THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

« MY BETHEL “The Three Trees” at Halle Stadium in Memphis, TN
(where I prayed after jogging about every day from June 1977-June 1981)

BACK TO THE BASICS MINISTRIES
DECEMBER 2011 UPDATE
“It’s Time To Get Back To The Basics of Life”
P.O. Box 32486 Knoxville, TN 37930 / 865-966-4150
brobmullins@aol.com / www.drbobbymullins.com

THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

One of the most beautiful and moving narratives I have ever heard for a Christmas musical is from the cantata, Noel, Jesus is Born. The musical score was written by Lanny Wolfe, and the narration was composed by the late Bob Benson. Here is a timely excerpt from it that is so relevant to where most of us find our personal circumstances at Christmas:

Well, He [Christ] still comes into a crowded world. It was crowded then, but it’s more crowded now. We lead such busy, jostling, cluttered lives—and they’re even more so at Christmas. We come loaded with bundles of gifts of love for others, but we get impatient and blow our horns at the cars ahead of us. Hardly time enough to buy a tree, we frantically wrap the last of the packages just moments before we’re to tear them open—so we can rush off to somewhere else and back again exhausted.
     Here we are at Christmas again—hoping to hear the angels singing, needing a star to follow, really wanting to kneel at a manger. We mean to adore Him with Mary, we do believe with Joseph. We want to worship with the shepherds, our hearts long to rejoice with the wise men—but somehow there isn’t any time.
     It is into just such a world the angels come again and again to sing these eloquent, lifegiving words—Jesus is born, Jesus is born.
     Just as those words came and changed a barn filled with cows and straw into a shrine, a hillside dotted with sheep and shepherds into a cathedral, a sky filled with stars into a message from the Father—so they come to you, as old as eternity—as fresh as the morning—as simple as a baby—as majestic as a psalm. Warm as a mother’s arms—mighty as God Himself—Jesus is born, Jesus is born.

A recent survey revealed that over 50% of the citizens of this country no longer view the birth of Christ as the most significant emphasis surrounding Christmas. Excuse me! But isn’t that where the reason for this season originated? I mention this statistic because most of us feel that we keep the emphasis upon Jesus at Christmas time. Do we? Evaluate your schedule and see what truly matters the most at Christmas. Every year, I am sensing the worldly side of Christmas crowding more and more into our spiritual worship and service, which is the year long, lifetime result of what this season is truly all about. Don’t let the rush and busyness surrounding Christmas cause you to focus most on the secular side of the Christmas season. Don’t let it cause you to neglect your spiritual duties and responsibilities.
     Keep Christ as the central focus of your Christmas. Take some time every day to go back to that hillside with the shepherds, to rejoice at the manger with Joseph and Mary, and to glory in the good news, the best news, the greatest news the world has ever known and will ever know—Jesus is born, Jesus is risen, Jesus lives, and Jesus will reign forever.

MERRY CHRISTMAS From The Mullins Family – Bro. Bobby, Wanda, Melody, Mallory, Brandon, Megan, and Brantley (His 1st Christmas)

Aunt Melody »         
Aunt Mallory
Brantley

                  Mia, Poppy, & Brantley

Mom, Dad, & Brantley

“YOU’RE HAVING A HEART ATTACK”

I heard those shocking words shortly after midnight on Monday, December 12. I will give the details in the January 2012 Update, but I want to let you know that I am doing well after having 3 stints put in arteries, going home a day, then back to the hospital and having 2 more stints added to arteries. I have mentioned in previous updates that my life verse for this year is Ps. 35:28: “My tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all day long.” It has helped to sustain me throughout 2011. I am pondering now what my life verse will be for 2012. I will share it with you in the January 2012 Update. What about you? Why don’t you select a life verse for 2012 that will describe how you want to live each day in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and reflects Christ to the world.

TV PROGRAM REPEATS
We are repeating previously aired programs of A Fresh Start on a regular basis as a means of stewardship. I would like to air all new programs, but with the cost being $1000.00 for three hours studio time and eight hours of editing to produce four new programs, I believe the best use of ministry funds is to repeat every new program at least once. One of my reasons for airing the TV program was to get the program and a Christian witness into the thousands of hotel/motel rooms and chalets/cabins in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Smoky Mountains corridor where hundreds of thousands of people vacation and attend conferences each year from all over the United States and the world. With most of the tourists being in the area once a year, they don’t know if a program of A Fresh Start is a new airing or a repeat. So, we usually air four new programs in a row, then repeat those broadcasts at least once before airing new programs.

HUNDRED FOLD BLESSING BENEFACTORS, GIDEON’S 300 GIVERS AND DIFFERENCE MAKER DONORS

We have three special levels of giving that financial contributors to Back To The Basics Ministries can attain. On the first program of A Fresh Start my message was about Gideon and how his army of 300 routed an army of thousands, so many thousands that the Bible said they “were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (Judges 7:12). Wow! Little is much when God is in it! The idea behind the Gideon’s 300 Givers is for 300 couples or singles to reach the $300 level in giving to the ministry, preferably in a year. Once any donor has reached the $300 level in total giving to the ministry, they will become a Gideon’s 300 Giver. As of the writing of this update, 30 couples/singles have become Gideon’s 300 Givers.
     Another level of giving is that of the Hundred Fold Blessing Benefactors. A couple sent me a check for $100 soon after I began A Fresh Start Ministries/Back To The Basics Ministries, who are about the same age of Wanda and me, with three children about the same age of our children. They said that as long as the Lord blessed them to be able to do so that they were going to give $100 a month to the ministry. I am praying for 99 other couples/singles who could do likewise —give an average per year of $100 a month to the ministry. So far, 15 couples/singles have reached this level of giving (that also makes them Gideon’s 300 Givers, too) in a year’s time, and 13 have maintained giving at that level each year since the ministry was founded in July, 2009. For those who reach the level of Gideon’s 300 Givers or Hundred Fold Blessing Benefactors, in time we will have some ways by which we will thank such supporters of Back To The Basics Ministries, such as a complimentary copy of any book published by the ministry and other special means of recognition and appreciation.
     Everyone who makes a donation to Back To The Basics Ministries is a Difference Maker Donor. Regardless of the amount of the financial gift, you are making a difference in helping us to keep the television program on air and the ministry operating. In giving me the opportunity to minister and touch lives for Christ through A Fresh Start TV program and Back To The Basics Ministries, you have helped to make a difference in their lives, too, by making it possible for me to do it! I am humbled that anyone would give financially to allow me the privilege to preach and minister in the name of Jesus.

Blessings, Bobby Mullins

“Keep in the Word, on your knees, loving God, loving each other, worshiping together,
building Godly homes, supporting the Lord’s work financially, sharing the faith.”