I just wanted to share these powerful words from a my friend David Dault, host of “Things Not Seen”. Let these words lead you into the heart of the Christmas story. Thank you David for writing so beautifully.
“Somewhere, this weekend, in a forgotten corner of your city, Mary and Joseph have just arrived in town. They are hungry, and exhausted, and they’re looking desperately for a place to sleep.
If you have money in your pockets this Christmas, congratulations. You are one of the Magi.
If you have a spare room to offer, congratulations. You are the Innkeeper.
If you have nothing but a kind word to speak, congratulations. You are a heralding angel.
The story of Christmas isn’t complete until you figure out who you are — in relation to the family that is lost in your city and in great need — and play your part.”
This episode comes to you courtesy of the Hoganson Media Agency who invited Voices In My Head Podcast to experience the incredible Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant Christmas Tour in Columbus Ohio. It was an incredible night of music complete with live orchesta, snowball fights, and a remarkable presentation by Compassion International.
On this episode I also share some live improvised Christmas music and talk about a new take on Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol by the late Havey Kurtzman called, “Marley’s Ghost”.
Cary Kozberg currently serves as Rabbi at Temple Sholom Springfield Ohio and as the Jewish chaplain at Kensington Place in Columbus, Ohio. He is a nationally recognized expert in the field of spirituality and aging and is principal/owner of Side by Side: Life Transitions Coaching for the Later Years, offering pastoral and spiritual help to older adults and their families.
On this special episode of Voices In My Head we talk about a number of Hanukkah related questions, including:
What does the holiday of Chanukah celebrate?
How is it spelled, Chanukah or Hanukkah?
What does the word Chanukah mean?
Why does the date of Chanukah seem to change each year?
Singer/songwriter, worship leader and record producer Tim Timmons, in partnership with 10,000 MINUTES Kids, recently released his second children’s project, Who I Am. This all new Bible-based, “kid-tested” and “parent-approved” debut is available now at iTunes, Amazon.com and other digital retailers internationally, and directly at www.TimTimmonsMusic.com (digital and CD).
Produced by Timmons and Christian Hale, Who I Am features 10 fully-charged pop songs intended for kids and parents “to pray all week long.” With all songs either written or co-written by Timmons, each song was carefully crafted with the question in mind, “what do we want our kids to pray?”
“The idea of both the title track, ‘Who I Am,’ and the whole record – is actually our identity of what it looks like for us to know that we are loved by Jesus all week long, no matter what,” says Timmons. “It’s about working through our fears, working through the issues that we have, even when we ‘blow it’ or ‘do dumb things.’”
Inspired by Timmons’ 10,000 MINUTES movement and his personal life story, the release of the record coincides with the launch of the 10-week Who I Am Family Blog Series created by Timmons in order to help provide support and a resource for adults and families. The series will feature both weekly devotional blogs and practices geared to help families follow Jesus all week long through family discussion of scripture, devotional readings and practical suggestions found every week in “This week’s 10000 MINUTES Practice.”
Timmons, who writes an “X” on his wrist each day as a reminder of God’s love for him despite his circumstances, adds, “Who I Am was created to encourage kids to walk with Jesus all week long – and to remind them of their identity in Jesus. My hope is that kids and parents alike will remember that we are all loved by God—the God of the Universe, no matter what. It’s who we are! It’s who I am in Him!”
“Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. During Advent we “wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ,” in the phrase used each week in the Catholic Mass. Advent is about Jesus’ coming; even the word advent means “coming.” We celebrate the threefold coming of Jesus. We remember His coming in the past as a baby in Bethlehem, born to redeem the world. We are thankful for His coming into our hearts in the present, as we make more and more of our lives available to Him, to be used as He wishes. And we look forward joyfully to His Second Coming at the end of time when all people shall be judged and all creation shall be purified and perfected.
The Christmas story is, simply put, the most beautiful story in the world. The four lovely weeks of Advent allow us to take this story out each year and examine it. Like a jewel that sparkles in different colors when it is held up to the light and rotated, Advent lets us see the Christmas story from different angles. We sense the longing of the prophets who foretold Christ; our hearts wonder with Mary, rejoice with Elizabeth, empathize with Joseph, and thrill with the shepherds.
Advent reminds us, too, that while Christmas was glorious, it was human sinfulness and estrangement from God that made it necessary for Jesus to come to earth. So we are reminded of our spiritual lives, and of our need to be found walking in righteousness when He comes again in glory. Mostly Advent gives us a chance to remember and pay homage to the most beautiful part of the Christmas story: the incomparable, miracle-working, ardent, relational, self-sacrificing love of God for the people of the world.”
Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours Is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book
And to help you get more Christmas shopping out of the way, I’ve put some goodies on sale over on Amazon. CD’s Books, and Live Concert DVD’s are on sale for only $4.99 plus shipping.
Buy in bulk and get a whole bunch of gifts for friends, family, choir members, and church worship teams.
