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Yet Another Reason to Celebrate

Celebrate Your Faith.
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Glorious Gifts.
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God’s Love.

We thank you for your support as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of CelebrateYourFaith.com. Looking back, it is amazing all that the Lord has done through this business. We are looking forward to celebrating all that is coming in the future!

This has been the dream of our hearts; four years of learning, growing, and celebrating making a difference. Doing what we love with amazing customers and fans, beautiful artisans and their creations, and our special team of believers who work together for a great cause.

When we started CelebrateYourFaith.com, we deliberately chose July 7, 2007 (7.7.07) for our grand opening, as a powerful symbolic scriptural reminder of the Great Commission (see the post about “God’s perfection: Number 7“).

All of us at CelebrateYourFaith.com are dedicated to reaching the world with the Good News of the Gospel. It is our heart to support mission work and missionaries with proceeds from every purchase. This has been one of the biggest blessings to us, to see our support for missions directly affect the lives of people in countries all over the globe.

For more about our company story, see this article (PDF) from the Christian Booksellers Association’s November 2008 issue.

Celebrate. Give. Share.

With your purchases, you are helping us continue to touch hearts and change many lives. It is an honor to do what we love. Thank you for your continued support!

Honor our Heroes on Memorial Day

A Day to Remember the Men and Women who have Served our Country

A hero, as defined by Noah Webster’s Dictionary of 1828, is “a man of distinguished valor, intrepidity or enterprise in danger; as a hero in arms”. The modern-day Merriam-Webster Dictionary places the first meaning of a hero as a mythological or legendary figure. I’d like us to hearken back to Noah Webster’s definition on this Memorial Day as it reminds us that REAL heroes live among us, and have died for our freedom.

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday which honors and commemorates the men and women who died while in military service. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Salute or commemorate a loved one serving in the U.S. military by proudly wearing a military cross or medal. These pendants also make treasured gifts for someone serving in the military to assure them that you are praying for them and that their protection is found in God.

The blog Fresh Manna by Pastor Tim Burt featured a video on “The Story of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight” earlier this week. Click here to access the archived blog from that day’s post.

The mini-book entitled “Pray for Our Nation”, published by Harrison House, includes this prayer for Veterans:

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for our veterans. I thank You for their willingness to risk all so that our nation might dwell in peace and safety.

May they find the honor and recognition they deserve.

In the name of Your divine Son, I pray that You will heal the physical and psychological wounds some of these veterans have suffered. Bring peace to those who mourn the loss of comrades.

Father, I pray that our nation would learn to respect and acknowledge those who have served their country well.

Scripture Reference: Romans 13:7, John 14:17, John 16:33

Visit the US Memorial Day website for more information on the history of Memorial Day.

Make this Memorial Day about more than barbeques with family and friends, about more than the start of the summer travel season, about more than a 3-day weekend. Take time to truly remember and thank God for the ultimate sacrifice many men and women have paid. Pray for their families and loved ones. And take time to remember and thank the men and women who currently serve in all the branches of our military.

Celebrate Your Faith has many thoughtful and meaningful gifts to honor our service men and women. Check out our Memorial Day Gifts section to find the perfect one today!

Internet Evangelism Day


May 15, 2011 has been marked as Internet Evangelism Day, which is an annual worldwide focus day for digital evangelism. The entire month of May is also designated as Digital Evangelism Month.

The Internet is a powerful tool for reaching people all over the world. It may seem very obvious how people all over the world have the ability to access the Internet and as such, the Internet can be used to bring people to a personal relationship with Jesus. One site having amazing results all over the globe, including many countries where the Gospel is not easy to preach via traditional avenues, is Global Media Outreach. They minister to people in an important 3-step process.

1. Lead them to the Savior
2. Nurture them in Faith
3. Connect them to Church

More information can be found by clicking the banner below:

Many ways exist to share your faith digitally: Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites; blogs or message board posts; email and text messaging (just to name a few).
The website blog.ourchurch.com has some amazing ideas for how to share your faith online in its article 20 Ways to Share Your Faith Online.

Some other great online evangelism sites include:

Internet Evangelism is such a multi-faceted concept. Sure, there are websites you can either direct people to, or that they find on their own. But, Internet Evangelism is transacted every day through many avenues.

Take Celebrate Your Faith, for example. We are an online retailer of Christian gifts. These gifts are purchased by people for the purpose of encouraging believers or sowing a seed into an unbeliever’s life in hopes of introducing them to Jesus as their Savior. In this gift giving process, the Internet was used as an evangelism tool.

In addition, CYF is steadfastly dedicated to promoting the preaching of the Gospel through direct monetary support of missions and humanitarian efforts. So, all the gifts that are purchased (for the purpose of evangelism) are also funding missionaries that travel all over the world to tell people about Jesus and His saving love. Again, the Internet is being used as an evangelism tool.

Another example could be sending a text message to a friend, confirming with them a time and place to meet up for dinner. That night, they decide to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. That interaction was also facilitated by digital media.

God is so creative with how He reaches people. He created the ideas for all the technology we have at our fingertips today. We as Christians need to harness its power and use it to point people back to Him.

Join us on Sunday, May 15 in using the Internet to reach out to a lost and dying world.

Mother’s Day

The Virtuous Woman ~ Proverbs 31:25-31 NLT

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
26 When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
27 She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.
28 Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
31 Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

On this Mother’s Day, let us first reflect on the characteristics which God deems as important in a woman, and a mother. We can then reflect on some of the mothers of the Bible and see what a significant role they played in the lives of their children. These were women of God who imparted their faith to their children and who were instrumental in their children becoming who God destined them to be.

