News From Shawneetown First Baptist

The First Baptist Family will have our Christmas Eve Vespers service this Saturday, Dec. 24^th, at 5:00 p.m.  Once again this special service will be brief as we sing Christmas carols, light the Christ Candle, and participate in the Lord’s Supper together.

   On Christmas Day, there will be no Sunday School.  Our Morning Worship will begin at 10:00 a.m.  Come and join with us on this Special Day for a Special Worship as we welcome our Lord Jesus Christ not only into our world but into our lives!  There will be no Evening Worship that day. 

   The special events continue even as we begin the New Year!  On Sunday morning, January 1^st, 2012, Sons of the Father will be back to lead us in our Morning Worship at 10:40 a.m.  We look forward to this Sunday every year as Les Snyder and his sons, Chris and Brent, do a wonderful job presenting their music and the message of the Gospel.  Come join us!  You won’t be disappointed!

   Some of my most favorite moments during the Christmas season have been spent down on the steps of the altar with the children sitting in front of me as we light the Advent Candles.  We begin four Sundays before Christmas Day.  I have come to accept the fact that I must be very flexible at these moments because you never know what the children are going to do or say.

   For instance, I remember a young man in our church who is now a teenager (name withheld because it might be embarrassing to him) who liked to sit right at my feet during advent candle lighting.  One Sunday morning, as I was explaining the symbolism of the particular candle for that week, he reached over and began untying one of my shoes.  I did a pretty good job of ignoring him.  But then, he reached over and proceeded to untie the other shoe.  At that moment I lost it!  I had to stop and explain to the congregation why I had cracked up.

   These days I have my own grandsons, Aden & Jaxon, in the midst of the children.  On the second week of the advent lighting, Jaxon came up and was a little restless so I just kind of tugged at his shirt tail and pulled him down right between my legs to sit on the step just below the one I was sitting on.  With a little effort, that seemed to work pretty well.  Well, last week, Jaxon was a little slow getting to the altar.  Most of the children were already sitting on the floor.  Then, Jaxon walked right up through the middle of them and plopped himself right down on the step between my legs.  I suppose he liked the place and the attention!

   I love the lighting of the Advent Candles with the children.  It has become a very informal and informative way to help the children (and some adults) better understand the real meaning of Christmas.  On the first Sunday (the Sunday after Thanksgiving) we light the “Prophets Candle.”  I also refer to it as the candle of “Hope.”  After the last prophet (Malachi) spoke, people had no word from God for over 400 years.  All they could do was pass the word from generation to generation and wait in hope that what the prophet had said would come about.  And it did!  In the person of Jesus Christ!

   The second Sunday we light the “Bethlehem Candle” to which I also refer as the candle of “Peace”.  In a little obscure village, the Prince of Peace entered the world for the purpose of bringing peace to all who would believe in Him.  The peace about which I speak is peace with God.  Again, the only person who can give mankind that kind of peace is Jesus Christ!

   We light the “Shepherd’s Candle” on the third Sunday of Advent.  This candle represents the “Joy” that the shepherds experienced when they heard the proclamation of the angels that the Christ child had been born in the city of David.  That same joy is available to all men today in the person of Jesus Christ!

   “Love” is the theme on the fourth Sunday as we light the “Angels’ Candle”.  The angels declared the coming of the Savior into our world to save men from their sins.  They told the shepherds where they could find Him.  When the shepherd went, they found Mary and Joseph and their child lying in a feed trough.  That child was Jesus Christ!

   On Christmas Day, we will light the “Christ Candle”.  This is the candle of “Salvation”.  In the person of Jesus Christ, God was coming for the purpose of dying on a cross and be raised from the dead so that all who repent of their sin, believe in Him, and confess Him as Lord, might be saved, forgiven, and have both abundant life and eternal life!

   Hope, peace, joy, love, and salvation—those are the special words of Christmas!  And, they can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ!  Only when you know Him can you really experience Christmas!  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).   

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Bro Jack
I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)