Christmas

Hey there! Merry Christmas!!!

For those of you who receive Christmas cards from this house, perhaps you have already read this. It's my Christmas letter! I'm enjoying Christmas with my family today. You should be too! So, right after you're done reading this, turn off the computer and enjoy those incredibly precious gifts that God has given you - your family. :) Here goes! Merry Christmas!



Didn't I just type one of these Christmas letters? Where has the time gone? It's been a busy year for us Halls. We took three trips to Michigan this year (our March birthday get-together, our family reunion and our nephew's wedding. Lots of time spent driving down the road!

Our son and his wife have been keeping busy trying to keep up with our grandson. He's walking now and loves to grab things. Lots of things! What a cute little dude they are raising! Our son works at a large paper products company and his wife is a stay at home mom, plus she watches three other kids during the day! Yikes!

Of course the BIG news this year was our daughter's wedding. They live about 90 minutes from us where the new hubby works at a hospital. Our daughter is a substitute teacher and keeps quite busy doing that . . . plus walking her dog.

My wife works at keeping our counties babies healthy and strong. This summer my wife spent a week in Door County while I was at Lifest. We each had a good time. She could shop at her leisure and I could listen to rock music all day long. Win-win! I DID visit her for two of those days, which was good. Time apart CAN be good, just as long as it doesn't last too long. :)

And me? I've been writing this blog, spreading the Gospel one story at a time. I've been writing it for a year now. It has been read in 78 countries and viewed over 8,600 times. What I really enjoy is when I hear from someone about how God has used my writing to touch someone's life. I also feel encouraged when I notice someone from Pakistan, Iran or Syria reading my posts. People ARE searching and that is good news.

There are many stories I could tell you in this letter of where I have seen God at working in the world around us . . . but I already do that in this blog so . . .

I will tell you one story though, the main topic of this letter - Jesus. Like the head of the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:10), I have saved the best for last. Ha!

There are SO many things I am grateful for this Christmas season – family, friends, health and a job. But the gratefulness I feel for all these things pales in comparison to the incredible joy I feel knowing that I am in Christ.

It is one thing to KNOW about Him. Quite another to be IN Him. Our faith is like an airplane. We can know about an airplane and all the things it can do. We can imagine all of the places we could go in that airplane but at some point we need to GET ON THE PLANE!! Simply knowing about Jesus is not enough. He is not looking for believers, he wants disciples (Matthew 28:19)

At our daughter’s wedding, when I gave the father of the bride speech, I spoke about relationships and what makes them successful. The main ingredient in the most successful relationships is Jesus. He is the third strand in the triple-braided chord described in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. A relationship with Christ at its head "is not easily broken."

And so this Christmas season I pray that God might bless you and your family. Draw closer to Him and you will find yourself automatically getting closer with those you love. Place your faith and trust IN Him, first and above all, and you will be blessed beyond measure as I have. Family, friends, the blessings are countless for those who follow The Good Shepherd.

In the book of Exodus, the 16th chapter, manna came down from heaven. It was sent down to earth by God to feed His people. That story was a foretaste of the birth of Jesus, who also came down from heaven to "feed" His people.

"48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” - John 6:48-51

May this Christmas season find you absolutely swimming in His love. May you be surrounded by family and friends and the incredible love of Christ - The Messiah - Yeshua Ha-Mashiach. And may God bless you, today and always.