Charlie Brown Christmas - Link
Luke 16: 1 - 8
Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?”He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
The department stores have officially begun the season of Christmas, maybe the children of light should learn something from the children of this age. My grandmother was really a child of light, she taught me about giving at the age of 6. She gave me Christmas money and guidelines to buy for my family. Part of the Christmas guidelines, no buying for myself, to ask and consider what someone else would enjoy. I remember the first guideline, she explained to me my mother would not enjoy a doll.
This tremendous gift of giving has been one of the largest blessings in my life. If you are a grandparent, please take your grandkids Christmas shopping for others. It is the greatest gift. Please do it each year. If you are a grandparent of means, your grandchildren shopping on your budget could be the best thing you give.
For the first 14 years of our marriage, we lived in a two bedroom house as a family of four. Christmas can be memorable, even on a shoe string. It can be so very sad as a parent with financial worries, but putting off Christmas planning and shopping is not going to make Christmas better. It's better to look at what can be afforded and begin to look in resale, garage and estate sales. We are better off today, but our church has a tremendous rummage sale going on today & everyone (the might & the meek) was getting in on the sales. C'mon looking through piles of s-t-u-f-f when the pressure isn't on high is f-u-n. Find that treasure. Maybe you'll be lucky like I am, I bought my son the upholstered chair he casually asked for in July. Oh yes! It was $15 - it looks like new and it matches his bedspread! It is treasure, it is fabric a famous departed member of our family used to use. It was meant to be.
Proverbs 2:3-5
3 and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 24:4
through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.
Isaiah 33:6
He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.
Colossians 2:2-4
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Acts 20:35,36
35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "
36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.
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