Merry Christmas

Here's Merry Christmas from the 'Round the Chuckbox family ...

I'm sitting in my mother-in-law's easy chair, watching Fox News, checking in on my favorite blogs. Until a minute ago, my granddaughter and I were the only ones up.

As with Thanksgiving, someone else will take center stage in the kitchen today. This afternoon my sister will host Christmas dinner in her Bay Area home. We'll enjoy the fellowship of my mother and family, including all our grandchildren.

I set a sponge for Dutch oven French bread last night. I'll form the dough sometime this later morning and bake the bread for dinner. I'm using the recipe that I posted last week.

As we prepare for the day's activities, please take a minute to reflect on the true meaning of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite scriptures brings a message of humility to Christians. It comes from Paul's Epistle to the Phillipians, which he wrote from a jail cell in Rome.

The apostle Paul admonishes the Philippians to display the same attitude as Christ Jesus. As we live our lives, Jesus' example of humility (He "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men") and obedience (He "became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross") should always be on our mind.

With that in mind, here's the passage:

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11).