0:08

Well this that stats are live and I'm editor Stetson

0:10

and I actually live from well Oxford,

0:12

England. And I'm here and

0:14

it's the most wonderful time of the year. And of course,

0:17

by the most wonderful time of the year, we refer to some

0:19

of the Christmas themes and

0:21

more so, but let me

0:23

let me tell you that that this Christmas

0:25

is particularly special today for

0:27

me, because it's the first Christmas that we've actually lived

0:29

in a place that isn't cold in a very

0:32

long time. So the sets

0:34

are family. Donna, my wife and my daughter.

0:36

My youngest daughter and Donna always put up

0:38

the Christmas tree. And so this

0:40

year we the Christmas tree is up. I should announce

0:42

that, of course, with enthusiasm. But it's a whole

0:44

different feel when you're living in Southern California.

0:46

So the tree is up and

0:48

the proper day to put up the tree, by the way, is the day

0:51

after Thanksgiving. It's the Friday after Thanksgiving. You probably

0:53

should have already have your tree up. I'm not judging

0:55

you. Well, maybe I'm judging you a little bit if you don't, but

0:58

I don't call me if you're like, mad about Christmas trees either.

1:00

I understand that people have different views on that, but my point

1:02

is, is that we're in beautiful, sunny

1:04

California. But I couldn't stay there because I needed to be

1:06

in the cold and the wet and the rain

1:09

and the dark and the damp. So I'm actually

1:11

here at Oxford University. I'll be teaching a class

1:13

all week at Wycliffe Hall. And

1:15

so excited. Modular one week class

1:17

and so excited to be here. But

1:19

that means I'm broadcasting live from the UK

1:22

now. Those have been long term listeners. You know that

1:24

Don and I lived here for the

1:26

fall or autumn, as they'd say here. And

1:28

so it's good to be back, but I always feel a little

1:30

bit like when we're here, because

1:33

we don't have the fine

1:35

accoutrements of a wonderful studio like

1:37

we normally do. Our teams work really hard to get all this

1:39

set up, but it's kind of held together by spit

1:41

and baling wire. So hopefully everything will go great today

1:43

because we have a guest. Well, I mean, not even

1:45

a guest anymore. She's kind of a friend of the show. We've had

1:47

her on the program probably more

1:49

than anybody else so many times, and big

1:51

fans as well. So let me tell

1:53

you about our guest, who's going to talk with us about

1:56

some Christmas related themes, because

1:58

it's December, so you may now play Christmas

2:00

music. No. So Sheila Walsh is an author, Bible

2:02

teacher, you know the name Sheila Walsh, and

2:05

she's a television host who's spoken to over 6

2:07

million people around the world. She

2:09

hosts several shows, including Praise

2:11

and Better Together on TBN. Her books

2:13

have sold nearly 6 million copies.

2:15

And if you add my books to her books, we've

2:17

sold together over 6 million

2:19

copies, and that includes bestsellers like It's

2:21

Okay Not to Be Okay and The Gift of Christmas.

2:24

That was a joke that I hope some of you got, but anyway,

2:26

originally from Scotland. So that's the great part,

2:28

right? So we're originally from Scott. She's original from Scotland

2:30

in the UK. I'm in the UK, so

2:32

we did there. But Sheila lives now in Texas,

2:35

the great state of Texas, with

2:37

her husband Barry and their little dog

2:39

Maggie. And their son Christian

2:41

is in graduate school. Sheila,

2:44

thank you for joining us. Ironically, I was

2:46

in Texas yesterday and

2:48

now I'm in the UK and you are back

2:50

in Texas, though you're from the UK. But thanks for joining us

2:52

on the program.

2:53

Oh, I'm so jealous. I just

2:56

I'm really homesick at the moment. I mean,

2:58

I know it is dreary and drab and

3:00

rainy and it gets dark really early,

3:02

but there's just something about Christmas in

3:04

the UK that I absolutely love. And by the way,

3:06

any time anybody mentions my

3:08

bio and they say that I've spoken to

3:10

6 million women, it doesn't actually say if

3:12

any of them are listening.

3:14

That's true. That's true. Right now, you know, when you're

3:16

on the radio, people say, like, you have a potential audience

3:19

of like 30 million people.

3:21

And it's like, well, really? But 30 million

3:23

people don't have their radio on at any given moment.

3:25

But so let's just go with it. You know, these

3:27

publicists write the bios, but here's the deal. Like,

3:30

like everybody knows Sheila Walsh.

3:32

And so we're so excited that

3:34

you would come on our little humble radio show

3:36

and talk to us because we're we're fans.

3:39

You and I got to see each other a couple of times last year,

3:41

I think it was. And so

3:43

we just we'd like what you do and we're

3:45

excited to have this conversation with you

3:47

as well. So, so but

3:49

if you were here, it is like literally I got a group

3:52

of students here and after the radio show, what is

3:54

it like 5:00 here? We're going to go out to

3:56

a convenience store. They're several Americans. I

3:58

got some ordinance from Wycliffe Hall,

4:00

but the Americans are going to take them out to a

4:02

convenience store, and they're they're all like, so

4:05

it's raining and people just like,

4:07

go out. I said, yeah, that's it's freezing

4:09

and it's raining. You put on an overcoat

4:11

and goes, In America, you know, we'd like, shut

4:13

it down. You know, people say, I can do all things through Christ

4:15

who strengthens me, but then they they don't go to church

4:18

when it rains. So, I mean, so it's a whole

4:20

it's a different world here. So be thankful

4:22

that you're in the beauty of Texas, where

4:24

I woke up yesterday and I and

4:26

flew overnight to be here in the UK. But anyway,

4:29

so all the busyness here in the UK, like

4:31

we're doing, I'm, we're going to go to one of those Oxford

4:33

University Carol sings during

4:36

some of our off time. So oh, it's going to be super

4:38

fun. Now I'll make you jealous because you're of course,

4:40

classically trained musician. So

4:42

we're going to do that. But but we're also going to

4:45

do some shopping at the Oxford Christmas Market, which

4:47

ironically, is built over the place where

4:49

Latimer Ridley were burned to death

4:52

spot next to them. Selling ornaments is

4:55

right there with these people died for their faith. There's

4:57

a kind of a record screech across the conversation,

4:59

but man, so how do we, like, walk

5:02

through super busyness and and

5:04

clutter to experience some of the joy

5:06

and the peace of Christmas? Where do we start? How

5:08

does that happen?

5:10

Well, you know, it's really interesting because I've never

5:12

written a Christmas book before. I mean,

5:14

I have a lot of Christmas devotionals that I

5:16

love, that I read every year that different people have written.

