The Christ Candle serves as a profound symbol of the enduring light of faith, reminding us that grace does not come to an end with the holiday season. As we reflect on the past year and look forward, we are invited to abide in faith even as it faces trials in our daily lives. The importance of community engagement is emphasized as a catalyst for personal growth, urging us to reconnect with the essence of our faith. This episode serves as both a celebration of our journey and a call to persist in our belief amidst the challenges we encounter. Together, we endeavor to equip leaders for the future, ensuring that the light of faith continues to shine brightly in our lives and communities.

In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey D. Skinner 'Echoes Through Eternity.' The episode emphasizes the significance of the Christ candle and the importance of abiding in faith, inviting listeners to reflect on their spiritual journeys as they look forward to the new year.

1. The Christ candle symbolizes the enduring light of faith.
2. Listeners are encouraged to return to the essence of their faith.
3. The importance of community engagement in personal growth is highlighted.
4. The episode serves as a reflection on the past year and a look forward.
5. Faith is tested in daily life after the holiday season.
6. The invitation to abide in faith is central to the message.
7. The podcast aims to equip leaders for the future.

The illumination of the Christ candle serves as a poignant reminder of the unending light of faith that persists beyond the holiday season. This profound episode invites listeners to reflect on the essence of their faith as they navigate the often tumultuous realities of daily life. After the festive celebrations have concluded, many find their faith tested in the mundane routines that reassert themselves. The hosts articulate a powerful message: that the invitation to abide in faith is not merely a call to maintain belief but a profound encouragement to return to the core of what faith embodies. As we stand at the threshold of a new year, this episode provides not only a retrospective on the past year but also a forward-looking vision for personal and communal growth. The emphasis on community engagement underscores the vital role that fellowship plays in nurturing our spiritual journeys and equipping us for future leadership endeavors within our communities.

Takeaways:

1. The Christ candle serves as a profound symbol of the enduring light of faith, inviting us to reflect on our spiritual journey.
2. In the aftermath of the holiday season, our faith faces substantial tests as we navigate daily life.
3. The essence of our faith calls us to return to its core principles, fostering a deeper connection with God.
4. Community engagement plays a pivotal role in personal growth, emphasizing the interconnectedness of our journeys.
5. As we conclude the year, this episode reflects on past experiences while encouraging us to look forward with hope.
6. The invitation to abide in faith is central, reminding us that the light of Christ continually guides us through life's challenges.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. cozyearth.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Dynamic Church Planning International
2. Missional Church Planting
3. Cozy Earth

Mentioned in this episode:

Peace in that Finds You in the Middle of Chaos

Cozyearth.com. Use Code Echo for a 40% Discount Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner shares his experience with Cozy Earth's products, highlighting their impact on his family's comfort since moving to Nashville. He discusses the benefits of their bamboo-based bedding and blankets, emphasizing their softness, temperature regulation, and luxurious feel. The episode also includes a special discount offer for listeners. Keywords Cozy Earth, bamboo bedding, temperature regulation, luxury comfort, Nashville, family warmth, discount offer, Christmas gift, home sanctuary, podcast partnership

Peace in that Finds You in the Middle of Chaos

Cozyearth.com. Use Code Echo for a 40% Discount Dr. Jeffery D. Skinner shares his experience with Cozy Earth's products, highlighting their impact on his family's comfort since moving to Nashville. He discusses the benefits of their bamboo-based bedding and blankets, emphasizing their softness, temperature regulation, and luxurious feel. The episode also includes a special discount offer for listeners. Keywords Cozy Earth, bamboo bedding, temperature regulation, luxury comfort, Nashville, family warmth, discount offer, Christmas gift, home sanctuary, podcast partnership

Marcus Aurelius said, what we do in life echoes through eternity.

What is your life echoing through eternity.

Welcome to Echoes Through Eternity with Dr. Jeffrey Skinner.

Our mission is to inspire, engage and encourage leaders from across the globe to plant missional churches and be servant leaders.

So join us and hear the stories of servant leaders reverberating lives as God echoes them through eternity.

Brought to you by Missional Church Planting and Leadership development in Dynamic Church Planning International.

Welcome in to Echoes Through Eternity.

I AM your host, Dr. Jeffrey D. Skinner.

What is God echoing through your life today?

Well, welcome back in.

It has been a rough Christmas for me.

I woke up Christmas morning not feeling great and had a cold couple weeks back and got over it.

It wasn't too bad, just some chest congestion, head congestion, got over it, thought I was good.

And then Christmas Eve, began to cough a little bit.

Really didn't think anything about it.

I just thought maybe it was last vestiges of the previous cold that I had woke up Christmas morning, had to put a Boston butt on the rec tech grill outside and got that going.

