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In Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 we read “There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.”

Disaster was averted and lives were spared. “...But nobody remembered that poor man.”

Wise words of counsel were given and heeded and lives were blessed innumerably. “...But nobody remembered that poor man.”

Could sadder words be spoken? I think not. “...But nobody remembered that poor man.”

This time of year, we naturally think of giving more so than we do in any other season. But the best thing you can give this season – or any season – isn’t for sale. It comes freely, but it only comes deliberately – and because you can’t touch it, it can never wear out. It’s called “appreciation.”

This season, as you give, give your heart. As you share presents of possessions, also share presents of your heart to encourage the spirit of others – tell them of your appreciation for them.

Remember that poor man – and all the people like him. All the people God has sent your way and steered you away from destruction, time and again, all your life. Bless them today by remembering them. Those you know well and those whose names you know not. Give those you know what they need – your appreciation. Give those who have blessed you and you never knew it, what they need – your kindness, and so, your appreciation.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:9, the apostle Paul tells the church “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?”

Your appreciation of the lives of others may very well be the very best gift you can ever give. So give it often. For it costs you little and those who receive it will be wealthy indeed.

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 8.50. Live for God, on purpose, expressing your love for God by showing your appreciation to those around you.

God Made Jesus...

We now find ourselves in the very middle of the Christmas season, which traditionally begins on Thanksgiving. Look around you now at all of the things we associate with Christmas. Do you see Jesus anywhere? You don’t have to look very far to see Jesus. But – how do you see Jesus depicted?

Or, more to the point – what have we made Jesus to be?

Most often, it looks like we have made Jesus to be a cherubic, white Anglo-Saxon baby with light beams radiating from around his head! We have made Jesus to be away in some iconic manger, sleeping silently, “no crying he makes!” We have all too often made Jesus to be an after-thought to the merriment and festivity of this holiday-time of the year. We have made Him to be an afterthought, only merely incidental to all of what makes our Christmas seem like what we want Christmas to be.

But, that’s not who or what Jesus really is.

The Bible tells us – in three unique places – that “God Made Jesus...” The future of all humanity was changed over two thousand years ago when at just the right time and at just the right place, the eternal Son of God, Jesus, penetrated His own creation, transcending the eternal with His own incarnation.

Humanity has been changed. Have YOU been changed? We will examine just how you indeed have been changed this Sunday as we consider just how “God Made Jesus...” Don’t miss this timely and life-changing message!

The “X” in Xmas

by Rubel Shelly

You know the name of the holiday celebrated on December 25 every year. It is called Christmas. So why – as I saw it written again the other day – do folks so often write it as Xmas? There may be at least two reasons.

There is a perfectly innocent explanation that traces back to the Greek form of the word meaning Messiah. Spelled out in Greek characters, the name “Christ” begins with a letter that looks very much like our English “X.” So people would sometimes abbreviate the term Christmas by putting the letter X for the word Christ. Thus Christ-mas became X-mas.

Unlike the way I have heard some people explain or speculate, there was no sinister attempt to push the word “Christ” out of the public vocabulary. It is not an evil assault on religion or a Satanic subversion of a Christian holiday.

Yet there may be another answer to the question that is more precise than the linguistic and historical one just traced. It has less to do with history and the Greek alphabet than with the neglect of spirituality in the holiday.

In logic and mathematics, X indicates an unknown to be sought. In an algebraic equation such as 2x + 1 = 7, for example, it stands for an unknown quantity. The student’s task on exam day is to know how to derive its value.

My fear is that, for more and more of us, the Son of God has become an unknown and expendable character in the Christmas Story.

• Which character is more closely identified with Christmas by children? Christ or Santa?

• Who has more songs sung about him in December? Christ or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

• Who is featured in more yard and storefront displays? Christ or Frosty the Snowman?

• What is the more common scene on Christmas cards? Christ’s birth or snowfall on evergreen trees?

• What family event is most identified with the Christmas season? Worship or eating?

In my own experience, I have heard more fundamentalist preachers than ACLU lawyers condemn the slogan “Keep Christ in Christmas.” Shame on both! The story of the Incarnation is what the world needs most desperately to hear. God knows you by name and cares about you. His love for you explains why the Holy Spirit conceived a baby in the womb of a virgin from Nazareth. And the cross is the redemptive end to which the manger in Bethlehem points.

The “unknown” for the equation X + you = life is worth exploring. And what better time than during this wonderful season of Christmas?

Rubel Shelly is a Preaching Minister at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ. This article is from the July 21, 2008 issue of “The FAX of Life,” his weekly message, found at http://www.rubelshelly.com.

