We have had a nice week with Christmas inserted right in the middle! Work has been ongoing but minimal. I have become known as the "cake lady" I think. Not sure how it happened, but I have been asked about 7 or 8 times to bake cakes this week! These are for the locals who do not have the resources to bake cakes (ovens). I mostly make the Carrot Cake recipe - they seem to really like that. But some have been chocolate. I have been a cake making fool! It is something that I can do and is pretty simple, so I enjoy doing it.
Christmas day was quiet around here. It was so nice! The kids all got smartphones (so that they will feel at home in America next year I suppose)! Now maybe I can use mine without having kids run down the battery playing their music or games.
This is a favorite saying of Trevor's
by Richard Bucher but you should go read the whole thing if you are at all interested - it is very good.
Immanuel - God with Us:
Many names were given to Jesus but none as significant as this.
Wasn't God always with us? Yes. God is omnipresent, He remains with us but distinct from His creation. With the birth of Jesus, "God with Us" takes on a whole new meaning. John 1:1-3 and 14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made....14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God is with us = the meaning of Christmas!
But why do we need God with us? We do not appreciate the cure unless we first taste of the sickness. 1 John 1:8 says, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We all have sinned. We are incomplete without Him. St Augustine said, "For you have formed us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until we find rest in You." (The following copied from the article): "When the creature no longer has fellowship with the Creator, he seeks to find a replacement to make the gnawing emptiness go away. Some call this "man's drive to succeed", others "finding myself", and still others refer to it as "self-actualization." But these restless strivings are the creature trying to fill the void left by the Absence of the Creator. Some try to make the emptiness go away with romance and relationships, family and friends; Others throw themselves completely into a career hoping that will give their life meaning. Others find themselves almost obsessively buying one thing after the other, desperately hoping to find fulfillment under the sheer weight of the new. Sadly, many turn to the dark side of drugs, alcohol, crime, and other deviant behaviors to drown out the emptiness and lack of meaning in their lives. We need "God with us" because without Him we are incomplete."
He saw our dire need and wanted to save us. He decided to die for His creation, but to do this He must become human.
2 Cor 5:19 For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out...
Through Jesus coming to be with us, our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with our creator again!
Hope you had a great Christmas and enjoy the New Year's eve celebration. Jim has a birthday this week and will be an even older man (meaning that he is already old, now just older)! Our good friends Jenny and Rachel Rounds are coming tomorrow (they are actually already on their way) to visit for a while. We are so excited to have them come!
Me and Mak who thinks he is a lap dog!
This was funny: we went to see the Desolation of Smaug - The Hobbit movie this week. Do you see something funny in the movie title of this ticket?!
In His Hands,
Jullie T.
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