would give them each an ornament. I would buy a set of seven—and I would divide that set up—and I would put it in a card or something. That's another reason why I have done these ornaments is because they make great gifts. Dennis: What I would want a mom to hear—in fact, I would charge the moms, who are listening:  19:00 “You need to decide what really matters and what really counts. It doesn't matter if it made your kids' top ten list or not.” Bob: Yes. Dennis: If you have a sense of wanting to pass on spiritual truth and guide them in making discoveries about Jesus Christ, and helping your husband look good, because what you can do is—give him this book, which is called A Son is Given. It has all the information about all seven of the crosses. You can read this in less than five minutes. This is not some lengthy theological education, but you can make a big deal out of these seven this year.  For those who have the previous two sets of seven—the Christmas names and the royal names—if you wanted to—now again, I'm not trying to heap this on anybody—but if you wanted to, you could take 21 days, throughout the month of December, and begin the process of making your tree declare the One who made Christmas famous and giving your kids an introduction to Him.  20:00 We've actually had kids come to faith in Christ through the discussion that occurs around what these Adorenaments mean. Barbara: If you do have the previous sets, and you have read the book to your children, chances are they're not going to remember a tenth of it. So, you might as well read it again. Then that rereading every year can become a new tradition that's a very meaningful tradition—that will make a lasting impact on your kids' lives. Dennis: When we celebrate the names of Christ, increasingly, as I grow older, His name is above every name, and His name will be the name that causes every knee to bow. So, why not go ahead and introduce your kids to Christ? Maybe they will trust Him as Savior/Redeemer— Barbara: This Christmas. Dennis: —yes, this Christmas. 21:00 Bob: Again, I think the best thing for listeners to do is to see what we've been talking about. Go to EverThineHome.com—EverThineHome.com—and you can see all seven of the new ornaments that Barbara has designed—the new Adorenaments that are His Savior names. You can also see His Christmas names and His royal names from past years and other resources that Barbara has been designing for Christmas. Again, the website is EverThineHome.com.  I know a lot of people today are doing some internet shopping because this is—what do they call it?—Cyber Monday; right? Our team put some specials together, over at FamilyLifeToday.com. If you go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com, and you click the button in the upper left-hand corner, that says, “GO DEEPER,” you'll see a box for the Cyber Monday event. I think some of the Adorenaments are included in the Cyber Monday sale.  22:00 So, again, go to FamilyLifeToday.com for more information about the Cyber Monday event. You can also find out more about the Adorenaments at FamilyLifeToday.com or, online, at EverThineHome.com. Now, as we've talked today about getting your priorities in alignment during the Christmas season, I hope that you will consider one of your priorities, between now and the end of the year, just asking the Lord to direct your steps as it relates to yearend giving. I know for Mary Ann and me, one of the things we do, during the month of December, is we spend time reflecting on how God has been at work in our lives over the last 12 months. We often make yearend donations to ministries that God has used in a significant way to encourage us, or to equip us, or to help us grow in the previous 12 months.  If FamilyLife Today is one of those ministries, can we ask you to consider making a yearend contribution in support of all we're doing here?  23:00 The month of December is a significant month for us. In fact, more than half the money we need to operate, as a ministry, comes in during the month of December. So, this month determines a lot about what ministry is going to look like in the next 12 months for us. We've had some friends of the ministry who are aware of that dynamic. They came to us recently and said: “We'd like to provide matching funds. We will match every donation that comes in, during the month of December, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, up to a total of $2,000,000.” Of course, we want to do all we can do, as a ministry, to try to take full advantage of their generosity and of this matching-gift fund. Would you consider going to our website today? Go to FamilyLifeToday.com. Click the button in the upper right-hand corner. You can make an online donation that way. Or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make the donation over the phone.  24:00 Or if you'd like to mail your donation to us, our mailing address is PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; and our zip code is 72223. Let me just say, “Thanks,” in advance, for whatever you're able to do in support of the ministry of FamilyLife Today during the month of December. And I hope you can join us back tomorrow. Barbara Rainey will be here again. We'll continue talking about how you can have the right priorities during the holiday season. Hope you can be here for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.  Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesRebooting Christmas (Part 1) - A Christ-Focused ChristmasRebooting Christmas (Part 2) - Jesus, The Reason We CelebrateFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. A Christ-Focused Christmas Guest:                         Barbara Rainey                    From the series:       Rebooting Christmas (Day 1 of 2)Air date:                     November 26, 2012  Bob:  When the halls at your house get decked, what do they look like?   Woman:  The first four years of our marriage we lived in apartments; so, to save on space—you know not having the big evergreen and then also not have to store it all year round, if you were to get a plastic one.  We already had an indoor Ficus; so, we just threw some Christmas lights on it and went and bought fancy ornaments and put it on there.  We were like, “It's the traditional Christmas Ficus.”  At one point, I was singing, “Oh, Ficus tree, Oh, Ficus tree….”   I wanted a tree just because it's a part of Christmas décor, but it really was just, “We don't have kids.  We don't have room.  There's really no point or no need.”  And I was like, “We've got to have something Christmas in the house.”  That's when Josh was like, “We can decorate the Ficus.”  So, we went out and bought fancy blue and copper ornaments.  We were like, “We're going to make it the high-class, traditional Christmas Ficus.”    So, we had that for a couple of years.  Then, we had red and green for a couple of years.  We'll probably need to get new ones this year.   We still put the presents underneath it, and I remember—I kid you not—this is our tree.  I mean we've got it and just like, “Yay!  The traditional Christmas Ficus is here,” because everyone in our family just knows that, that's our—that's our tree.   Barbara:  What has made me sad for years is that our trees don't tell the story of Christ, they don't tell the story of Jesus.  I just started thinking about what would it be like if Christians all over the country and all over the world, in fact, would have the names of Christ on their trees and symbols of what Christmas is all about.  It would be a statement of our faith.  It would be a reminder of why we celebrate.  It's a way of bringing the truth of Christ into our Christmas celebrations.   Bob:  This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, November 26th.  Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  There's nothing wrong with an occasional snowman or a reindeer, but what if your house could make a statement about Jesus during the Christmas season?  We'll talk about how to do that today.   And welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition.   Dennis:  It is more beautiful here in the studio today.  (Laughter)   Bob:  Would you like to explain why?   Dennis:  That laugh you just heard is the reason, because wherever this woman goes, she makes things beautiful.   Bob:  I'm just amazed—here's what I'm amazed about— Dennis:  It's my wife, Barbara, by the way.   Bob:  Yes, that's right.  Barbara, welcome to FamilyLife Today.   Dennis:  Welcome. Barbara:  Thank you, Bob.   Bob:  I'm just amazed that you even had time to be here because the first half of the season is over—Thanksgiving is done, the turkey has been served, leftovers are mostly gone.   Barbara:  In Tupperware containers or gone.  (Laughter)   Bob:  Now, we're gearing up for the second half; because as soon as you put everything away for Thanksgiving, you've got to flip the house into Christmas mode, don't you?   Barbara:  Yes.  Yes, you've got to switch gears and switch gears quickly.   Bob:  So, is the weekend—is Thanksgiving weekend relaxing or is it just— Barbara:  For us?   Bob:  Yes.   Barbara:  Yes, it's relaxing because we don't switch gears and put the tree up on Friday morning like a lot of families do.  I just—I just want to enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend.  It's our favorite holiday.  We often have kids home.  We don't usually have children, our adult kids, home at Christmas.  We have them at Thanksgiving, and I want to enjoy them.  So, we don't usually start that until Monday after everyone is gone—or Tuesday or the next weekend, for that matter.   Dennis:  She really does not like the whole commercialization of Christmas that starts back before July 4th.  (Laughter)   Bob:  There is a reason why FamilyLife Today listeners don't hear us talking about Christmas until now.   Dennis:  And it's Barbara.   Bob:  We don't bring it up—there's an embargo on our calendars: “You cannot mention Christmas”— Dennis:  You know what?  Seriously.   Bob:  Honestly.   Dennis:  There are those here at FamilyLife on the team who -- it's been brought up before that we should feature some of the resources we create for listeners -- but they said, “Oh, no, no.”   Bob:  “No, no.”   Dennis:  “You can't do that.  Barbara”— Bob:  “Barbara would not allow it.”  (Laughter)   Dennis:  —“would not allow this.”   Barbara:  As if I have this great authority, which I do not.   Bob:  Trust me.  Trust me.   Dennis:  Well, you did on this one.   Bob:  More than you know.   Dennis:  Years ago—years ago, you laid down the law.  The law is still in the land.  Bob:  So, we don't talk about—we talk about Jesus— Dennis:  Yes.   Barbara:  Yes.   Dennis:  Of course.   Bob:  —and his birthday, maybe; but we wait until we're past—so, here we are, so that means this week is decorate the house week for you.   Barbara:  Play the Christmas music and jump in.   Dennis:  It's get the boxes out of the attic.   Bob:  So, are you pretty excited about that?  You look forward to this time?  Dennis:  Oh, I love carrying those boxes.   Barbara:  He does not.   Dennis:  I—they're—no.   Bob:  We talked to a dad about how this works in his house; and after we got done talking to him, our team decided we needed to rewrite the entire “Twelve Days of Christmas” song to be about the 12 days of decorating the house for this season.   Man:  Sometime, in there, she wants to pull them out and start putting ornaments up.   (Singing)   Man:  She'll start hinting around; and then, the day will come, and it'll sneak up on me.  Then, she'll say “I want to get the ornaments out and decorate today.”   (Singing)  Man:  It means I'm not going to get to lay there and watch football.  It means I've got to get my ladder and get into our attic, which involves going through our closet, climbing through a tiny, little hole in the ceiling, and getting down about 12 boxes of Christmas decorations.   Bob:  Is it a great day?   Man:  No, it's not a good day.  It's a bad day to beat down.  (Laughter)   When I finally get all the boxes down, I climb my way back down out of the attic drenched in sweat by that time—not in the mood to decorate a tree, not in a mood to be around my family, not in the mood to celebrate Christmas.   Bob:  Can you relate?   Dennis:  I can.  I mean you'd have to see the section we have commissioned for all these boxes.  Maybe we have some boxes that need Carbon-14 dating to determine how old they are.  (Laughter) Bob:  This section, you're talking about storage?  I mean— Barbara:  Mm-hmm.   Dennis:  Uh-huh.   Bob:  —how—what would you guess—how much space—is there a half bedroom full of space?   Barbara:  Oh, no, no, no, no.  No, it's not that much.  It's probably five feet by five feet by— Dennis:  Oh, give me a break!  It's much more than that.   Barbara:  It is too.   Dennis:  All the wrapping paper and all the wreaths—I mean the wreaths up there are stacked at least 12 feet high.  (Laughter)   Barbara:  Oh, dear.   Bob:  And you've upped the ante this year at your house, and are hoping that other families will up the ante as well.  You want— Barbara:  I did.   Bob:  —you want to revolutionize Christmas decorating.   Barbara:  I would like to do that.  I have had a desire for 20 years to find ornaments that talk about Christ, ornaments that really are the essence of the season and why we celebrate Christmas.   I've been looking for 20 years.  I'll occasionally find one that has something to do with Jesus or something to do with the manger or you'll see a holy family ornament occasionally; but there just aren't a lot to choose from.  The ones that are there are often cheap.  They're plastic; or they're something inexpensive looking that to me detracts from who God is.  He's the King, He's the Lord; and to make an ornament that is cheap and, frankly, tacky is to take away from who He is.   Bob:  When your reindeer looks better than your nativity scene— Barbara:  Yes, the Jesus ornament.  Yes.   Bob:  —something is wrong.   Barbara:  Something's wrong.   Dennis:  Well, and it's not just the quality; it's also the message that's on the ornaments that hang on trees.  I mean you've got candy canes.  You've got Santa Claus— Barbara:  —and snowmen and reindeer and footballs and cupcakes and—I mean the craft—our local craft store, which is in a lot of stores around town—last year when I was there several times just kind of perusing and getting a feel for what they had, there were probably four or five aisles, floor to ceiling with ornaments; and they were all secular.  There was one section on one aisle that was maybe 12 inches wide that had a few ornaments that were about Jesus—a very, very few.   To look at that, I thought, “This is really telling,” that we have probably—I don't know, a total of how many square feet that would be, but it was a lot of square feet.  It would be a large sized bedroom or more; and that a very tiny, tiny fraction of those ornaments were devoted to the reason we even celebrate Christmas.   Bob:  So, your tree for the last 30 plus years—you guys have been married for 40 years—what has your tree looked like?   Barbara:  Like a lot of other trees.  I mean we have lights, and I have found a few things over the years that are reflective of the Christmas story.  So, we have some stars.  We have a few angels, but we have a lot of balls.  We have a lot of things that the kids have made.  We have a lot of just random ornaments—Christmas trees and other things that really don't have anything to do with Christmas because I haven't been able to find ornaments that are about Christ.   Dennis:  I want to underline what Barbara said earlier, Bob.  I have heard her soapbox about this for the past 20 years.  She would walk into a Hallmark store, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby; and she would look at all the ornaments, and she would say, “Where is the King of kings and Lord of lords?  Where is Jesus Christ in all this mass of decorating around Christmas?”   It was ultimately what caused us to get away almost three years ago and begin talking and dreaming about how she could use her artistic ability and design sense that she has—plus her theology and her love for the Scriptures and her love for families to be able to create something that families could use here at Christmas to communicate the truth about God and their experience of God to the next generation.   Bob:  So, how is your tree going to look different this year than it's looked in past years?   Barbara:  Well, this year our tree is going to be decorated with the names of Jesus because we have come out with a set of Adorenaments® this year; and some of our listeners will remember that we had Adorenaments in years past, and they went out of print, so to speak.   We have recreated them this year and plan to recreate them in years to come with more names; but this year, we have a set of seven of Jesus' names.  They are the names we most commonly associate with the Christmas story—so, the names out of the Luke 2 story: Christ the Lord, Savior, and Jesus; and then names out of Isaiah that we also commonly associate with Christmas.  Everyone knows them.  It's Prince of Peace, Mighty God, and Wonderful Counselor; then, we have the name Emmanuel, too.   So, we will have something that talks about Jesus on our Christmas tree for the first time, and I can't wait to cover it with His names.   Bob:  You mentioned that years ago we had developed a set of ornaments called Adorenaments.  What's different about what you've created than what we had before, in case any of our listeners remember the old set of Adorenaments?   Barbara:  Exactly.  The old Adorenaments were also the names of Christ.  They weren't what we are now calling His Christmas names.  It was a different list of His names, but they were designed for toddlers and preschoolers, for young children.  So, they were not breakable.  They were brightly colored, and I remember when those came out—and I thought they were nice.   I liked the concept, but I remember thinking, “My kids are too old for these;” because when they came out, our youngest kids were in elementary school, and our oldest ones were teenagers.  And they were very child centric, child-focused.   So, I wanted to create a set of Adorenaments that would be not focused on toddlers and preschoolers, but that they could handle and not be afraid of breaking them; but that would also be something that teenagers and adults would go, “Wow, those are really beautiful.  I want those on my tree,” and it still had the message of the names of Christ.   Bob:  And when you say these are the names of Jesus, some of our listeners who can't see them—although if they want to go to FamilyLifeToday.com— Barbara:  That's right.   Bob:  —they can see what they look like—but these are carved, metal names. Barbara:  Correct.   Bob:  Right?   Barbara:  Correct.  They're stamped out of metal for a couple of reasons.  One, we wanted something that would last, that would be long-lasting for decades.  We wanted something that wouldn't break, so that a two-year-old can help decorate the tree.   We have twins, grandchildren, who are two years old; and I can imagine Piper and Lilly hanging these ornaments on the tree.  There's no way it can hurt them.  They can't break them, and they can begin to understand that this is the name of Jesus and “I can hang it on the tree as a two-year-old.”  But they are nice enough that kids who are 12 through 18 and adults, families who don't have children, single, men and women, who put up a tree—the idea is that these will span all ages.   So, it is the literal name of Jesus stamped out of metal with a hanger to hang on the tree.   Bob:  The interesting thing is when you walk into a room and the tree dominates the room at Christmastime, so all eyes go to the tree.  It's got lights; they're flashing and all of that.  If your tree is covered with these seven ornaments that display the name of Jesus, it sets a different tone for— Barbara:  Absolutely.   Bob:  —what the tree's all about, doesn't it?   Barbara:  Exactly.  It is the focal point—you're right—in most homes.  What has made me sad for years is that our trees don't tell the story of Christ.  They don't tell the story of Jesus.  And I just started thinking about what would it be like if Christians all over the country and all over the world, in fact, would have the names of Christ on their trees and symbols of what Christmas is all about.   It would be a statement of our faith.  It would be a reminder of why we celebrate.  It would teach us who the Jesus is that we love and serve and want to obey.  It's a way of bringing the truth of Christ into our Christmas celebrations.   Dennis:  And we'll talk more about this later, but each of these names is rich in meaning.  