PRAYING HANDS

There are hands that help and comfort,
Hands that plan and teach,
Hands that rest and hands that strive
For a goal just out of reach,
Hands that grasp and hands that give,
Hands that work and play,
Friendly hands and loving hands
That soothes life's cares away.
But praying hands are dearest
In the sight of God above
For in their sweet and earnest clasp
Are reverence and love.
No hands can do an unkind act
Nor cause another care
Nor sin against Our Father's love
When they are clasped in prayer.
Author Unknown

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Hebrews 1:1-2

No person probably ever made so ardent a personal appeal as Jesus. He discovered a whole new world of emotional life, a new expansion of joy. It is his distinction that he has for us permanently expanded the bounds of individuality. So that now when I open and turn over with reverent joy the leaves of the Gospels, I feel that here is enshrined the highest achievement of man the artist, a creation to which nothing can be added, from which nothing can be taken away.
Havelock Ellis

Heavenly Father, in this time of hustle and bustle, thoughts of shopping and gift giving, skating and sledding, snowman making and laughter, cooking and company, cards and letters, memories and smiles, help us to remember the gift that you gave to us that blessed night so long ago. May we share with others the love that you shared with us. Bless us with patience and peace, forgiveness and love. May we see the angels that you send, not as interruptions in our schedule, but as creations in your image to touch and to love. As the snow trickles down from the sky this Christmas, shower us with a faith that lets nothing stand in the way of growing closer and closer to you every day. Ignite in us new desires, hopes, plans and dreams that will lead us all to you. Amen

There's more, much more to Christmas
Than candlelight and cheer;
It's the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all the year;
It's thoughtfulness and kindness,
It's hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding
And for goodwill to men!
Author Unknown

Loving Father, help us remember the birth of Jesus,
That we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness
Of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing, which Christ brings,
And teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful
thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Robert Louis Stevenson
He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.
Isaiah 2:3

The kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
Elizabeth Bibesco

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church.

Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments

Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit – Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
Author Unknown

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
Pamela Vaull Starr

John Pierpont died a failure. In 1866, at age eighty-one, he came to the end of his days as a government clerk in Washington, D.C., with a long string of personal defeats abrading his spirit.

Things began well enough. He graduated from Yale, which his grandfather had helped found, and chose education as his profession with some enthusiasm.
He was a failure at school teaching. He was too easy on his students. He turned to the legal world for training.

He was a failure as a lawyer. He was too generous to his clients and too concerned about justice to take the cases that brought good fees. The next career he took up was that of dry-goods merchant.

He was a failure as a businessman. He could not charge enough for his goods to make a profit, and was too liberal with credit. In the meantime he had been writing poetry, and though it was published, he didn't collect enough royalties to make a living.

He was a failure as a poet. And so he decided to become a minister, went off to Harvard Divinity School, was ordained as minister of the Hossis Street Church in Boston. But his position for Prohibition and against slavery got him crosswise with the influential members of his congregation and he was forced to resign.

He was a failure as a minister. Politics seemed a place where he could make some difference, and he was nominated as the Abolition party candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He lost. Undaunted, he ran for Congress under the banner of the Free Soil party. He lost.

He was a politician. The Civil War came along, and he volunteered as a chaplain of the 22nd Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers. Two weeks later he quit, having found the task too much of a strain on his health. He was seventy six years old. He couldn't even make it as a chaplain.

Someone found him an obscure job in the back offices of the Treasury Department in Washington. He finished out the last five years of his life as a menial file clerk. He wasn't very good at that either. His heart was not in it.
John Pierpont died a failure. He had accomplished nothing he set out to do or be. There is a small memorial stone marking his grave in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The words in the granite read: Poet, Preacher, Philosopher, Philanthropist.

From this distance in time, one might insist that he was not, in fact, a failure. His commitments to social justice, his desire to be a loving human being, his active engagement in the great issues of his times, and his faith in the power of the human mind, these are not failures. Much of what he thought of as defeat became success. Education was reformed, legal processes were improved, credit laws were changed, and above all, slavery was abolished once and for all.

Many nineteenth century reformers had similar lives - similar failures and successes. In one very important sense, John Pierpont was not a failure. Every year, come December, we celebrate his success. We carry in our hearts and minds a lifelong memorial to him.

