Day 9...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

....All the World Was Waiting....

All the world was waiting for the birth of the Promised One…

The Prophets of old had long foretold that one day He would come.

Then an angel came to Mary and shared a miraculous story

Of the birth of a Son, God’s chosen one and the coming of His glory.

All the world was waiting in the darkness of that night

As angels sang, the bells they rang, flooded with brilliant lights.

For in that stable lowly, no place to lay His head,

They took a feeding manger to make his kingly bed…

While all the world was waiting.

All the world was waiting as shepherds hurried to the place

To gaze upon the Christ-Child...the Savior of the human race.

This tiny babe, the Son of God, now come to earth to dwell

God has come in human form…our Lord Emanuel.

He’d come to earth in a cattle stall birth, so hard to understand

How God’s great love, sent from above, is part of His wondrous plan.

So the question for you and I as we ask the reason why

The Son of God would come to earth just so He could die.

Yes, the reason is quite clear to see…

It’s because of His love for you and me.

So lay aside your questioning and stop your contemplating…

Accept His love this Christmas season,

While all the world is waiting.

W. Patrick Queen

December 2012

Day 8...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

If you know of someone who is serving in our military and will be away from their family this Christmas, please share this with them and their family so they will know that we are praying for their safe return....so they can be Home for Christmas!

Come Home for Christmas

It seems like many years ago that you went away

I was just a tiny tot that loved to run and play

But, Mom says that it was only about a year ago

When you were called to go to war…my, but time is slow.

I can’t believe that its time for Christmas once again

And you’re not here to celebrate with our family and friends;

To lift me on your shoulders; to place the star upon the tree;

To bounce me up and down on a bronco-buckin’ knee.

Today, we climbed into the attic with spiders, bugs and such

And Mom said I was really brave for helping out so much.

We gathered all the boxes of lights and Christmas stuff …

And my floppy-eared old hound dog that you named, “Ruff.”

Grandpop carried down the tree in that dusty old trash bag

And Mom started cleaning with her trusty dusting rag…

But, I was very quiet as I fought back all my tears

‘Cause you’re not coming home for Christmas again this year.

Now, I know that you told me that I must try hard to be brave

‘Cause there were other kids like me that you had to save;

You had to go and fight in a war where men would die....

So I promised to be brave and do my best not to cry.

Daddy, I’ve been trying to do just as you ask;

So I could kneel at my bedside with one simple task.

To pray that Jesus would keep you out of harm’s way

So He could send you home to us before Christmas Day.

Yes, I made this promise that I’m trying to keep;

That’s to pray for you every night until I fall asleep.

So I’ll obey all the grownups and do just what they say,

If Jesus will bring you back to us before Christmas Day.

I promise that I will be brave and not cry at all

If God will help my daddy and his men to stand tall;

To fight for all our freedoms and our American way

And let Daddy come home to us to celebrate Christmas day.

I won’t ask Santa for anything, even though I’ve been great,

If you’ll bring Daddy home to us not one minute late…

And so, dear God, can I make one more request of you?

Please let all the other daddies come home for Christmas, too!

W. Patrick Queen

 November 2009

Day 7...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

IT'S THE THOUGHT

When I was just a little lad I would travel to the mall;

I'd take along my piggy bank to buy gifts for one and all.

I'd look and search for the perfect gifts to give to Mom and Dad;

So they would know how great my love...I'd spend every cent I had.

~

But then one day a problem arose...the gifts had too great a cost!

I feared the worst; tears filled my eyes...my Christmas would be lost.

My Mother took me by the hand; "Now, Son, you mustn't cry,

For it's not the present that you give, but it's the reason why."

~

The reason why; what could she mean? My problem was paramount!

"It's not the gift you give my son; it's the thought that really counts."

"The thought that really counts" can't be place beneath the tree.

Did my Mom not understand what Christmas meant to me?

~

A quiet pause; a smile, a squeeze as she began to explain this thought...

It's not the tinsel nor wrappings nor the worth of what's been bought.

For we're to give at Christmas as the Father gives to us,

Out of love and selfless living without the fuming and the fuss.

