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2012 Bible Reading Plans

I am a firm believer in exposing my life to God’s Word on a daily basis. I believe that the benefits gained far exceed the cost of time and effort put into this discipline. When God has the opportunity to speak into our lives daily through his Word, we start to think more like Christ, act more like Christ, and see and treat others more like Christ would treat them.

Spending time in God’s Word daily is live-giving.

It’s spiritually healthy.

It’s incredible.

It’s essential.

Bible Reading Plan

This is a topic I’m not silent about. This is something I encourage the teens in our youth ministry about every week. I talk about it at home. I talk about it with friends and family. I believe it’s crucial.

In the past, I’ve written about the importance of daily Bible reading. I’ve compiled a list of tips to help you become more consistent in your Bible reading. I’ve shared some of my methods on getting the most out of your Bible reading. I’ve passed on information about how to keep your Bible reading from getting boring.  I’ve spent the entire year memorizing the Sermon on the Mount.

I’ve shared several great tools for this right here on JeffRandleman.com

And I have another one I’d like to share.

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Our Tradition: A Birthday Cake For Jesus

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

Since Christmas is the day we celebrate Jesus’ birth, it’s only appropriate that we celebrate with a cake.

The Gifts Of Christmas

Every year, we bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Sometimes it’s a simple sheet cake with frosting and candles. Other times, it’s been a cheesecake, or something more elaborate.

After we read the birth narrative and open presents, we relax for the afternoon. Well, the kids and I do. Heather is busy preparing Christmas dinner. This year, she will have the help of not only our older children, but also the assistance of my mother, who moved to our town this year.

One of the things we’ll be preparing is the birthday cake. And after we eat dinner, we will light the candles and sing Happy Birthday to the King of Kings.

Seems kind of fitting.

But we might need to stop adding another candle every year…

Do you celebrate Jesus’ birthday as a birthday as well as more traditional Christmas celebrations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Our Tradition: Reading The Birth Narrative

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

One of our Christmas Day traditions is the reading of the birth narrative.

The Gifts Of Christmas

In my imagination, this is a serene setting, the tree aglow, all the children sitting quietly as I read the story of Christ’s birth from Matthew and Luke from my study Bible.

In reality, the scene isn’t so tranquil.

Our kids range in age from 12 years to 12 months old. And we have five of them. You can imagine how hectic our Christmas morning can be.

Here’s a glimpse of our typical Christmas.

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The Gift Of Life

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

As we start to wrap up the Gifts of the Holidays series, I want to take a look at one final gift: the gift of life.

The Gifts of Christmas

There are lots of things that remind me of the gift of life, all year long:

  • Flowers blooming in the spring.
  • Caterpillars turning into butterflies.
  • Robins singing.
  • Baby chickens at Easter.

But nothing speaks of new life like a newborn baby.

Can you imagine the noises in that stable, as Mary and Joseph watched their newborn child? The crying, fussing infant squirming and wriggling as he adjusted to life outside of the womb. The slight smacking sound of suckling. The hushed exclamations of wonder and awe as two new parents looked into the face of their new child, knowing that they looked into the face of God.

How amazing that must have been!

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The Gift Of Love

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

Perhaps one of the most significant gifts of Christmas is the gift of love.

The Gifts of Christmas

God is love. John 4:8-12 give us a great explanation of love:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Love came into our world from Heaven.

Love entered humanity as a baby.

Love became one of us that night in Bethlehem.

Love saved us from ourselves, from our sin.

We most often think of love at weddings, or on Valentine’s Day.

But perhaps we need to take a deeper look at the concept of love.

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Our Tradition: Christmas Eve Candle Light Service

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

My family has a tradition that I’d never heard of when I was a kid: Christmas Eve services.

The Gifts of Christmas

I first heard of this idea when I started my first youth ministry in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. We had a candle light and communion service on Christmas Eve. It was a completely new idea for me.

Here’s the basic concept: On Christmas Eve, churches gather for a special service, incorporating Christmas carols, candles, and communion. It’s brief, but very special.

As a kid, I’d never even heard of this. My family always spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family. If my church had one of these services, I never knew about it.

But now, it has become a very special part of our celebration.

I love the time it gives for my family to remember specifically the sacrifice that the baby in the manger came to be. It brings it home for us.