Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.

Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;

Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

• Words by Frances Havergal
• Music by Samuel S. Wesley

HT:  Cyberhymnal

Scholar R.C. Sproul has a short explanation on why using “X” for “Christ” in Christmas is acceptable:

The idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus.

The church has used the symbol of the fish historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That’s how the symbol of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom.

There’s a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.

HT:  Justin Taylor

“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!”

Luke 2:11-14 (ESV)

Merry Christmas!

And Mary said,

• Luke 1 (ESV)

A Magnificat kind of Christmas, which understands Christmas as about God’s acts to redeem through the incarnation, is also about the poor…

I suspect that Mary understood the conception of the Messiah in her womb as the first act of God to establish justice through her son — he would scatter the proud and bring down rulers and send the rich away empty and he would also lift the humble and fill the hungry with good things.

• Scot McKnight

Christopher Hopper talks about collaboration and has five tips @ CatalystSpace on how to affect it:

1. Designate a point person
2. Develop consensus (not unanimity)
3. Compromise promotes ownership
4. Sharing canvases carte blanche
5. Open air policy

These strike me as healthy and achievable, but not easy.

How does your team collaborate?

Okay, just one more fine post from Dan Cruver & Together for Adoption.

This is apropos for the Christmas season:

At Christmas we should celebrate two kinds of gift giving, not just one.

Christmas should be a feast of reciprocal giving in a circle of intimates, a provisional enactment of the advent of God’s future world. But it should also be a feast of giving to those outside the circle, a small contribution helping to align the world of sin and need with the coming world of love.

The advent of the light into the darkness of the world is not the goal; it is part of the movement toward the goal.

At Christmas we celebrate this movement. Gifts should therefore chiefly flow out to the needy; they shouldn’t largely circulate among friends.

• quoted from Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace.

How are you giving this Christmas?

Just for fun:  Go to this site, type in a Christmas song to have it sung to you by ‘the chins.’

Also:  type in a non-Christmas song and watch the response.

HT:  David Adams of Cross International

School of the Good Sower - Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Borrowing from another good post by Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption over at The Gospel Coalition blog.

In short, orphans need Christians who fully understand that God’s pleasure in them is equal to the pleasure He has in Jesus:

When Jesus was about to go public with the mission of God, his Father declared over him, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). As Scripture makes clear, Jesus had been sent to fulfill the Father’s mission to redeem humanity and renew creation—which includes, by the way, the removal of the word “orphan” from the human vocabulary. The Gospel writers tell us that God’s Son went forward with the mission of his Father in the strength and knowledge of his Father’s delight (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).

What orphans need are churches that are full of people who wake up each morning hearing and rehearsing these amazing words that are declared over them. “You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased. Yes, you were once without hope and without God in this world, but I have brought you near by the blood of Jesus. I have embraced you in the Beloved. Live in my love as you move out in mission.”

Full post here and worth the read.

Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption has a good series of posts on why the gospel is central to caring for the widows and orphans in their affliction (James 1:27).

His conclusion from “Caring for Orphans While Soaked with a Sense of Exile“:

The gospel takes those who are marked with a deep sense of exile, frees them from the “need” to self-medicate, and moves them out to serve the orphan, the widow, and the marginalized. Only by the power of the gospel can we do the self-sacrificial work of caring for orphans while soaked with the sense of exile.

Read how a ‘sense of exile’ is crucial to adoption from the whole post here.

Thoughtful and worth the read.

Calvary Baptist Home & School, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Bring me a white horse for Christmas

Underneath white birches
Our faces toward the sky
We will make snow angels
With our white horse standing by

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Bring me a white horse for Christmas
We’ll ride him through the snow
All the way to Bethlehem
2000 years ago

I wanna speak with the angel
Who said do not be afraid
I wanna kneel where the oxen knelt
Where the little child was laid

Hush now baby
One day you’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Your white horse through the sky

No bridle will he be wearing
His unshod hoofs they will fly
Keep a watch out this Christmas
For that white horse in the sky

Hush now baby
One day we’re gonna ride
Hush now baby
Our white horse through the sky

Hush now baby
Let every angel sing
Hush now baby
One day we’ll ride again

• Words & music by Linford Detweiler
  
• Stream OTR’s Christmas album free here. (more…)