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What are you hoping for this Christmas? Shawna is hoping for good rest. What she really needs is God rest. Rest for her soul! It’s the gift God wants to give you!
After a life-time of trial and error Perry is convinced, “My performance will never get me the verdict that I’m a good person.” There is only one way to get that longed-for verdict.
Sometimes we choose to take matters into our own hands rather than trusting God. Because of a traumatic experience with her daughter’s dog, Shawna vowed never to buy green grapes ever again! Vows are ways of baking into our hearts, “God, I don’t really trust you.”
During the last 3 years of Perry’s mom’s life, she descended into the fog of some dementia. At she began the descent, she admitted to Perry’s dad, “I just don’t think I want to go on living.” But then 8 words from Jesus gave her the strength to go on.
“I don’t need you to rescue me!” comes from deep within Shawna. She resisted every offer for help when she got stuck in the ditch during a snowstorm even though there was no way she would get out on her own. Rescue starts with laying down our pride.
Jesus came to us as a baby at Christmas time. And Jesus still comes intimately close to us now.
Sometimes He comes into the darkness reminding us that He is the Light of the World.
Steve Norman of Winning at Home & host of The New Norm Podcast has written a devotional to help us ready our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ coming. It’s called Countdown to Christmas.
At a time when he was sitting in physical darkness and feeling ashamed, Jesus came to Steve through the words of his 4-year-old son singing, “This Little Light of Mine.”
As Steve was hitting the wall in the 17th mile of a marathon he was ill-prepared to run, Jesus ran next to him through words of encouragement from fellow runners.
Jesus comes and meets us where we are. Eugene Peterson says in The Message “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
Jesus is Immanuel, God with us!
That’s what the last couple years for Perry has felt like. Starting in 2021 with a 90% blockage in his Widow-Maker artery. But Perry can honestly say, “I’m thankful for every hardship.” What?? It’s because of what God does in us through our suffering. That he can’t do any other way.
For some, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. Shawna asked a friend how she could pray for her and she immediately teared up. Jesus, Immanuel, Joy of the world, is with us in our sadness too.
Perry and Shawna listener Brian texted them in September saying, “Please pray for me, I have a really bad disease.” And 3 months later Brian was gone. Perry went to pay his respects this past Monday and as he walked back to his car it felt like death was on him like a heavy blanket. The blanket lifted as he thought of some words of hope from Aslan!
Everything seems bigger at Christmastime. The good things seem better. The hardships seem greater. Christmas doesn’t create our problems or improve our lives – it simply amplifies what already is. Christmas was never intended to magnify us. This Christmas let’s magnify the One Christmas is all about.
Before Perry was 25, God had blessed him with some amazing open doors for the Kingdom. And then, that season was over and he found himself cleaning toilets. Super humbling. It wasn’t anything Perry had chosen. But for Jesus he gave up all his glory willingly, for us!
Jesus’ birth was not His beginning. He always has been and always will be. Jesus came to give us eternal life. Only an eternal being could offer an eternal gift.
This painfully describes the journey of the Jewish people. From the destruction of the Temple, and Jerusalem in 70 AD, the journey has been brutal. Perry first asks Middle East expert Charlie Dyer:
“What happened with the Jews between Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans in 70 AD and their restoration to the land in 1948?” It’s a profound flyover of that long and torturous journey.
Dr. Charlie Dyer, Middle East scholar at Moody Bible institute and the host of The Land and the Book on Moody Radio has authored a ton of books including an revised version of Who Owns the Land—An In-Depth Look at the Truth Behind the Middle East Conflict.
Shawna then asks, “Why should we expect non-believers to accept God’s promise of the land to Israel?”
Also we hear the story of a Messianic Jew knocking on the door of an Arab Muslim in Tel Aviv who was so hungry to know about Jesus. Pointing to the ultimate hope for the Middle East: The gospel!
And Perry asks Charlie, “If you had the power to make a decision tomorrow about who owns the land and where Jews should live and where Palestinians should live, what would you do?”
Though his answer puts Israel in her land because of God’s promises, it doesn’t include driving out all non-Jews. An answer we actually find in the earlies pages of the bible.
After years of drug addiction, losing custody of her children, and cycling in and out of prison, Sheaveal hit rock bottom. One night, convinced she’d die from an overdose, she prayed to God. The next morning, she woke up knowing she had been saved.
That same day, she was arrested and spent five and a half years in prison. There, through Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program, Sheaveal reconnected with her children and began rebuilding her family.
Today, she works with Angel Tree to help other families heal.
You can be a part of bringing joy to children this Christmas. Deliver a present, the Gospel, and a message of love for a child with a parent in prison by going to Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree.
Perry LaHaie's passion is to know Jesus and make Him known. “I’m all in with Jesus but not all put together. I need Jesus right now as much as I did when I first started following Him!” Perry says. In addition to co-hosting Perry and Shawna Mornings, Perry is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, and advocate for those who haven’t yet heard the gospel, especially those in the Muslim world. Born and raised in northern Michigan, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a graduate degree in Cross- cultural Communications. Perry also serves with Frontiers, a worldwide ministry to Muslims. Perry and his bride, Teresa, call Holland, Michigan home. They have two adult children, Kali and Taylor, and Taylor’s bride, Bri.
Shawna Beyer has a way of telling stories that create personal connection— to her, to one another, and to God. She has been a homeschool mom, church planter, project lead for a consulting company, and church staff member. Though she’s been involved in ministry with her husband (Dan) in Iowa, Arizona, and now Michigan, she was born and raised in Southern California and as they say, “You can take the girl out of California . . .” She is mom to four grown kids (Bryn, Drayson, Eden, and Haven) who no longer need her but humor her anyway. Shawna is passionate about the rhythms we weave into the fabric of our lives to fall more in love with God each day. Healthy foods are her go-to, but she will abandon that whole track in a heartbeat for a homemade cinnamon roll like Grandma used to make.
The Perry and Shawna Podcast: Real life conversations reminding you that you’re Abba’s child and that you’re blessed to be a blessing and loved to share Jesus’ love.