I think, most of us walk past the name Jesus or Savior, or the concept of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace—we walk by those names and never stop to think about, “Why did God describe His Son in these terms?”   I think what's cool about this, Bob, is that the package that contains all seven names of Christ here, His Christmas names, contains a booklet that you can read aloud even to young children.  It's interesting, we've done this in the past with our grandkids around some of these things Barbara has created, and it works.  They sit and listen.  They really do.   Now, it's not going to last long.  It's not going to last more than five to seven minutes total.   Barbara:  Right.   Dennis:  But it's a chance to take the name, Savior, hold it up, talk about it, read what it says about Savior; and then go hang that name on the tree.  Then, let it be a reminder of why God described His Son with that name.   Bob:  The ornaments you've created are available individually; but as Dennis said, they're also in a box with all seven of them and with the booklet.  So, if somebody got all seven of them and the booklet, how would you imagine them using the booklet?  Would they do it as a part of their decorating of the tree?  Would they go ahead and decorate the tree, then use the booklet during the week?  What would you think?   Barbara:  I think either one of those would work.  I think the two simplest options are— depending on the ages of your kids and their ability to pay attention—but one is to hang all seven names in the evening or over the weekend whenever you do your tree and read the story that goes with each one as that ornament is hung.   The other idea would be to maybe save them until the week right before Christmas and hang one each night for the seven days before Christmas, so that you really can focus on that; and it doesn't get lost in all the other things that are going on, because most of us get our decorating done pretty early after Thanksgiving or sometimes before or in the first week in December.   And sometimes, that last week before Christmas is quieter.  The parties are over.  Kids are out of school and it might be an easier time to actually focus on this if you saved it for that week, but it's flexible.  Families can do it any way they want to—whatever works.   Bob:  And with younger children, if you save it until that last week, they get that sense as they watch a new ornament placed every day—they're counting down the days until Christmas anyway.   Barbara:  Anyway, yes.   Bob:  This helps them count down the days.   Dennis:  Kind of like an— Bob:  Yes.   Dennis:  —advent wreath.  One of the things we did for these resources for families was we wanted to make moms and dads really look good in front of their kids around these holidays.   So, one of the guys who tested one of these resources like this, he said, “I was able to pull out the little booklet that Barbara created, and I was able to read it.”  I think they said they spent about 30 minutes kind of unveiling everything; and he said, “At the end of the time, I was kind of strutting around like, ‘I really did this thing.  I led my family spiritually.'”  Every man wants to do that.  We just don't know how.   Frankly, back when we had children, this was one of the issues for us.  We talked about, “How can we make Christmas more about Jesus Christ?  How can we do that?”  Honestly, Bob, we did our best to read the Bible, to point the kids to the story and talk about Him and talk about the reason for the season; but we weren't able to crack the code.   That's what really excites me about what Barbara's doing here.  She's really setting up the parents to really look good and to be effective as those who are really called to pass on the truth to their children.   Bob:  These ornaments that you've created are just one of a number of resources that you have on your heart to be used around holidays or throughout the year; and as I've observed, it really kind of has three goals.  One is to use the holidays for spiritual benefit.  The second is to make the home reflect both with beauty and with message what the season is all about, and then, to be an equipping tool for you, as Dennis just said, to lead your family spiritually.   Barbara:  Exactly, you nailed it, because that is the essence of what I'm trying to do.  Holidays are natural gathering times for families.  We naturally get together, even if it's just with our nuclear family, around all the holidays; and they happen year after year after year.   I remember, as a mom, wanting to do something that was meaningful on all of the holidays, including Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas; but I was so busy and I was so tired and I was so overwhelmed that often I remember thinking, “I just don't have the energy to go find something or to create something or to come up with an idea on my own.”   I just didn't have the emotional energy, but I had the desire to make it meaningful.  I had the desire to proclaim the truth during those holiday seasons.  I just didn't have the ability or the energy to do it.   So, that's what's been so fun about creating these—is now I'm in a season in my life where I don't have the kids at home 24/7, and I've got the energy and the time to take that longing that I had as mom, to lead our family in meaningful times together, when we're naturally together anyway—for Dennis and I together to provide that instruction for our children, and I'm excited about being able to create resources for families around the annual holidays that we all celebrate.   Bob:  You have some resources that we're going to be talking more about as we get closer to Easter and toward Lent—things you've developed for that.  But again, the goal is “Let's not just let the culture capture the holidays”— Barbara:  Exactly.   Bob:  —“let's remember what they're all about in the first place,” right?   Barbara:  Exactly.   Dennis:  I'll tell you what I'm excited about: Papa is going to have all seven of these ornaments— Bob:  That would be you, right?   Dennis:  That would be me.   Bob:  Papa for those who don't know— Dennis:  Papa of—and if you've not heard a recent broadcast we now have— Bob:  Get out your scorecard, ladies and gentlemen.   Dennis:  This is going to stun some of our listeners, thinking our kids are rabbits; but we have 19 grandchildren—19 grandchildren.  (Laughter)  I mean unbelievable.   But Papa's going to pull out Barbara's set of the seven Christmas names of Christ; and I'm going to have fun with my grandkids—both pulling them out of the box and hanging them; but also reading what each name means—have a little discussion with the kids because our grandkids, some of them, are getting up there where they can get it.   But even two-year-olds, as Barbara said, they're going to listen; and they're going to sit still because these Adorenaments are shiny, they've got glitter on them, and they won't break.  (Laughter)   Bob:  You know I mentioned that our listeners can go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com, to see all seven names laid out: Jesus Christ the Lord, Emmanuel, Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Savior, Prince of Peace.  If they are interested in individual ornaments or if they'd like the entire seven-ornament set, they can order them from us at FamilyLifeToday.com.  Again, the website is FamilyLifeToday.com.  You can order your Adorenaments from us online; or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY.  If you have any questions or you'd like to order over the phone, 1-800-358-6329—1-800- “F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then, the word, “TODAY”.   Now, I also want to mention how grateful we are for those of you who help support the ministry of FamilyLife Today.  This broadcast ministry, on air, on the web, the events that we host, the resources we develop—all of this happens because folks like you believe in what we're doing; and from time to time, you get in touch with us and let us know that God has used this program in your life.  If that is the case for you, would you consider making a donation today?   You can go to FamilyLifeToday.com to make an online donation; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make a donation over the phone.  And if you make a donation between now and the end of the month, feel free to request a two-CD set that we've put together—conversation with Nancy Leigh DeMoss on the subject of gratitude: How can we cultivate a spirit of gratitude in our own hearts and how can we help our children learn to be more grateful as well?   We talk about that in the CD set, and those CDs are another way we can say thank you to you for your support of the ministry of FamilyLife Today.  We really do appreciate you.   We hope you'll join us back again tomorrow when we're going to continue talking about decking the halls, not with boughs of holly, but with the names of Jesus.  We'll talk about that tomorrow.  I hope you can tune in.   I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.   FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.  Help for today.  Hope for tomorrow.  Copyright © FamilyLife.  All rights reserved.www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 1) - A Call to AdventCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 2) - Being StillCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 3) - Introducing Your Kids to the SaviorCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 4) - His Savior NamesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 5) - Remembering Christ at ChristmasFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. His Savior Names Guests:                      Dennis and Barbara Rainey and Laura Rainey Dries                From the series:       Celebrating Advent (Day 4 of 5)Air date:                     December 1, 2016______________________________________________________________________________ Bob:  The Christmas season gives all of us the opportunity to be talking more easily and more comfortably with friends or family members about who Jesus is. Here's Barbara Rainey. Barbara:  This good friend of ours had the great privilege of leading his son to Christ as a result of focusing on the names of Christ at Christmas. I think that's what God is calling all of us to do. He's calling all of us to settle things and make things right with Him. Christmas is a wonderful time to do that, because we're naturally thinking about Jesus being born in Bethlehem. It's a perfect opportunity for moms and dads to help your kids understand what a decision for Christ looks like and why that's the most important decision they'll ever make. Bob:  This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, December 1st. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  1:00 Are you thinking, and planning, and strategizing about ways you could take advantage of spiritual opportunities in your family or among your friends during the holiday season? We'll talk more about that today. Stay with us. And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition. It's actually the first day of December. This is the first day of the last month of the year, and the last month we'll be celebrating our 40th anniversary as a ministry. Dennis:  You're exactly right. It's been a great year to celebrate 40 years. FamilyLife has been, for 40 years, the Proud Sponsor of Anniversaries™—not ours—yours. I read a great letter recently, Bob, from a couple, whom you mentioned, congratulating them on their 70th. Bob:  That was great—back in August; yes. Dennis:  Seventy years of marriage—just a great letter of how their friends at church heard it and they thought: “You guys are famous! You're on FamilyLife Today!” [Laughter]  2:00 Well, 70 years deserves a celebration; and you know what? There's another season that demands celebration as well—that's Christmas. We want to help you do a better job of doing that. Before we talk about how we're going to help you celebrate Christmas—Bob, in our family, when I was growing up, we had a time when the family would come together around the dinner table and we'd say, “There's something important we need to talk about.” It didn't happen many times but enough times that I knew, as a young lad, this was important.  You know what? We're at a table here—kind of a dinner table of sorts. I'm asking the listener to scoot up a chair and just listen as I invite you to become a part of FamilyLife's mission. We need you. We need you to stand with us as we stand alongside you—as a single person, married, parent, grandparent—with God's blueprints for marriage and family.  3:00 This ministry's made possible—our mission of supporting families—is made possible by folks like you. As you slide the chair up to the table, maybe you can slide your checkbook out on the table and write a check; because that's what makes this broadcast possible. I just want folks to know we believe this is the mission of the hour for our country, and we need you to stand with us if you believe that as well. Bob:  And there is a significant incentive right now. If you're able to help with a donation, there's a matching gift that has been made available to us, here at FamilyLife. We've asked our friend, Michelle Hill, to be our matching-gift monitor throughout the month of December. Can you give us the details on how the matching gift is working? Michelle:  Sure, Bob. Here's how it works—first of all, the matching fund is $1.25 million. When listeners make a donation in December, their donation is actually going to be tripled by money drawn from this matching-gift fund.  4:00 Let's say somebody gives $50. Well, we're able to draw $100 from the matching fund so that the total gift becomes $150. I'll keep tabs on how things are going throughout the month; and of course, keep you up to date! Bob:  Well, we will check in with you regularly throughout the month. We'd love to have you join us in the work of FamilyLife. Go to FamilyLifeToday.com—make a donation online; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make a yearend donation. Or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223. We hope to hear from you, here, between now and the end of the year. Dennis:  We sure do. I just want to remind you: “Christmas is about family. It's about love; and it's about giving, because ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.'”  5:00 Early in our marriage—I'll never forget—Barbara came to me and she said: “You know, I am just kind of sick and tired of the messages of the culture. How can we train our children to be more about gift giving than gift receiving?” We put our heads together—we started asking people. I don't know who shared it with us, but somebody—it wasn't us—originated the idea that, instead of lining up all your presents that you're going to open for yourself / instead, line up all your presents that you want to give to others. In fact, I'm looking out to the audience that's out there listening to us tape this program right now— Bob:  A small audience—we have about five or six— Dennis:  It's not— Bob:  And we have your wife Barbara joining us again today. Barbara—welcome back to FamilyLife Today.   Barbara:  Thank you. Bob:  But we do have a studio audience that includes your daughter, Laura. 6:00 Dennis:  Come on back in here, Laura, into the studio. Share with our audience what you used to think about as you used to have to get all your gifts that you were going to give rather than all of the gifts that you were going to get. Laura:  Well, honestly, it just changed the perspective between my siblings. It became kind of like a game of who's going to get to give first and, “Which gift am I most excited about giving?” I just remember thinking: “Oh, I know Ashley is going to love this. I can't wait to give her this gift!” It just changed the perspective. Instead of thinking, “Oh, I wonder what's in that box for me,”—[it was]—“I hope they like what's in this box for them.” Bob:  Okay; but I heard a story about an awful, terrible Christmas— Laura:  Oh! Yes! Bob:  —where everybody—you know what I'm talking about? Laura:  This is amazing. I hope this is the one you're talking about! Bob:  Is it the hair dryer story? Laura:  Yes! It had nothing to do with me, which makes it even a lot better; right? [Laughter] Dennis:  Some of our regular listeners have heard this before; but it is worth revisiting, because this is a Rainey classic right here. 7:00 Laura:  Well, Samuel, my older brother, came up with it; because one year, my older sister, Rebecca, said all she wanted for Christmas was a hair dryer. Barbara:  All she wanted— Laura:  “The one thing— Barbara:  —the one thing. Laura:  —“I need this year, guys, from all of you is a hair dryer.” So Samuel thought: “Perfect! We'll all get her hair dryers.” [Laughter] So we all got a hair dryer. Maybe he went to WalMart®; I can't remember. Barbara:  No; he and I went—Samuel and I went to K-Mart®. We bought six hair dryers. I kept the receipt, because I knew we'd be returning five. Laura:  Yes. Barbara:  But when we walked out of there, we giggled and we laughed—it was so much fun. Laura:  So, it was just a large prank. It turned Christmas morning into something that we all thought was hilarious. Lots of tears after about the third or fourth hair dryer that Rebecca opened [Laughter]:  “Did you guys not talk to each other? What happened?! How did you do this all together?” We all thought it was great; and then, it was not funny to Rebecca at all. Bob:  Were there some backup presents in the— Laura:  Oh, absolutely. We all had backup presents. Bob:  So you didn't just stick her with six hair dryers.  Laura:  —and say, “Good luck!”—right. [Laughter] Bob:  And it wasn't your favorite Christmas; huh? 8:00 Laura:  No; I don't think so. Dennis:  But the point is—we wanted our family to focus on gift giving—because, really, Christmas is about God giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to come and be our Savior.  What Barbara's been working on for families for the past, really, five years is to help you, as a family, know how to best celebrate Christmas and what God was trying to communicate through His Son Jesus Christ. She's done that through a series of ornaments that she's calling Adorenaments®, all around the song, O Come Let Us Adore Him. You've now created 30 different, unique ornaments that are beautiful, but also meaningful, around the names of Christ. 9:00 Barbara:  Yes; we have. It's been a great privilege to be able to create these and to help families make their Christmas tree about Jesus instead of your Christmas tree looking like Santa Clauses, and reindeers, and all kinds of things that have nothing to do with Christmas—not that those things are bad—but those of us, who worship Christ—our Christmas tree should say something about Jesus. Our trees should say something about the reason for the season, which is His coming to earth, as you said in John 3:16, to save us and to redeem us. Dennis:  And one of the things that Barbara did in our family was—every Christmas Eve, she would wrap up an ornament. She would give each of the kids an ornament that she had bought a year earlier, after they went on sale the day after Christmas. Barbara:  True. Dennis:  It really is true—that's how she did it. They were really beautiful ornaments, but none of them—I don't think a single one of them—had much to do with the real reason for Christmas. Barbara:  Well, if I could have found some, that would be what I would have purchased for our kids. One of our daughters collected angels; so I tried to find her angel ornaments every year—  10:00 —that was sort of close to the Christmas story. But there weren't too many to be found that were actually about the reason for Christmas; so I bought other things for our kids for Christmas / for their ornaments. Bob:  Do you remember any of the ornaments you got? Laura:  Oh yes. I just opened them a couple days ago. I couldn't wait! I was so excited to decorate the tree. Bob:  Because this is your first—this is your first married Christmas. Laura:  Right; it is. Bob:  Any of Josh's old ornaments on the tree? Barbara:  I don't know if he has any. [Laughter] Laura: I don't know if he has any. Dennis:  A single guy with ornaments, Bob? Bob:  I had a box of ornaments that my mom gave me. I mean, you gave your boys ornaments; right? Barbara:  Our sons have their ornaments that I gave them when they were growing up; yes. Bob:  And do they still show up on their tree? Do you know? Barbara:  I don't know—yes; Samuel's do, because I've seen his several years. I don't know about Ben's. I'm sure they're there—I just haven't noticed them. Bob:  You'd better ask Josh if he has any ornaments. Laura:  I think he probably left them in the attic—he was embarrassed. [Laughter] If he has any, we'll incorporate them in. 11:00 Actually, I have—like Mom said earlier—she gave us a different ornament every year and truly continued on. I still—well, I'm probably not going to get one this year—she's cutting me off now that I'm married. Barbara:  Now that she's married. [Laughter] Laura:  It's all downhill from here! Dennis:  Josh can get you an ornament.  