5:19

But I think there was just

5:21

something about, I don't know whether it's the age I

5:23

am or the stage in life. I felt

5:25

like I don't want to go through just another stupid

5:27

Christmas where, you know, we spend

5:29

more than we have, and

5:32

then I have to lose £10 in January.

5:34

I'm so fed up with that. So I thought,

5:36

okay, I need to do a deeper dive.

5:38

And so I decided to take all the

5:40

things that were

5:42

familiar with and really

5:45

kind of research the roots, like even you mentioned Christmas

5:47

Tree. So I found this

5:49

fascinating thing, and I actually have this book

5:51

by a woman called Dorothy Haskins,

5:53

and it's a lovely book. It's called Luther's Children

5:56

Celebrate Christmas, and

5:58

it's all about Martin Luther in the 16th century,

6:00

coming home one night. And she

6:02

he sees the trees and there's snow

6:04

on them, and it's sparkling, and everything

6:07

else around seemed so drab. So

6:09

as she she says that he

6:11

cut down a tree and he carried it home and

6:13

decorated it with candles, and she

6:15

writes that he said, he explained to his children

6:18

that the tree is green in the winter. Like

6:20

our faith in Christ, it stays fresh

6:22

even in a time of trouble. Our faith

6:24

in Christ stays green, even in sorrow,

6:27

alive even in the midst of despair.

6:29

So there's so many things I think we just

6:31

look at and think, oh, Christmas tree. And by the

6:33

way, I've had mine up since 2020.

6:35

Yes, three years. People just kept it

6:38

up, didn't take it down, just just kept it

6:40

up. But but there's so much when

6:42

you actually kind of research the

6:44

roots of so many of those things, there's

6:46

a much deeper meaning.

6:49

Yeah, and I think that's part of the fun. The book is, of course, The Gifts

6:52

of Christmas. It's actually devotions

6:54

for advent, which you'd have to jump on

6:56

it pretty quickly or ordered online as

6:59

well. So, you know, you kind of lay

7:01

out for us some of the ways some

7:03

of these, some of these additional facts, because there's so many

7:05

things we get, I don't know, we get caught

7:07

up in and, you know, people, people have different

7:09

things about Christmas. You know, we actually didn't

7:12

how do I say this in case someone's listening in the car,

7:14

in their minivan. We didn't participate

7:16

in Christmas myths with our children. So

7:19

and you know, I'm not sure that my kids might if

7:21

they have when they have kids, they might have a different

7:23

view that as well. And we and we tried

7:26

to kind of commercialize it, but

7:28

you just there's a certain

7:30

force that you can't overcome

7:33

with it. So we obviously were very thankful

7:35

to give gifts to our kids and all that sort of stuff.

7:37

But we've always tried to like

7:39

on Christmas morning, we'll read the we read

7:41

the Luke story of Christmas. We'll

7:44

we'll pray together. We'll thank the Lord. And we always give

7:46

a weird tradition for us, but we always give a

7:48

largest, our largest gift

7:50

to the Lord, particularly for global missions.

7:52

My denomination has this this Christmas

7:55

offering for international missions. So we so we

7:57

give to that as well. But all

7:59

these things are just trying to acknowledge

8:01

that, man Christmas has been swallowed

8:03

up by something else.

8:06

And so how do we get

8:08

it back? I mean, you talk a little bit about it, but but

8:10

this is a big part of what slowing down

8:13

is getting it back from the

8:15

world. Talk to us about that.

8:17

Well, you know, one of the things I kind of made a decision

8:19

about earlier on in this year is like,

8:21

like I wanted to be kind of like God's

8:23

secret agent, like God's boots on

8:26

the ground. Like, I think that if

8:28

we follow and if we're in love with Christ

8:30

and that's he's our whole hope and our

8:32

whole direction, then every day

8:35

when I get up, I have this prayer

8:37

and it's very intentional. Lord,

8:39

give me eyes to today to see what

8:41

I'm going to miss and give me ears to hear

8:43

beyond what's going on in the culture

8:46

to what's really happening. So

8:48

let me just give you a little example. I had

8:51

I had this $100 bill that

8:53

I came across we just moved a week ago. So we're

8:55

like knee deep in boxes and

8:58

in one of my old wallets, there was $100 bill.

9:00

And I thought, oh, that's wow. I didn't know I had

9:02

that, but I had this kind of feeling

9:05

that maybe God wanted to do something with it. So

9:07

I stuck it in my pocket. And then a couple

9:09

of days ago, we have all these boxes,

9:12

you know, and I'm thinking, what do I do with all these boxes?

9:14

And I think, I think it's illegal

9:16

to take it to the back of Kroger and

9:18

put it in their dumpster.

9:20

But I think I'm going to have to do that. So

9:22

I'm driving off and I can't find Kroger,

9:24

but there's a little Mexican restaurant, and at the back

9:27

there's a big dumpster. And I think,

9:29

okay, Lord, you're just going to have to cover me

9:31

here. So I'm trying to get this box into

9:33

the dumpster and it's too big. And I

9:35

see a woman coming out of the Mexican restaurant.

9:38

She obviously works there, and she's kind of having a

9:40

smoke, and she's watching

9:42

me and I think, oh, gosh, any minute now,

9:44

she's either going to come over and tell me, you can't

9:46

do that, or she's going to call the cops, and

9:48

she starts to approach me and as

9:50

she gets closer, my Lord, what do I do?

9:53

And she says, and a very

9:55

her English was broken, but way better than my

9:57

Spanish. And she said, me help

9:59

you? What she did was she took

10:01

my box and she broke it down

10:04

and she put it in the dumpster for

10:06

me. And in that moment it was clear. God

10:08

said, well, you know, you know. So

10:10

I took the $100 bill out of my pocket, and

10:12

I gave it to her. And this woman,

10:14

she had to be, I don't know, early 70s. Maybe.

10:17

She threw her arms

10:19

around me, tears pouring down her face,

10:21

and hugged me for a while. Now I have no idea

10:23

what God was doing with her, but that's

10:26

to me. It's like every single day I'm like, Lord,

10:28

just show me how we

10:30

are. Your fragrance in this world

10:33

that is just getting sour by

10:35

the moment.

10:37

Love that. Love that. We're going to start a conversation in just a moment

10:39

with Sheila Walsh, and we're talking about her

10:41

brand new book. It's a Christmas theme

10:43

as well. The Gifts of Christmas is

10:45

a devotional, and you can, if you grab it today,

10:48

you can jump right in and catch along

10:50

with the devotional content that's there as

10:52

well. We're going to take your calls as well. Talk

10:54

to Sheila Walsh (877) 548-3675.

