We had our Advent Night as a family this evening.

We have been doing Advent Nights the past several years to prepare for the Christmas season. It has been a good way to prepare our kids and focus on the primary reason why we celebrate this particular holiday.

The word “advent” comes from the Latin word  ”adventus” which means “coming” or “arrival”.

Advent is a time to revisit parts of the Christmas story for 4 weeks before December 25.

We usually…

1. Sing a Christmas song that is related to the part of the Christmas story we are going to read.
2. Read part of the Christmas story (straight from the Bible or a Christmas story book for kids)
3.  Find a lesson to learn and apply.
4. Pray. (for application, for a family …)

I just thought it might be helpful to give you ideas in case you’d like to do it with your family. The following I gleaned from Virginia Knowles’ article in the Startwell Homeschool Site.

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Family Advent Night #1: “God is With Us”

1. Song: “O Come, O Come Immanuel” – The lyrics of this song (originally written in Latin) are a prayer for the Messiah to come and set the people free from their misery in sin. The tune was written in a minor key, which makes it sound melancholy to fit the lyrics. You may wish to point this out to your older children.

2. Scripture:

Isaiah 7:10-14 – Immanuel promised
Matthew 1:18-25 – Immanuel comes

3. Application:

Immanuel means “God with us” and Jesus means “The Lord saves.” Why do we need a Savior? Because we are sinners! Remind your children that you told them ahead of time some of what you would be doing, so they could know what to expect and how to prepare. Relate this to how God took the time to tell his people, through the prophet Isaiah, several hundred years early, that a special Messiah would be born. He told them many details so they could know what to expect.

4. Pray

5. Possible Activity:

Drive around through different neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. Remind your children that Jesus came to light up the dark world. We should be lights in the world, too, if we have Jesus in us.

Family Advent Night #2:“Jesus is Our Glorious King!”

1. Song. “Joy to the World”

2. Scripture

Luke 1:26-56 — The angel told Mary that she would give birth to a king. When she visits her relative Elizabeth, she speaks forth what is now called the “Magnificat” – a psalm of praise to God. When you read the Scriptures this evening, choose people to read the parts of the narrator, Mary, the angel and Elizabeth. Practice ahead of time, if possible.

3. Application:

Ask what good things we can say about God and what he has done for us.

4. Pray

5. Possible Activity.

Watch the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which you can rent or buy on DVD. Talk about it and how Aslan represents Jesus as the King who came to redeem his people.

Family Advent Night #3: “Angels Sing!”

1. Song. “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”

2. Scripture

Luke 2:1-21 – the birth of Jesus
Colossians 1:15-20 – the deity of Jesus (optional)

3. Application:

Who was Caesar Augustus? What is the census? Talk about how many people would have to travel to Bethlehem for the census, and that’s why there wasn’t any room in the inn. Shepherds were some of the lowliest and least respected members of society, but God chose them to be the first visitors to the newborn King. Perhaps that is because Jesus is our Good Shepherd, who lays his life down for his sheep!

4. Pray

5. Possible Activity.

Go Christmas caroling! You can walk around your own neighborhood, drop in on special friends or relatives, or visit an orphanage. If you do visit an orphanage, check ahead with the administrators to make sure this is OK, since there may be other groups visiting or the residents might go to sleep really early in a particular facility.

If you plan to stay home, choose another activity, such as:

Read your favorite books about the first Christmas.
Act out the Christmas story.
Draw pictures of the Nativity scene.
Make a simple nativity scene with felt or clay.

Family Advent Night #4: “Wise Men Still Seek Him”

1. Song. “We Three Kings”

2. Scripture

Luke 2:22-40 – Simeon and Anna were very old, but they had been waiting many years for the Messiah to come. They were wise enough to recognize baby Jesus as the one God had promised through the Scriptures – and to praise God for it! The Holy Spirit even told Simeon to go to the temple courtyard that day!

Matthew 2:1-12 – The Wise Men had come from a long distance to see the newborn King. God can even use a special star to guide someone to Jesus! Compare their response to Jesus to the jealous reaction of King Herod. You can also talk about the meaning of the gifts the wise men brought. If you sing all of the verses of “We Three Kings” (as listed on the Cyberhymnal site linked below) they tell us that gold is for a king, frankincense was used for prayer and worship, and myrrh was a burial spice reminding us that the Messiah would die for our sins.

3. Application:

Are we led by the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit? Do we love to spend time at the Lord’s house like Simeon and Anna did? Are we willing to go anywhere for Jesus, even if it is a long way from home? What gifts can we give to God?

