For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. Isaiah 9:6

God cared enough to send us the very best gift possible, which was Jesus Christ. God's generosity to us is what makes the Christmas season so special. The remarkable giving spirit of our Lord is what prompts us to make the Christmas season a time to give and share from our hearts.

In that spirit of remarkable giving, I want to let the almost 200 churches that have paid their 2011 apportionments in full know that their giving means so much to me as the Bishop of the North Texas Annual Conference. I understand that it is not always easy to do this. The tremendous effort that has gone into making the payments can never be minimized. The sacrifices that large and small churches have made are commendable. I want to personally express my appreciation and joy at your accomplishments.

As noted in an accompanying article, our UMR editor omitted the names of most of those churches in the Dec 9 edition. This error caused a great uproar, and I understand why. The hard work and dedication required to pay apportionments seemed undervalued and overlooked by the article. It appeared that only the large church gifts were valued. That is not the case!

Many of those who expressed concern were from small congregations, and they felt that their contributions did not matter. This could not be further from the truth. The contributions of every church are needed and valued.

One of my favorite TV game shows is Wheel of Fortune, where contestants solve a puzzle by selecting the missing letters. Let's look at the word "ch_ _ ch" in the North Texas Conference. What two letters are missing? Obviously, U R (you are). We can't be all that God has destined us to be without one another.

I pray that the newspaper error won't cause us to lose our Christmas joy. This season comes but once a year, and I trust that nothing will get in the way of the reason for the season. God bless!

Once again, the season of Christmas is upon us. I don't know about you, but it came rather quickly for me. It's as if we did not have time to prepare, and yet that is exactly what the season of Advent is all about – preparation.

While serving as a pastor of a local congregation, I was reminded over and over again of the importance of experiencing and living into the seasons of preparation prior to our holiest of holy days, Christmas and Easter.

Advent gives us an opportunity to get ready, anticipate and prepare for the coming of the Christ child in our midst. This may mean we need to make some changes in our personal and spiritual lives to get ready for this important event. There is no celebration without preparation and anticipation.

Before our daughter Letitia was born on Dec. 30, 1989, Leslie and I had to make some changes to prepare for her coming. The room that we used as a catch-all had to be cleared to make room for the new addition in our lives. You need to know that we had already raised five children, and we believed our season for child-rearing was over. In fact, we had just celebrated the birth of a grandson a few months earlier. We were older and had become settled in our ways. All of a sudden, we got the news that a baby was coming, and our entire life changed.

At first, all we thought about was returning to sleepless nights, changing diapers, Parent-Teacher Association meetings, etc. But then an amazing revelation occurred. We began to thank God for this wonderful gift. We prayed for good health and growth. And we started making changes once again in preparation for a new life in our midst.

So it is with the season of Christmas. Although commercialization and consumer ads have cluttered our airways and lives, we are reminded of the real reason for the season of Christmas — the recognition and celebration of the Christ child coming into our lives to offer hope, peace, love and joy.

May the spirit of Christmas that brought forth the messiah and savior of the world bless and reinvigorate your hearts and minds to go forth and make a difference.

Merry Christmas!