December 2019 The Happening Page

My recommendations for the Christ-

mas Season:

1. Let us never forget why we

celebrate Advent and the 12

Days of Christmas. The arrival

of our Savior, Jesus Christ and

the salvation that He brought to

the World. May we read

through the book of Luke, one

chapter a day, and receive in-

sight from the Holy Spirit, about

the immeasurable love of God.

May the birth, life, death and

resurrection of Jesus teach us of

who God is and who we are to

be; in light of that truth.

2. Just as Jesus became flesh and

dwelt among us, may we be

present with family and friends,

throughout this season. May we

slow down this Christmas and

spend time to listen, laugh, and

share stories with the ones who

are nearest and dearest to our

heart. Out of the

mouth of

babes (my

niece when

she was little and would spend

some of Christmas break at my

house would say), ―Stop clean-

ing and fussing and come spend

time with me because that is

why I came.‖ Let the house not

be perfect and don’t worry

about presentation, but love on

people.

3. Gather with the people of God

throughout the Advent Season.

Worship with your brothers and

sisters in Christ through attend-

Rev. Nicole Thomas Pastor

Redeemer Church - Following the Son Redeemer Church - Following the Son

Duane Cantrell Deacon

December 2019

he'd been the first to record it on

paper. The

phrase 'auld lang

syne' roughly

translates as 'for

old times' sake',

and the song is

all about pre-

serving old

―In 1788,

Robert Burns

sent the poem

'Auld Lang Syne'

to the Scots Mu-

sical Museum,

indicating that it

was an ancient

song but that

friendships and looking back over

the events of the

year.‖ (The History and

Words of Auld Lang

Syne - Scotland.org)

At the end of each year

we sing, or try to sing

(who knows all of the (Continued on page 2)

FROM THE BOARD OF DEACONS

THE HAPPENING THE HAPPENING A Publication of Redeemer Church • Hamilton, Ohio A Publication of Redeemer Church • Hamilton, Ohio

ing Sunday Services during the

month of December and don’t

forget Christmas Eve � ! Bring

friends with you so that they

may know the hope, love, joy

and peace that is found through

the babe, placed in a manger.

4. Anticipate the amazing joy that

is found in the fact that Jesus is

coming again. The Kingdom of

God fully manifested and there

will be no more pain, tears,

grief, hate, sorrow, nor death.

I long for that day, don’t you?

To see our Savior, face to face!

Yet I am not sure that I will

even be able to stand, but will

fall to my knees, declaring how

grateful I am for His sacrifice.

5. Lastly, please know that You

are loved by God and by me!

Merry Christmas to you all.

Pastor Nicole

December 2019 The Happening Page 2

words anyway… not me) Auld Lang

Syne as a farewell to the outgoing

year. It’s a time to reminisce about

time that has passed and to antici-

pate the events of the coming year.

This year, when we say

goodbye to 2019 and

think back over the

events of the year, we

can take a moment to

remember the growth

and evangelism that has

occurred here at Re-

deemer Church. There were numer-

ous tangible things that happened

like foundation repairs, roof repairs,

paving repairs and other physical

manifestations of God preparing Re-

deemer for continued roles in his

Kingdom. Isn’t it funny how those

types of physical activities can easily

be removed from their spiritual in-

fluences? If you’re familiar with

some of those events, you’ll recall

how prayers were answered and

how God intervened in ways that we

had not imagined or anticipated.

It was a good year for Redeemer.

Another area that we can remember

(Continued from page 1) as we look back on 2019 is our par-

ticipation in the Angel Tree pro-

gram. This was an important pro-

ject for the Deacon Board and for

the church. Thank you for your ef-

forts in making a success of our

desire to broaden our outreach in a

manner that affected our local

community and adhered to the ten-

ets in Matthew 25:35-36. We are

looking forward to continuing and

expanding our participation in An-

gel Tree in 2020. Please keep this

mission in your prayers

We also have things that are just

on the horizon that we can begin to

prepare for and pray about. Family

Promise is an organization com-

mitted to fighting homelessness at

the grass roots level. We will be

hosting several families here at Re-

deemer in the very near future. Ex-

pect to hear more details on this

next outreach mission in the com-

BOARD OF DEACONS CONT.

ing weeks. Family Promise and Re-

deemer Church via our participation

seeks to accomplish the following:

Our continuing efforts to positively

influence others and to glorify God

by our actions and our activities

brings to life the words

that are in front of us

every Sunday. This

Sunday when you open

your Sunday bulletin,

don’t skip over that

part at the very top of

the page:

Our Mission – To Know the Son –

To Follow the Son – To Share the

Son.