4. Pray

5. Possible Activity.

Decorate Christmas cookies which you have baked ahead of time. Deliver some of them as a gift to someone who might need a lift in their spirits – because what you do for other people in his name, you do unto Jesus. Or, if you want to be really ambitious, choose a needy family and buy presents for them. Enclose an encouraging note with Scripture, and deliver the bundle secretly to their doorstep.

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Hope this helps.

Merry Christmas.

Every year, our family come together once a week to journey through the story of the first Christmas to refresh our memory and remind us the purpose God had in sending His only Son into the world.

We invited some of the singles from church.  For some of them, it was the

first time they’ve experienced something like that.  We sang a couple of songs, Janina read a portion of the Christmas story, particularly the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then the moment when Jesus was born.

Then we talked about a few of the insights we got from reading the Christmas story.  It was interesting to hear the things that spoke to us.  We’ve heard the story and read it so many times but we still are able to get new revelations from it.

I shared about the prophecy made by Micah hundreds of years before Jesus was to be born, that from the town of Bethlehem, the Messiah was to come.  God prompted Caesar Augustus to issue a decree for a census to be taken.  It was pretty amazing how God orchestrated the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.  His birth became to pinnacle of human history and calendar, dividing B.C. from A.D.

If God is able to orchestrate the events of the most important event in history (HIS STORY), then wouldn’t you think it would be so easy for God to orchestrate events in your life and thereby leaving no room for us to worry?

He is Savior, He is Lord… and HE IS GOD.

Merry Christmas everyone!

But that wasn’t the goal.  It started in a manger but ended on a cross.

And THAT reminds me of how much LOVE was shown as a result.

It reminds me of the story of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer and statesman.  He lived Norway between 1861-1930.

He tried to measure an extremely deep part of the Arctic Ocean.  The first day he used his longest measuring line but couldn’t reach the bottom.

He wrote in his log book. “The ocean is deeper than that!”
The next day he added more line but again had to record, “Deeper than that!”

After several days of adding more and more line; He gave up without learning its actual depth.

All he knew was that it was beyond his ability to measure it.  How ever hard he tried, his conclusion was “Deeper than that!”

You may have an idea of how great His love is… but it’s deeper than that.
You may have experienced a moment of His love… but it’s deeper than that.
You may have heard of how awesome His love is … IT’S DEEPER THAN THAT.

I pray that you will all the more experience the love of Christ this Christmas season.

Eph. 3:18, NLT. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground.

Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine:
“We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”

Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He totally missed the big news–man had flown!

It will be silly for us to go to a birthday party and miss greeting the celebrant much less not gift him a gift.

Just a tip for parents – we can get a birthday cake and sing a happy birthday song for Jesus to bring back to focus to who is the center of this celebration.

Because of the many parties, sometimes the last people we get to spend time with is our kids.  I know I’ve fallen into that trap.  But we have to be deliberate for this thing not to happen.

My wife is so good with this.  She prints out a December calendar and gets us all in a meeting to plan the whole month.  Remember if you don’t fill your calendar, someone else will.

For this month’s plans…

• Our own family Christmas dinner – this is a time when we usually spend Christmas dinner just for us.  We go to a restaurant we’ve gone back every December 23 for the past several years – Outback in C5.  We have our little celebration and do our gift giving there.  It’s always a highlight in our Christmas celebration.
• Watching the light show at Ayala
• Ornament making
• Visiting Real Life’s Feeding program

to be continued…

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul…” Ps. 19:7

Christmas time is the busiest time of the year.  And because of all that goes on, one of the things that usually takes the back seat is our time in the word.

This is something we need to deliberately fight for in our daily planner.  Why?

1. It’s perfect.

His Word is perfect.  Perfect to comfort.  Perfect to encourage.  Perfect to correct.  Perfect to rebuke.  Perfect to inspire.

It’s perfect to revive.

2. It revives the soul.

The heart defibrillator has saved thousands if not millions of lives.  Think of His word as a spiritual defibrillator.  Yes, it is spiritual daily bread but at the same breath, when one feels ‘dead’ in His walk with God, the word is perfect to revive.

Just a reminder for all of us (includes me!) during this very busy season.

Who’s front and center during this season?  Good question to ask ourselves.  Watch this video to see the similarities and the differences between Jesus and Santa.  Interesting video…

Brought Ian Concepcion, Yodo Galvez and my son, Ryan to school this morning. Their conversation went this way…

YODO: Do you like Christmas?

RYAN: I don’t really like Christmas because of the gifts.

IAN: Why don’t you like Christmas?

RYAN: I like Christmas because it’s God’s birthday. (Need some tweaking in his theology)

IAN: Oh yeah! I like Christmas because it’s God’s birthday!

YODO: Well, I like Christmas because it’s God’s birthday and because of the gifts!

Smart kid. I like the way he thinks.