Naomi (Mother-in-law of Ruth)
Ruth 1:16-18 NLT

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” 18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

Through Naomi, Ruth married Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer, a wealthy and influential man. As a result of this marriage, she was even included in the genealogy of Jesus as accounted in the book of Matthew. She honored her mother-in-law, and God heaped blessings upon her. Naomi also became a grandmother in the process!

Mary (Mother of Jesus)
Luke 2:19 AMP

19But Mary was keeping within herself all these things (sayings), weighing and pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:51b AMP

51…and his mother kept and closely and persistently guarded all these things in her heart.

John 2:1-5; 11a NLT

1 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” 5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” …11 This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory.

Mary knew Jesus was the Son of God, but she watched Him grow up as her child. Prior to the wedding at Cana, Jesus had not performed any miracles, but she had watched and listened and pondered things regarding Him since His birth. So, when his mother was at the wedding and the wine had run out, she knew exactly who to call upon. And that very moment was the appointed time for Jesus to begin to reveal His glory on the earth through miracles, signs and wonders.

John 19:25-27 NLT

25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

Jesus, like any good son, wanted to make sure His mother was cared for after He was physically absent from this earth. He entrusted her to one of His closest companions.

Eunice (Mother of Timothy)

2 Timothy 1:5 NLT

5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.

Not much is said about Timothy’s mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois. But Paul found their faith to be so strong that it was worth mentioning in his letter to Timothy, which became a part of the New Testament. What Paul wrote as an encouraging letter to Timothy has been encouraging and instructional for Christians for almost 2000 years. Timothy was strong in his faith in part because of the impartation he received from his mother and grandmother.

Take time today to thank God for your mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, stepmother, aunt or any other virtuous woman who has contributed to YOUR life of faith.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Celebrate Your Faith!

Palm Sunday – Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. (Matthew 21:9)

Scenes from the Life of Christ- Entry into Jerusalem (detail) 1304-06
by Giotto Di Bondone

Palm Sunday is the last Sunday in Lent, and celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus into the City of Jerusalem for  Passover. According to the Gospels, Jesus entered riding upon a donkey, with the multitude spreading their cloaks and laying palm branches on the ground to honor his arrival as their long-awaited Messiah.

The donkey, or domesticated ass, was a symbol of peace. The laying of palm branches symbolized a king or leader arriving in victory. This was a fulfillment of a prophecy of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9).

There are many Christian traditions honoring this historic event, to remind all believers of its significance.

According to the the Orthodox tradition,

With palm branches in our hands, we identify ourselves with the people of Jerusalem, together with them we greet the lowly King, singing Hosannah to Him. But what is the meaning of this today for us? First, it is our confession of Christ as our King and Lord. We forget so often that the Kingdom of God has already been inaugurated and that on the day of our Baptism we were made citizens of it and promised to put our loyalty to it above all other loyalties.

The branches in our hands signify, therefore, our readiness and willingness to follow Him on this sacrificial way and our acceptance of sacrifice and self-denial as the only royal way to the Kingdom. And finally these branches, this celebration, proclaim our faith in the final victory of Christ. His Kingdom is yet hidden and the world ignores it. It lives as if the decisive event had not taken place, as if God had not died on the Cross and Man in Him was not raised from the dead. But we, Orthodox Christians, believe in the coming of the Kingdom in which God will be all in all and Christ the only King.

In the Roman Catholic celebration of Palm Sunday:

This ceremony is intended to represent the entry of Jesus into that Jerusalem of which the earthly one was but the figure–the Jerusalem of heaven, which has been opened for us by our Saviour. The sin of our first parents had shut it against us; but Jesus, the King of glory, opened its gates by His cross, to which every resistance yields. Let us, then, continue to follow in the footsteps of the Son of David, for He is also the Son of God, and He invites us to share His kingdom with Him. Thus, by the procession, which is commemorative of what happened on this day, the Church raises up our thoughts to the glorious mystery of the Ascension, whereby heaven was made the close of Jesus’ mission on earth. Alas l the interval between these two triumphs of our Redeemer are not all days of joy; and no sooner is our procession over, than the Church, who had laid aside for a moment the weight of her grief, falls back into sorrow and mourning.

And for Protestant/Evangelical Christians,

[E]vangelical churches that have tended to look with suspicion on traditional “High-Church” observances of Holy Week are now realizing the value of Holy Week services. . .  This has a solid theological basis both in Scripture and in the traditions of the Faith.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed by the Nazis, wrote of the Cost of Discipleship and warned of “cheap grace” that did not take seriously either the gravity of sin or the radical call to servanthood: “When Jesus bids a man come, he bids him come and die.”

It is this dimension that is well served by Holy Week observances, as they call us to move behind the joyful celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter, and focus on the suffering, humiliation, and death that is part of Holy Week. It is important to place the hope of the Resurrection, the promise of newness and life, against the background of death and endings. It is only in walking through the shadows and darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, only in realizing the horror and magnitude of sin and  its consequences in the world incarnated in the dying Jesus on the cross, only in contemplating the ending and despair that the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, that we can truly understand the light and hope of Sunday morning!

As we come to the end of this Lenten season, we at CelebrateYourFaith.com pray that you are touched by God during your remembrance and celebration of Holy Week!

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