10:59

Again, I'm live from Oxford where it's

11:01

all decked out for Christmas. So let's talk

11:03

some about maybe the themes of your Christmas

11:05

tradition as well. (877) 548-3675.

11:20

Hey! We're back. The headsets are alive. During the break,

11:23

Sheila and I were talking about me being here in Oxford

11:25

and going to the Oxford Christmas market.

11:27

And it is funny how much people love

11:30

just being here. It's just, you know, you're.

11:32

I'm going to attend a church in the morning that's been worshipping

11:35

in the same spot for a thousand years. You

11:37

know, there's a tradition in the heritage that, you

11:39

know, Americans, we just don't we don't have

11:42

that. And one of the things I think you kind of tie into the book,

11:44

though, is, well, you tell stories of Christmas past.

11:46

I want to talk a little bit about that. And I also want to invite our

11:48

callers. We'd love to hear first, if you have questions

11:51

about Christmas themes or comments about

11:53

Christmas themes, you're welcome to share those.

11:55

I would be particularly interested in some of your

11:58

callers, your kind of traditions,

12:00

how you seek to to keep Christ centered

12:03

in the Christmas experience I mentioned

12:05

ours is that we

12:07

do. I probably just lost my reward in

12:09

heaven, but we we make sure the largest

12:11

gift we give us to global missions just because it's Jesus

12:14

birthday. So we want to we want to do that. And

12:17

with other things, like when we read the Luke

12:19

two story things of that sort. I bet you've got some as well.

12:21

(877) 548-3675.

12:25

And of course we'll take your general calls as well.

12:28

So so talk to us a little bit about

12:30

some of these kind of when you go back and talk about

12:32

Christmas past why that's so fascinating.

12:34

Because we still, you know, I mean who doesn't want to

12:36

watch. You know It's a Wonderful Life or something like that

12:38

around Christmas. What draws us to that and tell us some of those

12:40

stories?

12:42

Yeah, it's interesting because every Christmas

12:44

Eve I listen to a

12:47

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from

12:49

King's College in Cambridge and

12:51

absolutely love that.

12:53

And and one of the things that I discovered.

12:55

I just want to interrupt you and express my just

12:57

I want to express my disappointment that you mentioned Cambridge

12:59

while I'm at Oxford. They we

13:02

call that the other place here. But anyway,

13:04

go ahead back to your festival of Cambridge.

13:06

But go ahead.

13:08

I had to get that in there. But,

13:10

you know, even just researching some of the

13:12

history of some of the most beautiful Christmas

13:15

songs and reading

13:17

the story of Silent Night,

13:19

it was written by a young Austrian

13:21

priest. His name was Joseph Moore, and

13:23

he wrote the lyrics to Silent Night and

13:25

probably intended that it would just be a localized

13:28

thing. They would sing it in their own church,

13:30

but it became popular within

13:32

Germany. But no one could have anticipated

13:35

the miracle that would that would happen

13:37

on Christmas Eve in 1914. You

13:39

know, it's the middle of World War One, which, as

13:41

you know, was a bloody,

13:43

muddy, horrible war,

13:46

face to face combat in the trenches,

13:48

absolutely miserable. And in Christmas

13:51

Eve, the fact even the Pope

13:53

had requested that there would be a cease fire

13:55

on Christmas Eve. But neither side

13:57

had responded. But there's

13:59

this beautiful story of Walter Kerkhove,

14:01

who's a German officer who had

14:03

been a tenor with the Berlin Opera.

14:05

And on that night, on Christmas Eve.

14:08

And it's freezing. It's misty. It's horrible.

14:10

He suddenly begins to sing Silent

14:12

Night in German, and there's kind

14:14

of a hush that falls over, and

14:16

the German soldiers join in with him.

14:19

But the British soldiers on the other

14:21

side of the trenches, they knew

14:23

the song. And at the end of the German

14:25

version they begin to sing Silent

14:27

Night in English. And

14:30

Walter Kershaw, he put down his weapon

14:32

that night because he was no longer a

14:34

soldier. He was. He was

14:36

a soloist. He was using God's gift.

14:38

And there's something about that. I mean, obviously

14:41

it did not continue after that night,

14:43

but I think particularly in the culture

14:45

and in the days we're living in, surely

14:48

Christmas, surely the arrival,

14:50

the turning point of human history

14:52

should compel us all to put our

14:54

weapons down and begin

14:56

to sing a better song.

14:59

I love that. I love that you have such a great turn of

15:01

phrase and the books that way as well. And of course,

15:03

we just all have known and listened to you for years. The book again

15:05

is called The Gift of Christmas.

15:07

I do want to encourage you to pick it up. I think

15:09

you find it helpful and encouraging. It's the

15:12

subtitle is 25 Joy

15:14

Filled Devotions for

15:16

advent. Our guest is Sheila Walsh. We're taking

15:18

your calls as well. Our

15:20

number is (877) 548-3675.

15:25

We're going to go first to Victoria in California. Victoria,

15:27

you're live on air with your question or your comment. Go right ahead.

15:31

Hello there. Appreciate

15:33

you taking my call. And hello, Sheila

15:35

Walsh. Merry Christmas to you.

15:37

And are you Victoria?

15:39

Yes, sir. Oh,

15:42

I think the best thing for me this

15:44

year, 67 year old mom,

15:46

wife, grandma, great

15:49

grandma is remembering

15:52

at age 11 when I accepted

15:54

Christ in my heart as my Savior. And

15:57

somebody explained to me

15:59

what incarnate meant

16:01

at age 11. And

16:04

I just couldn't believe that

16:06

baby Jesus was

16:08

wrapped in flesh and he was

16:10

God. And it blew me away.

16:12

I couldn't wrap my mind around it.

16:15

And even at age 67,

16:17

it still brings tears to my eyes.

16:20

Wow. To imagine the

16:22

God of the universe to

16:25

put himself in such. I

16:28

was raised down south. So

16:30

I grew up around animals, and I knew

16:32

what the stable was like in a manger.

16:35

And I was a young mom

16:37

at 16 and married, so I knew what it was

16:39

like to have a young baby at that age.

16:42

I didn't know that at 11, but at

16:44

16, I knew what it was like to hold a little

16:46

infant in my arms and be responsible.