Got everything prepared the night before so it was good to go.

I didn't have to do a lot of prep there, put it on if you know anything about the rec tech, you just put the probes in and let it go and it tells you when it's done, when you set the temperature on and once it reaches that temperature it notifies on your mobile phone and you go and take it off the grill.

So pretty easy to do.

I got up, did that, had the kids over Christmas mornings to do our Christmas along with his Blaine's future fiance.

He's got a ring for her and everybody got here, we open gifts, celebrated there and then I went back to bed.

I just was not feeling well.

We were supposed to have our family over that day around one o' clock.

I said our family, extended family, sister, brother in law, niece, nephew, my mom.

We were excited.

This is the first time in 34 years ever to host Christmas at our house.

We did Thanksgiving traditionally at my sister's house, Christmas Day traditionally, traditionally at mom's Christmas Eve our traditions go out to eat and then we'll go to World Outreach Church and, and do the Christmas Eve service there, go back home, just kind of do some silly Santa stuff at my mom's house and then Christmas Day a lot of times we'd spend at my, my sister's house and so this year we were excited to have everybody at our house and so but I went back to bed, just wasn't feeling well, and so everybody, I got up around noon to take the meat off the grill, got it prepared for Bay and make him over, but I just wasn't able to eat.

I was just nauseous.

I went back to bed, got up long enough to have Christmas with everybody, and went back to bed again.

Woke up the day after Christmas feeling a little bit better.

I've taken a little job in addition, my chaplain see a little job as a member services representative, as a.

At a small.

I say small.

They're corporate.

They've got several locations around the Nashville area, but nationally as well.

Boston, places like that.

But anyway, just kind of get to know the community a little bit.

I'm loving that, just connecting with community.

Of course, anytime you do customer service, there's gonna be some challenges, but for the most part, it's been a fun job and it has succeeded in connecting with the community and, and letting people know that the refinery is on its way and we're in the process of planting that and, and still trying to figure out what the sponsored church is going to look like.

I thought I had a sponsored church, but maybe not on that.

And so just, you know, they've gotten burned in the past on some things and certainly don't want to force anybody into anything.

But regardless, I'm moving forward my plans.

I'm trying to be patient, listen to the Lord, make all the discernment stuff.

Don't want to rush into anything and don't want to do anything outside the will of the Lord.

And also there's, you know, processes within the denomination have to follow through.

But anyway, all that being said, I've.

I've taken a little job at the wholesale club there as well.

And so I went to work on that on that Friday and then yesterday as well.

Feeling okay, still not great.

But I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better.

I'm still a bit creepy, you can tell in my voice.

I've got a little bit of a bass voice today, which is fine.

I've always wanted to be a bass.

I. I love the, the bass voice, the bass sound, but never really developed the super deep voice.

But, but anyway, I am back in the host podcast host seat this morning, and we want to unwrap the.

The final day, you know, lighting in the Messiah.

Messiah candle for the conclusion of Advent.

Not the conclusion of Christmas, mind you, because Christmas is a season for the church.

Christmas is a day, but it's also a season because we recognize that, that the light of the world didn't come just for Israel.

But for the whole world.

And, and so it's, it's, you know, there's 12 days of Christmas that we sing about.

Surprisingly a lot of people don't know that, but that's what that, that was developed kind of code for people that were in captivity and, and you know, in hostile environments for them to kind of celebrate the 12 days of Christmas without being persecuted.

So it's kind of a code for persecuted church there.

So anyway, I wanted to hop on here today and do our, I guess it will be our final episode of the year and wow, has it been a great year for Echoes through Eternity.

Our podcast grew by 140something percent on Spotify.

Even more on Apple podcast we had it seem the metrics are a little bit different so it's hard to tell exactly me a sip of coffee here.

Also today show is a little bit more casual.

But anyway just wanted to hop on here today though and, and, and celebrate the lighting of the Messiah candle.

But yeah, it's been a great year for Echoes through Eternity.

Thank you.

One of the most shared shows by the way of, of all the podcasts in the world on Spotify and Apple podcast.

And that's thanks to you.

You are great folks.

We got a new sponsor this past year with the Cozy Earth which that blanket is still the most popular here winter time that we have@cozyearth.com you use the code echo and you get a 42% off I think through the end of the year and maybe even longer.

I'll let you know when it changes.

But, but Lisa has new competition.

Was Lisa and I in in competition for it but the Cozy Earth bubble cuddle blanket I think it's called and Bailey our dog, our lab German short hair pointer mix.

Just a wonderful pet.

She was a rescue.

I think our entire family's a rescue.

We were rescued by God and then we rescued a couple of kids from foster care and then we rescued her dog to go along with it.

So our family is walking salvation.

But our dog loves the blanket and so her and Bailey fight over the blanket.

