Happy Birthday Jesus

[James]

You were the ultimate rebel.

You forsook wealth, called out the ruling hypocrites of your day, and always stood by your convictions. You didn't candy coat stuff, but had the guts to tell it like it was. Ultimately you willingly died a horrendous death for your cause.

You taught us to love our enemies, and to do good to those that harm us. Through your example, you taught us to love the sinner but hate the sin. You inspired us by hanging out with the despised and showing us that God loves them just as he loves us. You told us that when we welcome the "uncool" down and outs of society, we are welcoming you.

The basis of all you taught and did was love, faith and hope. You said the greatest of these is love. You told us to love God with all our hearts, and to trust God to guide us through our lives.

Your influence and teachings became the most important foundation stone of what is good in our society.

I'm a curious seeking person, and have traveled and read a bunch. But I've yet to run across anything as profound as what you have taught me. Nothing comes close.

This post is just me musing over the influence you've had over me, and over my world. Many others can articulate better than me the meaning of your life.

Anyway, thanks and Happy Birthday!!!

-James

[marvin]

Thanks James - and I'll continue your message with the lyrics to a song I wrote a few years ago, which I posted on another thread:

THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

By: Marvin Matthews

All around I hear them say, that Christmas time is soon,

Tell me if they know the words they say.

Singing out their happy thoughts, and their happy tunes,

And I wonder why it never lasts.

Everywhere there's hurt, in this world there's pain,

Do we see that Child who was born?

And He came that day, how I wish I could hear them say,

That Christmas means, "Our Lord."

All around I hear them say, Christmas time is soon,

Still so many hearts filled with hate.

Why is it hard to learn to love?

Is that not why we're here?

Listen to His voice, His words are clear.

In this world of pain, let us join and call His name,

For to love is all that He asks.

And I pray that soon, the words we'll learn to say,

Is Christmas means, "Our Lord."

That Christmas is "Our Lord."

[Shelley]

Very nice...James and Marvin... the true meaning of Christmas...Happy Birthday Jesus.

[Ecstasy]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your inspiration!

We will be celebrating a tradition that we started when our children were very young. I take orange rolls and arrange them on cookie sheets in the shape of Christmas trees. When the rolls are done baking and have been frosted we put birthday candles in them and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It's a tradition that my children still like only now we teach it to the grandchildren. The grandkids spend Christmas Eve with their other grandparents or I'd have them put the nativity under the tree and read the Christmas story to them just like I did their parents.

[Wendy-Ann]

James...Marvin, beautiful! Many thanks...

Kathy Lee, growing up we had a birthday cake for Jesus and the family still does it every year. It depends on who's house we all gather at.

Below is an essay adopted from a 1926 sermon. I'm sure many of you know this:

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

Happy birthday, Jesus - I love You!

Wendy

[Kholvn]

Among the Keetoowah and Cherokee, Christmas is called "The Day When They Shoot Their Guns". That's how Christmas was celebrated in earlier times. Some families still do this. You can hear the sound of pistols and rifles being fired all through the valleys and hills. It really, really cool.

This is a really fine place to be - a place where the world doesn't touch our love for one another. We can disagree and NOT be pulling a trigger to a gun or pressing a button for the missiles to launch.

You could almost say that Christmas is here all the time. THANKS ERIC for your music that brought us all together.

But most of all, THANK YOU GOD for sending your Son to this lowly place called Earth.

Happy Birthday, Jesa!

[Bessieboo]

But most of all, THANK YOU GOD for sending your Son to this lowly place called Earth.

Exactly! In the midst of the worldly gifts and trimmings, we take the time to celebrate and remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We always have a Happy Birthday Jesus cake, too.

[Raspyrock]

The Two Most Important Commandments:

Mark 12:28-31

28. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

29. "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

31. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

***************************

Let us remember that love conquers all.

[darlene]

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son..."

What a beautiful thread to recall the true meaning of Christmas. Beautifully written, James and Marvin.

With all the sorrow and dark times humankind is experiencing, it is indeed comforting to know that because Jesus Christ was given to the world, "All Is Well."

--Darlene

[TOMMY TUNES]

Thanks James - and I'll continue your message with the lyrics to a song I wrote a few years ago, which I posted on another thread:

THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

By: Marvin Matthews

All around I hear them say, that Christmas time is soon,

Tell me if they know the words they say.

Singing out their happy thoughts, and their happy tunes,

And I wonder why it never lasts.

Everywhere there's hurt, in this world there's pain,

Do we see that Child who was born?

And He came that day, how I wish I could hear them say,

That Christmas means, "Our Lord."

All around I hear them say, Christmas time is soon,

Still so many hearts filled with hate.

Why is it hard to learn to love?

Is that not why we're here?

Listen to His voice, His words are clear.

In this world of pain, let us join and call His name,

For to love is all that He asks.

And I pray that soon, the words we'll learn to say,

Is Christmas means, "Our Lord."

That Christmas is "Our Lord."

Hey Marv! They have Christmas in Canada?

[Steeler Deb]

James,

Your post is so loving and heart-felt! I share your thoughts.

Marvin,

I love your Meaning of Christmas! It is beautiful!

Darlene, you are so right, this is a beautiful thread for not only for Christmas but for every day!

And in the words of Rick Warren ...We can agree to disagree and still be friends!

Merry Christmas everyone

[Matthew C. Clark]

Even David Letterman said in his monologue on Monday night, On Christmas day, happy birthday to Jesus! Matt