It is a song. Not about Jesus or angels or even Santa Claus. It's a terribly simple song about the simple joy of whizzing through the cold white dark of winters gloom in a sleigh pulled by one horse. And with the company of friends, laughing and singing all the way. No more. No less. "Jingle Bells." John Pierpont wrote "Jingle Bells".

One snowy afternoon in deep winter, John Pierpont penned the lines as a small gift for his family and friends and congregation. And in doing so he left behind a permanent gift for Christmas - the best kind - not the one under the tree, but the invisible, invincible one of joy. John Pierpont did not die a failure.
Author Unknown

Ideals are like stars. You will not succeed in toughing them with your hands; but, like the seafaring man, you choose them as your guides, and, following them, you will reach your destiny.
Carl Schurz

Those who trust in the Lord for help
will find their strength renewed.
They will rise on wings like eagles;
they will run and not get weary;
they will walk and not grow weak
Isaiah 40:31

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. For the greatest things grow by God's Law out of the smallest. But to live your life you must discipline it. You must not fritter it away in fair purpose, erring act, inconstant will, but make your thoughts, your acts, all work to the same end and that end, not self, but God. That is what we call character.
Florence Nightingale

True generosity requires more of us than kindly impulse. Above all it requires imagination – the capacity to see people in all their perplexities and needs, and to know how to expend ourselves effectively for them.
I. A. R. Wylie

Our friends are the people whom we choose; usually friends are the same sort of people as ourselves. My neighbor is the man whom I do not choose; he is the man whom God gives to me. He is the man who happens to live in the house next to mine; he is the man who happens to sit opposite to me in the train; he is the clerk who works at the desk next to mine. I have no right to say that he is no concern of mine, because, if I am a Christian, I know that he is the man whom God has given to me.
Stephen C. Neill

He is a Christian who tries to be the kind of neighbor Christ would be, and the kind of citizen Christ would be, and who asks himself in all the alternatives of his business life, and his social life, and his personal life, What would the Master do in this case? The best Christian is he who most reminds the people with whom he lives of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who never reminds anybody of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a Christian at all.
George Hodges

Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
John 7:38

O God, help me to remember what Christmas is all about. Help me to look up and follow your star all year - every year. Help me to lead others to you. Amen.

Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of the school, he spoke words of life such as were never spoken before, no since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he has set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, works of art, learned volumes, and sweet songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Born in a manger and crucified as a malefactor, he now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one third of the inhabitants of the globe.
Philip Schaff

Hark! The Christmas bells are ringing-
Ringing through the frosty air-
Happiness to each one bringing,
And release from toil and care.
How the merry peal is swelling
From the gray old crumbling tower;
To the simplest creature telling
Of Almighty love and power.
Ankle-deep the snow is lying,
Every spray is clothed in white,
Yet abroad the folk are hieing,
Brisk and busy, gay and light.
Now fresh helps and aids are offered
To the aged and the poor,
And rare love-exchanges proffered
At the lowliest cottage door.
Neighbors shaking hands and greeting,
No one sorrowing, no one sad,
Children, loving parents meeting,
Young and old alike are glad.
Then while Christmas bells are ringing,
Rich and poor; your voices raise,
And-your simple carol singing-
Waft to heaven your grateful praise.
Author Unknown

Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35

The way to God has properly been described as ‘letting oneself fall,’ and has been compared with the first flight of a baby eagle, pushed out of the nest by its parents, and then discovering to its amazement that the invisible ocean of light in which it is dropping is capable of bearing it up. The presence of God which surrounds everyone is like this invisible ocean which bears us up more surely than do all visible means of security.
Karl Heim

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each other’s burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.
W. C. Jones

Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands.
Protect them as they protect us.
Bless them and their families for the selfless acts
they perform for us in our time of need.
I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen

You go no where by accident.
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there.
He has a purpose in your being there.
Christ who dwells in you has something
He wants to do through you where you are.
Believe this and go in His grace and love and power.
Richard C. Halverson, Chaplain of the United States Senate

O God, help me to touch someone today with my eyes, my words,
my smile, my voice, my laughter, Your word.
Change my life, so I can make a difference.
Let my actions bring someone closer to you.
Help me to make Christmas last all year.
Help me to use my gifts for Jesus.

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