Just before Christmas (2024), I was reading John 1. What John wrote of God's Son coming into the world, inspired a song about Light shining the darkness and the Word becoming flesh so he could dwell among us. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on John 1 and the "live" recording of the song, "God Is With Us (Immanuel)".

God is With Us (Immanuel)

Verse 1:
The heavens are shouting, the gift of the Son!
The True Light that gives light to everyone!
The Light is the Life by which death is undone!
The curse is now ended, rejoice in the Son!

Chorus 1:
God is with us! Immanuel!
God is with us! The Light has come!
God is with us! Immanuel!
Light shines in darkness and death is undone!
Light shines in darkness; the Light is the Son!

Verse 2:
The Word became flesh and he dwelt among us!
Taking our form, he was made of the dust!
He gave up his Life so that God who is just
Could give life eternal to all who would trust!

Chorus 2:
God is with us! Immanuel!
God is with us! The Word has come!
God is with us! Immanuel!
The Word speaks in power; the victory’s won!
Death is defeated! Our life’s with the Son!

Bridge:
True Light of true light; the Light of the world!
Jesus, Messiah; God’s glory unfurled!

©2024 Mike Neifert

The beginning of a new anything is a great time to reflect on the past and get going on what's ahead. It's true in sports and in life and in faith.

I've seen two holiday films - "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and "Red One" - recently. The messages of the two are very different. "Red One" suggests a Christmas which can be lost. The "pageant" film pointed to the redemption which can come to even the worst of lost ones when they encounter Jesus.

Jesus humbled himself and became a man. (A baby first, of course!) With the celebration of his arrival on earth in human likeness, I thought I'd share (again) a couple of Christmas songs I wrote a year or two or three ago. My hope is that they will encourage worship!

How would you finish this sentence?

"You can't have Christmas without..."

I asked some middle schoolers to fill in this blank and got all kinds of answers. A few got the right answer. Did you?

Inspired by Tom Whitwell - I'll tell you about him - I offer you a list of things - some silly and some not - I learned this year. Since I didn't take notes throughout the year, some of these things might have been learned in another year. I just know I learned them fairly recently.

What do you as a believer need to do in order to gain wisdom? What can you do to double check what you want against what God wants?

What are you most thankful for today? I posed this question to a cafeteria full of middle school students the other day. How would you answer? See how your response compares with theirs.