blog.worship.com

10 Free Christmas Songs

From WorshipTogether: 10 Free Christmas Songs for consideration as you plan your Christmas season worship services.

Christmas Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground) - Chris Tomlin
All Creation Sing (Joy To The World) - FEE
Sing - Josh Wilson
Born In Bethlehem - Third Day
Here Is Our King - David Crowder*Band
Glory In The Highest - Chris Tomlin
Silent Night (Emmanuel) - Matt Maher
Joy Has Dawned - Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Love Came Down - Ben Cantelon
Born That We May Have Life - Chris Tomlin

Hopeful Post-Christmas Melancholy

Writes Jon Bloom:

Each year Christmas night finds members of my family feeling some melancholy. After weeks of anticipation, the Christmas celebrations have flashed by us and are suddenly gone. And we’re left standing, watching the Christmas taillights and music fade into the night.

But it’s possible that this moment of melancholy may be the best teaching moment of the whole season. Because as long as the beautiful gifts remain unopened around the tree and the events are still ahead of us, they can appear to be the hope we are waiting for. But when the tree is empty and events are past, we realize we are longing for a lasting hope.

More

The Passion Podcast

The Passion Podcast.

Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Milad Majid, and Merry Christmas from the Passion and sixstepsrecords family! Louie recalls Christmas and World Tour memories with David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, Kristian Stanfill, and the Passion team!

It Is Better to Give...

From a facebook friend:

Our extended family has found a new way to enjoy the holidays. A year ago we abandoned the traditional draw a name and give a gift idea. We now gather together for a holiday meal. During the gathering, we a have a box or bag that each member can privately contribute cash anonymously. We then take the cash and collectively go to the local wholesale club (Sams, Costco, etc) and purchase can goods to take to a food pantry. It is a big family event where we all participate in gathering the food, packing it in our vehicles and then delivering it to the food pantry. It is absolutely beautiful to watch everyone from the oldest to the youngest participate. This year we delivered the following to our local food pantry:

qty (360) Cups of AppleSauce
qty (56) Boxes of Cheerios
qty (112) Cans of Green Peas
qty (96) Boxes of Mac & Cheese
qty (96) 15 oz Can of Peaches
qty (128) Cans of Whole Kernel corn
qty (120) Cans of Green Beans
qty (48) 4.5 lbs Containers of OatMeal
qty (32) Cans of Spam
qty (48) 15 oz Can of Chili
qty (96) 20 oz Cans of Pineapple
qty (144) 15 oz Cans of Mandarin Oranges
qty (192) 16 oz Cans of Baked Beans
qty (20) 32 oz Jars of Grape Jelly
qty (288) 10 oz Cans of Chicken Noodle Soup
qty (44) 40 oz Jars of Peanut Butter
qty (120) 15 oz Can of Ravioli
qty (480) 5 oz Cans of Tuna Fish
qty (240) 13 oz Cans of Chunk Chicken

I write this with the hope of inspiring other families in giving it a try. It really is satisfying.

God Bless you during the holidays and in your upcoming year to come.

Merry Christmas

It's that time of the year again, when many of us slow down at the end of the year to spend time with family, step away from work for a bit, and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Here at worship.com we will be doing the same so for the most part this is a wrap for 2008 and we'll see you again in 2009 as we hope to integrate some new applications into the blog and website.

In the meantime, we invite you to connect with us on the social networking scene.  Are you a Facebook user?  Consider joining our facebook group, A Worshiper's Resource.  And if you have benefited from the articles we bring to you throughout the year, why not become a "facebook fan" of worship.com and a "facebook reader" of our blog.  Or, stop by and say hello at my personal facebook page.

And if you are on LinkedIn consider networking with us and others by joining our LinkedIn ministry group. 

From all of us at worship.com, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Aaron Shust: Silent Night

Darlene Zschech - Hillsong: O Holy Night

Third Day: Born in Bethlehem

Casting Crowns: I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day

Gospel Living and its Rival: An Advent Series

Gospel Living versus its well-disguised rival, idolatry:

A Charlie Brown Christmas was first broadcast on December 9, 1965.  Looking back at Charlie Brown's fear that Christmas had become too commercial, I wonder what he would think today.  But is commercialism the real issue, or is it something else?  This is the first part of an advent series (MP3) entitled Gospel Living versus Idolatry.

One rendition of 1 John 5:21 puts John's admonition to stay away from idols this way: dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimilies.  It's usually not the blatant idols that lead us astray.  This is the second part of an advent series (MP3) entitled Gospel Living versus Idolatry by Randy Pope.