Sunday December 23

Study Guide
12 days of Christmas

Christmas Day is the first day of Christmas (you know, with the partridge in the pear tree.) The Study guide for the next two weeks will guide us through these days.

Monday, Christmas Eve: Read Psalm 96 as a song of joy.
As you prepare for the celebration of the arrival of Christ what are you able to give thanks to God for this day?

Tuesday, Christmas Day: Read Luke 2:1-20
Remember that the shepherds were not well respected by society. God’s messenger does not go to the homes of the rich and powerful, but to the meek and the outcast. God’s word often comes from unexpected sources if we listen. Listen carefully this day for God’s word to you.

Wednesday, the 2nd Day of Christmas: Read 2nd Corinthians 5:16-21
Paul proclaims that anyone who knows Christ is a new creation and that we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. On this second day of Christmas in what way can you continue to grow as God’s new creation?

Thursday, the 3rd Day of Christmas: Read John 3:1-10
This is an amusing account of Jesus talking with Nicodemus as they seemingly are talking from two different worlds. Nicodemus just doesn’t get it, he is thinking of literal things, Jesus is talking about spiritual things. Do you get it? How is Jesus helping you to be born again?

Friday, the 4th day of Christmas: Read Ephesians 1:3-14
Paul begins his letter to the church in Ephesus proclaiming they are children of God, and God has given them a great gift, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This gift is your inheritance, no one can take if from you, you can’t exchange it. You can return this gift in praising God and offering your worship. You can re-gift it and share God’s grace with other people in your life.

Saturday, the 5th day of Christmas: Read Colossians 1:15-23
Paul proclaims again that Jesus has reconciled us into a relationship with God and with that act of reconciliation, Christ is the head of the church. Are you ready for a fuller relationship with Christ this year?

Sunday, the 6th day of Christmas: Worship at LUMC 10:00 A.M.
Wesleyan Covenant Service. This traditional Methodist service offers an opportunity for prayer and a reaffirmation of our faith in Christ. It is a prayer of surrender to God’s will, fully placing our trust and our life with God. The founder of Methodism John Wesley used this prayer as a prayer for beginning a new year.

The Covenant Prayer:
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Creator, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.