But what you've done, Barbara, is—you've created now five different sets of ornaments. The first year, there were seven names—they're metal names of Christ from Luke, Chapter 2, and Isaiah. The second year was His royal names—these are in the shape of a crown. The third year, His Savior names—we'll talk about them in just a moment—they're in the form of crosses / different crosses from different eras in history. The next year, you had the name of Jesus—that we mentioned earlier—in the various languages throughout the world. Then, this year, you've created globes—which are his Advent names—that are meant to be used at Christmas to help people lead up toward Christmas Day. 12:00 Barbara:  Yes; and you can use any of these ornaments as sort of an advent for your family if you want to. You could hang one ornament each day of the month of December if you wanted to; or you can use just the globes, and you hang those out once each week, leading up to Christmas. There are lots of different things you can do; but by focusing on the names of Christ, no matter which set it is, it helps you remember and focus on the real meaning for Christmas, which is that Christ came to redeem us. Bob:  With five different sets that you've created, do you have a favorite set? Barbara:  Oh, that's a hard question. Dennis:  That's a tough one. Bob:  I know.  Laura: Yes; you do.  Bob: Which is your kids— Barbara:  I do? Laura:  Yes; of course! Bob:  Which one? Laura:  The crowns are her favorite. Bob:  Are they your [Barbara's] favorite? Laura:  I think they are.  Barbara:  It's hard to say. I mean, I really don't know that I can say. I do love the crowns, because I love the idea of Jesus being the King. You know, we don't see Him as King like we will someday when He comes back—so I do love that. But I have to say I love the crosses, because the crosses remind us— 13:00 Dennis:  Now wait a second! That was going to be mine. Barbara:  Well, it can be yours too. [Laughter] Dennis:  I like the crosses, too; because they speak of His purpose—of why He came to save His people from their sins. Each cross is a different cross from a different era in history, and I just think they're magnificent and beautiful.  Bob, what about you? Do you have a favorite? Bob:  I'm partial to the crosses too. I hate to kind of weigh in with the majority here; but the crosses have always been my favorite, because the cross is the centerpiece of our faith that points us to the gospel and what Jesus came to earth for. We tend to think of Christmas being about a manger, and Easter being about a cross; but we need to remember the cross at Christmas as well. Barbara:  They were one in Jesus' mind—I mean, He came for the purpose of dying for us. When you look at it from God's perspective, they're inseparable, even though we celebrate them at two different times of the year. Dennis:  We skipped over Laura. Barbara:  We did; I know. Dennis:  We didn't ask her what her favorite— Bob:  Do you have a favorite set, Laura? 14:00 Laura:  Well, up until this year, the Christmas names were my favorite; but I do love the globes. I think they're different, and they're unique—I love the colors. They really stand out on the Christmas tree. I think it just presents a really neat opportunity—for people who come into your home—aside from all the other ones / they also present the opportunity—but to speak of the reason why Jesus came in an incredibly tangible way is a unique opportunity. Bob:  We are describing these. We ought to point listeners to our website if they'd like to see the globes versus the crosses versus the crowns versus all of the different designs you've done over the years. You can go to FamilyLifeToday.com and click the link for the Adorenaments to see each of the 30 ornaments that Barbara has designed over the years. Dennis:  I was looking forward to asking my wife this question, because I'm not sure I know the answer to it. Bob:  Okay. Dennis:  Why did you pick the Savior names for the third year to help celebrate Christmas? I'm looking at these names, and I just want to mention them— 15:00 —just kind of puts it in context here: Anointed One, Chief Cornerstone, Great High Priest, Lamb of God, Mediator, Messiah, and Redeemer. Why did you pick His Savior names? Barbara:  When I was starting to create these ornaments, I was in conversations with a bunch of different people around the office. I remember one day—because there are over 300 names of Christ—so where do you start? I mean, that's a long list of names. I was mulling all this over in my mind. One day, I was talking to Bob; and Bob said, “Okay; if you could only do three sets of Jesus' names, which ones would you do?”  I knew right away what that would be. I would do His Christmas names, because they're the names we know the best. I would do His royal names, because those are His names that we will know better when He comes back; and then we had to have His Savior names.  16:00 That's why I did those three sets first, because it was sort of—it was a challenge / it was a charge from Bob: “If you could only do three, which three would you do?” So that's why we did those three first. Bob:  I had no idea. Barbara:  You didn't know you— Bob:  I didn't know. Barbara:  —had that kind of influence. [Laughter] Dennis:  See, I didn't know the answer to the question. The next question is: “Why did you pick these crosses from different eras in history?” I'm holding the Savior's name here, Mediator, and it's the Saint Thomas cross. Barbara:  I did not know when we started working on His Savior names that there were so many different types of crosses. The Saint Thomas cross was developed by the Armenian people. Armenia is an area in eastern Turkey. It's said that Thomas, the disciple, went to Armenia after the resurrection of Christ—that he was the one who went east to take the gospel to people—so they created this cross.   17:00 It has a dove on the top to signify the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell within us; and they named the cross after the disciple Thomas. I did not know that; and I thought, “Well, what a cool story!” So each one of these crosses has a similar story—why it was created, who designed it, what the name is, and why it became important in the history of Christendom throughout the last 2,000 years. Dennis:  So what's the story behind the cross that bears the name, Messiah? It's called the anchor cross. Bob:  I knew he was going to ask about it—he loves the anchor cross. Dennis: I do. Barbara:  It is his favorite. When we were talking about favorites—it's his favorite. Barbara:  Oh, it's yours, too, Laura? Laura:  Yes. Barbara:  Why is it your favorite? Laura:  Well, when people buy His Savior names—you can read this in the book—but it's my favorite because, in the book, it says the promise of Messiah is a message of hope. If you keep going [reading] down, it says the anchor cross has symbolized hope since the early days of the church. I think around Christmastime, it's such a happy and a celebratory time; but it can also be a really hard time for a lot of people. 18:00 Barbara:  Yes. Laura:  It can be a time where you've lost a loved one; and so you're reminded, around that time, of someone that's missing in your life—or something that you would like to have / if you longed to be married or if you've longed to have children and you can't. It can be a hard time of year, around Christmas. I think that's why I love the Messiah ornament. Barbara:  That's why we put the name, Messiah, on the anchor cross; because there's the verse in Hebrews 6—and it says, “We have this hope, this sure and steadfast hope that is the anchor of our soul.” The idea that Jesus is our anchor—that when everything around us feels like it's giving way / when we're caught in some kind of a tempest, or a trial, or a really difficult time—we can be confident that Jesus is with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us, and that our faith in Him has been likened to an anchor. So we put the name, Messiah, on the anchor cross. 19:00 Dennis:  We don't have time to look at all the names here; but the one we have to talk about, if we're going to talk about Savior names, is Redeemer. This is the Celtic cross. The word, Redeemer, is used 141 times in Scripture. It's used 13 times in the Book of Isaiah, where it foretells the coming of Jesus Christ. He came to be our Savior/our Messiah, but He also came to redeem us.  I was thinking, as I was reflecting on that name, of the illustration given of a man who was standing before a judge, guilty. The judge declared him guilty and told him what his penalty would be. At that point, he got up, pushed back from the chair, took his robe off, pulled out his checkbook, walked around in front of the judge's bench, and wrote out the check, “Paid in full.” That's what our Redeemer did.  20:00 He came to do what you can't do for yourself.  If you're listening to us today, and you don't know—the Redeemer, the Messiah, the One who is the chief Cornerstone, the Anointed One, the One who is the Savior of the world—then you just simply need to cry out and say to Him, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!” There was another person who cried out that prayer—he was in the process of dying on a cross. He was one of the criminals that was executed next to Christ on the day that Christ was crucified. Jesus turned to him and said, “Surely, you will be with Me today in paradise.”  You know what? If you cry out to Jesus Christ / surrender your life to Him, He will hear your prayer. He will meet you where you are in the middle of your mess, and He will redeem you. He will be your Messiah. He will become your anchor in the storm. 21:00 Bob:  We have on our website, at FamilyLifeToday.com, a tab that says, “Two Ways to Live.” I'd encourage listeners to go and click that tab and look at what's presented there, because there are only two ways to live. There is the God-centered way of living, and then there is the man-centered way of living. Each of us decides which path we're going to walk on. Again, go to FamilyLifeToday.com. Click the tab that says, “Two Ways to Live.” As you read it, ask yourself the question: “Who or what am I living for? What's my life really all about?” While you're on our website at FamilyLifeToday.com, take a look at the resources Barbara has been working on that we've talked some about today—the ornaments that have been created in past years to hang on your Christmas tree to proclaim the names of Jesus during the Christmas season—and the new set of ornaments, His Advent names.  22:00 These are four globe-shaped ornaments that have four different names for Jesus—Jesus is the Son, the Messenger, the Word, and the Light—corresponding verses on each ornament. You can order any of the ornaments in the collection when you go to FamilyLifeToday.com; or you can call to order at 1-800-FL-TODAY—1-800-358-6329—that's 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word, “TODAY.” And for those of you who have the FamilyLife mobile app—some of you, I know, listen to this program using the app—we're starting to include some devotional material for the month of December in the app / some Advent devotions; some questions you can use to prompt spiritual discussions during the holiday season, with friends or family members—or your children, for that matter—ways to talk about Christ during Christmas. You'll find it all on the FamilyLife app, and the app is free.  23:00 Simply go to your app store to download it. Of course, FamilyLife Today is available on the app every day. It's easy to tune in that way. I want to say, “Happy anniversary!” today to Pastor Jason and Lady Charita Spruill, who live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was just up in Philadelphia for our Weekend to Remember® getaway recently—had a great weekend with listeners who came out for the getaway. The Spruills are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary today. They listen to FamilyLife Today on WFIL. We want to say: “Happy anniversary to you guys! Hope you have a great celebration.” We're all about anniversaries, here at FamilyLife. We've been helping couples celebrate more anniversaries for 40 years now. We want to thank those of you who partner with us to make this ministry possible. We mentioned earlier the matching gift that is available during the month of December. We hope you'll consider a yearend contribution to this ministry. You can give, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com; or you can call 1-800-FL-TODAY to give.  24:00 Or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223. Now, tomorrow, Barbara Rainey is going to be back with us again. We're going to continue our conversation about how we make Jesus the issue at Christmas and how we make sure that He doesn't get cluttered out. Hope you can tune in for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.______________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 1) - A Call to AdventCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 2) - Being StillCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 3) - Introducing Your Kids to the SaviorCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 4) - His Savior NamesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 5) - Remembering Christ at ChristmasFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. Introduce Your Kids to the Savior Guests:                      Dennis and Barbara Rainey                       From the series:       Celebrating Advent (Day 3 of 5)Air date:                     November 30, 2016______________________________________________________________________________ Bob: Many parents would love for their family to have a more spiritual / a more Christ-centered focus during the Christmas season. But there's not a lot that points us in that direction. Here's Barbara Rainey. Barbara: As we were raising our children, I noticed that there was very little available, even then—and that was 20 years ago—that helped us, as a family / helped Dennis and me turn our kids' attention to Jesus at the Christmas holiday. I wanted to do that—I wanted to help my kids appreciate Christmas for what it was really all about. And yet, I couldn't find things that helped me engage my kids in conversations about it. I couldn't find things, other than a Nativity scene or two, that we had that would help us turn our attention, and help us turn our kids' attention, to the meaning of Christmas. 1:00 Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, November 30th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. What can we be doing, as moms and dads, to be pointing our children in a more Christ-centered direction as we get ready to celebrate Christmas? We're going to explore that today. Stay with us. And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Wednesday edition. I'm going to have to get a new mailbox I think. I mean— Dennis: Too many catalogues? Bob: Yes; stop and think: “How much meaningful mail do you get in a year these days? I go out to the mailbox every day to see what's in the mailbox. How many days is it just junk?” Barbara: Most of the days. Bob: Most days it's just junk mail. Every once in a while, there's a lovely letter from FamilyLife—so we have that / we always get that—and open that first thing; but most of the time, it's just junk.  2:00 Well, you get to Christmastime— Dennis: I just wrote you a note, Bob—I just thanked you. You should be getting it here pretty soon. Bob: Well, I'll keep my eyes open for it. Thank you. [Laughter] Barbara: Yes; thank you notes are nice to get. Dennis: A handwritten note is really valuable today. Bob: Those are nice and rare.  So, now, at Christmastime, there is not enough room in the mailbox for all of the catalogues / for all of the—just all of the stuff / all of the junk that everybody wants us to buy. I'm just telling them, “Don't send them to me anymore, because I'm not buying your stuff; okay?” I'm just trying to tell them— Barbara: They don't believe it, though. Bob: I guess they don't; no. Dennis: Barbara joins us on FamilyLife Today. Welcome back, Sweetheart. Barbara: Thank you. Dennis: She had me actually go to the garbage the other day, Bob, and fish out of the garbage a magazine that she said captured really what is the message / what has become the message of Christmas this season. Barbara: I did; because I didn't want the magazine / didn't need it— 3:00 —so I pitched it. Then I started thinking about the messages that that magazine was communicating to me at Christmas. This one came in the mail the other day. On the cover, it says, “385 Ways to Dazzle Family and Friends.” [Laughter] I thought, “Well, first of all, who has time for 385 ways, number one; and secondly, is it really about dazzling your family and friends?” I just thought: “Oh my gosh! We have really—we have really changed.” Bob: This is all about Christmas—you're supposed to do all of this— Barbara: This whole catalogue— Dennis: It's a new advent—385 steps / 385 ways—[Laughter] Bob: So, did you read any of them? Barbara: Well, I flipped through it; and of course, it's multiple choice—you don't have to do all 385. They want you to have lots of options. Bob: That's a good thing; yes. Barbara: One of them said, “Take a bow as you reveal the spectacular cake.” Another one said, “Show them you love them by giving one of these handmade gifts to everyone on your list.” [Laughter] I'm thinking, “Even if you just chose one of those, it's overwhelming, all by itself.” 4:00 Bob: I can do the bow; but I'm just thinking, “My friends and family are not going to be dazzled when I take a bow.” Barbara: No; no. [Laughter] Dennis: It is all the wrong message, though. Barbara: Yes; it is. Dennis: What we want to do is—I don't know that we want to dazzle. I think we want to refocus—a little bit like a camera—bring back the focus to Christmas and what it's all about and help families celebrate Jesus Christ. Barbara: Actually, I think dazzle might be a good word. I think what we want is—we want to be dazzled by the incarnation—the fact that Jesus actually came to the planet to rescue us when we didn't deserve it / we didn't even know that we needed it. And yet, the Father sent Him, and He willingly obeyed and came. I think that, in and of itself, is something to be dazzled by. It's not about us being the focus—us being the center of attention / us being the one who's wowing people—we need to be wowed by the Christmas story and what Jesus came to do for us. 5:00 Dennis: And if we don't lead it—if parents don't lead it, men/women, moms/dads, grandmas and grandpas—don't lead out in re-establishing the reason for Christmas and what it ought to be about, the world will send us another message. Bob: Yes; in fact, the message is pretty clear at Christmastime. Very little of it is about the spiritual significance of the holiday. Barbara: That's right. Bob: Most of it's about the commercial significance of the holiday. Barbara: Yes; it is. All you have to do is go into any store that carries a lot of Christmas decorations—ornaments, or things you can put on your tree, or things you can put up around your house—and if you look hard, you will find very, very little about Jesus—about His coming to earth / about the Christmas story. You'll find plenty of things—a plethora of things—about Santa and reindeer, and elf on a shelf, and on, and on, and on it goes. The volume of things associated with Christmas today is overwhelmingly not about the Christmas story. 6:00 Bob: This is actually what got you started, a few years back, thinking, “I want to start creating things that people can put in their home that will refocus them, at Christmastime, on the reason we're celebrating Christmas.” Barbara: As we were raising our children, I noticed that there was very little available even then—and that was 20 years ago—that helped us, as a family / helped Dennis and me turn our kids' attention to Jesus at the Christmas holiday. I wanted to do that—I wanted to help my kids appreciate Christmas for what it was really all about. And yet, I couldn't find things that helped me engage my kids in conversations about it. I couldn't find things, other than a Nativity scene or two, that we had that would help us turn our attention, and help us turn our kids' attention, to the meaning of Christmas. Dennis: And I was glad she finally got a chance to put some feet under some ideas she had had—that she'd been talking about, Bob, for probably 25 years as we raised our kids.  7:00 She would talk about this repeatedly: “Why doesn't someone create meaningful objects that call us to worship, that are well done, and have our Christmas trees and our decor in our homes be about Jesus Christ, in a contemporary way that will pass on the truth about Jesus Christ to the next generation?”  