16:49

So the awareness of having

16:51

Mary have baby Jesus

16:54

in her arms and be in a stable,

16:56

not have grocery stores or

16:59

or doctors and hospitals

17:01

and things like that around her. It made

17:03

me aware. Of

17:06

what she really went through. So

17:09

at 67, it's still impacts

17:11

me every year. It's hard for me

17:13

to plan the dividends my

17:16

nativity sets away because I think to

17:19

myself, it's precious

17:21

every day of the year. I

17:24

would love to celebrate Jesus's

17:26

birth every day and hope that I

17:28

do. And I know

17:30

my grandkids think that grandma's a

17:32

Jesus freak. They've told me that.

17:35

Know that's okay. I could be a freak

17:37

for anything. And I think being a freak

17:39

for Jesus is the best legacy

17:42

I leave you, so don't ever forget

17:44

that I love you. That's so good. With all

17:46

my heart.

17:46

That's so good. Love that. What

17:48

a what a great call. What a. Written

17:51

exhortation. Actually, if you'll stay on the line. Victor,

17:53

we want to give you a copy of

17:55

the book, The Gifts of Christmas as well.

17:58

Our gift to you as well. Victoria, just I

18:00

mean, I love when she talks about how God the Son

18:02

became Jesus the Christ. It just

18:04

it's just shaped her life. For

18:07

she's six, seven years old. I mean, that's

18:09

part of the beauty of this. The beauty of Christmas is the

18:11

miracle of Christmas is not that a fat man can fit

18:13

down a chimney. The miracle of Christmas

18:15

is the incarnation. God the son

18:18

became Jesus the Christ. Talk to us a little bit

18:20

about the theological and the

18:22

just, the beauty and the implications of that truth.

18:25

First of all, Victoria, I just I love the

18:27

passion in your voice when you speak about Jesus.

18:29

And you're right, we're all freaks one way or another.

18:31

And that's the way I would like to be described

18:34

as a Jesus freaking. By the way, you

18:36

and I are exactly the same age, and I gave

18:38

my life to Christ when I was 11, and

18:41

it is still overwhelming to me to

18:43

to think of exactly what happened. And

18:45

I was reading Psalm

18:47

23 the other day because I just love that shepherding

18:49

Psalm. And I thought, you know, the amazing thing

18:52

about Christmas is that in David,

18:54

God made a shepherd boy

18:56

into a king, but in Christ

18:59

a king became a shepherd. And

19:01

there's just this great reversal

19:04

of everything that should be,

19:06

you know, in terms of our unworthiness

19:09

and our absolute desperate

19:12

hopelessness apart from Christ,

19:14

but that he would leave. You know, I was

19:16

I've been reading through Isaiah and and when

19:18

you think of the picture that Isaiah gets of what's

19:20

going on in the temple, and I mean

19:22

how overwhelming that is, and

19:24

that Christ would leave that to

19:26

literally be born in such a fragile.

19:29

And the other thing I love about the Christmas story

19:31

is I love that the announcement

19:34

was made to the boys on the night

19:36

shift. I mean, the fact that that

19:38

the angel declared to the shepherds,

19:40

which, as you know, Ed, were the most despised

19:42

people in the community. I mean, even if shepherds tried

19:45

to walk through the town, merchants would

19:47

throw fruit at them. I mean, they were just

19:49

the lowest of the low. They were not

19:51

on anybody's party invite.

19:53

But God decided to make the

19:55

announcement to those men

19:57

to let them know good news

20:00

to all men just blows

20:02

me away.

20:04

Yeah, there's so much and there's

20:06

so much to the story. And,

20:08

and what's interesting is, I mean, you know, we can

20:10

be focused on our own individual Christmas traditions. And

20:12

I love them. I'm for them. But

20:14

there's just so much in the biblical text to

20:17

draw out as well. And the history of Christmas

20:19

as well. Again, we're taking your calls. (877) 548-3675.

20:24

Maybe you're sharing a little Christmas tradition

20:26

that you have maybe got a question or a comment for Sheila

20:29

Walsh. We're going to go to Mark in Aurora,

20:31

Illinois. You're live on the air. Mark.

20:33

Go ahead.

20:36

Yeah.

20:36

Oh I didn't, I didn't. Oh, wait. There we go. Okay.

20:39

Mark. Mark! Sorry, Mark. We lost you for a second.

20:41

We're bringing you back. Go right ahead and jump right in.

20:45

Well, the Lord has providentially placed

20:47

a spiritual anniversary

20:49

right between Thanksgiving

20:52

and Christmas. I received

20:54

what the Charismatics in those days

20:56

were calling the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

20:58

I just know that I came

21:00

closer to the Lord. And

21:02

this was in December

21:04

of 1973.

21:07

I was 15 years old. It is now

21:09

December 2nd, 2003

21:13

or 2023.

21:15

I'm sorry, and I am

21:17

65 and I am

21:19

grateful for 50 years

21:21

of walking with the Lord. I am

21:24

grateful for being a contented

21:27

single who knows that he

21:29

needs Jesus more than he needs

21:31

any woman. And I'm

21:34

just I'm

21:36

remembering with gratitude

21:39

the things that the Lord was doing back

21:41

then and the things that he's doing now.

21:43

And this is a 50th anniversary and

21:46

I I'm looking forward

21:48

to Christmas, and it's

21:50

just a wonderful time of year for

21:52

me.

21:52

Well that's awesome. I love the marker

21:55

mark that's actually there. If you hold on for

21:57

just a second, we're going to give you a copy of

21:59

The Gifts of Christmas. You know, I mean, I think so

22:01

much of that is remembering so much

22:03

is because here's the here's the reality. I mean, you know, the

22:05

shield is not a secret. December 25th

22:08

is probably not the day Jesus was born. The

22:10

shepherds are not out watching their sheep

22:12

at night in the middle of the wintertime, etcetera, etcetera.

22:15

But but even as Mark was talking about, it's

22:17

like a marker for us to come back

22:19

and, you know, to rethink, to

22:21

re to re expect. I

22:23

know I think I made up a word there, but there's an expectancy

22:26

that's there. So how

22:28

do we walk through this? Because it's

22:31

hard for us to be expectant and especially

22:33

when we're waiting on the Lord. How does

22:35

advent expectations waiting on the Lord. Faithful

22:38

expectancy. How's it all tied together?

22:40

You know what I loved about Mark's comments?

22:43

Or that you know that he is a single man

22:45

and that he realizes that his need for

22:47

Christ is so much greater than his

22:49

need for for for a woman, a

22:51

companion that way. But it made me think of I

22:53

always hated mistletoe growing

22:55

up because I was not an attractive teenager.

22:58

I was not on anybody's list of women who need

23:00

to be kissed. So I avoided it like

23:02

the plague. But when I

23:04

discovered about mistletoe, I love my BBC

23:07

wildlife magazine. But I learned

23:09

something in there where it said that mistletoe

23:11

can't survive or thrive on

23:13

its own. It's actually its scientific

23:16

name, I think is for for

23:18

a dander on or something. But it's Greek for thief

23:20

of the tree. So mistletoe literally

23:23

steals nutrients to survive.

