'Tis the Season: For the One Who Has Everything

There's always the guy or gal who has everything and you are faced with what to get him or her.

Here is an idea:

Buy them a prayer.

You pray, ask God what to buy, and wait 24 hours for God to sift some ideas through your mind, praying for him/her while you wait.

In that purchase, even before a great present is made known to you, you gave two very important gifts:

For the one who has everything, you gave God an invitation to focus on him or her.

And, for the One Who has everything, you gave a focus on Him for His birthday.

Awesome shopping.

'Tis the Season: Where the Founding Fathers Found God

If we are thinking beginnings at Christmas (Jesus' birth) and New Year's (what can I begin to do better yet again), perhaps we can consider our country's start.

Brian Vanyo, a Navy veteran, did the research in The American Ideology. Before we leap to whether it is conservative or liberal, could we just ingest the facts about it?

The partisan divide in this country is scaring me. I've never seen disdain, if not hate, for the other's ideology being so vehement or automatic.

Is there a beginning ideology? One which, instead of championing either side, would champion God instead?

Are we founded on precepts that point to God?

Up until our country's beginnings, the arguments of governmental authority in other parts of the world centered around the theory of Natural Law. God was recognized as the Creator--the Author--and the question was what authority did He bestow in men?

Countries with kings asserted that no one was born with rights--all fell under the exclusive rights of the king and his heirs. Theirs was a scriptural assertion that God granted Adam complete dominion over all other men that followed. This was a sort of generational continuance of dominion, and succeeding generations were never free.

Philosopher John Locke instead claimed that God only gave Adam dominion over the animals, and that God "bestowed upon every individual of every generation the same freedom and fundamental rights," thus nullifying hereditary rights known to kings.

Vanyo writes:

Although Natural Law theory had long existed as a political idea in the minds of the world's greatest philosophers throughout history, the Founding Fathers at last placed it into practice in America by declaring their independence on the basis of its guarantees. They broke their political connection with Great Britain to "assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and nature's God entitle them." They declared independence to secure and preserve their natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

It is impossible to separate God from the authorship of this country.

If the Founding Fathers found God, it seems we can too.

Merry Christmas.

'Tis the Season: Our Countenance of Christmas

We are the message bearers of the season.

Countenance is not just a noun; it is also a verb.

Our countenance imparts the joy of Christ when we publicly anticipate the celebration of His birth.

We countenance approval or disapproval of the public celebration when we happily say "Merry Christmas" or shrink back with "Happy Holidays."

Jesus didn't shrink back. In fact, it seems He often set out to offend.

If someone presents truth to us that we don't want to hear, aren't we first offended?

Let's lovingly offend, countenance approval, and joyfully bear the best news ever: Jesus is as close as our next embrace.

'Tis the Season: Why Goodness Weighs In

It is the most amazing thing.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas, we become energetic givers rather than exhausted takers.

What launches this spirit of generosity?

Two things happen:

We pause to give thanks in family gatherings every fourth Thursday in November.

Jesus gets noticed and celebrated publicly as Christmas Day approaches.

For four to six weeks, we change our trajectory. Giving thanks cycles into praising God and Jesus, and we become tuned into sharing with those who are without.

Crazy how that mimics the Bible.

Give thanks in everything.

Share the good news of Christ.

Take care of the poor.

Good to know we get it right at least some of the time.

'Tis the Season: Ask Jesus for a New Thought...About Him

Sometimes we try to wrap up Jesus like a gift under the tree, neatly trimmed and ready for sharing--our purchase, our version, ours to give.

We think, as purveyors of faith, that we have the market cornered on this Jesus of the season.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is a heady, scary thought to realize that Jesus doesn't even need Christianity to make Himself known.

He created all of this--us, the world, everything. He was here before our faith and our religion.

Perhaps a wonderful way to honor this Reason for the season would be to ask Him for a new thought about Himself.

Because He knows the exact spot you are in your spiritual journey, He knows what to illumine next.

We can pay tribute to Jesus in this moment:

Jesus, move me to know You more fully.

This new thought--designed just for you--will be a gift to remember.

'Tis the Season: Practice Your Faith Embrace

You are somewhere on your spiritual journey.

At any given point between birth and death, you are taking a step toward, or away from, a personal acknowledgement of God.

You are influenced, cajoled, browbeaten, misled--or hopefully warmly invited through truth--to consider this God to which you one day will return.

Churches go into overdrive in the Christmas season. Many people visit church once or twice a year--Christmas and possibly Easter. Church leaders want the messaging just right.

What is the message, exactly? And in this season of exceedingly busy, what more is expected of you?

That's the interesting part. Practicing your faith embrace is entering into what God has already done for you. Romans 4 puts it this way:

Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own...that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

The gift under the tree with your name on it is God setting you right with him before you even set out on your spiritual journey. Your faith embrace is saying yes to his action--receiving the gift.

Jesus came as God's way of setting things right.

It is amazing. It is simple. Yet so easy to miss.

'Tis the season for gift-giving. This one is for you.

'Tis the Season: Christmas Music is Art for the Heart

On any given day, I have to talk myself into two things: reading the Bible and studying any rendering of history.

Once I'm there, I am riveted. My rebellion should tell me both are good for me.

Today's history encounter came in the form of an article in the December 2012 Guideposts magazine.

To be honest, I turned to it by chance, realized it was a timeline of history for Christmas carols, and was ready to read a different article when I saw highlighted in the story a town near mine. That was the hook I needed.

Why do we put ourselves through dread and rebellion when something so rich is on the other side?

Not only did I uncover a fascinating trail of Christmas carol nostalgia, I came across perhaps the most interesting compilation of music for the season.

Ron Clancy, in Where the Music Lived, takes us on a nine-day, 4,000-mile journey across seven states to visit the roots of Christmas classics such as I Wonder as I Wander in near-to-me Murphy, NC.

His lifelong search for the origins of Christmas music weaves a tapestry now offered in several amazing collections of art, music and history that may speak to your heart. Visit Christmas Classics to see if there is a piece of history waiting for you or someone on your gift-giving list.

Truly Clancy's passion turns Christmas music into art for the heart.