~

For God so loved us all that He sent His Son to earth;

Born in a lowly stable bare of a maiden's virgin birth...

A gift so rare and so wondrous to all who receive His Love,

We're promised a life abundant and eternity above.

~

So be not worried nor have regrets of the gifts beneath your tree,

For God's greatest gift was given on a hill called Calvary.

Just thank the Father every day with a life that's pure and true

And the Spirit of each Christmas will live inside of you...

So as you make your shopping list 

and you're settling on each amount;

Just give as God has given you, 

and remember...

"It's the thought that really counts!"

W. Patrick Queen

Christmas 1995

Day 6...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

The Story of the Three Wise Men

I was but a child those many years ago

Scurrying, hurrying …running to and fro.

Yes, those years are long past and tho’

My sight grows dim

My mind still recalls our search for Him.

I packed the camels with food, full to the measure

And stored so carefully those 3 special treasures.

In our journey from the East, we would travel so far

Guided only by the sight and the light of that Star.

For I, a servant boy of the Magi Three

Began with them our journey across the desert sea;

The voyage would be arduous as we traveled so far

Serving the Magi…Gadspar, Melchior and Baltazar.

I rode behind Baltazar on his camel each day

Looking toward the eastern star guiding our way;

Night and day …through each starlit night

We followed the star and its guiding light.

We traveled for weeks across the desert sands

'Til we came to a city in a poor Judean land;

To meet with a King with one question in mind,

“Where is the King that we have come to find?”

So, he gathered together his prophets and such

And though he offered to help…he didn’t help much.

According to those who bowed down to him

The King should be found in little Bethlehem.

So leaving King Herod, we went on our way

To follow the star for about one more day.

The journey now over…the star now at rest;

We entered the house and there we were blest.

For there in the arms of a young maiden fair

This small tiny child with golden red hair;

He laughed and he giggled; he gurgled and cooed

The Magi were silent and awe struck, too.

For this small child in his mother’s loving arms

Had come to bring peace …to save us from harm.

Christ, the Messiah …heaven’s adorned king.

The Magi bowed lowly their gifts to bring.

One gave gold …so pure and so true

Just like the one that it was given for you.

Another gave myrrh, its value so rare

Just as the Savior …longing to share.

Another gave frankincense with aroma divine

As the mother smiled, her face seemed to shine;

For she held in her arms, the salvation of man

With tiny smooth feet and such delicate hands.

Hands that would someday be nailed to a cross

To save us from sin…to suffer great loss;

Hands spread as far as the east is from west

This was God's plan; for He had given His best!

So as we arose, I knew in my soul

That I should be brave; no, I should be bold …

And tell everyone what I now knew

This child came for me to make me anew.

So there I surrendered to this child once foretold

Who we honored with frankincense, myrrh and our gold;

But the gift He would cherish, the most precious by far

Is a life surrendered…that would follow His star.

To go where He leads, to share His story;

To bring Him honor, to tell of His glory;

To be led by the hands that were nailed to the tree,

To give all that I am because He died for me.

W. PATRICK QUEEN @ DECEMBER 2014

Day 5.....The 12 Days of Christmas Praise

Wrapped in Wonder

Wrapped in wonder, Heaven's joy

Come to earth as Mary's boy...

Laid in lowly manger bare

Ox and lambs are feeding there.

Child of wonder laid to rest;

By His blood mankind is blest...

This small child in Him is found

The grace of God to earth come down.

Lowly shepherds rush to see

Come with great expectancy...

Lamb of God, now among all men;

Through this babe, God is our friend.

Heavenly hosts gathered to proclaim

Peace on earth in this babe's name...

No longer let the sins of man

Hold back the love of the Father's hand.

This Child of Heaven has come to dwell

God the Son; our Emmanuel....

So let all who would, now come to ponder

Hold fast to this child...for He is

Wrapped in Wonder!!!

WPQ© Dec 2018

Day 4...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise

The Perfect Tree

High upon a lonely hill, above the town below

Wintry winds begin to swirl...the snow began to blow.

Trudging through the wintry mix, each step measured like the other;

Walking with my Mom and Dad, my two sisters and my brother.