What she did—she began to do a study of the names of Christ that are mentioned in Scripture. You know, you don't really pause and take a step back and think, “How important a name is,” but I just want to read what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians, Chapter 2 [verse 9]—he says, “Therefore God has highly exalted Him,”—that is Christ—“and has bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 8:00 Christmas is about the incarnation of the One, whose name—someday, every knee will bow—not just a few, but every knee will bow. What Barbara did—because she's both an artist and a student of the Bible—she began to set out to create a line of ornaments, calling them Adorenaments®, after the song, O Come Let Us Adore Him. She created the Christmas names from Luke, Chapter 2 and Isaiah. She created His royal names from the Psalms and from Revelation. She created His Savior names in the form of crosses. All of these were designed to be durable and to be passed on to the next generation to declare who Jesus is. This year, she's created globes. They're globes that declare four names of Christ around Advent—His first coming—that help families, I think, regain their focus back on why we celebrate Christmas. 9:00 Bob: These globes are round ornaments. We think of ornaments as globes most often, but this is the first year you've done anything with a round shape. Barbara: Right. And they're literally globes—that have the continents of the earth on them; and then written, on the globe, is a name of Christ: “Jesus is the Light of the World,” or “Jesus is the Messenger”; and then there's also a verse on the globe, too, to help us understand why He came to our planet. Bob: And is this all you have on your tree at home—are these ornaments? Barbara: It is. I have some small balls that are plain, that don't have anything on them. All of our kids are out of the nest. When they left, we boxed up all their ornaments that they collected, when they were growing up, and gave them to the kids. If we still had our children at home, we would probably have a mix of different kinds of things, plus all of the Adorenaments on our tree. Since it's just Dennis and me now, that's what we have on our tree—is just the names of Christ. 10:00 Bob: Does your home feel different because your tree has these ornaments on them rather than a mixture? Barbara: I don't know if it feels different, but I like looking at it. Our daughter-in-law, Marsha Kay, told me last year, at Christmas, that she puts up a little bit smaller tree in their living room—it doesn't have a really high ceiling—so it's probably just an average six-foot tree. She only puts the Adorenaments on there that I've given her through the years. She said: “I love to go in that living room and sit there, all by myself, and just stare at that tree. I call it my Jesus tree.” She said, “It helps me remember what Christmas is about.” They put up another tree in their main room, where their TV is, and where they gather as a family—it's a larger room. That's the tree that the kids decorate—that's where they put their school ornaments, and the ones they make, and the ones they've collected. That's more of an all-purpose tree. But I just love the way she described it—she called it her Jesus tree. I just thought: “That's really exactly what it is.  11:00 “It's having a place, at Christmas, that proclaims who He is and what He came to do. That reminds us, as a family / those of us who live in that house—or people who come to visit—reminds us what the holiday is all about.” Dennis: And I think many times we underestimate the power of a name. Barbara: Yes. Dennis: If you think how the first coming of Christ—His first advent—was described when the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary, announcing that she was going to have a baby, and told her what to call Him. Let me just read this from Luke, Chapter 1: “The angel said to Mary, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.'” And he goes on to promise that Jesus would save the people from their sins. 12:00 The name, Jesus, actually means “God saves.” So the incarnation is God's statement to humanity, “I'm finally going to bring to pass that which I promised, all the way back to Genesis, Chapter 3, when Adam and Eve sinned,” and He promised that there would be a Redeemer. Bob: Well, and last year, you took that name, Jesus, and made ornaments in five languages. Barbara: Five different languages. Bob: And it was just the name of Jesus in the alphabet and the language of—I think it was Spanish; it was Russian; Mandarin— Barbara: Chinese Mandarin. Bob: —Hebrew— Barbara: Hebrew and Arabic. Bob: And that's the declaration that “God saves.” When you talk about other names of Jesus, you're talking about titles like “Son of the Most High,” which the angel mentioned to Mary. Barbara: Yes. Bob: So each year, you've been doing different titles. In that sense, they are names / they're descriptors of who Jesus is. 13:00 Barbara: Correct; yes. And every one of the names that's given to Jesus / that we read about in the Bible helps us understand more of who He is / more of what He came to do for us.  You know, we're so used to, as people, having one or maybe two names, or three names if you have a middle name. We think in really small terms when it comes to names for people. But when you think about the fact that Jesus has, as some scholars say, as many as 300 names or titles given to Him in the Bible, it tells us that He is much, much different than we are. There is much to learn about Him and much to worship. As we learn what these different names are—and then learn what they mean and learn why they're important—for instance, the verse we know so well at Christmas from Isaiah: “He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”—each one of those four names that were prophesied about Christ tell us something different about His character / tell us something different about who He is and what He can do for us. 14:00 Just think about the title, Prince of Peace. How badly do we need peace in our world? We need it every year. Every year, at Christmas, we all feel the need for peace—peace in our families, peace in our hearts, peace between people groups, between nations—and Jesus came to give us that peace. He came to be the Prince of Peace. When we understand more about His names, we understand more about Him. Therefore, we want to worship Him for all that He is to us and for us. Dennis: And I love the attention to detail that Barbara has created here around these names. The one she's talking about here—Prince of Peace—you can see that, Bob, it's resting on a bed of straw, which is representative of the humble circumstances of Jesus being born in a manger.  15:00 As you were talking about Prince of Peace, Barbara—yes, we need it for the world—but you also mentioned there are a lot of homes that need peace this Christmas season. It may be that a family pulls this out and reads what you've written about what it means that Jesus was the Prince of Peace—that He personally came to give us peace with God—but also peace with one another. I think families today need to resolve issues / need to resolve conflict. It may be that, as you pull this Adorenament out of the package and hang it on your tree, maybe you and your children can pray: “Lord, would the Prince of Peace come to our family this Christmas season? Would You heal some of the conflict, the lack of peace, the hurt, the anger? And would You turn our home into a place where the Savior, not only visits, but where He reigns as the Prince of Peace?” 16:00 Barbara: And there isn't a family anywhere that doesn't need that. Every family needs help in conflict resolution, and ever family needs peace. That would be a great application for any family to pray this year at Christmas. Bob: You have written something about pretty much each of these ornaments you've created over the years; right?— Barbara: Right. Bob: —whether it's a devotional or some kind of a thought / an essay. Your desire is that the ornament would trigger deeper thinking about the name. What you've written is designed to help prod us in that direction as well. Barbara: Yes; it is. The idea is—and these can be used in all kinds of different ways—people are infinitely creative. But one of the ideas would be to hang an ornament—and we're talking, right now, mostly about His Christmas names, which is the first set—one idea is to hang one ornament each day for a week.  17:00 You could decorate your tree before or after Thanksgiving like you normally do; and then, get these names and hang them once each day, for the week leading up to Christmas, to help prepare your hearts to worship and to welcome Him on Christmas morning. A way to do that is—each set comes with this small book—so you could hang the ornament on the tree. Then somebody in the family reads the short story. It takes a couple of minutes, at the most, to read it. It helps us understand who Jesus is with this name that you're hanging on the tree. Dennis: Yes. I'm looking at the name, Emmanuel, which you write about in your book here—another one of the Christmas names, from Matthew, Chapter 1:23—it says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel.” Well, that name means “God with us.” He's ever-present with us. You go on to talk about how Jesus, not only came in terms of the incarnation to planet earth; but again, He came to take up residence in each person's life.  18:00 I think a lot of parents are wondering, “How do I share my faith in Christ with my kids?” Well, these Adorenaments give you a way to introduce your child to the One who is called the Savior; the One who is Emmanuel; the One who is the Prince of Peace. You actually have, in the back of this booklet around the Christmas names, a prayer that a child can pray to commit his life, or her life, to Jesus Christ. Barbara: We have a really good friend who actually works here in our office. The year these ornaments came out, he did exactly what we're talking about. They hung the ornaments on the tree, one by one, and read the stories that accompanied each name. He told us that year that one of the names triggered some questions in his son's heart. His son started asking his dad: “So, what about this? What does that mean about me?” And his dad answered his questions. It was the right time for his son to want to receive Christ.  19:00 This man—this good friend of ours—had the great privilege of leading his son to Christ as a result of focusing on the names of Christ at Christmas. I think that's what God is calling all of us to do. He's calling all of us to make decisions. He's calling all of us to settle things and make things right with Him. Christmas is a wonderful time to do that, because we're naturally thinking about Jesus being born in Bethlehem. It's a perfect opportunity for moms and dads to help your kids understand what a decision for Christ looks like and why that's the most important decision they'll ever make. Dennis: As parents, we are commanded, back in Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, to pass on our faith / our love for Christ to our children, and to talk of it when we rise up, when we go by the way, when we lie down. We're to be talking to our children; in essence, training them in the Bible and about who God is.  20:00 It's really a foreshadowing of the Great Commission, a command that Jesus gave over in Matthew 28:19 and 20, where He commanded us to make disciples, to teach them to obey all that He has commanded us. You and I, as parents, are commanded to instruct our children in the ways of God from His Word. That can come about around the holiday of Christmas; which frankly, just sets you up, as a parent, to be able to talk about: “Why do we celebrate this season? Why is it so important?” “Well, it's about Jesus Christ, who wasn't just another man. He is the Savior / He is the Prince of Peace,” and to use this holiday as the great privilege and opportunity to introduce your children to that Savior. Bob: At this point, you have created 30 different ornament designs. The ones for this year are the globes we've talked about. In past years, they've been different designs / different shapes.  21:00 If somebody goes to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com, they can actually see all 30 of the ornaments you've created and order whatever ornaments they'd like to—have their tree covered with names of Christ—all over the tree. Again, go to FamilyLifeToday.com to see the ornaments Barbara has created, including the new set for this year—His advent names—the four globes that talk about Jesus as the Son, the Messenger, the Word, and the Light. The website is FamilyLifeToday.com; or you can call to order any of the Adorenaments at 1-800-FL-TODAY—1-800-358-6329—that's 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word “TODAY.”,By the way, in our FamilyLife app, we're including devotionals and ideas for celebrating the Advent season—ways that you can engage others in conversation about Christ during the Advent season.  22:00 If you don't currently have the FamilyLife app, it's free. Go to your app store, and you can download it. Look for this Advent content that we're starting to include in the app. Again, the app is free; and you can download it when you go to your app store. It was 31 years ago today that Tim and Angela Childress became husband and wife. Tim and Angela live here in Little Rock. They are associate staff, here at FamilyLife. We want to say, “Congratulations!” to the Childresses today as they celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary. And “Congratulations!” to you, as well, if it's your wedding anniversary. Anniversaries matter. Here, at FamilyLife, we've been celebrating our 40th anniversary, all year long; and we've been doing it by reflecting on how God has used this ministry in the lives of so many couples, who are still celebrating anniversaries because of how God worked through FamilyLife to strengthen their marriage.  That's what you're supporting when you support this ministry—you're helping to strengthen marriages and families.  23:00 You're helping couples to thrive and families to flourish. We want to say, “Thank you for your partnership with us, and your investment in the tens of thousands of couples and families we're talking to every day on this program, and who we're reaching through our website, our events, and our resources.” If you can help with a donation today, we'd love to say, “Thank you,” by sending you a resource that you can use with your children during the Christmas season. These are ornaments that are designed for preschool and early elementary-aged children. They're colorful, and they're great for kids to understand more about who Jesus is at Christmastime. We'll send you “The Twelve Names of Christmas” ornament set when you make a donation today. Go to FamilyLifeToday.com to donate online; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make your donation; or you can request “The Twelve Names of Christmas” when you mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223. 24:00 Now, tomorrow, we're going to talk more about some of the names the Bible uses for Jesus and see what we can learn about who He is by understanding His names. Hope you can tune in for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.______________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Click Here to Listen to the other parts in the seriesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 1) - A Call to AdventCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 2) - Being StillCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 3) - Introducing Your Kids to the SaviorCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 4) - His Savior NamesCelebrating Advent with Laura Rainey Dries (Part 5) - Remembering Christ at ChristmasFamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  References to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. A Call to Advent Guests:                      Dennis and Barbara Rainey                       From the series:       Celebrating Advent (Day 1 of 5)Air date:                     November 28, 2016  Bob: Does your church or does your family do anything to celebrate the Advent season?  Are you even familiar with what Advent is?  Here's Barbara Rainey.  Barbara: The term, “advent,” just means Jesus' coming—it means the time when He came to earth / He left heaven. The Book of John tells us He was sent by God—He left heaven, and He came to earth. He became a baby, as we all know in the story, and was born and lived and gave His life for us. But the time—those weeks leading up to Christmas—years ago, in the Middle Ages or somewhere in there, the church fathers met and decided that this would be a good time to help people prepare their hearts to celebrate and to worship when Christmas Day actually came.  I think it's a great concept because, in our culture today, we don't wait very well, we do not celebrate very well, and we don't mark the days very well.  1:00 I think there is some benefit—especially for families—to mark those Sundays of Advent with, even, a ten-minute gathering. Get together before bed time, if you have to—or after breakfast or whenever it works—and just think together about what this season is all about. The whole idea of Advent is preparing your heart to worship and to appropriately celebrate the gift of Christ.  Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, November 28th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife®, Dennis Rainey. I'm Bob Lepine. We have a great opportunity, over the next four weeks, to prepare our hearts and minds for the celebration of Jesus' coming. We'll talk about that today. Stay with us.  2:00 And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. I just—I'm wondering: “Do you guys have, at your house, somebody who comes through—like at the end of the weekend after Thanksgiving—and says: ‘Okay; we've got to do a major shift here!  We've got to take all the Thanksgiving stuff down'?”   Dennis: You're looking at him. [Laughter] My martyr meter is going off right now. [Laughter]   Barbara: There's not that much Thanksgiving stuff to take down; mind you.  Dennis: There really isn't; but I'm going to tell you—the Christmas—we have it out in a little storage shed. I'm not saying it's a lot, but we hire an 18-wheeler to move the 200 feet from our storage shed up to our back door. [Laughter]   Bob: You had to put an addition on the storage shed—didn't you?—just to handle more Christmas stuff over the years?  [Laughter]   Barbara: You guys are terrible!   Dennis: We are terrible.  Barbara: You are, because it's so not true.  Bob: But the truth is that— Dennis: Barbara—you know, here is the thing, Bob—this is a paradox of life.  Bob: Yes?   3:00 Dennis: Barbara says her favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  Bob: And by the way, Barbara is joining us again today. Welcome back to FamilyLife Today.  Dennis: Welcome back, Sweetheart.  Barbara: Thank you. Bob: So, Thanksgiving, which we've just completed—your favorite holiday; right?   Barbara: Yes; and the rest of the sentence is?   Dennis: Why are there boxes of Christmas gear that we bring in?   Barbara: Because there is so much more available to purchase, and to display, and to decorate with for Christmas than there is for Thanksgiving.  Dennis: Especially since you created Ever Thine Home®.  Barbara: That's part of it too.  Dennis: You have declared the reason for the season, both at Thanksgiving and at Christmas— Barbara: So, part of— Dennis: —and at Valentine's, and at Easter.  Barbara: —and Easter. Part of the reason— Dennis: —and the Fourth of July!  [Laughter]   Barbara: Part of the reason we have more at Christmas now is because we have all the old stuff—all the old Santa, snowmen / things have nothing to do with Jesus—stuff that I haven't gotten rid of yet.  Dennis: You know what I think?—[whispering]—they could disappear.  Barbara: They could.  Dennis: [Whispering] They might—they might vanish.  