'Twas the Night Before Imagine Christmas...

and all through the Lord's house, not a computer is whirling with a wireless mouse. The lights are all hung from the ceiling with care, in hopes that 3000 people would soon be there!

I can't believe it is the night before IMAGINE CHRISTMAS! This month has flown by. All the rehearsals are done. All the videos are finished. All the lights are programmed. All the decorations have been set. All the lines have been memorized. All the music has been rehearsed. Now all we need is for YOU!

Let me rewind for you to the summer. It seems like just a moment ago that we were all sitting in my house, listening to music and watching videos of production elements...IMAGINATIONS running wild! The excitement was high. Thoughts were that this might be the biggest and best Christmas program that First Euless has ever done. We were working hard to dream big and make sure that every part of the Worship Ministry would be involved to bring to you IMAGINE CHRISTMAS, From The Begining.

Fast forward to December 11th... All the work has been accomplished. Now it is just time to allow you to experience it with us. To help you see Christmas in a whole new way. And I don't mean the color scheme or set on the stage. I don't mean rearranging this original Bible story. Think about this for just a minute. To us, the believer, Christmas isn't the pretty lights, trees with wrapped presents and Christmas carols. It is the appointed time that God sent us Emmanuel and fulfilled his name, "EMMANUEL, God With Us." The world was waiting for their Messiah. And after His time to come was completed and the price was paid that satisfied His Father, we were given the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. For me...Christmas is always living in me. Now we await his coming again. But until then, we have to share Christmas with the rest of the world. Not in gifts and toys...but in name. He is the One True Gift - perfect, meeting all needs. So, that is what we are doing tomorrow at First Euless. We're celebrating the time when Christmas was given once for all. Join us tomorrow at either 3 or 6 pm. Oh, and don't forget the Little Levites Pre-Show at 5:30 pm. And bring your IMAGINATION, running wild like a child's. And join with us as we re-visit this timeless story of the First Christmas. This is way better than "visions of sugar plums dancing in your heads..." See you tomorrow or watch online at www.firsteuless.com
MERRY IMAGINE CHRISTMAS!

A Beehive of Activity

The week is finally here! I just can't believe it...but it has arrived. And each day has been a beehive of activity. Lights were delivered and hung. The stage was struck and the orchestra pit was formed. The Serpent took form. The curtain was hung. The star was pullied. The dancers have practiced. The Tree of Life swayed in the breeze...oh and I think I saw 2 giraffes walking around the Worship Center tonight. See...a beehive of activity. Each day this week we've be working on one more element than the day before, layering them together like a scrumptious cake that will just be waiting on you when you arrive. But as busy as we were today, the moments to stop and be thankful for God's providence were there. I went into this day trying to remind myself to not be so busy as to miss God at work all around me. There was another woman over 2000 years ago who was mindful of how God must be working out the all important details on her behalf.

IMAGINE THIS with me for just a minute.... Mary was only 3 days away from the time appointed that she would give birth to the Christ-child. She had been on a long journey with her new husband. She was very pregnant and not with HIS child. There were tons of other people who were also having to travel to Bethlehem. All returning to the city of their ancestors birth. We don't really know what weather must have been like for them. We don't really know if people traveling that similar journey were helpful to them. We don't really know if their donkey was traveling at a decent pace or decided to stop and be stubborn from his weariness from carrying this young and very pregnant girl. So, IMAGINE all of the uncertainty, all of the activity... This is a favorite part of scripture for me. The Bible says that "Mary pondered or hid all of this in her heart." She held all of this journey, as crazy as it was, near and dear to her heart. God's child lived inside her body. Surely, the journey for her was a different than for others. Her point of view watching God deliver His plan of redemption to earth was the closest possible. Surely her soul was very sensitive to how God was working around her...after all He was IN her too.
So this week as we work hard to be prepared for your arrival at IMAGINE CHRISTMAS, From the Beginning, my prayer is that my soul and spirit is ever sensitive to all that God is doing to prepare the message. I hope you'll join me in praying for the souls who need to hear the message of REDEMPTION made flesh. Pray their hearts will be ripe and ready to just receive THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER GIVEN. His name is Jesus. He is Emmanuel, God With Us.

And Counting...

IMAGINE CHRISTMAS
From the Beginning

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Today I brought Evie into the office to record some voiceovers for some Scripture video transitions Lainie is working on for the program.  We documented some of our experiences and wanted to share them with you!  (Disclaimer: Evie picked out her own socks this morning, don't blame me.)




This was a really great time where we got to focus on the Word of God and review what we know (or thought we knew) about the birth of His Son. How beautiful to hear it from the simple, sweet perspective of a 3-year-old!

Let Earth Receive Her King

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

IMAGINE with me for just a moment...off in the distance on a cold winter's night, a cry of a newborn is heard. He's not just any newborn. He is God wrapped in flash, Emmanuel, God With Us. The Great I AM. Creation's child. Yahweh. The Savior of the World. Our Redeemer. At this moment, he is a helpless infant looking for warmth and the love of a mother and father. And as Mary and Joseph turned their focus to meeting the needs of this little one, what must all of creation have been doing? Can't you just IMAGINE that every rock, bird, animal, all of God's creation was rejoicing in its own way that the Savior had entered the world. If we could just hear with our human ears what Heaven must have sounded like as all of the focus was upon this child, this moment, this birth. Excitement had to fill the air as earth received her King. And don't you think that God's creation was always in tune with its Creator? I IMAGINE so...

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.