On Christmas Eve-Eve (Sun Dec 23), we continued our "Survival Guide to Christmas" series (session #4 of 5).

We studied the story of Simeon & Anna in Luke 2:21-38 and talked about "Dealing with Being Alone."

Here are some bonus thoughts from that session:

• Hardly anyone had heard a message before on Simeon & Anna (neither had I).  Those two have really gotten the "Holiday Shaft" over the last 2000 years of Christmas messages.  No more.  🙂
• I LOVED the image of God using 2 older single people who hadn’t retired from serving God.
• Extra verses I referenced that day?
  • The circumcision & newborn-sacrifice laws (Leviticus 12)
  • The "I realize I’m all alone" psalm (Psalm 142)
  • The "benefit of being single" passage (1 Corinthians 7:32-33)
  • The "Wow…God’s really knows me" psalm (Psalm 139:1-8)
• Our Grace Café team rolled out their new cappuccino machine that day.  Mmmm….
• Actually, I did 5 services that day:
  • 5:30a – Review #1 (by myself)
  • 6:30a – Review #2 (with Brian Gann)
  • 8:30a – Service #1
  • 10:00a – Service #2
  • 11:30a – Service #3
  • 1:00p – I officially became a pool of mental mush  🙂