Barbara: But we've replaced them with all the new things about Jesus.  Bob: If you see an extra trash can out at the curb tonight when you go home—[Laughter] 4:00 Barbara: I'll know what it is; yes! [Laughter]   Bob: —you will know— Dennis: It may be my body!  [Laughter]   Bob: —you will know that your husband has decided to edit some of your Christmas decorations.  Dennis: This could be the end of me! [Laughter]  No; we have a good time with it—I really enjoy the season. We do pull it out, and there is a transition. There's not that much gear that comes down from Thanksgiving / there is a good amount that comes up to celebrate Christmas.  Bob: Well, I've been to your home at Christmastime. I just love—there is a red vinyl record that you've had up— Barbara: You like my old records?   Bob: I love the old records.  Barbara: I do too.  Bob: You knew that would be something that I would gravitate toward.  Barbara: Yes.  Bob: But what is it? I don't know if it's Joy to the World. What is it?  Do you remember?   Barbara: Well, it may be Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing; but I have three of these old records left from my childhood. We had stacks of them that my brother and I used to play on our little record player. For some reason, I ended up with these three— 5:00 —two are red and one is a 78 [RPM]—which nobody knows what that is anymore except you [Bob]. One is a 78, and it's yellow. I put those up on little plate stands every year at Christmas. They are just some of my favorite things that I put out every year at Christmas.  Bob: Okay; well, I have to be honest with you—since we have become empty-nesters at our house, we've had the conversation of “Can we just kind of scale back the home decorating?”   Barbara: Oh, yes.  Bob: It was one thing when the kids were home— Barbara: Right.  Bob: —and you really wanted to create an atmosphere.  Barbara: Right. Dennis: Have your kids let you have it for doing that?   Bob: Well, I mean, they only show up for a few days; and you can endure that. [Laughter] I'm just curious: “Have you thought about scaling back since it's just the two of you now?”   Barbara: Yes; we have scaled back. In fact, when we did some remodeling on our house a few years ago, I didn't even put up a full-sized tree / it wasn't even a fresh tree—I had a smaller tree that was a table-top tree. When I got that and I set it up, I heard in my head the words that I said to myself when I was a young wife:  6:00 “I will never do a table-top tree like all these old people that I know.”  [Laughter]  All of a sudden, I thought: “Oh my gosh!  I'm one of those. [Laughter] What has happened to me?”   Dennis: You're not an old person; trust me.  Bob: But you have scaled back?   Barbara: We have scaled back; yes.  Bob: Because Dennis makes it sound like it's just getting bigger and bigger every year.  Barbara: It is not getting bigger and bigger every year. So, sorry, dear; I disagree.  Dennis: There you have it—another great illustration ruined by an eye-witness.  Bob: Here's what has happened at your home—and we talked about this earlier. Some the old decorations that were festive have been replaced by decorations that are more purposeful.  Barbara: Correct; yes.  Bob: And this is something that I know—over the last five years / maybe longer than that—has become a real burden for you.  Barbara: Well, I've wanted to find Christmas decorations—whether it was ornaments or other kinds of things that I could put out at Christmas—   7:00 —for 20 years, I've been looking for things that were about Christ, other than a Nativity set, which we had a couple of, and we put those up every year. Other than a Nativity set of some kind, it was very hard to find anything to hang on a Christmas tree that was about Jesus.  Now, that I've started creating these Christmas ornaments that are about Jesus, called Adorenaments®, that's what my tree is covered with now. I don't put up all the other ones that we used to put up when the kids were at home. We don't have Santas, and reindeer, and snowmen, and footballs, and all of that stuff on our tree anymore—partly because the kids are gone.  If the kids were still home and little, and they wanted to hang those ornaments, we would hang them; but I would also put up ornaments about Christ, because Christmas is about Jesus. I want anyone who comes in our home—and those of us who live in our home—to be reminded every day, during the month of December, that what we are celebrating is about Jesus Christ—it's about His birth / it's about His incarnation.  8:00 It's not about all this extra stuff, and I want that to be preeminent in our home.  Bob: Some of our listeners will know that we are in a season—that, on the church calendar, is an official season. In fact, some listeners, this week at church, will have lit a candle as part of the worship service around an Advent wreath.  Barbara: That's right.  Bob: They are marking out Advent as a season. I know other listeners are going, “I thought Advent was something that the church down the street did, and we don't do it,”—it's a foreign term for them.  This is something that you've kind of dug into and said: “What's the history of Advent?” and “Why has the church marked out this season in advance of Christmas?”  What have you found?   Barbara: Well, the term, “advent,” just means Jesus' coming—it means the time when He came to earth / He left heaven. The Book of John tells us He was sent by God—He left heaven, and He came to earth. He became a baby, as we all know in the story, and was born and, then, lived and gave His life for us.  9:00 But the time—those weeks leading up to Christmas—years ago, in the Middle Ages or somewhere in there, the church fathers met and decided that this would be a good time to help people prepare their hearts to celebrate and to worship when Christmas Day actually came.  I think it's a great concept because, in our culture today, we don't wait very well, we do not celebrate very well, and we don't mark the days very well. I think there is some benefit—especially for families—to mark those Sundays of Advent with, even, a ten- minute gathering. Get together before bed time, if you have to—or after breakfast or whenever it works—and just think together about what this season is all about. We've got some ways that we want to tell you about that we think that you could do that, but the whole idea of Advent is preparing your heart to worship and to appropriately celebrate the gift of Christ.  10:00 Dennis: Advent can be celebrated on each Sunday, leading up to Christmas, as it is this year. It's already started—people begin to celebrate Advent, thinking about the coming of Christ.  It's also celebrated on a daily basis, leading up to Christmas Eve—and, then, Christmas morning—where the arrival of the Christ-child and the celebration of Him coming and physically visiting the planet can be talked about, as a family, and what that meant for us, as individuals; us, as a family; and also our world.  Bob: We're encouraging listeners to be intentional and purposeful during the Christmas season this year. We've got some suggestions we've been sending out to folks and will be sending out during the Advent season. You can go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com, to find out how you can get these emails or these text messages sent to you during the season so that your family can be more purposeful, more focused, more intentional during this season of the year.  I remember—when I was growing up, we had an Advent calendar— 11:00 —different one every year—that we would get out. Each day on the calendar was covered up with something. As a child, I either got to tear off the piece of cardboard to show what was behind the date or I got to flip something over and see what was revealed—always something hidden that is revealed each day. That's part of what we are remembering during the Advent season—is that there is expectation—there is something hidden that is about to be revealed. Each day of Advent, we're expectant / we're anticipating.  There was one calendar that we got one year, where there was a piece of chocolate behind every day. That got attention paid to it. Trust me!  Every day at breakfast— Dennis: You've never forgotten it.  Bob: That's right. [Laughter] Barbara: It was your favorite; right?   Bob: Yes; of course!   Dennis: And we had one, when we were raising little children, that was kind of a— Barbara: It was felt.  Dennis: —it was felt. You pulled out an ornament—a candy cane / a Santa Claus—again, it was not centered on Christ as you would think it would be as an Advent calendar.  12:00 I'm just listening to Barbara talk about this, Bob—over 25 years ago, she began to look around and to search for ways that were about Christ in helping us celebrate His advent/His coming to the plant—but also, things that were beautiful, that were elegant, that weren't just plastic but were heirlooms that could be passed on to future generations.  Bob: You started with the Christmas tree, and this is your fifth year to make ornaments for trees?   Barbara: That's correct.  Bob: Back, five years ago, you came up with a set of seven ornaments that were all around the Christmas names of Jesus.  Barbara: That's right.  Bob: The next year, you did His royal names— Barbara: Correct.  Bob: —in the shape of crowns. The year after that, you did His Savior names that were all in crosses—   Barbara: Correct.  Dennis: —different crosses from different eras in church history.  Bob: Last year, you took the name of Jesus and you had it in different languages with the different alphabets from those languages.  13:00 Barbara: Yes. Bob: This year, you've got a new set of ornaments?   Barbara: We do. We have a new set. We've titled these “His Advent Names,” appropriately, because these ornaments—there are four of them this year—they are all round, and they're all globes. You see the continents of the world on these globes; and then, each one has a name of Christ. Then, on the other side of the globe, it has the verse where that name is found in the Bible. The focus of this set of ornaments is that He came to earth. We visually created globes to remind us that Jesus came to earth for us; and then, these are some names that are associated with His advent.  Bob: And what are the four names you used this year?    Barbara: The four names are “Jesus is the Light” / He came to be the light of the world—“Jesus is the Son” / “For God so loved the world that He gave His Son…”—“Jesus is the Word” / “For the word became flesh and dwelt among us,” / that's all about His birth in the manger.  14:00 And then, the last one is “The Messenger”; and it's about Jesus coming to bring good news and to tell us who God is.  Dennis: Everybody who has seen these—and seen the others that Barbara created—say these are their favorites / that the globes that feature the names of Christ really are spectacular and also, again, call attention to the reason why He came to the planet.  I just think it's important, Bob, as we hang these ornaments on our trees, to bring our children / our grandchildren into the experience and talk about—not just hang the globe or hang the name on the tree, but to talk about: “What does that mean?”  You could literally take all 25 of these ornaments that Barbara has created over all—His Christmas names, His Royal names, His Savior names, and now, His Advent names—you could turn your Christmas tree—over the next, well, almost 24/25 days—into an Advent Christmas tree. One day after another, hang one of these on your tree and talk about the name of Christ— 15:00 —and introduce your children or, as a couple, talk about, “How is Jesus the Light of the World?”   Bob: And radio really doesn't do justice to these. Again, I'll encourage listeners to go to FamliyLifeToday.com, where they can see what you've created. If folks are interested in ordering, they can order from us, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com.  This is not something you guys have done throughout your marriage. In fact, Advent—you kind of didn't pay attention to Advent until your kids were grown; right?   Barbara: Well, I paid attention to it when we were raising our kids, but I didn't know what to do with it; because I was too busy—and school parties—you know, there were just too many things going on during the month of December. I think every mom, listening, would say the same thing. It's a very, very busy season—we want to do all those things with our kids, and we want to do gifts for all these people, and we wear ourselves out.  16:00 So, even though I wanted to do Advent, I didn't know of an easy way to do it. The times that I tried it, we only did one Sunday; and then, we never finished. I felt like a failure, and I didn't like feeling like a failure. I just thought: “Well, forget that. We won't do Advent in our house, because it's just too hard to pull it off.”   But I do think that Advent is worth practicing, even if you only do it once. That's what I didn't understand when I was a mom—that doing something—even just doing one time—is better than nothing. I think that's my encouragement to moms and to women is: “Even if you just do one Sunday / even if you do one something, it's better than nothing.” I think that makes it valuable, because you're being intentional. You're creating some moments of meaning with your family if you try to make a pause in your life—take a timeout from your busyness—to reflect on who Christ is and what He came to do.  Dennis: I think the significance of this is way underestimated.  17:00 You know, over in Philippians 2, it talks about—someday, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father. I think we underestimate that these names—and interestingly, how many names in your study did you find in the Scriptures were the names of Christ?   Barbara: Some scholars say over 300. I don't know—I've not counted them—but there are a lot more names than any of us have.  Dennis: Well, these 25 names that she's illustrating with these Adorenaments—these are powerful names that give parents practical ways to teach your children about who God is—talking about how Jesus is the Light of the World / how He is the Word—and how they need the Word today; how they need to have a guide / how they need to have a direction for their lives. If they don't, they're going to be obedient to the world and going to conform to the world. So, because Christ came, He showed us what a straight line really is.  Bob: And some listeners, I know, are thinking, “I've heard about Advent, but our church doesn't do that.” 18:00 They feel like, maybe, there is something just strange about it; because it's unfamiliar. What would you say to them?   Barbara: Well, I would say familiarity doesn't always mean that is right. I think that just because it's different doesn't mean that it's something that you shouldn't do. There is value in taking some time, as a family—or even just as a husband and wife if you don't have kids yet—to talk about the names of Christ, and to talk about who He is, and why He came. That's what Advent is all about—it's preparing your heart.  I think anytime we can pause and prepare our heart to welcome Him / to give Him worship, we're going to be better for it. It may be a little different than something you've heard of, but just think of what the word [Advent] means—it just means preparing for His coming.  Bob: Explain for listeners what the benefits are of taking time out to focus on Jesus during the Advent season.  19:00 Barbara: The whole purpose for Advent—the reason that the church fathers came up with this idea, back in the Middle Ages, was to encourage people, who were believers in Christ, to prepare their hearts for Christmas Day. It's a way to anticipate His coming / it's a way to look forward to celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas Day. When we practice Advent today, it's essentially the same thing—it's a way to mark the time, but it's also a way to build anticipation.  I think there are some real benefits for families. The first one is—it teaches us to be patient. We are not a patient people in this culture—our children aren't patient / we're not patient—we're so used to everything being readily available whenever we want it. If you mark Advent—and you can only open one little box, and you have to wait a whole week for the next one—it teaches us, as people, to be patient. That is a good quality / it's a good attribute.  20:00 Another benefit, I think, for celebrating or marking the days of Advent is that it helps us to pause and reflect about who Christ is. Another is that it builds anticipation—when we're anticipating, we are believing. I think that's really, really good for us.  Reason number four is that Advent encourages eternal decisions; because I think, when we take the time to think about Jesus and why He came to earth, it naturally makes us go, “Oh; do I know Him?”  As moms and dads, it's a great opportunity for you to say to your kids, “Do you know Jesus?”  Advent is a way for us to pause in the middle of the busy season and take advantage of Advent—it helps us have those conversations. It may lead to the most important decision you or one of your kids will ever make.  Bob: Well, and I know, at our house—especially when our kids were younger—there was a lot of anticipation and expectation during the Christmas season / during the Advent season— 21:00 —but it was expectation and anticipation around, “What am I getting on Christmas morning?”   Dennis: Yes; of course.  Bob: Not a whole lot of expectation or anticipation around celebrating the birth of Jesus— Barbara: Right.  Bob: —or having a Christ-centered focus. That's where you are trying to redirect— Barbara: Correct.  Bob: —our attention with the resources you're creating and all that you've been working on.  I'd encourage listeners to go to our website to see the new set of Adorenaments—the globes that you've created this year / His Advent names. There are four of them; and you can see them at FamilyLifeToday.com, along with some of the ornaments from past years as well.  If you've got the FamilyLife app on your iPhone or on your Android phone, we're building into the app this year some devotionals you can do together, as a family—ways to talk about Christ during the Christmas season—some questions that you can ask one another at the dinner table just to get conversation going around more spiritual themes.  22:00 If you don't have the FamilyLife app, you can download it from your app store and look for the Christmas content that is included in the app this year.  Once again, if you'd like to see the resources Barbara has been working on over the last year, go to FamilyLifeToday.com. You can order the new Adorenaments from us there; or you can call to order at 1-800-FL-TODAY—1-800-358-6329. That's 1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then the word, “TODAY.”   Today is a special day for Glen and Shawn Solberg—who live here in Little Rock and, until recently, were coworkers of ours, here at FamilyLife—they are celebrating 24 years together as husband and wife: “Happy anniversary!” to the Solbergs.  We've been all about anniversaries this year because it's really tied to the mission of this ministry.  23:00 We want to see more couples celebrate more anniversaries, year in and year out. We want to effectively develop godly marriages and families, who change the world, one home at a time.  When you support the work of FamilyLife, it is couples—like the Solbergs—you're supporting. Together, we are providing practical biblical help and hope for husbands and wives, moms and dads, all around the world. We're grateful for those of you who partner with us in this ministry. In fact, tomorrow is Giving Tuesday—it's a time when, in advance of Christmas, a lot of people decide to make yearend contributions to ministries and other non-profit organizations.  Maybe today, you could talk about making a donation—a yearend donation—to FamilyLife. Tomorrow, on Giving Tuesday, you can go online at FamilyLifeToday.com to make a donation; or call 1-800-FL-TODAY, donate over the phone; or write to us with your donation.  24:00 Our mailing address is FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; our zip code is 72223.  Now, tomorrow, we're going to talk more about how, as a family, we can help ourselves and help our children be more focused on what Christmas really is all about. Hope you can tune in. Barbara Rainey is going to be back with us, and I hope you will be as well.  I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today.  FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.   Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com    

