Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

Advent cover 2013The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us (see John 1:14)

Reflection:

As this Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close you
might want to start thinking about Christmas,
especially if you haven't given it a thought before!
This year Thanksgiving is as late as it gets. That
leaves us only three and a half weeks to buy those
presents, put up the decorations, send out the
invitations, mail out the greeting cards, bake all the
cookies, and do all the other Christmas preparations
you have to this year. Where should you start?

I would suggest we take a moment to remember
what all the fuss is about. Before we jump into all the
holiday preparations, let's stop, turn around, and take
a look behind us-way back to the very first Christmas.
Three books of the Bible do that for us: Matthew,
Luke and John. Each describes Jesus' birth from a
slightly different perspective.

Matthew shows us Christmas from the viewpoint of
Joseph the carpenter-Mary's husband and Jesus'
foster father. He discovers his betrothed wife is
pregnant, considers divorcing her, then takes her as
his wife after receiving an angelic message in his
dreams. Luke shows us Christmas from Mary's point
of view. She is visited by the angel Gabriel who
announces God has chosen her to be the mother of
His Son. Then she travels with her husband to
Bethlehem where she gives birth to her firstborn Son.

This Christmas season we will study John's account
of the first Christmas. John will not look at Christmas
through the eyes of Joseph or Mary. Instead, he will
have us look directly into the eyes of the Baby Jesus,
so we can clearly see the reason for this season-and
all the preparations we make.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)

Scripture:

Genesis 1:28
(NLT)

28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful
and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign
over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and
all the animals that scurry along the ground.” (NLT)

Reflection:

"Reign over" What does God mean to "Reign over"?
He means to have absolute aurhority and control
over it.  I honestly believe God has the ultimnate rule
over earth, and lucky for us, He exercises His authority
with loving care.  So when God delegated some of His
authority to us, the human race.  He expects us to take
responsibility for the environment and the other creatures
that share our planet. So we must not be careless and
wasteful as we fulfill His charge.  God was very careful
in how he made this earh,  WE MUST NOT be careless
in how we take care of it.

PK
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Help Me Thanksgiving Day Prayer

O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.