23:26

But the interesting thing to me that I think

23:28

shows about how we are grafted

23:30

into Christ is I

23:32

read this article in my magazine that says that

23:34

it's a partial parasite, which,

23:37

you know, attaches to a previous suckers

23:39

and roots, absorbs water, but then

23:41

it goes on to produce its own

23:43

food via photosynthesis.

23:45

And I thought, that is such a great picture

23:48

of Christ that we cannot survive

23:50

without him. We have no nourishment without

23:52

him, so we are grafted in. But

23:54

then we go on to produce fruit

23:56

that that shows that his life

23:58

is alive in us. And that's why I hear

24:00

Mark say, you know, that's 50

24:03

on this 50th anniversary,

24:05

that because we're grafted into

24:07

Jesus, because we absorb our

24:09

very life from him, we go on

24:11

to produce life that impacts those who

24:13

are in this earth.

24:15

Yeah. So good, so good. Mark, if you hold the line,

24:17

we're going to give you a copy of

24:19

The Gift of Christmas. And excited to be able to share

24:21

that with you as well. We're going to also

24:23

remind you we're taking your calls. Our

24:25

phone number is (877) 548-3675.

24:30

Maybe you got a question or comment for Sheila. Or maybe you

24:32

going to share something that's special. Maybe a tradition

24:34

you have about Christmas as well. (877) 548-3675.

24:40

We're going to try to squeeze in one

24:42

call and try to hopefully get that before

24:45

before the break. So Carol, we're going to go up to you in

24:47

Cleveland, Ohio. But we got to kind of squeeze it

24:49

in in about 30 30s 4 to 5 seconds.

24:51

What's your question in your comment Carol.

24:52

Oh my goodness. Well,

24:55

one of my favorite memories

24:57

of Christmas is I became

24:59

a Christian at 18 through InterVarsity

25:01

Christian Fellowship at Cleveland State

25:04

University and my

25:07

first Christmas with the group,

25:09

and except after having accepted

25:11

the Lord, we went. They had

25:13

a tradition of joining with

25:15

other campus fellowship

25:18

groups at a mansion

25:20

in Cleveland, and it was

25:22

very dressy, very formal.

25:25

And the gal that led me to the Lord was

25:27

driving the car and we pulled

25:29

in the parking lot, and of course it was dark,

25:31

and the fellow ushered us into

25:34

the parking space. And I opened

25:36

my door and fell right into a storm store.

25:39

Okay, Carol, I got a hold to get you going because I wanted

25:41

to hold on to the other side. I want you to finish that story

25:43

because I got to know how that ends. Stay with

25:45

us. We're going to hear our conversation with Sheila Walz and

25:47

hear the rest of Carol's amazing

25:50

story and your calls as well. (877) 548-3675.

26:06

Okay. We're back. And we we were just not

26:08

doing justice to Carol's story, which was

26:10

which was seeming to to go

26:12

a very interesting direction. Are you just joining

26:14

us? My name is Ed Stetson. This is Ed Stetson live.

26:17

I'm the dean of the Talbot School of Theology at

26:19

Buy All University. And your host this and every

26:21

Saturday. Okay, so, Carol, we're going to come back

26:23

to you. You were telling us you're at this InterVarsity thing.

26:25

And nice shout out for InterVarsity. We like them. You

26:28

were going to this fancy

26:30

dinner, and you got out of the car and

26:33

pick it up a story from there and tell us the rest.

26:36

Well, the seller guided us

26:38

into the parking space and

26:40

there was it was very dark in the parking lot,

26:43

and I opened the door

26:45

and fell right into a storm

26:47

sewer. I mean, there was no escaping

26:50

it. I just opened the door,

26:52

started to slide out of the car, stand

26:54

up, went into the storm sewer.

26:56

Fortunately, I caught myself

26:58

with my elbows. So.

27:02

Two thirds of my body were dangling in

27:04

the storm sewer. And

27:07

everybody. Well. What happened? Where

27:09

did Carole go? What happened? And

27:11

I help, help, help. And

27:14

the parking attendant had to pull me

27:16

out. And

27:18

by that time, my clothing

27:21

had all gone up around my neck.

27:24

Oh, gosh.

27:26

Okay, this might get. This might get worse. For I've

27:28

got my. I've got my finger on the plus button.

27:30

Carol, you're making me nervous.

27:33

No, no. Well, you know, underwear

27:35

not included, but. Okay, good.

27:38

So. Fortunately,

27:42

he was able to pull me out and I got

27:44

all straightened out so my

27:46

clothing was not. It was a little maybe

27:48

damp around where it had touched the

27:51

ground, but basically it was dry,

27:53

but my legs were covered with leaves.

27:56

My imitation.

27:59

Alligator shoes were now appealing

28:02

because they were in the

28:05

water. I leaves all over my legs

28:08

and.

28:08

That is that is a unique

28:10

like high level Christmas story

28:13

as well. But I also know, Carol, that you that you

28:15

had a question for Sheila as well. What's that question? I want

28:17

to want to jump to that as well.

28:19

Okay, but just real quick.

28:21

The thing that really

28:24

got to me about the rest of that evening

28:26

is when I went in, people were coming

28:28

up to me and asking me, are you the one that fell in

28:30

the storm store? And I said, yes. And they said,

28:32

we hope you don't sue because we want to keep

28:34

coming to this place. Okay,

28:37

okay.

28:38

Oh gosh. My question. Good. Yeah.

28:40

My question for Sheila

28:42

is my grandpa. Oh, my mother's family

28:45

was all from Scotland

28:48

and they had a tradition

28:51

at midnight. Someone

28:53

with dark hair had to was

28:55

good luck for them to walk into

28:58

your home. So every

29:00

New Year's Eve at midnight,

29:03

my father would be the first one to

29:05

enter their home because he had black hair.

29:07

And I just I think they call

29:09

that Hogmanay was New

29:11

Year's Eve. But I

29:13

just wondered if you had any particularly

29:17

other things about, you

29:19

know, Scottish traditions.

29:22

That's a good.

29:23

Question to hold on to the line. So we're going to give you a copy

29:25

of Sheila's book as well. So Sheila,

29:27

what do you think?

29:28

Yeah, we all did that. Carol. It's called First

29:30

Footing and it was on New Year's Eve,

29:32

which, as you rightfully say, was called Hogmanay.

