How did the legend of Saint Nicholas begin? What is the history behind it? Today we delve into the historical beginnings of this part of Christmas culture.

What child is this? He’s God (deity); man (humanity); king (royalty). He’s messiah, redeemer, savior, healer, deliverer, provider, protector, cloud by day, fire by night, fourth man in the fiery furnace, the one Herod couldn’t kill, the grave couldn’t hold, the creator and upholder of all things, always was, is and will always be, he Jesus, Emmanuel and God with us!

God knew that by loving us unconditionally, many would respond to His love, love Him back, and be motivated to love others "even as" He loved us. He’s now resting in the finished work of His love and rejoicing over every person who responds to His great love.

We were slaves to sin; we could not redeem ourselves; silver and gold could not redeem us. The Blood of Jesus was the price of our redemption. Now that we know our value and worth, we are to place the same value and worth on others and love them as Christ loved us.

Confidence toward God grows as we focus on who God is and who He says we are. By doing so, we silence every voice that would have us get our eyes on ourselves and off of Christ, who is our life. God is always for us, will always help us, and is no respecter of persons.

Training our hearts to be thankful does many good things. It gives God all the glory. It protects us from letting our lives be defined by what we don’t have. It reminds us of our need to stay humble and dependent on God.

In order to develop thankfulness, we must submit our thinking to God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to transform how we think about the challenges we experience in life.

Thankfulness can change our lives and help us navigate through the difficulties we face. God wants us to rejoice, pray and give thanks so His glory can flow through our lives and bless others.

Today’s church is not to be as the shorn Samson - powerless, blind and grinding at the mill of the enemy; but powerful, enlightened and laboring for God to bring in the last days harvest and return of our Lord.

The same Power that shook the place where they were in the book of Acts is still available to us today. If we desire to shake our world for Jesus as they did, we must go back to the basics of PRAYER, PASSION, and PROCLAMATION!