DarknessConfusionRejectionUncertaintyImprovisationAccommodationDustStrawLaborDangerAdaptationPainGaspsBreathsSweatContractionsInterruptionAnimals FearWonderWhispersConsolingMotivationSoonWeepingHelplessness PushingGraspingEncouragingTearsStrainingFluidBloodTiny headChestReliefJoy InfantCryingFatherRejoicingMotherSmilingCHILDRagsNurtureConnection KingAnswerPeaceLambSaviorHope JoyExchangeLoveSacrificeGraceYesJesusBeginning ___________________________
Tag: Christmas
The Return Counter
It’s not often that you find yourself walking through the mall with an archangel. But that’s kind of the way dreams are: a normal day and you then- throw in something odd- like going to school in only your underwear or discovering that your teeth are falling out one by one during the sermon at…
The Art of Pondering
“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19b Advent is to ponder. If you don’t take time to turn everything off and ponder sometime this week, you are left with all that is temporal, ordinary and fleeting about Christmas. Stop and ponder. Luke tells us in his gospel that…
Grace is on a Family Tree
My friend loves Jesus. That sounds commonplace, doesn’t it? It becomes less pedestrian when I tell you that his Mom died a drug addict and his father was a devout atheist. My friend was gloriously saved at the age of 10 at a Vacation Bible School event and never looked back. This. Makes. No. Sense….
The Birth and Crucifixion of Christ
A scripture reading that works well for Christmas or Easter. Scriptures: Luke 2:6-14; 23:43; Mark 15:12-32; John 19:30 Reader 1: So it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Reader 2: And Pilate answered them, What shall I do with this man you call King of the Jews? And…
Grace and Recompense
This Fire of Love unquenched by Eden’s wreck and flowing seemingly in perpetuity toward all that soon will be in all its violent beauty He shall hold all hell’s poison and heaven’s glory. Small beginning, love’s grandest story from the heartbeat in a virgin’s womb til one Sunday rising from the tomb One for all……
Just West of Bethlehem
Shepherds from the West! This works well as a dramatic vignette or a simple reader’s theater piece. Fun to perform with the country accent of your region. Cast: Josiah, Henry, Jake, Angel Gabriel Josiah: And before I knew it, that wolf done snuck up behind me and started carryin’ the sheep off by the scruff of the…
Song Introduction to “Away in a Manger”
Here is an easy, informal reading to be performed before “Away in the Manger” Reader 1: away Reader 2: but so near to the outcast Reader 1: near to the blood of the innocents Reader 2: near to life, a dangerous mystery Reader 1: no crib for a bed Reader 2: 1st century squalor of…
The Cradle and the Cross
Worship leaders start early with some creative tools to enhance your Christmas worship. Here is a simple reading that contrasts the Christ’s Birth and Crucifixion. Works great as an introduction to a song. Reader #1: Mankind had wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, Reader #2: And now they stripped him. Reader #3: Wise men had sought Him, to worship…
Mary’s Little Boy
And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart– This phrase has arrested me for years, because pondering to me in a sense is a form of worship. To ponder, in a sense is to daydream about God. A time when the world stands still in quiet moments. There is very little…