Merry (have a Mighty) Christmas greetings!

Merry Christmas and God, peace, blessings, and endowment be with you this holiday season!

I got one of my Christmas presents early TE 230 Spiritual Disciplines by Bob Slasor and Laurie Gordon. Yes, call me "sick", but I wanted to take this Temple School course with reviews by my friend Bob Slasor. I feel that it will be a good warm-up for my courses at Faith Bible College here in Independence, MO. I also want to go through it and more of Bob and Laurie's stuff in preparation for the CCM Retreat in Texas on prayer and fasting. I have organized my journals and look forward to a great retreat on journaling, prayer, and fasting.

http://www.faithcollege.org/

http://www.cofchrist.org/ccm/ccmcalendar.asp

I visited the Temple yesterday and sort of made myself at home with getting behind the foyer desk to print out the Daily Prayer for Peace for December 25 (Peggy and I are going to be handling the service with our friend Rich coordinating it) and then paid my overdue fine in the library then went back into the Temple bookstore for some more Christmas greetings and hugs and ended up helping out as a volunteer with a product search and re-stock. I also ran into a lot of friends and acquaintances and got to give them Christmas greetings.

I want to put in a plug for one of my favorite Christmas songs--"God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman"...
1. God rest you merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray:

O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

2. In Bethlehem, in Israel,

This blessed Babe was born,
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn,
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scorn:

O tidings ...

3.From God our heavenly Father

A blessèd angel came,
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by name:

O tidings ...

4. The shepherds at those tidings

Rejoicèd much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straightway,
This blessèd Babe to find:

O tidings ...

5. But when to Bethlehem they came,

Whereat this Infant lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling,
Unto the Lord did pray:

O tidings ...

6. Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface:

O tidings ...

From Wikipedia..."There is much confusion today about the meaning of the title. The title is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", with a comma after the word "merry", so does not refer to "merry gentlemen". In Victorian times, "merry" meant "great", "mighty" or "strong", rather than "happy". In addition, "rest" had the meaning of "keep" or "make", so the true meaning of the title is "God Keep You Strong, Gentlemen" or possibly, "God Make You Mighty, Gentlemen" as in "Robin Hood's Merry Men" so called because they were a powerful fighting force. "

GOD MAKE YOU MIGHTY, GENTLEMEN (& Gentlewomen of course too) makes a lot more sense in looking at the lyrics so this is about us becoming "mighty" or endowed as I would like to call it.

We may be doing a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day "marathon" of services culminating with the Christmas Day Prayer for Peace. If I see you, then I will wish you Merry (Have a Mighty or Endowed) Christmas in person! If I do not see you, then I bid you a Merry Christmas and God, peace, blessings, and endowment for the rest of 2009 and into 2010!