January 2018: Epistle Newsletter and Calendar
Collected Advent Devotionals
We hope you’ve enjoyed the Advent devotionals this year and that they have helped you to prepare your heart and spirit for Christ’s coming at Christmas. If you’d like a booklet of all the devotionals collected together, you can read it in the viewing window below or download a copy to your own computer. (If […]
Monday, December 25: Silent Night
Monday, December 25: Silent Night One of my fond memories growing up was attending the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at our church with my family. There was usually snow on the ground by that time in Nebraska. The blue lights that were strung through the hedge surrounding the church reflected in the snow. Everything was […]
Sunday, December 24: O Holy Night
Sunday, December 24: O Holy Night O Holy Night, one of the most beloved Christmas hymns, was written in 1847, by Placide Cappeau, at the request of a parish Priest, to commemorate the completion of the church organ renovation. Cappeau was a one-handed French poet/wine merchant, who was said to have been an Atheist. His […]
Saturday, December 23: Away In a Manger
Saturday, December 23: Away In a Manger For what is supposed to be an endearing children’s Christmas carol, Away in a Manger certainly has a complex and conflicted “back story”! Many of us grew up with hymnals (both Sunday School and church) which called it “Luther’s Cradle Hymn.” Poor Brother Martin gets blamed for many […]
Friday, December 22: Angels We Have Heard on High
Friday, December 22: Angels We Have Heard on High This Christmas Carol is a joyous celebration of Christ’s birth on Earth. The celebration was so great that the Angels in Heaven sang! What a joyous occasion – a night that changed the world. I cannot imagine the awe the shepherds must have felt when the […]
December 17, 2017: 3rd Sunday of Advent
Scriptures: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28 (Read them online here.)
Thursday, December 21: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Thursday, December 21: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” -Luke 10:41-42 (NIV) Christmas can seem like a rat race […]
Wednesday, December 20: White Christmas
Wednesday, December 20: White Christmas The sun is shining, the grass is green The orange and palm trees sway There’s never been such a day In Beverly Hills, L.A. But it’s December the twenty-fourth And I’m longing to be up North! I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas: Not many people remember the verse that preceded […]
Tuesday, December 19: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Tuesday, December 19: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day The song I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on a poem, Christmas Bells, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1863. The poem was written after a dark period in Longfellow’s life. The accidental death of his second wife and his son being […]