We have so much to be thankful for. I’m not saying that just because the day for our focus of thankfulness has recently past.
Every day is a beautiful blessing from God.
November of 2023 was full of such days.
We hope you enjoyed November as much as we did. It seems that we bombarded you with Thanksgivng articles!
Did you enjoy mixing the new ones with the old ones? We like to keep our old traditions going along with all of the new thoughts and ideas.
If you missed any of the Thanksgiving articles and wish to keep them in your scrapbook for next year’s thoughts and ideas; they are captured in the links below.
THANKSGIVING ARTICLES IN NOVEMBER 2023
We enjoyed a housefull of family members for Thanksgiving this year. Our little place was bursting at the seams, but it was with happy, active and joyful people.
I’ve scattered a few posts here and there to share our adventures with our readers. One tradition we have always enjoyed at Thanksgiving is to take a long walk out in the beauty of nature.
We took our fall walk in a new place this year, a local park a few miles away. This one was interactive with things for the kids to learn at each turn (adults too.) It was a quite and beautiful place. I have to admit this old grandma did not hike as far as the younger ones, but I did enjoy the scenery.
THANKSGIVING ARTICLES – FROM OUR “SEASONS” TOPICS
COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY – NOVEMBER 2023
Our study of the Judges of Israel found in our bibles in The Book of Judges continued through November. Here is a capsulation of the lessons we covered for the month:
SEASONS ARTICLES FOR NOVEMBER 2023
MONDAY NIGHT MENUS IN NOVEMBER 2023
DECEMBER IS HERE!
December has just arrived on our doorstep. This month is full of holiday joy and excitement for most of us.
This December (as usual) I think our readers are still trying to figure out why and exactly how this blogging community has chosen to celebrate Christmas.
Does it seem odd to you?
The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s way of celebrating the Christmas Season is probably different from any other group you have ever encountered. We aren’t trying to be different, we are simply trying to correctly interpret biblical truths.
Most Christians who keep a Saturday Sabbath and faithfully observe the Annual Holy Days of God, who also believe that Jesus was born in the Fall of the Year; don’t do Christmas. A few groups do Hanukkah.
Here we celebrate Christmas and a Christian Hanukkah because: if you start counting the months from late late-December to early-January and go forward nine months (the amount of months for a baby to be born) – you come to late-September to early-October; the time that we think Christ was born.
That count shows us that Jesus would have been CONCEIVED (placed inside Mary’s womb) at some point in late December. Thus; we celebrate Christmas as The Conception of Christ. To us it isn’t about His birth (we celebrated that in September/October.) It is about His first-coming to exist with mankind on earth. That makes it about ALL of our births; because it is because He came to earth that we are able to be “born-again.”
That means that Jesus actually came to BE alive with us (though alive inside of Mary’s womb) in late December.
CHRIST WITH US!
EMMANUEL!!!
That is the message that this lifestyle promotes and celebrates at Christmas. Why would you NOT celebrate such a major miracle?
I KNOW baby Jesus wasn’t actually breathing earthly air until early Fall, but in the deepest darkest moments of mankinds annual times; God came to live among us in the form of a fetus growing inside the womb of a woman named Mary. We believe in life from the moment of conception. What a risk Jesus took coming into our world as an unborn child. Definitely a perfect reason to think pro-life in this group’s opinion.
Also, this is definitely something wonderful and amazing to celebrate each winter. The most profound miracle to ever happen! A virgin is going to give birth to the Son of God.
Because this Conception happened in the darkest part of the year, and because of the fact that the conception of Christ was a type of hidden miracle for a long time; we align our wonder with the messages and miracles of Hanukkah. Through Jesus light came into the darkness. Jesus Christ coming to live among men fulfilled the promises symbolized by that first amazing Hanukkah.
When we who seek truth put all of these peieces of the puzzle together; for once they match!
Now; in December the small tiny baby inside Mary’s womb begins to grow into the miracle that becomes The Light of the World.
Jesus Is The Light of the World.
That is what I celebrate at Christmas. Many from The IN SEASON Lifestyle Community have come to see and celebrate the same.
People are always offended when you mess with their traditions. Jesus could say the same. This happened to Him often. People did not always understand the truth He was trying to reveal to them. I feel no remorse or guilt in acknowledging the beautiful truth of the most-perfect story of God.