Doug Jarecki is the Director of Education and Outreach at the Waukesha Civic Theatre, and also a local actor and playwright. He is co-founder of the children's theatre company Kidsplay, where he co-writes and performs original shows for young audiences. His work has been produced by Next Act Theatre, In Tandem, Waukesha Civic Theatre, Kohl's Wild Theatre, and more. His Christmas play 'Twas The Month Before Christmas will be returning this December to Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center and the Oconomowoc Arts Center. Doug is joining us today to discuss five playwriting reminders. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/backstage-tour/support

Luke 2:10-14 (ESV Strong's) And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”   Ever since those words were spoken, and also long before, mankind has searched for peace. At Christmas, people always speak about peace, yet according to the NY Times, in the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for only 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history. Today, as people around the world speak of peace, 828 armed conflicts are currently raging in 69 countries around the world, almost all of them driven by a religion calling itself peace!   So this Christmas Day, I want to remind you that real peace, forever peace, peace that passes all understanding is possible, but you will never find it in mankind’s government, or the media’s latest philosophy, or the good intentions of men.   That first Christmas the angel promised peace on earth, not to all men, but to all men with whom God is pleased, that is those who know Him and honour Him.   Yet sometimes, in an ocean of conflict, madness and destruction God shines a tiny candle of peace that speaks of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. So today I want to share the story with you of one such ray of hope in the midst of a world of nan made death and destruction.     It’s December 1914, and the Great War has been raging for 8 months. In that time the German army swept through Belgium, and drove on towards Paris, but were repelled by a combined French army and British Expeditionary Force in the battle of Aisne. At that point in northern France and Belgium the war deteriorated into a static war, with trenches stretching from Belgium to Switzerland.   The men from both sides who had earlier joined up and marched to war so  confident of victory and being home by Christmas now faced a Christmas in the waterlogged, freezing trenches, gazing fearfully across no man’s land at the enemy.   They were shelled, machine gunned and fought not only the enemy, but also the cold and the lice and rats. They were lonely, afraid, freezing, miserable… what kind of Christmas is this?   In the Ypres sector of the Western front in Belgium, British forces from the Northumberland Hussars 7th Division stood guard on the parapet overlooking no man’s land. And as the sound of guns and artillery faded away that Christmas Day, it was replaced by this sound coming from the German lines beyond the wire ….   Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht Alles schläft; einsam wacht Nur das traute hochheilige Paar. Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar, Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh! Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh   A few British soldiers raised their heads above the parapet, listening to a language they did not understand but a tune they did recognise, hearing an enemy they had been told were devils intent on conquering the world, sing praises to the same Saviour they worshipped.  They noticed that the Germans had set candles on the top of their trenches, and in a few makeshift Christmas trees they had fashioned from a few battered branches left after shelling.   And something broke in their spirit. A longing rose up in their hearts that on this of all days, they might find a moment of peace in a mad world of carnage. Both sides began to shout Christmas greeting to each other, and they stood at their posts, cold, wet and tense, wondering what would come next.   Further down the line in the French sector the experience was similar.   As the guns and shelling began to fall silent, as the French soldiers stood damp and miserable in their trenches, they too heard the sound of Christmas carols and hymns drifting across no man’s land from the German trenches.   Then one lone French voice began its refrain…   Douce nuit, sainte nuit ! Dans les cieux ! L'astre luit.   Then one by one others took up the refrain…   Le mystère / annoncé / s'accomplit Cet enfant sur la paille/ endormi, C'est l'amour infini ! C'est l'amour infini !   Then a German soldier quietly, fearfully, climbed to the top of the trench, waving is arms to show he had no weapon, and he called out to the French men.   Others join him on the top of the trench, and French soldiers climbed from their trench, and both sides began to take terrifying steps into no man’s land, calling   Frohe Weihnachten Franzose And Joyeux Noël, Fritz!   Back in Ypres, the British soldiers also cautiously made their way to the middle of the shell torn, blood soaked quagmire between the trenches. The Germans got out of their trenches, both sides fearful that the magic of this fragile moment would be shattered by the sound of a bullet or shell. They met met in the middle. They began to speak to each other, although they could not understand properly. But with hand gestures and impromptu presents of cigarettes and chocolate and alcohol, they laughed and sang hymns together.   As some soldiers buried the many dead, others talked quietly and smoked, and then one produced a football, and they started to play. Reports suggest that the Germans beat the British 3-2.   All along the line, men swapped stories, showed photographs of their families, and shared cigarettes and Christmas cheer. The men, as the Generals later described it, “fraternised with the enemy”.   But for a moment or two in the midst of horror, death and war, a ray of hope and peace shone through as together enemies celebrated the birth of the Saviour.   And the British soldiers, having heard their enemy sing glory to God in the highest, began to lift their voices and sing too…   Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright 'Round yon virgin Mother and Child Holy Infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace.   The following year this scene would not be repeated. The generals did not want the soldiers seeing each other as human beings, with families and children and a sense of humour. They issued orders against such friendliness, and tried to demonise the enemy.   But for that first year of war, peace reigned for a few moments.  Then, as that most extraordinary day drew to a close, the men reluctantly returned to their trenches, and the mud, and the lice and the wet and the war.   In the midst of the hatred of the Great War, the significance of that tiny baby born in Bethlehem, of that wonderful gift so freely given by God to win back the souls of men and women, was truly felt.   Those men experienced peace for a day, and this Christmas 105 years later Jesus is offering you true, inner peace, a peace that lasts not only for a day but for eternity. That little baby was God Almighty, come to earth, humbling Himself and opening the door for you to experience peace with God, with each other and peace in every area of your life.   And that’s His gift to you this Christmas. Our world is a mess, standards and behaviour in our society are falling apart, your family might be tense or self destructing, but today God is offering you the peace that passes all understanding.   Remember the verse we started with, where the angel says,   “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”   That’s the formula for peace. It starts with giving glory to God in the highest. You may have ignored Him, neglected Him, even been angry at Him all year, or even years, but on this day of all days, maybe you need to start giving Him the glory and honour He deserves.   Then the next step towards that peace the angels promised is to become one of those, with whom He is well pleased.   And what would please Him most is you for to accept Jesus right now as your Lord and Saviour. Your sin has you destined for hell, but Jesus came as a baby that first Christmas, He grew into a man, and then chose to lay His life down for you, to die in your place and give you the peace you’ve dreamed of.   I don’t want you to leave this place without the peace God offers you.   The Bible says,   John 3:16-17 (ESV Strong's) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.   He loves you so much, so what’s stopping you opening your heart and receiving His Christmas gift to you this morning?   It’s time to trust in Jesus.   Jesus loves me   Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace   Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream from heaven afar Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia, Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born   Silent night, holy night! Son of God love's pure light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face With dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus Lord, at Thy birth Jesus Lord, at Thy birth

