MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sometimes it does not feel like we should celebrate Christmas. There is the stress of the season. Youre struggling to maintain composure, to put on a happy face. You read in the news about senseless killings and your heart sinks further. But it is precisely at that moment that you need to celebrate. Christmas has never been about gifts and Black Fridays; it has always been about the time when Hope entered the world. That hope remains to this day. I spoke at Ahtanum Pioneer Church in Yakima, Washington. I had prepared three sermons and could not decide on which one to preach. I had planned to talk about forgiveness from Mark 2, then because it was close to Christmas i changed my mind and planned to talk about the predicted truth of Christ from Matthew 1. Then because I was preaching following the insanity in Newtown, Connecticut, I changed my mind again and was planning to talk about suffering from Gods perspective from Romans 5. On the way to Yakima we had the news on and the story was about the tragedy. He reported on many things and at the end of his story he reported on how one church was going ahead with its living nativity. They were doing it because in the midst of the tragedy they had to celebrate Christmas. I instantly knew what God wanted me to share. I shared about the promised and predicted and certain Messiah who has come to be the Saviour of the world. The one whom we would see and declare to be Immanuel -- God with us. Declare him today and rejoice: Christ the Saviour is born! As you can tell from the photo some of the Webb family ran the Portland Marathon in October and survived. As crazy as it seems we are planning to do it again with more Webbs joining us. As usual we celebrate Christmas weird. Aaron was home on leave for Thanksgiving so we kind-of celebrated Christmas then. Our grandsons in Stanfield will be with us on Christmas so we will celebrate Christmas on Christmas. Daniel, Alyssa and Jayden will be here after Christmas so we will celebrate Christmas then too. Kind-of fun if you think about it. Thank you all for your ongoing support. There have been many times when I knew you were praying. Thank you for giving. God has done great things through your support. Many lives were reached with the gospel and many lives were changed including mine. We look forward amidst all that is going on for another year to serve a risen Saviour. Thanks again you mean so much to us.

InFaith Home Offic

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Jim & Chris Webb / 150 NE 9th Street / Hermiston, OR 97838 / 541-377-1351 jwinfaith@gmail.com