Take a look at Holly’s new Christmas letter. She has included some thoughts and a couple Christmas essays. Send her a note and let her know what you think. You can e-mail her at ken@kenpierpont.com Put HOLLY in the subject line. Thanks!
“–Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:9-10
~ The Manger Scene
Once again it is come around to the “most wonderful time of the year”.
I love it. It sure did come upon me fast this year. Things have been changing in my life lately so quickly. I have really been enjoying my ‘new’ life, though I do miss my forever friends in Fremont.
Here in Flint is such an exciting place I feel so privileged to be a part of this awesome ministry so very much used in my parent’s life and as a result also used in mine. God has such mighty ways of using and preparing His children and guiding them.
Lately I have been in the “Christmas Spirit”. Last Monday on the 25th we started decorating the Inn for Christmas! It was so neat. We turned on the CD “Good Christian Men Rejoice” from the Alert Men and started putting up lots of pretty white lights. I was to start decorating a certain tree about 20ft.high. It was beautiful. We had to have guys help with the top of the tree stringing the lights. The girls did the lights on the bottom. Then we decorated it with poinsettia’s, red ribbons and pretty bulbs of gold, silver, red and mulberry. Finally, we placed a big red bow at the very top.
Some girls in the kitchen brought out some eggnog and cookies for a snack J We had lots of fun. You should see the lobby now. It looks beautiful. With all the lights and decorations.
Mom also decorated the gift shop and put up the front window display it looks so pretty. It is a nativity tea set. The teacups are wise men the cookie jar is the manger scene and the teapot is a shepherd.
I love the Manger Scene. To think of the wonderful thing that happened on that night. God was making a way, building the bridge over the gap that separated us from Himself. To think that He would care that much when He had no reason to is simply amazing to me. So in that beautiful manger bed that cows had just earlier eaten from was love, grace, forgiveness and hope for a whole world of dying people. That is what I call perfect love.
Last year I heard a song on the radio while I was driving. I think the song was called “One Tiny Baby”. The message was about sweet Baby Jesus and His precious little hands. Have you ever looked at the hands of a baby? How sweet they are. The finger nails so tiny. Imagine one day mean and hateful soldiers running nails through them. Imagine that sweet head of the Holy Baby Jesus. A baby’s head smells so sweet and innocent, it feels so soft. One day they would crush thorns on that head till blood ran down in His eyes. That infant face with small brown eyes- one day cruel men would spit on it in hateful disrespect.
When I heard that song, tears clouded my vision and I couldn’t see to drive.
If you hear that ‘One Tiny Baby’ song I hope you listen closely to the words.
When He came it wasn’t for Himself. He came to be the Sacrifice we all desperately needed. He came to be an example of how to live. He came, so He could die.
-Holly Allene Pierpont
~ What Can You Give Him?
I remember one Christmas when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Dad pastored a church. It was in the gentle country of Ohio. I was to sing for the Christmas program that year. We had luminaries lining the walk and snow was on the ground. It was our yearly candlelight service that night. That had come to mean so much to me. The wind was blowing and it was cold. Snow was falling outside. Everyone gathered in the warm little church and found a spot to sit down for the Christmas program that year. I remember getting up when it was my turn to sing and sung:
What can I give Him?
What can I give Him poor as I am
If I were a Shepherd I would give a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part,
But what can I give Him, I’ll give Him my heart.
What I simple song. Yet what a beautiful meaning. I am now eighteen years old. And just the other day as I was looking in the mirror fixing my hair singing that song I had a sudden thought cross over my mind. “Have I given Him my heart?” I stopped singing the song looked back at my reflection and asked myself silently the question again.
Yes I gave Jesus my heart when I asked Him to save me from my sins. But have I given Him my whole heart? Ask yourself that question. Do you think of Him during the day? Do you delight in reading His word? Do you find joy when talking with Him? Do you make time in your busy schedule for Him? Are you willing to give up everything you have for Him? Think of the most valuable thing that you have in this world. If you did not have that would you still love Him with all your heart?
These questions I am asking myself continually because I know I need help in this area as well. I need to always be asking myself these important questions. Many times I get distracted- thoughts going off in other directions and not delighting in Him alone.
Maybe you could ask Him what He would like you to do today. Talk to a relative this Christmas about Jesus. Ask them if they know for sure, they will go to heaven when they die. Or maybe it’s something else– just let Him tell you. He will.
This Christmas I am going to get on my knees before Him and say “God here is my gift to you- my heart”. Who else could have your heart that is more worthy of it?
Make Him the most important thing in your life. What an awesome thing if young women all over the world this Christmas said those sweet words to the Lord. So if you’re looking for a gift this year, I believe that’s the gift He really longs for. Will you pray that prayer this Christmas? I will. Let’s pray that together.
That pretty, simple song, the song I was singing when I was just a small girl in that little church, one cold December evening, never rang so clear to me as it did this year.
“What can I give Him?
I’ll give Him my heart.”
Dear Friends,
I would love to hear from you. Tell me of all the new things that have been going on in your lives this year.
As I send this to you I pray that it will encourage & convict your heart as it did mine in writing it. I pray God will do awesome things in and through you this Christmas showing you things about Himself that you never have seen before. Draw close to Him as you ponder His Birth and give your whole heart to Him this Christmas.
Love & Prayers to you,
Holly Allene Pierpont
Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
December 5, 2002
Luke 2:19
“And Mary kept
all these things and
pondered them in her heart”