Believers Voice of Victory Audio Broadcast for Monday 12/23/2019 We are celebrating Christ Jesus! Join Kenneth and Gloria Copeland on Believer’s Voice of Victory as they teach you why we celebrate the anointing that came at Christmas. Learn how everything Jesus did was under the anointing power of God the Father and why that anointing is His Christmas gift to you!

Believers Voice of Victory Video Broadcast for Monday 12/23/2019 We are celebrating Christ Jesus! Join Kenneth and Gloria Copeland on Believer’s Voice of Victory as they teach you why we celebrate the anointing that came at Christmas. Learn how everything Jesus did was under the anointing power of God the Father and why that anointing is His Christmas gift to you!

The 1938 children's radio serial "Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon"! Including original theme by [url=http://samhaynes1.bandcamp.com/]Sam Haynes[/url]! Universe

Christmas Eve 2017 - His Christmas

Colin’s Christmas spirit was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. The register of its burial was signed by Ryan Mogge, Patrick Ehlers and Kelly Nugent. Colin J. Morris signed it: and Morris’ name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. His Christmas spirit was dead as a doornail.   Can Ryan, Patrick and Kelly use all their shipping expertise to complete the ultimate non-canonical ship? Colin / Christmas. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first week of December, Andy Stanley stated the following. “If somebody can predict their own death and then their own resurrection, I'm not all that concerned about how they got into the world.” “Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the Birth of Jesus.” Does it matter “Who” was born that day? Why and How? Also if people might struggle with the “incarnation story” wouldn't they also struggle with the “resurrection story”? 1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; [1Ti 3:16 ESV] Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Necessity that God had to provide a solution to Genesis Rebellion The proto-evangelium — the first Gospel (e- van –gel – yum) [Gen 3:14 NASB] The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; [Gen 3:15 NASB] And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." More than a talking snake; Great Cosmic battle, where the seed of Eve will have the tactical advantage. Long Ago, many times, many ways, God spoke to our fathers. [Heb 1:1 ESV] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [Heb 1:2 ESV] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Did He? Oh Yes! [Isa 9:6 ESV] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isa 9:7 ESV] Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. [Mat 1:22 ESV] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [Mat 1:23 ESV] "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [Heb 1:3 ESV] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [Heb 1:4 ESV] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. [Heb 1:5 ESV] For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? [Heb 1:6 ESV] And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him.” Why couldn't Jesus just step out of Heaven, go the cross and call it done? The necessity of a God/Man! [Heb 2:10 ESV] For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. [Heb 2:11 ESV] For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, [Heb 2:14 ESV] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [Heb 2:15 ESV] and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. [Heb 2:17 ESV] Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Propitiate 1. to make favorably inclined; appease; conciliate. [Heb 2:18 ESV] For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. [2Co 5:18 ESV] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [2Co 5:19 ESV] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [2Co 5:21 ESV] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. “Jesus does this not only by dying the death we justly deserve but by living the life we should have lived.” Imputation: God imputes our sinful life to Jesus account and Imputes Jesus' Sinless life to our account. Federal Headship First Adam, Last Adam We are condemned with our Father Adam, We are Redeemed, through our Lord Jesus Christ. More Than That! [Rom 5:11 ESV] More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. The Son of Man Must Suffer [Mar 8:27 ESV] And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" [Mar 8:28 ESV] And they told him, "John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets." [Mar 8:29 ESV] And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." [Mar 8:30 ESV] And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. [Mar 8:31 ESV] And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. The “Who” is important! The Son of Man; The Messiah! MUST SUFFER Also, Matt 1 & Luke 3:23; Emphasis that Jesus had to be of the line of David. Why all the work to demonstrate Who Jesus was, if it's not important? When Joseph heard that Mary was pregnant, Joseph was considering to call of the marriage. [Mat 1:20 NASB] But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. [Mat 1:21 NASB] "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." It matters very much “Who” and it matters “How”! John the Baptist, [Jhn 1:29 NASB] The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! One more thing! Be Thankful that God chose you to understand! Who are we? [Luk 2:10 NASB] But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; Just like the blue collar works of Jesus' time. God sent angels to shepherds who were working outside of town, working the night shift. Of all the smart and popular and famous people, [1Co 2:12 ESV] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. God gathered you here at this church at this time, His Christmas morning, so we can celebrate! So that you may know truths that is hidden from the “wise of this world”. God wants you to know that a Savior is Born! Who is Messiah! The Lord! The kü'-rē-os “cor-re-aws”   Christmas 2016 More presentations from Jeff Rossignol