29:35

And at a minute to midnight, you

29:37

would go to a neighbor's house and you would carry a

29:39

lump of coal. And it was just it

29:41

was like a symbolic way of saying, I

29:43

pray that for this next year that

29:46

that you'll be provided for, that you will have

29:48

what you need. And I used to love that. And I remember,

29:50

I think, I think I was I had to

29:52

be like 14 before I was allowed to stay

29:54

up and go first footing at midnight. But

29:56

the thing I loved most growing up

29:59

was New Year's Day is really special

30:01

for me because in our little Scottish Baptist

30:03

Church on the west coast of Scotland, we

30:05

had the New Year's Day conference and

30:07

I was given the privilege of singing at it.

30:10

And most years in our church, it was

30:12

this wonderful, godly pastor called Alan

30:14

Redpath who would come and

30:16

he would share the message at the New Year's conference,

30:18

and I would have the privilege of singing. And

30:20

every single year, God

30:23

would bring some profound

30:25

message through that incredible

30:27

servant of his that would impact my

30:29

whole year. So that's why when

30:32

people talk about just parties and stuff on New

30:34

Year's Eve, it's never been that for me. It's

30:36

always been a kind of more solemn time

30:38

of refocusing for the year

30:41

ahead. And yeah, loved it.

30:43

Absolutely loved it.

30:44

Fascinating, by the way, a fun connection for

30:47

for the for both the caller and for you,

30:49

of course, Alan Redpath. Those you don't know was

30:51

the pastor of Moody Church. And of course, Moody

30:53

Bible Institute connected historically

30:55

there as well. But he also wrote for InterVarsity,

30:58

which is sort of a fun connection that's there from

31:00

our from our caller Carol. So, Carol, hold on the line. We're

31:02

going to give you a copy of Sheila's book

31:04

as, as well. So now you

31:06

were that was kind of a New Year's Eve tradition. Are there certain

31:08

Christmas traditions that that

31:11

Scottish people do that are different than

31:13

the rest of us?

31:14

I'm not sure that they're really different. I mean,

31:16

my my favorite thing every Christmas Eve,

31:18

and it was a fairly small church, maybe

31:21

200 people, which let me personally

31:23

say, I loved. I love small

31:25

church. I love being the place where

31:27

you walk in and you recognize people

31:29

and you. It's just that's really

31:31

where.

31:32

You go to like a monster sized church today.

31:34

So like, like and I do too. So

31:36

I mean, I love small churches too, but but

31:38

but you don't go to one. So but it was a

31:40

small. Well actually tell me more.

31:41

Actually we're about two because we've

31:43

relocated to a different area and

31:46

a place called Colleyville. And so that's

31:48

our pursuit at the moment. We are looking for a small

31:50

church where we can kind of good for ourselves in.

31:52

But New Year's, I mean, Christmas

31:54

Eve, we always had the candlelight service,

31:57

but for all the young people in our church,

31:59

that was a time when we would literally just go out

32:02

onto the streets and just

32:04

see if there was anyone that we could invite,

32:07

because you were never supposed to come to the Christmas Eve service

32:09

by yourself. It was always supposed to

32:11

be a time where you would invite someone. And my

32:13

most profound memory there was a family

32:16

in our church that I mean, I loved them. They've been

32:18

in our church for several generations,

32:21

but the

32:23

gentleman had a bit of a problem with with

32:25

alcohol, and he'd kind of fallen off the

32:27

wagon again. And so my best friend and I, we

32:29

were walking down to the harbor to see if there was

32:31

anyone that we could invite to come with us. And

32:33

I saw a man kind of lying on

32:36

the street. And so my friend

32:38

and I went up and asked if we could help,

32:40

and I realized it was this man

32:42

from our church, and he was

32:44

not in a good way. And I said, I

32:46

said to him, please come with us. And he said,

32:48

Jill, I can't, I can't set foot

32:50

in the church tonight. And I said, okay, here's the deal.

32:52

We'll wait till the service is started,

32:55

and then you and I will just sit in the back row.

32:57

You know, we'll just nobody has to see we're there

32:59

and I'll get you out before it's over.

33:01

And so he agreed to come. And I will

33:03

never forget that service because

33:06

it was like, there's something about when

33:08

you sit in the presence of the

33:10

reality of what Christmas is actually

33:12

all about, which is that we're all

33:14

lost. We've all messed up. We're all

33:16

broken with all fallen. And that's

33:18

why God. Invaded our space

33:20

to tell us that there is a way back home.

33:23

And when I go back home to Scotland, now

33:25

that darling man is in the choir

33:27

singing, and I think that's what Christmas

33:30

is all about, I love that.

33:31

I love that when I was leading LifeWay research, we

33:34

did a study and we asked people, you

33:36

know, kind of when they were most

33:38

open, we actually asked them individually, you know, are

33:40

you more open during a natural disaster

33:42

or whatever else it may be? And Christmas

33:44

was the top of the list. Consistently 47%

33:46

of people said they were more open now that

33:49

it could have been open, you know, all year at some

33:51

level. But 47% say they were more

33:53

open. It's one of the greatest opportunities is to

33:55

reach out to people and

33:57

share the good news of the gospel with them. And I love

33:59

that that nobody, nobody

34:02

comes alone to Christmas Eve service. And

34:04

but loneliness is obviously

34:06

I mean, a lot of our listeners right now, this is a this is a

34:08

hard time of the year. And loneliness

34:11

can peak for people, Christians

34:13

and non-Christians alike. And you talk about

34:15

some scriptural promises that

34:17

we can hold on to during

34:19

this season, related to loneliness and how to break through that.

34:21

Talk to us a little bit about those.

34:23

Yeah. It's really I've been rereading

34:26

a lot of the CS Lewis

34:28

books recently. I just got the whole Narnia

34:30

set again in a box edition and have been reading

34:32

through, and it brought back this memory to

34:34

me of of a Christmas

34:37

morning. My mom, she

34:39

was a widow and very low income,

34:42

and so we didn't have a lot of money to do

34:44

fancy things at Christmas. But one of the

34:46

things she would do is that we all

34:48

had a library card, and

34:51

part of part of our weekend

34:53

would be going to the library. And she said, we can't

34:55

go to the world at the moment, but the world could come to

34:58

us and we would get out classical music

35:00

and great books and things by Dickens.

35:02

And but I remember on this particular Christmas

35:04

morning, and this is really not answering your question,

35:06

but it was I was reading through

35:08

The Lion, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, and

35:10

I remember coming to the place where

35:13

I said I threw the book down and my mom

35:15

said, Sheila, what's wrong? And I said, you're not the

35:17

White Witch just killed Aslan. I hate

35:19

this story. And I remember my mom saying

35:21

to me, then you have to read on.