Our outreach as a Deacon Board

and as a church body allow us to

―walk the walk‖ in the above mis-

sion statement. Thanks for sup-

porting our mission activities in

2019 and please continue to pray

for our efforts to work with Family

Promise and our other mission ac-

tivities in 2020.

We have great reasons to look for-

ward to and anticipate God’s con-

tinuing work through Redeemer in

the coming year.

If you are having cabin

fever, come join us for

movie night. We show a

family friendly movie the

first Saturday of the

month. This is an entirely

free event which includes

refreshments.

On December7, we are

showing the cartoon A

Charlie Brown Christmas

at 6:30. The movie The Santa

Clause 3: The Escape Clause starts

at 7:00.

On January

4th, the

movie will be

the new live-

action The

Lion King.

Hope to see

you there!

MOVIE NIGHT BY DEBBIE KHULENBERG

December 2019 The Happening Page 3

Here’s a challenge: read through

the Bible next year. Although it

may seem to be a big task, it’s

really quite do-

able by just

reading some

each day.

God's Word is

a big book, and

without a plan

it can be easy

to give up be-

fore you even

get through

Genesis. A plan like the one on the

next page is an example. But there

are many ways to do it. An internet

search will reveal several:

Read some from a different

book each day as on the follow-

ing page.

Read it straight through, Gene-

sis through Revelation, some

each day.

Read some from the Old Testa-

ment and some from the New

Testament each day.

Read some from the Old Testa-

ment, some from Psalms, some

from Prov-

erbs, and

some from

the New Tes-

tament each

day.

You can find

websites that

have the pas-

sages to read

each day. Or even websites that

will e-mail the passages to you

each day. You can download a

reading plan app to your phone.

You can buy a one-

year Bible. Would

you rather have it

read to you? You can

buy a set of CDs or

MP3 files so that you

can just listen. However, most

folks will want to read from a Bible

in order to highlight and underline

verses, make notes in the mar-

gins, read the annotations included

in most Bibles, flip to other books

and verses that are cross-

referenced, consult a commentary,

or perhaps even keep a journal.

Maybe you will want to invest in a

parallel Bible allowing you to read

the same passage in four different

versions each day for even greater

insight.

If you haven’t read the entire Bi-

ble, you can easily miss that it’s

one big story. It has creation,

birth, death, war, peace, murder,

sex, inspiration, sadness, hope,

joy – all the human emotions and

conditions, but most impor-

tantly love. Also, you will

learn that the New Testa-

ment would not exist

and cannot be fully understood

without the Old Testament.

And you don’t have to wait until

January – print the following page

and start today!

READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR

Women’s Christmas Party

Thursday, December 5th

, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

(You really have to experience this!!!

Too much fun!!!)

Carry-In sign-up Sheet

Plan to join us!!!

LOTS OF FUN

AND

FELLOWSHIP!

White

Elephant Gift

Exchange

W e a r e a l w a y s e i t h e r

d r a w i n g c l o s e r t o G o d o r

f a l l i n g a w a y .

T h e r e i s n o h o l d i n g p a t t e r n .

J i m C y m b a l a

December 2019 The Happening Page 4

December 2019 The Happening Page 5

At this time of year,

Christians love to

read and hear the

story of the birth of

Christ as told by

Luke. And as the

story unfolds, we

see in our mind’s

eye, each scene as

might have been: the shepherds, the

angelic hosts, the manger. But my

vision of those events changed when

I read my mother’s book Angels by

Billy Graham. In this important

book, Graham affirms that angels

are created beings; angels are better

organized than any of the armies of

man—or Satan; they are sustained

by God’s power; angels think, feel,

will, and display emotions; they exe-

cute God’s will; angels guide, com-

fort, and provide for people in the

midst of suffering and persecution;

and at death, we will be ushered by

angels into the presence of God.