Joe and Tony are joined by former host Dom and his wife (and former guest) Mary Ann to discuss some interesting tales of Christmases of yore. Presidents, Spacemen, Lying Parents, Guerrilla Fighters, Breakfast Restaurants, and NORAD are ALL represented in this jam-packed exploration of fun holiday folklore. (complete with an intro featuring Shawn and HIS Christmas experiences) Thanks For Listening! send us an email ----> BTPpod@gmail.com or follow us on twitter and join the discussion - twitter.com/BesideTPpod Joe's twitter - twitter.com/jopesays Shawn's twitter - twitter.com/SWPorter5150 Tony's twitter - twitter.com/anthonyross57 visit our blog at BTPpod.com for pictures, videos and more info about us, our guests and discussions.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

This weekend, Pastor Robert concludes the Living in His Presence series with a message titled "His Christmas," where he explains what made the wise man truly wise.

Zachary Bartels returns in Christmas splendor to the podcast. His Christmas short stories will rock you around your Christmas tree! A hilarious conversation with some pretty striking insights into Christmas. 

Wow, who knew that Kian had such amazingly embarrassing stories? YOU will, once you listen to this hilarious episode. His Christmas pants story? Oh boy. I'll never be the same. This is one of our funniest episodes yet! - Did you like this episode? Did you hate it? Did you feel meh? Go leave us a review on iTunes! Otherwise, how will we ever learn? iTunes.com/nottoodeep - Please remember that this episode is brought to you for free by our extremely generous sponsors: Squarespace and Warby Parker. Please go support them so they continue to support us!

As the son of a member of the legendary vocal group “The Letterman” Conn Curan’s love for jazz started as a child when he was sang Brazilian lullabies while still in his crib. As the youngest of eight kids in a modern-day Von Trapp family, Conn was destined for a career in music.Inspired by Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick, Jr. and Nat King Cole, Conn shares with Success Nation his backstory of how he transitioned from a small kid in a musical family to his career as the front man for Gold Standard. We discuss his encouragement for new artists and how to handle the fears associated with “putting yourself out there” for any type of creative expression.He lends us a few of his songs towards the beginning of the show and drops some knowledge all the way to the end!Check out www.ConnCurran.com or www.soundcloud.com/GoldStandardMusic to listen to his music. His Christmas album is also available on the new Apple Music!Please be sure to go to RulesofSuccess.com and sign up for our email list to receive additional content relevant to our episodes.

Steven began his career as a comedic actor/writer at the legendary Second City Theater appearing both in Chicago and Toronto. He wrote on and produced the hit television show WKRP IN CINCINNATI before co-starring on the successful Newhart show two years later in the role of Kirk Devane. He has appeared as an actor in eight movies including a featured role in Club Paradise with Robin Williams, For the Boys with Bette Midler, and Analyze That with Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal. He co-wrote the hit comedy Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield and co-wrote and co-directed the film Stealing Home starring Jodi Foster and Mark Harmon. Other film credits include The Couch Trip with Dan Aykroyd and the cult classic Clifford starring Martin Short. His Christmas film, Special Delivery, debuted on the Fox Family in December 2000. Until May of 2010, Steven had been teaching senior English, creative writing, screenwriting, and public speaking at Blair Academy in New Jersey for the last twelve years. He also held the title of Writer in Residence. Steven co-wrote, directed, and appeared in Second City's film Buzzkill (2012) featuring Krysten Ritter and Darrell Hammond. He has just completed writing his first dramatic play entitleed Great Shame. He's currently writing a collection of comedic short stories tentatively titled, “Crazy Goats on Cliffs.”

Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon is a daily children's radio series that ran between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 1938. The story begins with six year old Jonathan Thomas lying in bed on Christmas Eve with his teddy bear Guz. While he is lying in bed, two elves slide down a moonbeam into his room. Guz, his teddy bear, chases the elves back up the moonbeam and Jonathan Thomas follows in order to get his Guz back. Shows are broadcast in 10-15 minute episodes. Total time of this show: 32:34Episodes 1 - 3

On Sunday, January 22, 2012, please join us as we welcome Leighann Lord and Travis Simmons.  We will discuss the secular beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement and Bayard Rustin amongst other topics. Stand-Up Comedian Leighann Lord's act is smart, upscale and engaging with topics including current events, politics, family, marriage and more.   You can find more information about Leighann on her website, Youtube, and Twitter.  She is also a guest Co-Host of Star Talk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Leighann has been a guest on ABC's The View, Apollo Comedy Hour, The Charlie Rose Show, The Original Def Comedy All Star Jam, Good Morning America, VH1 StandUp Spotlight, to name a few of her accomplishments. Travis Simmons aka The Big Funny through his charity shows - Funny 4 Food - He has raised over $50,000 for food banks in Western Washington and now has expanded to Oregon. His Christmas event Jokes for Little Folks has generated 7,000 toys for kids in Seattle and Tacoma.  He is changing the world, one joke at a time. Travis has over 3 million video plays on youtube. He is an impressionist, and the Winner of the I Sound More Like Bill Cosby than Bill Cosby contest. Travis and Teina Manu are co-hosts Funny to the Moon on BlogTalkRadio.  You can find their comedy on Twitter and Youtube.

The Aldrich Family; The Halls of Ivy; Vic and Sade; Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon; The Clock

By the end of 1999, things started to unravel for me. I lost one of my best friends from high school to colon cancer (yes it even happens to young guys), another to AIDS and another one committed suicide on New Year's Eve. Two weeks into the new year, my father had a stroke and I had requested some time off from work to help out in the family business. They denied my request, so I resigned. Talk about a mistake. I was a supervisor for DirecTV and was up for area manager. I could have probably had my own center in a year. My position was that this was family and my father is like my best friend. However, I probably wouldn't do that again since good jobs were hard to come by and I should have worked something else out. Also for the first time in my life, I fell in love. I know this because I have never been a jealous person. That is until some fat fuck comes up to me in the bar to let me know my boyfriend poked him on top of his pinball machine. Pete (my first real love) was a typical bachelor going to college, clerking at a law firm and always wanted a pinball machine; so that was his first big purchase despite lacking anything else in his apartment. He was dark, tall, thin and handsome in a geeky kind of way. We both shared the same birthday and I completely adored him. As you can probably guess, that relationship ended, but not until I sent him a very cruel email at his work address. Generally, I am not a vindictive person, but I was so consumed with jealousy and rage, I guess I wasn't thinking straight. The drugs didn't help either, but that's a story that best be left alone. I had bought him a really nice leather coat for Christmas, the kind that looks like a blazer which I ended up throwing in the garbage can after running into him at a Christmas party. David (another story that will receive a mention in my next Classix Edition), a useless friend at the time retrieved it from the dumpster out back and kept it for himself. Thankfully, I later had the opportunity to sit and talk with Pete and offer up a sincere apology. It was necessary because I had hit him where I knew it would hurt. He told me he had only cried once in his life (when his mother passed away); that is until he got that email. While we never became close friends, we were at least friendly afterward. It was funny because David was wearing the jacket that evening and Pete commented how nice it was. I told him it was HIS Christmas present that ended up in the dumpster. We both had a good laugh. I sometimes think about him and wonder what he's up to. I wish him the very best and hope he gets everything he wants out of life. Three songs on this first mix fully represent me in 2000; EBTG's "Temperamental", Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone" and Angelmoon's "He's All I Want". I began to regret every introducing the latter song into the club, as it was the #1 request for well over a year. Talk about torturing myself...LOL Six o'clock in the morning I open my eyes and think about you I thought it was like a never ending fairy tail And I am alone in my bedroom, looking at the ceiling thinking about what we have or we done I was thinking about our life together Thinking about our love And the only thing I know is That I'm in love with you That I'm in love with you -Angelmoon "He's All I Want" This temperamental side, The one you say that you can't hide. D' you ever see yourself - The way it looks to someone else? Do I just waste my time? You pour your heart on mine. You think it screws you up. Forgive me if I don't wait up. I don't get what you're trying to say - What is wrong and what's okay. You beat yourself up one more time. You trample on this heart of mine. I don't want you to love me. I don't want you to love me. -Everything But The Girl "Temperamental" Yeah, 2000 was definitely a roller coaster year for me, full of lessons lived and learned. The only kind that can be understood by making regrettable mistakes never to b...

By the end of 1999, things started to unravel for me. I lost one of my best friends from high school to colon cancer (yes it even happens to young guys), another to AIDS and another one committed suicide on New Year's Eve. Two weeks into the new year, my father had a stroke and I had requested some time off from work to help out in the family business. They denied my request, so I resigned. Talk about a mistake. I was a supervisor for DirecTV and was up for area manager. I could have probably had my own center in a year. My position was that this was family and my father is like my best friend. However, I probably wouldn't do that again since good jobs were hard to come by and I should have worked something else out. Also for the first time in my life, I fell in love. I know this because I have never been a jealous person. That is until some fat fuck comes up to me in the bar to let me know my boyfriend poked him on top of his pinball machine. Pete (my first real love) was a typical bachelor going to college, clerking at a law firm and always wanted a pinball machine; so that was his first big purchase despite lacking anything else in his apartment. He was dark, tall, thin and handsome in a geeky kind of way. We both shared the same birthday and I completely adored him. As you can probably guess, that relationship ended, but not until I sent him a very cruel email at his work address. Generally, I am not a vindictive person, but I was so consumed with jealousy and rage, I guess I wasn't thinking straight. The drugs didn't help either, but that's a story that best be left alone. I had bought him a really nice leather coat for Christmas, the kind that looks like a blazer which I ended up throwing in the garbage can after running into him at a Christmas party. David (another story that will receive a mention in my next Classix Edition), a useless friend at the time retrieved it from the dumpster out back and kept it for himself. Thankfully, I later had the opportunity to sit and talk with Pete and offer up a sincere apology. It was necessary because I had hit him where I knew it would hurt. He told me he had only cried once in his life (when his mother passed away); that is until he got that email. While we never became close friends, we were at least friendly afterward. It was funny because David was wearing the jacket that evening and Pete commented how nice it was. I told him it was HIS Christmas present that ended up in the dumpster. We both had a good laugh. I sometimes think about him and wonder what he's up to. I wish him the very best and hope he gets everything he wants out of life. Three songs on this first mix fully represent me in 2000; EBTG's "Temperamental", Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone" and Angelmoon's "He's All I Want". I began to regret every introducing the latter song into the club, as it was the #1 request for well over a year. Talk about torturing myself...LOL Six o'clock in the morning I open my eyes and think about you I thought it was like a never ending fairy tail And I am alone in my bedroom, looking at the ceiling thinking about what we have or we done I was thinking about our life together Thinking about our love And the only thing I know is That I'm in love with you That I'm in love with you -Angelmoon "He's All I Want" This temperamental side, The one you say that you can't hide. D' you ever see yourself - The way it looks to someone else? Do I just waste my time? You pour your heart on mine. You think it screws you up. Forgive me if I don't wait up. I don't get what you're trying to say - What is wrong and what's okay. You beat yourself up one more time. You trample on this heart of mine. I don't want you to love me. I don't want you to love me. -Everything But The Girl "Temperamental" Yeah, 2000 was definitely a roller coaster year for me, full of lessons lived and learned. The only kind that can be understood by making regrettable mistakes never to b...