Friday, December 8, 2017

Miracles at Hanukkah and Christmas: God Winks and God Whispers

I asked the Lord for Godwinks this Christmas season.

One morning this week, I was praying at home, and my husband was on a prayer walk during his lunch hour at work, praying for me. Later my husband texted me to say that at that moment, a car drove by him with the window down playing a song that my husband and I heard for the first time just about a week prior, and had declared it was "our song." God winked at us.

During another difficult day this week, an alumna of ours entered our office at just the right time, bringing two cases of sweet potato pie, one of my family's favorites. After work, I was walking tiredly from my office to my car. A wise, old gentleman offered to carry my heavy case of sweet potato pies. In a brief moment, we realized he had been an interim pastor at my home church. God winked at me.


During my preschooler's Christmas program, most of the kids were either all over the place or as still as statues. It was a bit difficult for my son to do the hand motions in his star costume. But with the brief wink of a camera shutter, I captured just the right expression on my busy preschooler's shiny star face.




Sometimes we have to look for the miracles in the midst of the busiest and biggest and best and merriest (or the quietest and smallest and worst and gloomiest) of Christmases. Do you see the miracle of the first Christmas in the photo below?



God moments are all around us. Let us look for them this Christmas. And/or, as in this Hanukkah video.

For more on Godwinks, see the Godwinks author and a mom who watched her child's Christ mas Love program turn into a Christ was Love program here.


Or the widower who was blessed by his wife's voice at Christmas here.


~~As I watched the videos linked above, I was craving some chocolate-covered popcorn for that movie time simulation. Would you know a couple gals brought me some chocolate-covered popcorn?~~


Don't forget that you can also be a part of working with God as an extension of His grace in creating a Godwink or miracle for someone else! Look for opportunities to do this too!


Friday, December 1, 2017

What's Hanukkah Have to Do With It?


Will your lamp stay lit? When persecution comes, will you have enough of the oil of the Holy Spirit to sustain you? Olive oil, a symbol of the presence of the Holy Spirit, was used to light the menorah in the Temple. God is the center "Vine" and we are the "branches." He is the miracle worker who can keep our "lamps" burning. He multiplied the oil and kept oil and bushes and people from being consumed in the fire multiple times in the Bible. In I Kings 17:14, Elijah told the widow, "The jug of oil will not run dry."


The menorah is lit each evening during Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the Feast of Dedication mentioned in John 10:22 amidst Jesus' conversation with His sheep about recognizing His voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd, as Moses did in the burning bush. Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple after Antiochus had desecrated it by sacrificing a pig on the altar. This foreshadows the abomination that causes desolation of the Temple site by the Antichrist.

How to Keep Your Lamp Lit - Click Here


Matthew 25:1-13New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

How to Keep Your Lamp Lit - Click Here

More on Hanukkah - Click here