Angels are mentioned directly or in-

directly nearly 300 times in the Bible

according to Graham, and though

invisible, may take on physical bod-

ies when God appoints them to spe-

cial tasks. The book is highly recom-

mended reading. It’s available free

in the Redeemer Church library. You

can hear Dr. Graham reveal some of

the mysteries of angels here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=cK7v2Z_SqxI

When reading scripture, Pastor

Nicole will sometimes repeat the

passage in her own words saying

―this is Nicole’s paraphrase.‖ Well,

this is my amplified paraphrase of

the Christmas story – the way I see

it.

THE ANGELS

The angels must have watched in

wonder as God created the universe

and then mankind. And they surely

watched in sorrow as Adam and Eve

committed that first sin and lost fa-

vor with God. Yet they saw His

boundless love as told throughout the

stories of the Old Testament when

over-and-over, He provided ways for

men to be forgiven of their sin and

walk with Him. Perhaps the angels

first learned of His ultimate plan of

redemption of man when prophesied

by Isaiah:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give

you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall

conceive and bear a Son, and shall

call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah

7:14,)

Or perhaps it was by Micah:

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the

clans of Judah, out of you will come

for me one who will be ruler over

Israel, whose origins are from of

old, from ancient times." (Micah

5:2)

How the angels must have wondered

exactly how this redemption would

happen and discussed it among

themselves. Maybe they first learned

how it would happen along with Mary

when the angel Gabriel announced to

her:

“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have

found favor with God. You will con-

ceive and give birth to a son, and

you are to call him Jesus. He will be

great and will be called the Son of

the Most

High. The

Lord God

will give

him the

throne of

his father

David, and he will reign over

Jacob’s descendants forever; his

kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:30

-35)

Now that the angels knew when,

where and how it would happen, they

must have wondered just how God

would announce it. Then at the ap-

pointed time, the angel Gabriel called

out to the angels saying that this

very night he would appear to the

humblest of men and announce the

birth. When he said that he would be

taking angels with him, they shouted

with excitement, and every spirit

hand was raised as they called out

―Take me!‖ And so Gabriel said,

―Yes, we will all go.‖

And how many angels were there?

According to Graham, there are mil-

lions, so many that they cannot be

counted:

But ye are come unto mount Sion,

and unto the city of the living God,

the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an

innumerable company of angels,

(Hebrews 12:22, KJV)

And:

Then I looked and heard the voice of

many angels, numbering thousands

upon thousands, and ten thousand

times ten thousand. (Revelation

5:11)

(Continued on page 6)

THE CHRISTMAS STORY – THE WAY I SEE IT

Gary Shuppert

December 2019 The Happening Page 6

[That’s 100,000,000, or in other

words, an infinite number]

THE SHEPHERDS

Likely the shepherds knew well the

prophesies in the scriptures of the

coming Messiah, the new king who

would assume the throne of David

and

talked

of it of-

ten.

Perhaps

even

this

night,

they were gathered around a fire dis-

cussing this very thing. Suddenly one

of them raised his hand and told

them to be quiet and listen. Then

they too heard faint singing like that

of a distant choir. As the singing

grew louder, a glow in the sky be-

came brighter. And then:

An angel of the Lord appeared to

them, and the glory of the Lord

shone around them, and they were

terrified. (Luke 2:9)

They fell to their knees, some bent to

the

ground

with

their

hands

on their

head,

while

others looked up with amazement.

And then the angel spoke with power

and authority:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you

good news that will cause great

joy for all the people. Today in

the town of David a Savior has

been born to you; he is the Mes-

siah, the Lord. This will be a sign

to you: You will find a baby

wrapped in cloths and lying in a

manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)

And then there was even more

amazement. Angels appeared, thou-

sands of them right in front of their

eyes. And to their left, tens of thou-

sands more. And to their right, hun-

dreds of thousands. And above them

and behind them, more than could be

counted:

Suddenly a great company of the

heavenly host appeared with the

angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest

heaven, and on earth peace to those

on whom his favor rests.”

