And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
The people of Israel complained a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. You can read the backstory of today’s passage from 1st Corinthians in Exodus 17:1-7. The beautiful part, though, is that God answers even complaints. That is part of Jesus Christ’s title, “The Rock.” He doesn’t change, whether we’re full of praise or full of grouching. He is solid, faithful, always giving free, Living Water to thirsty souls in need of love, compassion, and grace.
Devotion contributed by Heidi Goehman and Sarah Baughman.
For those of you that know me well, one thing you would certainly not say is that I’m a traditional kind of guy. I don’t sit still long enough to establish traditions. I love to try new things with the intent of meeting and connecting with new people. I’m one of those blaze your own trail kind of guys. Or to quote another phrase grass doesn’t grow under my feet. 
I love the season of Christmas! It’s wonderful and gives a strange sense of warmth that just isn’t there the rest of the year. But this year’s been somewhat different. There have been a lot of things going on this year and I just feel busier than normal. I’ve not really felt that whole Christmas spirit thing that I normally have by early October. 
This is one of my favorite songs of the Christmas season. It’s not an easy one to sing, especially for someone who isn’t all that great at singing. But it’s an uplifting song. Listen to the words. If you have a hard time keeping up, check out the lyrics 
This is Christmas week! It’s finally here! I know we’ll all be tempted to rush through this week in an attempt to just get it over with. What a shame! Christmas isn’t something to just get over with. As a matter of fact I even found myself in this train of thought this year. We were under construction at church, several family events leading up to Christmas, all of the extra worship services to prep, hospital and shut-in visits to make, and the list seemed to go on and on. I was just ready to wake up on December 28th and have it all behind me. 
As you are probably well aware, Christmas is about a week and a half away. With all of the prep for the big day, it’s pretty easy to get a bit lost in the shuffle. This week we’re going to slow things down quite a bit and take a minute to celebrate the beauty of this precious season. 
I thought it was time to change things up a little bit. After all, we’re only 3 weeks from Christmas! Are you ready? Are you getting it all set so that this will be the BEST Christmas ever? This time of year we hustle around to get the right gift for that special someone. We look high and low. We hunt the ads, bulldoze people through the store lines to get that door buster deal.