If I see a manger scene or a creche decorating a room, my mind thinks of the fact that it represents a child born in late September, early October. My thoughts reckon to the fact that the baby boy would have been three months old by December (or not born yet – depending on the year you are thinking about.) I love celebrating those amazing and heart-warming stories of His birth in September; but I also love remembering that He was a young child too. I’m thinking of that fact often whenever we arrive at December.
Jesus had to grow and develop just like we do. Isn’t it amazing that God wanted to go through the same process of physical growth and development that He created for us?
He wanted to know what it was like to live out life as a human-being. Part of Him (God) came to earth in the form of Jesus to be like us. The only difference was that He managed not to sin.
I celebrate that growing time of the little child who would grow up to save the world as I ponder His time of conception. As others celebrate Advent, I think of Mary waiting on his birth. She went through so much. God was always with her. It was an Advent time of waiting, hope, love and then Christ appeared to prove God’s promises.
Like the rest of the world, I’m waiting and wondering if those wise men are ever going to find this Christ child. Thus; I also celebrate Epiphany as it come later, after Christmas has past, (some believe years after Christ’s birth) on January 6th.
At Christmas, as well as celebrating the growing time of the Child Jesus, I also celebrate that nine months after the Annunciation and immediately after the Conception of Christ while He was forming and growing inside Mary’s womb. God was preparing His Son to meet and greet His own creation. This too was a growing time for all; both God and mankind. It was an amazing miracle; just like the story of Hanuakkah.
I hope that clears up my intentions whenever you see the Christmas celebrations on the blog post in December.
One of the main things I wanted to portray with the blogging of The IN SEASON Lifestyle is truth. Our chosen verse for the mission of this blog is 2 Timothy 4:2. It speaks of boldly promoting the truth of the Gospel. In continuation of that verse is 2 Timothy 4:3-5. These verses give us the words of Jesus who once said:
3 For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. 4 They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.
5 Stand steady, and don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Bring others to Christ. Leave nothing undone that you ought to do.
Many years ago Jesus was telling/warning us that we would come to a place in our walk of faith that required complete and accurate truth. I believe now is the time.
We must learn to worship in truth.
Worshiping in truth will help us to live our lives in truth.
Sometimes that truth isn’t very plain or clear to us. In those moments we must do the best that we can, keeping all things based upon what we DO know.
However; when we DO KNOW truth; I believe it is God’s will for us to follow it with all of our hearts.
Well what about Santa Clause? That question always follows. I tire of explaining; because of its irrelevance compared to the glory of God revealed to mankind; but God is teaching me patience.
Surely I realize, know and understand that certain people of the world have twisted and used this Santa Clause thing to the point of evil and social distruction. There are a million and one horror stories to prove the point. That is definitely true.
Much of the concepts of materialism and worldly values have come from this old fairy tale made famous by a well-known newspaper less than one hundred years ago. I won’t mention the rest of the facts, that many pagan beliefs and celebrations have made the truth of Christmas into perversions.
It is sad; but true. We acknowledge the failure of most of humanity to be completely truthful with sacred things.
I have resolved that fact in my own practices too. I’ve asked for God’s guidance as I have spent over 50 years searching out the facts of many things in life in order to know the truth.
The truth is that there was a REAL man named St. Nicholas. He was the Bishop of Myra. He inherited much wealth from his disceased parents. As he grew into a man he made it his goal in life to give that wealth away to children in need.
St. Nicholas is a TRUE story that I can heartily celebrate. I definitely admire a man who did good for the world with an unselfish and giving heart.
So; I tell my grandchildren the story of St. Nicholas. We remember his story among other heroes and saints that have done good and gone before us. They are wonderful examples to others.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating the lives of those who have done good to others. I strongly try to avoid the commercialism and the un-truths that go along with this story of a man that lived long ago. The ways of the world will creep in if you let them. They will change things. I definitely try to avoid letting that happen.
It is all about truth.
The truth will set you free.
So when you see the Christmas posts for December; you now know where I am coming from with all of them. If you have read many of the articles of the past; you may have already picked up on these facts.
Christmas is a wonderful time when you learn to celebrate the Truth in light of The Light of the World.
One day Jesus will come again. He will correct all of our un-truths and set us straight. I will be listening to Him then, just as I listen to Him now. Whatever he tells me to correct and change – I will do.
If the truth of God is not right – nothing else in the world will be right either.
Everyone seems to have one truth right – it IS all about Jesus. I’m hoping that fact alone brings the mercy of God upon His people’s true intentions.