(Luke 2:13-14)

And then there was only silence and

darkness. They sat for a long time,

each trying to understand what they

had just witnessed. Then:

...the shepherds said to one another,

“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this

thing that has happened, which the

Lord has told us about.” (Luke 2:15)

They started walking to Bethlehem.

But soon

they started

running,

laughing

and jump-

ing with

joy, each

wanting to

be first to

see this

great thing.

THE MANGER

As the shepherds entered the little

town, now crowded with people, they

started asking every person they saw

if they knew of a new birth. Finally,

one man said, pointing, ―Yes, in a

stable at the end of this street, a

child was born this very night.‖

They ran with excitement stopping in

front of the lowly stable and peered

in at the newborn child.

So they hurried off and found Mary

and Joseph, and the baby, who was

lying in the manger. (Luke 2:15)

Mary and Joseph wondered at all the

commotion and who these men might

be. Soon one of the shepherds said

to the others, ―We must tell them

what we saw tonight.‖ They all

agreed and they said to him, ―You

are bold, you should tell them.‖ So

he looked first at Joseph, then at

Mary, and began to explain who they

were

and all

that

they

had

seen

and

heard

in their

fields that night.

When he had finished, he said ―I

know you cannot believe such a fan-

tastic story as this, but we swear that

it is all true.‖ Mary looked knowingly

at Joseph, then at the shepherds and

said, ―Yes, we believe you for we too

have seen this angel. All that he told

you is true.‖

Then they knew that though they

were only lowly shepherds, on this

night, they were among the most

honored of all men on earth.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY – THE WAY I SEE IT, cont.

December 2019 The Happening Page 7

Redeemer Church

3431 Hamilton Middletown Rd.

Hamilton, OH 45011

513-863-3323

Website: www.Redeemer-Church.org

E-mail: office@redeemer-church.org

Rev. Nicole Thomas, Pastor

E-mail: pastor@redeemer-church.org

William & Etta Shackleford .. Dec. 15

David & Wanda Chalk ......... Dec. 28

Sharon Grammel ................. Dec. 1

Amy Dermen .................... Dec. 12

Judy Miller ........................ Dec. 14

Dan Wittmer ..................... Dec. 21

Dawn Knochenmuss ........... Dec. 27

Happening in December

December 1 – Communion

December 5 – Women’s Christ-mas Party, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

December 7 – Movie Night, 6:30

December 12 – Senior Lunch, 12:00 noon

December 14 – Angel Tree Party, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.

December 24 – Christmas Eve Service at 6 p.m.

* Wednesdays – Bible Study at 7:00 p.m.

One of our most treasured traditions is the

presence of the Memorial Angel Trees during

the Advent Season.

Memorial Angels ―In Memory Of‖ will again be

available for purchase in December. The Go-

Getters will have them available before both

the Heritage Service and the Praise Service.

The cost will be $2 each.

You will be invited to hang the Angels

on the Christmas Trees during both

services. Have questions? Feel free to

ask Mary Vanlieu, President of the Go

-Getters.

After the Advent Season, you will be

taking your Angel/Angels with you.

MEMORIAL ANGELS BY KAREN SCHUMM

The Confetti Club has five members

from Redeemer Church, all other

members are from all over Hamilton,

West Chester, Fairfield, Middletown

and Monroe. We have all age groups

of men and women, and include both

widows and singles age 50 and over.

Dinners are planned each month with

different people making each dinner.

The members are invited to our Re-

deemer Senior Dinner and all activi-

ties at Redeemer.

Our Christmas dinner is at different

locations as voted on by the club. We

have given money towards the ice

maker and other church projects.

This is a fun group, and it is espe-

cially nice to meet different people

from all over our area and make

new friends.

We invite speak-

ers each month

on many different

subjects of inter-

est to our age

group. Recent and

upcoming topics

include Dementia/

Alzheimer’s and

changes to Social

Security. A typical

meeting will have

20 to 30 people. If you are single,

age 50 or over, please visit us – we

meet the third Thursday of each

month, September through May.

THE CONFETTI CLUB BY CAROL MOORE