Off on our yearly conquest to find the perfect tree,

To decorate for Christmas...in one week, it would be

A time of great excitement, of laughter and jubilation;

A special time that fills each heart with joyous celebration.

'Twas there upon that precipice, there stood a tree so small

That everyone overlooked it because it was not tall.

Its branches looked like matchsticks; its tiny, barren limbs

Barely felt the winter's cold that encircled them.

Standing like a sentry, in silence, he would guard;

 There alone to keep his watch upon this vacant yard.

My family, they marched onward; but I...I stopped to see

This tiny wisp of God’s creation…...this sparse, unproven tree.

I pleaded with my Mom and Dad, '"Let's take this little tree!

I know it doesn't look like much, but imagine the possibilities..."

A row of lights, some shiny balls; the tinsel placed just right.

It would command attention on that very special night.

For I'm sure that the shepherds and probably the Wiseman, too

Wondered about a tiny child and what he would someday do;

For He would set God's people free and fill those He met with grace...

And those who gazed on the manger's babe had seen the Father's face.

So, in each Christmas season, remember that the perfect tree

Is the one that became the Cross of Christ….

The one He bore to Calvary.

For the real story of each Christmas Season

Has special meaning for you and me….

As we celebrate God‘s unspeakable gift and remember

The Perfect Tree!

W. Patrick Queen @  Christmas 2011

Day 3...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

...Christmas Comes But Once Each Year...

Christmas comes but once a year

And though it last but a single day;

When we give with open hearts

That Christmas feeling never goes away.

So in this special season

When love and joy abounds;

Remember that the Christ-child

From Heaven did come down;

He stepped down from His Kingly throne

And in a manger He was laid;

So that on a cross at Calvary

He'd take my place one day...

To give His life a ransom;

To save us from our sins.

For we shall live forever,

If Jesus lives within.

WPQ© Dec 2016

Day Two...The 12 Days of Christmas Praise!

DECLARE THE BABE A KING

Long ago, one cold winter's night, in a small Judean town;

A Heavenly Host would gather; to Earth they would come down.

To make known to the shepherds; in one voice to sing.

"Glory to God in the Highest...Declare the Babe a King!"

A tiny babe, wrapped in dirty rags, who left His throne above

And came to earth in a lowly birth to show the Father's love.

The shepherds came from their flocks nearby, no gift did they bring;

Just their glorious "Hallelujahs" to declare the babe a King.

And on that night in a manger laid; the Gift of Heaven sent

To call a lost and dying world to atone and to repent.

So the lowest and the meekest joined the angels to sing

In praise and adoration and to declare this babe a King.

 Though the sky was dark and black, one bright star filled up the night;

Leading the three Wisemen by its ever guiding light;

And entering the stable bare, each with a gift to bring

To lay before the Christ-child and declare the babe the King.

And mother Mary holding tight to Heaven's greatest pleasure

Held in her heart each coo and cry, forevermore she'd treasure;

For she would raise Heaven's child, though heartbreak it would bring;

And in each moment shared with Him, she declared this babe the King.

And so it comes to me and you upon each Christmas season

How truly we will celebrate this high and holy reason?

Do we come with adoring hearts, our lives the gift we bring...

And in our living before our world

DECLARE THIS BABE.... OUR KING!

W. Patrick Queen

Copyright December 2015

The 12 Days of Christmas Praise Begins Today...

COME TO EARTH

Lowly in a manger lay

Come to earth in the usual way

On a cross to die one day...

JESUS CHRIST THE LORD!

Shepherds, wise men gather 'round

To see a king who has no crown

Heaven's child to earth is bound...

JESUS CHRIST THE LORD!

Angels sing upon his birth

Heaven's majesty come to earth

So that man might know his worth...

JESUS CHRIST THE LORD!

Let us sing and give Him praise
As together our voices raise

And in eternity spend our days

with

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!!!!

WPQ © DEC 2017

Do You Know My Jesus?

THERE IS NO NAME LIKE JESUS

There is no name like Jesus,

There is no name I know

That can cleanse the ungodly

And wash them white as snow.

There is no name like Jesus

That heals the sin-sick soul;

The blessed name of Jesus

Will make the sinner whole.