Great for stocking stuffers, your bible study, or whoever else you think may appreciate the gift of music this year (and a huge THANK YOU! to all of you who have supported my music so incredibly this year).
In December 2016, to celebrate the music video for Advent Hymn (Watching, Waiting, Longing), CCM Magazine did another interview with Rick Lee James. This time it’s all about Advent and Christmas.
I think half of my childhood was spent waiting on Christmas Day. When I was in the first grade I remember lying in bed one cool October night with my imagination running wild, just thinking about what it would be like when Christmas came. Like most 6 year olds, I didn’t have a very good grasp of time. I remember getting out of bed and walking into our kitchen where I heard my mother cleaning and getting our lunches ready for school the next day. I asked her how long it would be until Christmas. When she told me that I still had several more weeks to wait my heart sank a bit.
I was ready for Christmas. I wanted to see my grandparents, I wanted to eat Christmas cookies, I wanted to decorate the tree, and I especially wanted to open presents. The longing stayed with me. The hope, the expectation, the and the waiting were all part Christmas manifesting itself into my world. In my heart Christmas had already arrived, but Christmas Day was still to come. Those are my earliest memories of living in the already and the not yet.
As an adult the waiting and longing in life continues. This past summer–still in the shadow of the loss of my Grandfather only a month prior–I along with many of my family members, waited around the bedside of my Grandmother as hospice was called to administer care. Over several days, she slowly drifted from this life into the next. We sang hymns about heaven with her, we shared the Lord’s Supper, we recited the Apostles Creed as we grieved and steadied our lives facing the inevitable. We were waiting, watching, longing, and hanging on her every breath; wondering which one would be her last. When she waved her final goodbye we were relieved that her suffering was over, we were hurting because we already missed her, and we were heavy with the hope that all believers have. We will have to wait, but we hope in God, knowing will see her again.
My wife and I also experienced two miscarriages this year. The watching, waiting, and longing to see our babies ended in hospital rooms with doctors telling us the babies didn’t make it. As I held my wife in those hospital rooms, I recited the Apostles Creed again, trusting, believing and hoping in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. We needed that hope more than ever before. We still do.
2000 years ago heaven sent a baby into this world named Jesus. The prophets foretold his birth and for many, many years the people of God put their hope in the Messiah who would come to save them from the brokenness of the world in which they found themselves. They watched for him, they waited, they longed and prayed for the coming King, but it seemed that silence was the only reply from Heaven.
But then, in a way they never imagined, the silence of the years was broken. An angel came to Mary and her relatives with a message that the Messiah was coming. One night in Bethlehem as angels sang songs of glory and terrified shepherds trembled in their fields at the heralded announcement of his advent, Jesus the Savior of the world was born. The One who had been watched for, waited upon, and longed for was among us, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger where livestock fed.
God made good on His promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ. He was a man in the flesh and a Jew by birth; he grew up poor and lived in a small village until the time was right. At the age of 30 he left his home and journeyed into the world doing good, curing people through the power of his Father, teaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and revealing that the meaning of religion is love.
His people rejected by him, tortured him and nailed hands and feet to a cross where he died like a criminal between two theives. He lay buried in the grave, but death could not defeat him. On the third day, he rose from the grave, he revealed himself to his followers, he told them to wait on the Holy Spirit, he ascended into heaven and he is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the Lord and He will come again. We wait expectantly for him to return.
So, once again, we find ourselves waiting; just as we’ve been waiting for 2000 years for a Savior who is, and was, and is to come. We wait in the confidence that all our sins are forgiven through Him. We watch for him, believing that all who have faith in Him must repent, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, and live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. While we wait, we break bread together and in love announce this Good News to others until Jesus comes again: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
I’m still ready for Christmas. I still want to see my grandparents. I really want to hold my unborn children. I still want to eat Christmas cookies, I still want to decorate the tree, and I still like to open presents. Yet the gift that means more to me than any other is Jesus. The longing to see the Savior has formed me. Because he lives I believe I will see my grandparents again. Because he is alive, we believe we will one day hold our unborn children. We believe that one day soon, the the Kingdom of God will come in it’s fullness.
The season of Advent is a season of watching, waiting, and longing for the coming of Christ. With the season of Advent the Christian new year starts and we begin to tell this story of hope all over again. The word Advent literally means coming, in this four week season we are waiting for our Savior who was, is, and is to come. Advent is a season of hope.
“Advent Hymn (Watching, Waiting, Longing)” is a song of expectation that looks to the second coming of Christ through the lens of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. It is a joyful song of celebration and a way to retell of the story of Jesus. I’m so pleased that Lifeway Worship has made this song available for churches to use during this Advent season. What a story of hope we have to share.
Check out the release of the brand new music video for Advent Hymn (Watching, Waiting Longing).
This blog originally appeared on LifeWay’s WorshipLife blog found at this link link: http://worshiplife.com/2016/11/23/advent-hymn-watching-waiting-longing-by-rick-lee-james/
