Day 12 of 30 Days To An UnStuck Christmas: Holy Spirit You Are Welcomed Here!

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…a partridge in a pear tree….lalala…..

I have always wondered who in the world would want a partridge in a pear tree—or a partridge in any tree for that matter – LOL

Tell me on Facebook, what do you know about that Christmas song?

Today, our Hearts will be set upon by the power and the work of The Holy Spirit. Oh my. I remember my personal “Pentecost” and the time in my life when I actually experienced a deeper understanding of this mysterious person of the Trinity.

Let’s take some time on this sweet Monday to allow God to speak to our HEART.

I would love to hear more about your revelations and thoughts today!

See you in group!!
Pat

DAY 12
34 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 35 So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:34-35 (NIV)

As I started writing today’s devo and really began contemplating on this verse with a fresh heart (that’s the goal here right?), I started thinking about how the words of this verse might have left Mary with even more questions than she started with! I mean her “How will this happen” was answered with “the Holy Spirit will come upon you.” Talk about answering a question with a bigger question.

Surely she was left wondering, when he does come will I know? Will he tell me when he is coming? Will he let me know ahead of time? What does he look like? How does that feel?

I started digging into my research material on the Holy Spirit and realized, this is not a devo, this is a book! LOL! In fact, there IS an amazing book on my bookshelf that truly should be on yours as well–if I must say so myself!

Forgotten God, by Francis Chan is an amazing must-read for every Christian (jmo:-)

Here’s a peak at his teaching:

“..if the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop him. If he doesn’t move, we will not produce genuine fruit-no matter how much effort or money we expend”

OK, how’s that for a start??
What about this…

“..when the Holy Spirit descended and indwelt the Disciples a radical change occurred. From that point on, none of these Disciples was ever the same. They were no longer timid, or confused (remember the version we read about Mary); they were bold and inspired and began to declare and live the gospel of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I want that, how about you?

Chan concludes his book with this basic, yet crucial fact-

“The Holy Spirit is God and therefore holy, eternal, all knowing, all powerful, fair and just.”

I especially love Chan’s list in the book of how the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives along with the Biblical references! If this was a book and not a 5 minute devotional, I would share more about how the Holy Spirit has worked in my own life but if YOU have some extra time today, do a bit of extra study on the Holy Spirit-or maybe even gift yourself with this book! It’s a life changer and a keeper!

Prayer: Holy Spirit, I stand in awe of you today. I do my best, with this finite mind of mine to understand and embrace your infinite, immeasurable, boundless love. I ask you Holy Spirit, to come upon me in a fresh way today and give me power to live for Jesus and be more like him from the inside out. Inspire me, make me bold and, like Mary, overshadow my life in Jesus’ name!

Unstuck Christmas Home

I can’t help myself… I do enjoy a cute craft!! Don’t you love the photo above? Let’s make it, shall we?

Check out these precious, fun DIY ideas for Christmas decorating I found on CountryLiving.com. I love the snow globe cookie jar!

This lovely Unstuck Christmas Harvest idea came from Julie during a 2015 Facebook chat. YOU WILL LOVE IT!!

[This is] a Harvest idea we began with our Children prior to moving to Florida. It began just after my grandfather died.
An older gentleman was in front of us in the big box store with two TV Dinners in his cart, yet in the long, long line for check out. He tried to get my girls to talk to him but they kept their distance. He then got out two nickels and gave one to each. After that they never were thrilled to talk to him. My Mom pointed out what little he had in his cart and how he just wanted to talk to anyone for human contact. There were some things he said while we were talking that helped us find him again and bless him on Christmas Day. (Today the HIPPA laws would have prevented us finding him).

He was so pleased when we came to his home on Christmas with a basket of food. His home had all but the living room and dining room closed off. His bed was in the dining room and he had a chair, a small tv and a tray table in his living room and two card table type chairs folded up against the wall. He would have been alone that day, I am certain, had we not showed up and shown God’s love.

We decided to teach our girls to look all year for someone to bless at Christmas. They were to keep it in their heart and then tell us the first of December who they had in mind for something special. They told us separately but it was nearly always the same person.
One year, after we moved to Florida, it was the maintenance man, Mannie, at their school. It was because if a teacher asked him to do something he always said “sure, I’ll get right on that” and then he did. They wrote letters saying why he was the special person that Christmas. Years later my husband was substitute teaching at the school. When he heard his name he asked him to come to his office after school. There on the wall were the letters in frames. He told how much that recognition meant to him. Sometimes a simple thank you is enough and sometimes it takes a heartfelt note, like Pat said.
Find someone to bless.
Julie

Thank you Julie, we loved this!

PLEASE SHARE your thoughts on my FACEBOOK page. I gave away 3 nice Christmas Gifts Yesterday–Our NEXT GIVEAWAY is next weekend so say hello—-everywhere–and be entered over and over!!

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Holiday Hugs,

Pat