All of that to say that our readers can look forward to many Christmas as well as Hanukkah articles this December. We always get excited about this season and love the celebrations of our truths.
Christmas and Hanukkah as Christians will be our main focus for the upcoming month. We will have several more articles about truth and light to go along with them.
PUT OUR BOOKS ON YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST
If you are enjoying the writings we bring to this blog daily, may we make a great suggestion for some of your Christmas gifts this year?
The author has written TWO books as a result of our studies from The Book of Genesis. They are called THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS BOOK ONE and THE GOSPEL HIDDEN IN GENESIS BOOK TWO.
Book One seems to get all of the attention!
Book Two is just as wonderful and a whole lot less expensive.
Many people read Book One and don’t realize they need to purchase Book Two in order to make their set complete. Each book contains one-half of the commentary from The Book of Genesis.
Book two is the second half of our writings on The Book of Genesis. It takes place in the time just after the death of Sarah. We tell the stories of Eliezer going to Abraham’s homeland to seek a wife for Isaac. We meet Rebecca and hear of their wedding. The book takes you through the birth and younger years of Jacob and Esau, Isaac’s twin sons.
Then, the next love story of Jacob and Rachel is revealed. There are many very interesting and revealing stories of the days that Jacob and Rachel lived in debt to Laban, Rachel’s greedy and plotting father. Learn how Jacob learned to pursue his first-love, face his past, and come back into the land of his heritage.
You can read of how Jacob’s twelve sons were born and came to be the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. We walk you through the heart-wretching reconciliation of the two brothers named Jacob and Esau.
The family history continues in story form through the death of Jacob (now called Israel) which happened right after blessing Joseph and his two sons, Ephriam and Manesseth.
Included are the compelling stories about the amazing life of Joseph in Egypt. We learn so much from his time there. Joseph finally brings the family of Israel into Egypt and the Pharaoh accepts them because of Joseph’s good deeds and honorable life.
Life in Egypt was good in the land of Goshen for many years, then a new Pharaoh comes to reign in the land. Hear about how this culminated in Old Testament times from this story-telling book.
There is so much more of Genesis to experience in Book Two of The Gospel Hidden in Genesis. This book is filled with facts you may never hear elsewhere. There is wonder, adventures and surprises around every corner.
Both books are now being sold on Amazon.com. Right now they are available for terrificly low prices. You can get two books for the price of one. However; they must be ordered separately. Check out the links below if you are interested in using these two book as that perfect set for a Christmas gift for someone who has everything. I promise you they have never had this version of The Book of Genesis. It is different because the telling is in simple layman’s language, yet highly revealing where others leave out many interesting facts that we find by looking with Hebraic hearted eyes.
If you haven’t read both books yet; you need to get caught up. The Book from our Exodus Study is coming up soon. You need to finish the Genesis study first.
I’m extreemly excited about our upcoming edition called Exodus to Freedom. It is full of eye-opening suggestions on how to keep living in physical freedom as a nation while strengthening spiritual freedom as the church.
Small groups are going to love how this book is useful for study groups and discussions. We cover seven areas that we think God is requiring of the church today. All of these can be accomplished through what we are learning from studying The Book of Exodus.
There will be more information about this new book soon. It would be perfect for a spring (before Passover) bible study.
THE HOUSE DOCTOR – DECEMBER 2023
Like a lot of our favorite writers, The IN SEASON Lifestyle Blog has so many years of THE HOUSE DOCTOR articles that speak of the seasons of life.
We will repost many of the Christmas decorating articles again this December. It is fun to look back. Some holidays are timeless and classic. Any of our themes could still apply today.
Perhaps there will be a new theme for this year to add to all of these older ones. The thoughts are already forming. I think we will do a red and green old-fashioned Christmas this year; so we will be adding that theme to our list of Christmas’s-past decorating and cooking themes.
OTHER TOPICS FOR DECEMBER COMING
You know we will be bringing more seasonal festive foods, both new recipes and menus as well as old ones too. We will add these articles to the MONDAY NIGHT MENUS topics of December.
Also, as we always do at the end of every December; we will ponder all of those “glorious impossibles.” Have you been looking for them?
Keep watching and reading.
Pray for our country and pray for the peace of Israel.
We love you each and every one!
Gail Landgraf/Editor/Blogger/Writer/Publisher – The IN SEASON Lifestyle