Creative Xmas

Hi Everybody!

AAAAhhh... the Holidays...niiiice.

the Year is wrapping up already, just a year a go, I was still living in Guad (oooh How i miss you so...) just planning my vacation to Brownsville.... maybe stay for a week.. maybeee two..... hmmm how about a year!!!! AAAAA.. and counting.

But such is following Jesus.. you never know whats coming.  I do plan.. well i should say.. Lisa and I do plan to go back, who knows when though.  In the meantime, here in Browntown, serving our King, cannot complain.

I am pretty stoked, as I have mentioned before, this opportunity to start a new service here at ICC, and praying and hoping to re conceive Church as a community rather than an event.

  Thanks for all your suggestions and thoughts on this.  We will start a prayer meting in he coming weeks on Saturday, everybody is welcome, and Ill let you know the time pretty soon.

Sooooooo Xmas. Love this time of year.    (ooops, did I just take the Christ out of Christmas....yea..... I DID.)  I find it funny when Christians get up upons about taking the word out, or just yesterday i heard that people are are saying "turkey day" instead of Thanksgiving.. " oh no .. blasphemy!!!"   LOL.  that's not our fight.  that should not define us, that is not our story.  

Actually, Jesus left Xmas long ago... i think.. who knows when ... maybe sometime between when Xmas was all about getting in debt to about when that guy was trampled and killed at a Walmart.  hmmmm.  I dunno.

Don't get me wrong I love Xmas.   Sometimes .  Xmas in my family was good,... when there was money, presents.. and a tree.  That set the standard.  Some were good, some were not.

and the all-mighty dollar would let us know which type of Xmas we would have.   it was silly, but that's just the way it was for us.... sad really.

When we ALWAYS had food, we ALWAYS had a roof over our heads, and FAMILY was always there... we even still labeled our Xmas's ... "Crisis-mas"    My dad once told me he did not like the cold weather, because that meant that is was going to be the Holidays soon, and there was that tension... that pressure.. that aching question..."will there be presents??" "will there be a tree"  Will Xmas show up?

Now its different.  Im starting to rediscover Christmas.  Gotta say, I like it more than Xmas.  

Its hard though.  Xmas has a very convincing marketing campaign.   STuff = love.  Stuff is awesome... stuff is the way to show that you love.  Stuff = happiness and fulfilment.  

Ahhhh stuff.

Reminds me of a story I heard from john Piper.  turns out that a mom, whose son was dead set on going to be a missionary to a very hard violent place,  asked Dr. Piper to talk to her son out of going to such a dangerous place.  after all, no mom would want her son to be martyr, even for the Gospel.  So Piper takes out a bible, reads the passage where Jesus states that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the head of a needle... and then tells the boy.."GO BECAUSE YOUR LIFE WILL BE IN DANGER IF YOU STAY HERE (in America)."

Snap.     

wow. I love that.  we can so easily get tangled up with stuff, riches, the latest.. and miss the Kingdom.  miss Christmas for XMAS....

im starting to rediscover it.  Its nice.

Jesus, when preaching the Kingdom. turned the stuff mentality  on its head.  And with such creativity, I might add.  The first shall be last, the last first.... someone wants something from you, give them everything.  and so on....

He heals a guy with spit and mud..... he gets a coin out of a fish's mouth....  rides in as a KING... on an ass.   yea ... our King.... then lets Himself get the crap beat out of Him, and ultimately killed.  yea... a "great" display of power..... a great way to demonstrate his Kingship in this Kingdom He just ushered in...

yet... that's our King.  changing the rules.. getting creative, and turning this world upside down.

I challenge to turn Xmas upside down this year....  forget about what word they are keeping in or out of our verbiage...  our oh so sacred christian jargon

instead

lets drop the "stuff" and give ourselves this year.... this video might inspire you some.

give relationally.  you'll be surprised that your friends can do without the stuff.  

Sooooo.. Lisa and I are thinking about.....

well. we  figured out how much was allocated to Xmas gifts this year.....

chopped it down drastically...... Were planning to give that money away to a family who needs it,

and try to "make" all of our gifts this year... try... but Lisa already has some good ideas.. , and they sound like fun.....

and..

its starting to feel Good.

I think this is our story.. this is our story worth telling.

yea... any thoughts.