St. Luke's Blogs

Around five years ago, sickness had taught us a lot. We sought a new way of living and moved to a farm to share all we had learned. Now healthy, I felt God calling us to open our farm to the community, not just for events, but for Christmas. However, I admit I was also afraid because we lived in an area where most people did not seek God. It was only a few weeks before Christmas when we finally decided to trust and began the preparations for a Christmas Eve service at our home.

After hours setting up the event barn with decorations, holding the tensions of eagerness and a little bit of fear, my favorite Christmas song, O Holy Night, began to play on my phone as I walked outside…

One of my favorite Christmas memories was the year I wrapped “A Countdown to Christmas” with The Twelve Books of Christmas for my son. Every night before bed, he would unwrap a book and we would read it together. Each book had a different theme and different storyline, but I found myself explaining in each book how Jesus teaches us to do these same things. One of his favorite series when he was young was “Little Blue Truck,” a series about how this little blue truck helps his friends in different situations…

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thy justice here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Many of our beloved and favored Christmas Carols center around the nighttime and darkness. Carols such as Away in aManger, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, and Silent Night sing of the holy and sacred night when Christ was born. For me, it is poignant that Christ was not born in broad daylight when all kinds of human activity would create all kinds of distraction from this holy moment…

During the holidays, St. Luke’s Children’s Centers have many activities planned for both staff, parents, and children. Specialevents start in November with our All-Family Thanksgiving dinner. We invite all the parents and children from our Children’sCenters to join us for a wonderful dinner prepared by our amazing kitchen staff. Our teachers serve our parents and children andthen have the opportunity to sit together and share fellowship that they are not able to have on a daily basis.

As we move into December, we start the month with our Christmas Sing…

The song, O Holy Night is the epitome of the Advent season, leading up to Christmas and the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The words, taken from a poem written by Placide Cappeau, paint an intricate picture of that extraordinary night. Personally, when I hear this beautiful song, I am instantly transported through time.

It is a dark, serene evening in the Holy Land. Imagine a barren landscape that isn’t affected by the illumination of modern cities. If you have ever been able to escape large cities and have been given the gift to look up to the heavens and see the millions upon millions of stars in the sky, you can now picture the same imagery I see. The stars are shining brightly and Psalm 147:3 reminds us, He determines the number of the stars and calls them by name.

Like so many of us, I love the Christmas carol, O Holy Night. The music is beautiful, and the lyrics speak to me in a way that lifts my spirits and reminds me that at Christmas… hope appears when the Christ Child is born again in our hearts. One of my favorite lyrics from the song follows the line, Long lay the world in sin and error pining. The very next line is the answer to the world’s problems: Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

Without the birth of Christ, our souls are weighted down by the human condition.  Paul sums up that condition when he says, “I can’t seem to do what I know to be right and I keep on doing the evil I know to be wrong.” But then Christ comes into the world reminding us that despite our sinful nature, we are still of great value to God…

In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. – John 1:4-5

2020 was a challenging year for so many reasons. Covid closed schools, businesses, and churches. Around the world, people isolated themselves. We began to work from home. We taught our children at home. We worshiped at home. As the Advent season approached, we knew we needed to prepare for our family of faith to be at home and not in person for worship. We wanted to have something special for this occasion, something that would help unite us and keep the hope of Christ alive in our homes. We created an Advent Wreath to distribute to our family of faith that year. It would be the light of these candles that would represent what connected us, while we were still isolated at home.

The Advent wreath is an ancient practice of the church…

As we navigate the busyness of the month of December, our calendars are often filled to the brim with events, gatherings, and to-do lists. Amid the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. In the midst of the whirlwind of activity, the timeless song O Holy Night offers us a moment of reflection.

This carol invites us to think about an ordinary night that became extraordinary because Jesus was born. It reminds us that, despite the chaos that often defines this season, the heart of Christmas lies in the simple yet wonderful message of Christ’s birth.

In the middle of our jam-packed schedules and endless errands, we can find a glimmer of hope…

Which person has spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people than anyone else in history? That’s hard to calculate. JohnWesley rode more than 250,000 miles on horseback. Billy Graham spoke to nearly 215 million people in 99 countries. What about…Elvis?

Oh c’mon. The guy who sang Hound Dog? Well, Joe Moscheo thinks Elvis belongs in this conversation. The former singer with The Imperials, who played with Presley in the early ‘70s, even wrote a book called The Gospel Side of Elvis. “He had personal problems and demons, but… he introduced gospel music to a secular world,” Moscheo said. “In a way, he was an evangelist.”

Talk about a potential congregation…

Several years ago, our grandson Park asked us if he could share a playlist of Christian songs that he loved. We said of course, so he took our phones and downloaded his list. For years now, Park has felt closest to God when he is listening to music, and it was heartwarming for him to share his joy with us. We were thrilled!

This past year has been filled with so many emotions as we all lived through extremely challenging days making significant decisions for the future of St. Luke’s.

One day I was especially discouraged and exhausted from the stress and emotion of this season in the life of our church, certainly a time in our ministry that I never anticipated. Frequently, I would have trouble falling asleep or wake up in the middle of the night with a troubled heart…