There is no name like Jesus

And if you will just believe;

There’s power in His precious name

His healing you will receive.

There is no name like Jesus,

A name that sets men free;

He gave His life on Calvary

To ransom you and me.

I call on my dear Savior

Who healed the blind, the lame;

And through Him I have power

When I call upon His name.

Yes, there is no name like Jesus

I pray to Him each day;

To ask Him to walk with me

And lead me on life’s way.

Oh, I trust you know my Jesus

Have you called upon His name?

For when you call upon the Son of God

You will NEVER be the same!

W. Patrick Queen

Copyright  August 2008

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING…

My wife and I woke up this morning and before rolling out of bed, I looked at the clock (around 7:30 AM) and aksed her if she remembered what she was doing 28 years ago at that time of the morning...she smiled that precious smile of hers and said, "Oh, yes, I remember every moment of that day and I always will!"

You see today, December 20th, my wife and I will celebrate the 28th birthday of our daughter, Alyson Taylor Queen…and as her mother and I took a moment to walk down memory lane this morning, I was reminded of that age-old truth…A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I remember that during those long months of expectancy, I took a simple note card and in my rudimentary calligraphy wrote the following and placed it in Alyson’s crib….

COMING SOON…..ALYSON TAYLOR QUEEN.

As a father, expecting his first (and in my case, only child), I was filled with fear, trepidation and anxious moments as I anticipated this new arrival….would I be a good father? Would I know what to do and how to protect this small child? Would I, could I and should I filled my every thought, for as I have mentioned before….A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I’m sure that was true on that first Christmas night, two thousand plus years ago, as Mary and her betrothed husband unloaded the donkey and began to make a birthing bed for Mary. They probably waited in silence, huddled together to stave off  the cold night air as they awaited the miracle of birth. The cattle stirred and the bleating sound of the sheep interrupted their thoughts of what had happened in days past ….and look where they were now…for we all know….

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING…..ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS THE SON OF GOD!!!!

And now, as another Christmas eve draws near (and 2,000 plus years later) the same is true….A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING….for that was God’s intent all along. Through His prophet Isaiah, God foretold, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

God came to us in a form and in a way that we could understand….He came as a baby and through His birth, His life, His death and His glorious resurrection, HE HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING. No longer does the notion that God is mad at us hold water...that He is hell bent on our destruction because of our sin and disobedience….He has shown His great love for each of us because He sent His son…His only Son to take our place; to pay our debt; to forgive our sins; to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; to make us a new creation; to give us eternal life as a free gift from Him….and it all started with a baby.

It is my hope that you know the Christ-child of Christmas not only as the babe in the manger, but as the Christ on the cross. I pray that the babe of Bethlehem lives in your heart and is the Lord and Savior of your life. I trust that for you this baby, God’s son, is the BABY THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING FOR YOU.

If not, why not?

Don’t let another day go by without the acknowledgement that you need a savior. Accept today that the baby born to Mary and Joseph so very long ago is the baby that changes everything …and if you are willing to confess that He is Lord and that His death on the cross paid your sin debt, you will have eternal life… and your forever life, in the presence of the Heavenly Father, starts the moment you invite this baby into your heart.

Trust your heart to the babe, God’s Son, EMMANUEL….GOD IS WITH US!

Be Blessed and Know that He is God,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

Born that night in a cattle stall,

This one babe to die for all...

God's most precious gift was born

In a manger laid on Christmas morn.

Shepherds and Angels announced His birth

Glory to God...Peace on the Earth.

And with the Wisemen let us bring

Our precious gifts to Christ the King.

In each heart may the Savior's reign

Fill the skies and the lowest plains;

With our praise and everlasting joy

And all because of Mary's baby boy.

W. Patrick Queen @ December 2015

The Man and the Birds...A Christmas Story

This is a reprint of a former post....Please share!

Each year at Christmas, I eagerly search across my radio dial trying to find the story of the Man and the Birds, as told my Paul Harvey. I find that in listening to that story, I am so wonderfully reminded of the love of God for each of us. On many occasions, I have been forced to pull off on the side of the road to listen to the conclusion of the story…it’s so hard to drive when your eyes are water-logged and leaking.

