THE CHRISTMAS SCALE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNDtHdG5mVk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlE-1MBkWZQ

My mama told me something when I was growing up that has for ever change my life. She played the
piano at our little church at third and pine street for thirty seven years. She tried to teach me to play the
piano, but I wasn’t very good. She would teach me the names of the notes, what a major key is, what a
minor key is. She tried to teach me musical theory but I was just bored.

Then one day she told me that the best news in the world is found by playing a simple scale on the
piano. I had no idea what she meant. So she told me, “Play an eight note scale.” So I did. (Playing notes
going up the scale C D E F G A B C sounds like “do re me fa sol la si do”)

I said, “How is that good news?”

She said I played it incorrectly and that I needed to play it the other way. So I did. (Playing notes going
down the scale “do si la sol fa mi re do.”)

Again, I said, “How is that good news?”

She said that I played it the right way, but I needed to add the pauses.

“The pauses?”

“The pauses. Add them on the first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh and last note.”

Now I was frustrated and said, “How can eight notes with random pauses be the best news in the
world?” Then I got up, walked away and went outside. Frankly I didn’t care what she was talking
about. I didn’t like playing the piano anyway.

Well, years later my mama got sick and passed away. As I was thinking about her I remembered what
she told me about the piano.

Not only that, I still remembered the notes she told me to pause on : the first, second, fourth, sixth,
seventh and last note. So I sat down at her piano and played the scale with the pauses. (With pauses
plays the song “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.”)

And that’s when I realized the good news she was talking about.

Source | Transcript of The Christmas Scale by IgniterMedia.com

CONSIDER THIS

The message hasn’t changed. That joy is still there waiting to be experienced each time we awake from
our slumber and play the right notes with the right pauses, living our ordinary lives in extraordinary ways,
that is, with gentility and grace, presence and wakefulness.
 THE PARABLE OF THE BIRDS
Once upon a time there was a man who looked upon Christmas as a lot of humbug. He wasn’t a
Scrooge. He was a kind and decent person, generous to his family, upright in all his dealings with other
men. But he didn’t believe all that stuff about Incarnation which churches proclaim at Christmas. And he
was too honest to pretend that he did. “I am truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, who was a
faithful churchgoer. “But I simply cannot understand this claim that God becomes man. It doesn’t make
any sense to me.”

On Christmas Eve his wife and children went to church for the midnight service. He declined to
accompany them. “I’d feel like a hypocrite,” he explained. “I’d rather stay at home. But I’ll wait up for
you.”

Shortly after his family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window and watched
the flurries getting heavier and heavier. “If we must have Christmas,” he thought, “it’s nice to have a
white one.” He went back to his chair by the fireside and began to read his newspaper. A few minutes
later he was startled by a thudding sound. It was quickly followed by another, then another.

He thought that someone must be throwing snowballs at his livingroom window. When he went to the
front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the storm. They had been caught
in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter had tried to fly through his window. “I can’t let these
poor creatures lie there and freeze,” he thought. “But how can I help them?” Then he remembered the
barn where the children’s pony was stabled. It would provide a warm shelter.

He put on his coat and galoshes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the
door wide and turned on a light. But the birds didn’t come in. “Food will lure them in,” he thought. So he
hurried back to the house for bread crumbs, which he sprinkled on the snow to make a trail into the barn.
To his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.
He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. They scattered in every
direction – except into the warm lighted barn.

“They find me a strange and terrifying creature,” he said to himself, “and I can’t seem to think of any way
to let them know they can trust me. If only I could be a bird myself for a few minutes, perhaps I could
lead them to safety. . . .”

Just at that moment the church bells began to ring. He stood silent for a while, listening to the bells
pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. Then he sank to his knees in the snow. “Now I do understand,” he
whispered. “Now I see why You had to do it.”

Source The Parable of the Birds as told in Greg Johnson, The 25 Days of Christmas, pages 30-31

PONDER AND CONSIDER

 They shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.” | Matthew 1:23

 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn. | Luke 2:7

 For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-
powerful word leaped from heaven … into the midst of the land … | Wisdom 18:14-15

 And the Word became flesh and lived among us. | John 1:14

 Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to
me. | Matthew 25:40
 http://www.communicatejesus.com/ultimate-list-christmas-videos-church-services/

https://ru-clip.net/video/f8V-SAxawbg/christmas-in-50-words.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TIZGCjpi4

WHY WE SHOULD WELCOME THE

NEWBORN KING EVERY CHRISTMAS?

Written by Jeremy Norton

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 Email

Why We Should Receive Him.

At Christmas we celebrate that very first Christmas in Bethlehem. When they, welcomed Jesus Christ into
the world. But why did they welcome Him?

And so many of our Christmas carols talk about receiving Him. For example, consider “Joy To The
World” and the lyric, “Let earth receive her King.” What does that even mean?

These are the questions that so many unchurched and many de-churched people are asking when they
attend our Christmas Eve services. Maybe not out loud, but they’re often thinking it.
Do we have answers? Do we have the right answers? I believe Jesus’ last words to His disciples, found in
the Gospel of Luke, can help us answer these 2 important Christmas questions.

“44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them,

‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that
repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from
Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.’” (Lk. 24:44-48)
1. Why Welcome Him?
The People of Israel had waited for Jesus for a long time. At that point, they only knew Him as
the Messiah. And Jesus reminds His disciples of that fact.

“…everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
(24:44)
Each and every Christmas we have an opportunity to go back in time. What was it like for the Hebrew
people to await the promised Messiah? What was it like to experience immense joy as Word became
Flesh, in a baby boy named Jesus?

In all of this, we continue welcoming Jesus, the promised Messiah, within our Christmas celebrations. But
that’s the easy part. Receiving Him is really the centre of the Christmas story.

2. Why Receive Him?

At the time of Christ’s arrival, the entire world needed the Messiah. Some knew that they needed Him
and were waiting for Him. (Consider the Magi, who followed a star to find Him!)

There were some who rejected the Messianic prophecies. Others would not find out their need for the
Messiah until years later. And some, when the time came to make a choice, believed in the prophecies yet
rejected Jesus’ claim that He was the Messiah.

They crucified Him for it.

Thankfully, this was all part of the plan to redeem humanity. In Jesus last words to His disciples, he was
clear on why He had to come, why people should receive Him…

“…that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the
forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations…” (24:46-47)
…and why we still need to receive Him.

We Still Need Jesus

 NeONBRAND
Why should we welcome Jesus into our lives? Why should we receive Him today? What’s the point?
Why does it matter to us living in 2017?

The short answer is, “We still need Him.”

The words Jesus gave to His disciples over 2000 years ago are just as valid today!

Every person in the world has sin in their life that separates them from a Holy God. Through Jesus’
sacrifice we receive payment for our sin, so that we can be forgiven and made pure. In His resurrection,
He conquered death and our sin with it.

To welcome and receive Jesus is to give everything over to Him. When we choose to receive Jesus, we
receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. The receiving of this gift is what we ultimately celebrate at
Christmas.

May this gift help you welcome and receive the Newborn King this Christmas.