the candy cane

I wrote my first tract in time for Christmas Carolling! We ended up giving these out with mini candy canes attached to them to people that we met when we went carolling. Thought I would share it here...

The Candy Cane

It is not known how the candy cane came to be a Christmas tradition, but we can view it as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

Firstly, it’s shape. Turned upside down it is the letter ‘J’ for Jesus, turned the right way up, it is the shape of a shepherd’s staff to show that Jesus is the great Shepherd sent by God the Father to care for His sheep (us!). Secondly, it’s colours. A white background shows that Jesus lived His life on earth with purity – He never sinned. Unlike us, in His entire life Jesus never lied, stole, cheated, swore, envied, or did anything that broke God’s law (the Ten Commandments). The red stripes of the candy cane reflect the blood that Jesus shed on the cross – the three thin stripes remind us of His suffering, the one thick stripe shows that Jesus ultimately died on the cross to pay for the sins of all mankind.

Christmas is such a big deal because it celebrates the fact that God loved us so much that even though we did nothing to deserve it, He gave us the BEST GIFT we could ever hope for: eternal life through Jesus Christ – wrapped in the form of a baby in a manger!

If this is a gift that you would like to receive this Christmas, pray to God…

1. Admit that you are not perfect, that you have broken God’s law, and that you no longer want to live a life of sin
2. Believe that Jesus paid the debt of your sins on the cross, and accept the gift of being saved from the punishment of your sins (Hell)
3. Read the Bible and obey it. Find a good church that preaches the Bible to help you grow. And tell others the good news!

the year that was..

Can't believe Christmas is less than two weeks away! And the new year is about three weeks away... Where has this year gone? Doesn't seem like too long ago that twenty ten rolled round the corner and now it's rolling off into the distance again...

I found this little app on facebook that helped me reflect on the past 12 months. It's called My Year in Status Updates. Basically it grabs your status updates (or a selection thereof) and puts them together in a collage.

Mine came back like this...

Totally cool.

Year isn't over yet though. The next few weeks will be pretty busy but I'm totally looking forward to it!

Oh BTW - camp was GREAT! Will post some stuff up from there eventually :)