I hope and pray that during this Christmas season, you will have the wonderful opportunity to hear Mr. Harvey’s captivating telling of this timeless story…of Emmanuel, God with us. If not, then please read on and be forever blessed to know that the love of God was expressed…in human form…in a manager in Bethlehem…in a baby named JESUS.

The Man and the Birds by Paul Harvey:

The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge; he was a kind decent, mostly good man. He was generous to his family and always upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound...Then another, and then another.  Sort of a thump or a thud...At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them...He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms...Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me...That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them… But how?....since any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. As he stood there listening to the bells ….listening to the bells pealing forth the glad tidings of Christmas, he understood …. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

I trust that this Christmas, when you hear those church bells ring or the sounds of carolers lifting their voices in praise to the newborn babe, you too, will understand the message of Christmas….Jesus Christ is born and God is forever with us!

Merry Christmas….Happy Birthday, Jesus!

WPQ

Poem for the day...

On that starry Christmas night

Many centuries ago....

The King of Heaven left His throne

And came to earth below.

Not as a ruler or mighty king

but as a simple child;

Born of God and woman

This babe so meek and mild.

And in lowly cattle stall

In a manger filled with hay

The God of all creation

In a feeding trough did lay.

For one day he'd lay down His life

So our sin debt would be forgiven.

This precious babe of Christmas

Was the greatest gift that was ever given!

WPQ © Dec 2017

A Time to Shine....

This is a reprint of a former post.....

I grew up in Charlotte, near a small mill town lovingly known as Christmas Town, USA. It gained its name due to its Christmas tradition of lighting each home and the entire mill village in thousands and tens of thousands of Christmas lights.

Each Christmas season, over a million viewers would climb in their cars, vans, SUVs’ and church buses and make the drive south on I85 to the McAdenville Exit to make the 2 mile trek though this quiet hamlet. In fact, I have seen times when the cars were backed up in the exit and emergency lanes, bumper to bumper, for over three miles down the interstate…why all this commotion year after year to make a trip to this small town at Christmas?

Everyone was drawn to the LIGHTS….to the sheer magnitude of the beauty of millions of brightly shining lights, adorning each home; the tiny mill and the trees around the small pond and all the other buildings of this small, quaint mill town.

But why did the people of McAdenville go to such trouble each and every Christmas season to do the work, spend the money on decorations and electricity and have the town invaded by millions of outsiders?

I believe they understood the scripture in Matthew 5: 14-16 that reads, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a candle and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

This is the season for us to shine …to give light and warmth, love and encouragement to all those we encounter …to tell others that the light of the world has come …the Babe of Bethlehem….Jesus.

It is in this season, above all others, that our hearts should be filled with charity for those less fortunate than us. Our pocketbooks and our wallets should naturally fall open as we look for ways to bring “light” to those who are in the midst of “darkness”…the loss of a job; mourning for a dear loved one who has passed away; the onset of unforeseen misfortune or mounting bills; empty tables and empty cupboards…and the list goes on.

You can be that “light” today if you will only open your eyes and then, open your heart and your hand to those who need help. There are many that are hurting in our communities, churches and company cultures that will never say a word or let anyone know the circumstances in which they find themselves…but God knows and He is just waiting for a willing heart and an open hand to meet their needs. Ask God to help you find someone who needs your help and then get ready for action. He will provide …both the need and the means to meet that need.

Today, let your light shine so that He will receive the glory….you can and must be the light of the Savior in the world today…He has no one but you….will you let Him be glorified in you….it’s time to shine for Jesus!

Glorifying the Father ….Shining brightly to light my world,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

Lord, make my life a guiding light

So that my neighbors might see.

May they be lead to seek your face

Because of what they’ve seen in me.

May this be the season of open hearts

May our wallets be open too;

So that those in need will have all they need

Because they choose to trust in you!

For on that night, that wondrous night

When Heaven to earth came down;

As shepherds bowed in worship

And your Glory shone all around...

O' may we bow as those that night;

Our hearts filled with grace and love...

To share with everyone we meet

The Christ child sent from above!

WPQ © December 2018