An early Christmas Present

Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church had a few words to share after Brooklyn Tab’s Christmas concert this past weekend. Something for us to consider in the last dash to Christmas.

There are at least three reasons – in addition to the redemption of mankind from the sentence of sin – Jesus Christ choose to be born in Bethlehem, to become a man like us.
The first, said Pastor Cymbala, is that God loves you. A simple statement, yet often so hard to personally accept. God might love everybody else, but can He really love me?

Yeah … God loves you. If you were the only son (or daughter) of Adam throughout all time, Jesus would have become flesh and blood just for you. God loves you. That is His character.

Second is that God feels what you feel. The Bible tells us that God is Creator of all things, including man. It also tells us that God feels our pain, our loneliness and our discouragement. God feels what you feel.

And, because He loves you, there is the third reason. Jesus came into this world to give us hope. The hope that comes from the fact that God loves us, God feels what we feel and God cares so much about us that he asked His son to become our Redeemer to give us hope.

And so, we have Christmas.

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I’ve held off on a November newsletter because things were moving along rapidly at Kregel Publications regarding the release date of The Sacred Cipher and I wanted to make sure I shared solid information.

While Kregel is still working to lock down its production schedule for the spring, it appears The Sacred Cipher will be released to bookstores in May.

The folks at Kregel have been great, and very encouraging. According to the marketing department, Sacred Cipher is one of their “lead titles for the season” and they are being very deliberate to ensure its success. What a blessing!

I have seen one result of Kregel’s commitment to The Sacred Cipher – the cover design. It is stunning … dramatic … and really cool. Kregel engaged an outside designer/artist to work on the cover and rejected two initial designs until they got the design they wanted.

So, my first Christmas present this year is one I'll share with you ... the official cover of The Sacred Cipher. Cool or what! Keep an eye out for the January newsletter. I hope to have a lot more details to share with you by then.

From the Brennans – may you and your family be blessed with joy, peace and God’s rest this Christmas.

Terry, Andrea, Meghan and Matthew

Merry Christmas!