35:23

And I think that is true in life.

35:25

And some people right now are in the loneliest,

35:27

darkest days of their life. And I keep saying,

35:29

you have to read on. The story

35:31

is not over. That's what Christmas is all about.

35:33

You have to read on.

35:36

Oh, such a good word. Such a good word again. You know, our conversation

35:39

with Sheila Walsh. We've got one more segment

35:41

for your calls as well. If you want

35:43

to call us at (877) 548-3675.

35:47

Her brand new book is The Gifts, plural.

35:49

The Gifts of Christmas would

35:52

encourage you to take a copy of it as well.

35:54

We're going to hear our conversation with her and really go

35:56

right to your calls when we're back in

35:58

just a moment. (877) 548-3675.

36:02

That's that's live, live from Oxford with

36:04

Sheila Walsh who's in Texas and your calls

36:06

in just. That. Hey!

36:17

We're back. It's debts are live. Sheila Walsh is our

36:19

guest, talking about her brand new book

36:21

that you can get really just right now

36:23

because you want to jump in for the

36:25

advent season. And the book is called The

36:27

Gifts of Christmas. It's a devotional.

36:30

Plural gifts. The Gifts of Christmas by Sheila

36:32

Walsh. We're going to go right to our calls. We're talking about

36:34

some of the loneliness and some of the challenges. And

36:37

Penny has something that maybe adds to some of that

36:39

question. Penny, you're live on the air with your question in your comment.

36:41

Go right ahead.

36:42

Please provide suggestions

36:44

for.

36:45

Celebrating Christmas for those

36:47

grieving the recent death of

36:49

a loved one.

36:51

Penny, thanks so much for your call. And hold on the line too. We're going to

36:53

give you a copy of Sheila's book, The Gifts

36:55

of Christmas. I mean, this is and

36:57

Sheila, it's also personal for me. Both

36:59

both my mom and my wife's mom

37:01

are widows. This Christmas, for the first time,

37:03

we lost both of our both

37:06

of our stepfathers. And so, you

37:08

know, we're thinking about this. We're trying to make sure

37:10

that they're not alone. And more. What

37:12

what do you think in general? How about someone who's grieving during

37:14

this this Christmas season?

37:16

First of all, Penny, I'm so, so sorry.

37:19

I mean, there's just I think particularly

37:21

when something happens around this time of year or

37:24

when an anniversary, when something significant

37:26

happens. I was doing a Facebook Live the other

37:28

night and talking about, you know, an empty

37:30

space at the dinner table and how agonizing

37:33

that is. And, you know, it's interesting.

37:35

When I lost my my mom, which

37:38

was just about three years ago, and I

37:40

still catch myself the other day,

37:42

I passed a store that I used to get clothes

37:44

for my mom, and she liked it. I thought it was horrendous,

37:47

but she liked it and I actually

37:49

went into the store before I thought, oh for goodness sake,

37:51

what are you doing? And and

37:53

so what I did for a year

37:55

and for all through that Christmas time was

37:58

and this will sound strange, but I'll explain why

38:00

I carried a candy cane with

38:02

me in my pocket, and I'll tell you

38:04

why. Because when you go to the origins

38:06

of the candy cane, it goes right back to the 17th

38:09

century. It's a choirmaster

38:11

in Cologne, Germany, and he's trying to keep

38:13

the children quiet during this

38:16

nativity play. And he can't

38:18

keep them quiet. So he thinks, well, I'll give them a piece

38:20

of candy. But he thinks that looks irreverent.

38:22

So what he did was he got the local candy

38:25

maker in the village to take white

38:27

peppermint sticks and twist

38:29

the top over to look like a shepherd's

38:31

crook. And he gave that to each

38:33

one of the children, and it looked and it kept them quiet.

38:36

But there's something about remembering

38:38

Psalm 23 that even

38:40

in the dark, even if I walk through the darkest

38:43

place, I will not be afraid, because

38:45

you are with me. And

38:47

there's something about the image of Christ as

38:49

the Shepherd. I love the fact that I was

38:51

in Israel in March, and watching

38:54

shepherds getting their sheep into the pen at

38:56

night, and once they're all in, this

38:58

is what I thought was fascinating. The shepherd slept

39:00

over the opening and the message

39:02

was clear if you want to get

39:05

to my sheep, you're going to have to come through

39:07

me. And I just want to

39:09

remind you, Penny, that Christ, the

39:11

good Shepherd, is walking with

39:13

you. You know, when you look at Psalm 23,

39:16

it says, I will fear no evil, for

39:18

thou art with me, that

39:21

thou in art. There's

39:23

words that have been added to make sense in

39:25

English, but in the original Hebrew it says,

39:28

I will not be afraid for you. Me?

39:30

In other words, you can't get a thread between

39:32

us. That's how close the Lord is

39:35

to you during this season. I

39:37

ache with you for your loss, but I

39:39

want you to remember the good Shepherd will never

39:42

leave your side.

39:45

It's such a good word. Sheila. Thank you so much. Let's

39:47

go to Tom in Chattanooga. Tom, you live in

39:49

the air with your question of your comment. Go right ahead.

39:51

Yeah. Thank you for taking my call. I

39:54

just had a comment that one thing

39:56

I like to do at Christmas, and also on

39:58

communion Sundays and at different times,

40:00

is to remind myself that all the stuff

40:03

in the Bible actually happened on real days,

40:05

just as real as today. Like

40:08

it's raining here, I think it's raining where you are.

40:10

And some days Jesus got rained

40:12

on and all that.

40:15

And so this just helps me to remember that

40:17

it's it was all real. And

40:21

I think our sister with

40:24

your guest or

40:26

the lady speaking, I don't remember,

40:29

mentioned. Well,

40:31

I lost my train of thought on that, but the thing I

40:33

wanted to ask was, if you always

40:35

make some suggestions or comments about

40:38

that would be encouraging to fathers to be

40:40

active in things like singing Christmas

40:42

carols at home, things like that. Because

40:45

my dad never did that, and

40:47

I found out later that he

40:49

actually used to pray upstairs by himself

40:51

and pray out loud. And I never

40:54

knew that until I was about 60 or something.

40:57

So I just I just like to hear your comments

40:59

on that.

41:00

No, I think that's great. Tom, thank you so much. And, Sheila,

41:02

that's a great question for for dads who

41:05

who may be listening as how they

41:07

might, you know, my kids would

41:09

ask me not to sing Christmas

41:11

carols, but because I like to sing too much

41:13

and I don't have a great voice like you and my daughter,

41:15

who, as you know, is an opera singer. But

41:18

but so what would you suggest for dads? I mean, maybe, maybe

41:20

some can sing, maybe some can't.