Our King’s Birthday

J-esus, Son of God Eternal,
E-verlasting Lord is He,
S-avior of a world of sinners,
U-niversal King to be,
S-ought us, bro’t us victory.

C-hrist is due all adoration,
H-umbly born to save our race,
R-uler of the whole creation
I-ntercedes and gives us grace,
S-aves us from sin’s condemnation,
T-ruly worthy of all praise!

The Passion – Like Jesus

by Ed Young

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” – John 1:14

Whether they are traveling through a small farming town in Nebraska, a surfing village in California or an industrial community in Pennsylvania, politicians love to show how they can relate to the people in that area. But the sad thing is that they can’t really meet those people on the same level; they can’t identify with them no matter how hard they try to make it appear like they can.

Jesus, though, never gives us that illusion of identity. He doesn’t throw up a façade to try and appear like he gets where we are coming from. Jesus Christ connected with the people of two thousand years ago, and he connects with you and me today on a level that we can understand and appreciate.

At one point we’ve all said, “No one understands my situation.” But that statement could not be farther from the truth. Jesus understands; he’s been there; he knows what we go through day in and day out. He had a job – for most of his life he was a carpenter. He had the same relationships that you and I have today – mother, father, brothers, sister, friends, and enemies. He even faced the same temptations that you and I face. Jesus knows what daily living is like. He knows because he’s been there himself.

So this week, when you feel like there is no one that can grasp what you are going through; when you feel like throwing up your hands and giving up; when you have that gut reaction of, “No one understands my situation...” remember that our Savior has been there and then add two words to your statement: “Like Jesus.”

A Great Christmas Gift

Imagine there is a bank, which credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who has failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer who has kids to feed.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who has missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to have your time. And remember time waits for no one...

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That’s why it’s called the present!

A Look at the Shepherds

by Jim Liebelt

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” – Luke 2:17-20

Having heard the angel’s pronouncement concerning Jesus’ birth, and having heard the heavenly army praising God, the shepherds left their fields and flocks to find Jesus. They wanted to see for themselves.

After they had seen Jesus, they didn’t keep the amazing circumstances to themselves. As the Gospel of Luke records, “they spread the word.” Then, they returned to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God.

No further description is provided about these shepherds in the Scriptures regarding how their lives were impacted by what they had heard and seen. But, it’s easy to imagine that they were never quite the same. It’s not difficult to believe that they kept telling the story to anyone willing to listen.

Today, we’re not much different than the shepherds were. We, like them, have the opportunity to encounter Jesus. We, like them, can be changed by the encounter. We, like them, can share the Good News about Jesus wherever our journeys take us. We, like them, can praise and glorify God. And we, like them, can return to our responsibilities and stations in life and keep telling others about the King of Kings.

As we celebrate Christmas, may we choose not to keep the Good News of Jesus a secret, but out of thanksgiving for what God has done for us and in us, let’s praise and glorify God, and share the Good News with whomever is willing to listen.

as seen in “Today’s HomeWord,” a daily devotional with Jim Burns. Visit them online at www.homeword.com

The Last Impression

Are you trying to lose weight, and now find yourself surrounded by an increasing number of Christmas delights? Well, here are some helpful “Holiday Dieting Tips”:

1. If no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.

2. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, they cancel each other out.

3. When eating with someone else, calories don’t count if you both eat the same amount.

4. Foods used for medicinal purposes have no calories. This includes any chocolate used for energy, Sara Lee Cheesecake (eaten whole), and Haagen-Daz Ice Cream.

5. Movie-related foods are much lower in calories simply because they are a part of the entertainment experience and not part of one’s personal fuel. This includes Milk Duds, popcorn with butter, Junior Mints, Snickers, and Gummi Bears.

6. Cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breakage causes calorie leakage.

7. If you eat the food off someone else’s plate, it doesn’t count.

8. If you eat standing up the calories all go to your feet and get walked off.

9. Food eaten at Christmas parties has no calories, courtesy of Santa.

10. STRESSED is just DESSERTS spelled backward.

We will be having a grand weekend here at WFA! On Saturday and Sunday evenings, our children’s ministry and music ministry departments are combining efforts for a musical presentation involving adults and children. You won’t want to miss this year’s special Christmas presentation, “The Mystery of the Manger!” with “The Story”.

What a perfect time to invite your friends, family and neighbors to attend WFA with you! Whether its Saturday night, Sunday morning, or Sunday evening, offer to pick them up and bring them with you for an experience they will surely love!