Happy New Year!

Well, we are back! We have had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to an amazing new year in 2008. I know I haven't been blogging the past few days (OK, lots of days!) but with Jay home I haven't wanted to be away blogging when we could be hanging out together as a family!

We had an awesome Christmas and we did something different this time. On Sunday, our pastor challenged us to do something this Christmas to focus on Christ instead of the gifts, food, parties, and craziness! So, on at lunch, Jay and I came up with an idea that really was a hit. We decided to make our gift exchanging day on Christmas Eve. We would get up on Christmas Eve and open gifts and play with our new gifts for the day...and then go to the Christmas Eve service. We came home from that service and made a birthday cake for Jesus, decorated the house with streamers, put out plates and napkins, and even made cards for Jesus! Then, when we woke up on Christmas Day...we spent the whole morning celebrating the birth of Jesus with the final candle of Advent, the story of Jesus' birth in Luke, and a special "gift" for the new year to Jesus. It was a great tradition that we look forward to keeping from now on.

I know that December 25th is not actually the birthday of Jesus, but it is a time that we wanted to reclaim for focus on God's glory! We wanted to take some big steps this year towards changing our focus this season...and every day of our lives. I told you God was doing an overhaul on our lives!

It doesn't stop there! It was so sweet to spend time with my Father this morning as we began a new year together. I know how much I have failed Him this year by choosing to serve myself, looking to other things to satisfy me, and much more.

I felt like Ezra (the book I am in)as I looked back over this year by saying,
"Seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again?...Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this." 9:13-15

But, I am also grateful that the grace of God is rich towards me! I can stand in His presence loved, forgiven, and favored. What a gift through Jesus Christ! That is what Christmas is about for me. The gift of being able to stand before a holy God...accepted. Not because I deserve it...but because of grace. How precious Jesus has become to me this year.

As you begin this year, look at your heart. You and I have blown it! We have lied, gossiped, lusted, cheated, stolen, and much more. We can not stand before a perfect God in this condition. But, because of God's great love for us...He sent Jesus to pay the price of sin in our place.

I pray that you have accepted this gift. If not, make this your very first act today in 2008. For those who have already accepted this gift, let's devote our every moment to bringing the focus onto God. Let's commit to embrace Jesus Christ and allow God to make us more like Him through the good times and the hard times.

I will be posting this week about all the wonderful times we have had this Christmas season. But, this first post of the new year should focus each of us onto the amazing grace of a holy God. Let's not let today pass without time deep in His Word and in passionate prayer. Thank Him for the hope you have both for a place secured in heaven...and an abundant life here on earth.

I can't wait to see what God is up to in 2008!