41:22

Tom, can I just say, first of all, I just. I

41:24

love your heart. I love that you would even ask

41:27

that question. And it makes me kind of sad

41:29

for your dad that he felt like that was something that

41:31

maybe he couldn't do in front of you. But I think

41:33

we're changing and we're learning. And one

41:35

of the things I've loved my husband and I've been married for

41:38

29 years, our son is 27,

41:40

and one of the things that we have we

41:42

do as a family is that he will read

41:44

the story from Luke to

41:47

us on on Christmas Eve, and we'll

41:49

reread it. We'll revisit it on Christmas

41:51

morning. And I think that there's

41:54

just dads are stepping up

41:56

in new ways in terms of of leading

41:58

the family and not being embarrassed. It's something

42:00

that's beautiful and that's strong

42:03

and and something else I've noticed

42:05

that he does as a dad that I have huge

42:07

admiration for is, you

42:10

know, if something doesn't if he

42:12

loses his temper or something's not

42:14

great, or maybe it could have been done in a slightly

42:16

better way. I love the fact I've watched

42:18

my husband sit down with my son and say, well, you forgive

42:20

me. I was wrong, and I think there's

42:23

nothing greater for a dad than to

42:25

be honest and real and vulnerable

42:27

with your children, because what you model

42:29

for them becomes part of the fabric of

42:31

their life.

42:33

So good, so good. Let's get to one more question.

42:35

If we can, maybe more, but let's get to this one because I'm kind of

42:37

interested. Doug in Tampa, Florida, your

42:39

question intrigues me. Jump right in with it.

42:42

All right. Thank you for taking my call. Sheila.

42:45

I'm older, a few months younger

42:47

than a gentleman named Rich Mullins. And I know you

42:49

interviewed him long ago. I'm

42:51

curious if you can remember anything

42:53

about how he would approach Christmas.

42:57

Harsh. That's great. One of my favorite

42:59

interviews I ever did was I had the

43:01

privilege of sitting with Rich, and I

43:03

used to have a program on Christian Broadcasting Network

43:05

called Heart to Heart. And it was interesting

43:07

because the birth of that program was out of my

43:09

frustration with my other job

43:12

on the 700 club, because I felt like

43:14

all we ever told were the good stories, the happy

43:16

stories, the marriages that were restored, the

43:18

people that did get healed, which to

43:20

my mind was the minority,

43:22

not the majority. And so I sat down

43:24

with Pat Robertson one day and I said, listen, I

43:26

want to do a show that meets people where

43:29

they actually are as rather than where

43:31

we wish they were. And that's where

43:33

Heart to Heart was born. And so

43:35

Rich was one of my first guests. And

43:38

he was just he was such an interesting,

43:40

diverse, deep rascal

43:43

of a person who he

43:46

just because something had always been done

43:48

didn't make sense to him. He

43:50

struggled and wrestled to find

43:52

what was real. And I think

43:54

more than perhaps most people that I've

43:56

interviewed, Rich had a true,

43:59

deep understanding of our

44:01

utter, desperate

44:03

need for Christ, for his grace

44:05

and for his mercy. And he was

44:07

a strange mixture of sorrow

44:09

and joy. I saw in Rich that you can

44:12

walk with both of those things

44:14

in your hand at the same time.

44:16

You can grieve for a world that makes no sense

44:19

and yet have joy in in your

44:21

relationship with God. That

44:23

I think Christmas with Rich would

44:25

have been an interesting time.

44:29

I think so too, as well. It'll be fascinating

44:31

as well. Well, we've got we've got about a minute left,

44:33

so maybe just give us kind of a final

44:35

exhortation to people who are maybe looking

44:37

at the Christmas time, what practices maybe, do you

44:39

do during advent that keep Jesus

44:41

at the forefront? How does that work for you?

44:44

One of the things that I do, and

44:46

it's really important to me, is I find

44:48

in every day a place to be quiet.

44:50

And sometimes if it's a nice day like today,

44:53

I'll maybe go out and I have a favorite tree

44:55

I like to sit under. And I'm

44:57

learning the beauty of silence,

44:59

of listening for God in unlikely

45:01

places and and

45:03

not. I mean, I'll go to the mall at some

45:05

point, probably if my husband drags me,

45:07

but mostly I'll find a place to be quiet

45:10

and to remember and to celebrate

45:12

the good news that God has come

45:15

to us.

45:18

Love it, love it, and so thankful for you for joining us

45:20

for the program as well. Again for the book.

45:22

The book is the gifts, plural, the Gifts

45:25

of Christmas 25 joy filled

45:27

devotions for advent. And we're so

45:29

thankful that we get to move into

45:31

this season of advent. Expectation

45:33

of looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.

45:36

I always tell my kids that advent

45:38

is this time of like a re-enacting. It's a replaying

45:40

of this advent story, and it's kind of

45:42

a spoiler alert. You know, Jesus is born,

45:45

but the expectation that's there

45:47

and I love Advent Devotional,

45:49

so I want to commend to you gifts

45:51

the gifts of Christmas 25 Joy

45:53

filled devotions for advent. Hey, let me

45:55

thank my team as always for the good work that

45:57

they do. Went a little extra above and beyond

45:59

as we're broadcasting live from Oxford.

46:02

So thankful for them helping us to

46:04

make that happen. And our guest in Texas

46:06

while I'm in England, kind of crazy world in

46:08

which we live today. So thanks to Sheila Walsh for joining me.

46:10

Thanks to our behind the scenes team, my producer

46:12

Karen Hendren, my engineer Bob Morrow,

46:14

and Lynn aptly manning the

46:16

phones today to hear today's program

46:18

again. You'll find it at Stitcher, Live.com

46:21

or at the Moody Radio app,

46:23

and you can follow us on Facebook and

46:25

Twitter and Instagram. All it and stats are live

46:27

and be able to follow along with us as

46:30

well. I hope that you're taking some time

46:32

in the hustle and bustle of this season

46:34

to say, focus on Jesus. I'm actually teaching

46:36

a modular class all week, so I'll be in class, you

46:38

know, eight hours a day for the next five

46:40

days. But even for me, I'll take some time away to

46:42

pray, to seek the Lord, be with

46:44

my family. I hope you can as

46:46

well. Hey, thanks for listening to Ed Central Live and

46:48

Ed Central Live is a production of Moody Radio, which

46:50

is a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

46:53

Again, we'll listen to talk to you next Saturday. Looking forward

46:55

to it.