And just a secret here, Bailey usually wins if there's a contest for anything in the house, even if it's food, Bailey, our dog generally wins.

But anyway, so yeah, check out that our new sponsor there.

But just our followers grew and that's one thing I would like to encourage is if you like the podcast, follow the podcast.

That's kind of an area we grew by 4%.

Everything else was triple digits that you know, a hundred percent, 174% or 147% growth on Spotify.

Even more on.

On.

On Apple podcasts.

I told you that new sponsors, all that stuff.

So thank you for an incredible year.

But today we wanted to celebrate the final day of Advent with the.

With the lighting of the.

Of the Messiah Candle.

Christmas Day has passed.

The wrapping paper is gone.

The tree is drying out.

If it's a real tree, if you're like us, we have an artificial tree.

Because my wife Lisa starts decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween.

The calendar has turned, and yet the church says something.

The world forgets.

We are still here.

The light is still burning.

Today we light the Christ Candle not because the season ended well, but because grace does not expire.

When the crowd leaves, the Christ Candle stands at the center.

It gathers every flame around it.

Hope, peace, joy, love, all find their meaning in Christ.

All find their meaning here.

The next lectionary for this season keeps drawing us back the same truth.

God did not arrive because humanity got it right.

We didn't go to the temple and do a dance just right.

We didn't honor the covenant in a perfect way.

Nothing we did deserved the arrival of God.

But God arrived because we did not do things well.

And that is why the scripture for today, Galatians 3 still speaks.

After Christmas, it begins.

You foolish Galatians.

Paul talking.

Who has bewitched you?

He's not scolding unbelievers here.

He's grieving believers who forgot how faith began.

He says, you started with a spirit.

Why are you trying to finish with effort?

The question belongs in the week after Christmas, because this is when faith gets tested.

The.

The manger's quiet now.

Normal.

We're beginning to return to normal routines, begin to return to work.

The wise men have gone home.

The angels have stopped seeing.

And what remains is daily life.

And this is where many of us drift.

We begin with wonder and we end with pressure.

We begin with grace, but we end with guilt.

We begin by kneeling, and we end by managing.

Look again at the image before us.

The star still shines.

The cross still stands.

Christ is still praying.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.

That prayer stretches from Bethlehem to Calvary, from the foolish Galatians to faithful parents, from pastors who are tired to believers who are trying too hard.

Tired of trying.

The Christ Candle reminds us all of something essential.

We do not sustain the light.

The light sustains us.

The wise men never belonged at that manger.

They had no law, no covenant, no no claim on the kingdom of God.

And yet they followed the light they were given, barely understanding what they were doing.

The Galatians had everything and still forgot.

And that is attention of faith.

Sometimes outsiders see what insiders miss.

Sometimes those who know the rules forget the relationship.

The Christ Candle burns anyway.

It burns for the ones who wonder.

It burns for the ones who overthink.

And that's something we pastors do a lot.

It burns for the ones who started in the Spirit and feel like they are failing in the flesh.

The gospel does not say try harder.

It says come back.

Come back to how it started.

Come back to belief.

Come back to trust.

Come back to light.

The Sunday after Christmas is not a letdown.

It is an invitation.

Stay, Remain, abide.

Do not rush past the mystery.

Do not hurry towards self improvement.

Do not trade wonder for control.

Light the Christ Candle again and remember God came near before you knew how to ask.

God stayed when others left.

God still supplies the Spirit, not by our effort, but by our trust.

This is echoes through eternity.

The light still shines and the darkness has not overcome it.

If this episode has inspired you in any way, if you enjoyed it, we'll begin a new year.

We'll get away from Advent season and we'll begin to focus more on the leadership topics, the traditional topic of the show, but I wanted to pause a little bit during the Christmas season.

We've got some exciting guests coming up this year.

Kim McLean, who's a accomplished songwriter in the country music.

Well, not just country music, but across the music industry in general, but a faithful pastor as well at Music City West.

We'll have her on.

We've got others coming on.

Faithful to the Lord, faithful in every way that we know how to be, and knowing that even when we fail, God is still faithful to us.

But until next time.

So again, share it.

Like it.

Comment on the podcast if you will.

Reviews are really important as well, all of these metrics.

It's important to get a podcast out there.

And again, this is not about my personal brand.

It's about awareness of the kingdom.

It's about, you know, fulfilling planting missional churches and developing leaders around the world and encouraging leaders as well.

But thank you again for making us one of the top podcasts.

I think we were top 15 at one point.

We may have slid back, may have gone forward and checked metrics lately.

But anyway, thank you for being here.

And I'm your host, Dr. Jeffrey D. Skinner.

And as always, we ask the question, what has God echoing through your life today?

If you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe.