A dramatic legend about an ancient Jew named Honi, who saw God miraculously move to save a generation, is the backdrop of Mark Batterson’s new book, The Circle Maker. Batterson explains how God showed up when Honi drew a prayer circle around himself, refusing to move until he saw God change his circumstances. Batterson builds on three tenets of prayer-circle drawing: dreaming big, praying and thinking long. “Despite what skeptics may say, God is not offended by your big dreams or bold prayers. He is offended by anything less,” Batterson writes. 

When it comes to warring in the spirit realm, who said anything about women being the fairer sex? Certainly not Robin Kirby-Gatto, who releases her second book of the Glory to Glory Sisterhood series, Princess Warriors: Engaging in Spiritual Warfare. Kirby-Gatto teaches key principles for winning the spiritual battles for your family, church and community. Through in-depth studies on fearing the Lord and engaging in warfare, she shares how to master sin and simultaneously walk in the spirit.

What would prompt more than 30,000 young adults to pass up the usual year-end festivities and head to Kansas City, Mo., 

for a conference? Nothing less than an encounter with God. And at the International House of Prayer’s annual onething conference (Dec. 28-31), that’s exactly the focus. Onething leaders say they’ve stripped away the extras from their gathering to allow for extended times of worship, Bible teachings and, of course, the presence of God.

Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, aren’t afraid to talk about sex and marriage in down-to-earth terms, hitting issues most Christian couples rarely address in public—much less in a book and interactive, DVD-based study kit. Real Marriage challenges spouses
 to judge their marriage not by their wedding day but by what their last day together will be like. Will it come prematurely through divorce or will it be filled with regrets at the funeral of a spouse? Or, by God’s grace, will the last day be one for rejoicing in a life lived together? In this study, couples will reflect on Scripture while using the Real Marriage book and video conversation-starters. Homework and group sessions will help couples tackle the tough issues.

In an effort to speed up the Great Commission, the Call2All movement has joined large, missions-focused groups with major prayer ministries. This
month, Call2All’s Global Congress in Los Angeles will wrap up its Nov. 29-Dec. 3 meetings with speakers who represent the ministry variety, such as Lou Engle of TheCall, Reinhard Bonnke of Christ for all Nations and Steve Douglass of Campus Crusade for Christ. The conference docket reveals no easy feats: For one, the group plans to strategize ways to simultaneously expand prayer movements and plant churches in every area of the earth.

She wasn’t wrapped in swaddling cloths in a manger; instead, she was tangled in sweat-drenched sheets in a crib. That’s how Maria spent most of her days at the Guatemalan orphanage. The 7-year-old couldn’t talk or turn over in her bed. She had little control over her body. Yet her smile could illuminate a room.

Maria (pictured) had been rescued from near starvation deep in the Sierra de las Minas, but the prolonged malnutrition left her so mentally and physically impaired that she now looked barely half her age and was bed-ridden in a room filled with babies and toddlers. Despite the intensive care she’d need for the rest of her life, her beaming grins came fast and easy. 

From a natural perspective, there was no reason Maria or any of these kids should’ve been glowing with smiles. Most of them were birthed in horrific situations. A couple of the young girls had been tied to a post for two years and were merely 13 and 14 pounds when rescued. Another pair of siblings—babies only three months apart—faced severe health problems as a result of their father and grandfather being the same man. Incest, rape, abuse, drugs, divorce, murder … these were the elements surrounding the children as they entered a dark world.

The scene wasn’t so different in Bethlehem surrounding Jesus’ birth. Within months of His arrival, a paranoid Herod issued a regional massacre of all boys under the age of 2. Herod had already murdered his wife, three of his sons, his brother-in-law, numerous friends and countless enemies. Clearly, the area and time in which Jesus was born was covered in great darkness.

But as Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years prior, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (9:2, NIV). This light arrived in an animal’s trough—not exactly the vehicle you’d expect the carpenter of the universe to lay Himself. The light almost blinded a group of social outcasts (shepherds) working the night shift—not exactly the most divine marketing plan. It penetrated not only the sky on a single starry night, but the hearts of an entire world for eternity to come. 

And I’m convinced it’s what illuminated Maria’s smile.

It isn’t just God’s plan to show up in the darkest places we can imagine; it’s His very nature. We typically grasp this in the context of light dispelling darkness; flip a light switch and the darkness in a room instantly leaves. After all, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, NKJV). Yet how often do we unknowingly view certain places as uninhabitable for Him or specific situations as “just too dark” for His presence? 

We know that God is sovereign even over the world’s most demonically influenced geographical regions. But do we truly grasp that God reigns over all evil—including our own sin—no matter how dense the darkness? Many people believe that because God is light, purity and holiness, and because sin can’t coexist in His presence, therefore God can’t deal with their sin.

Jesus’ birth and death answered that once and for all. His arrival struck the divine match against our sin nature, and His physical departure fueled an all-engulfing blaze that can never be extinguished. As the great light of the world (John 12:42), He has overcome any depth of darkness that exists in our own sinful hearts or in a world dominated by the prince of darkness. 

Therein lies just one of the infinite reasons we can behold the Christ-child with awe this Christmas—which is what this special issue of Charisma is all about. We’ve picked the best Christmas articles from the last 36 years to help you celebrate the true spirit of Christmas. Amid the busyness of this season, I pray you’ll meditate on the messages in this issue and respond in wonder and worship. And I invite you to come and adore the Jesus who shines in every dark corner of life.

Marcus Yoars is the editor of Charisma. You can connect with him on Twitter @marcusyoars or facebook.com/marcusyoars.

Christmas is a time for memories. For me, putting together this issue brought back memories as we picked the very best Christmas articles over the last 36 years. While preparing, I reread all of my Christmas-related columns.

Some had to do with Christmas customs; others were about the culture wars to take Christ out of Christmas. Some years, I showed pictures of my staff or my young family and shared my own Christmas memories.

When we chose to include the best Christmas articles we’ve run in the last 36 years, I thought I’d pick my best column. But we soon decided I needed to introduce this issue, share my own memories and do what I’ve done at many times in the past: encourage you to give this year at Christmas.

Every couple of years, starting in 1984, I’d urge readers—much as I am now—to do what my wife, Joy, and I have done for years: give a tithe of what we spend at Christmas to the poor.

This was etched in my mind as a child when one Christmas my parents asked my brother, sister and I to pick a gift from the many we’d received and give it to a family in our church that didn’t have much. I don’t remember the details, but I think the father was out of work. In fact, I can’t recall what I gave—but I do remember going to their house to give them our gifts and how happy they seemed.

Christmas is about giving. It’s when God gave His Son. And didn’t the tradition of gift giving originate with the Magi, who brought gifts to the Christ child?

Yet Christmas has become an orgy of consumer spending. Many retailers make most of their annual profit at Christmastime. Even as believers, we tend to get caught up in the world’s values of buying gifts. Usually our purchases are for loved ones who already probably have much more than they need.

The antidote, I believe, is to be proactive, to consciously give to the poor and to encourage others to do the same. When I first urged Charisma readers in 1984, and in many December issues since then, to give to worthwhile ministries at Christmas, it was because I believe that  in giving to “the least of these My brethren,” as Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, you’re giving to Christ Himself.

A practical suggestion on how to do this is to give a tithe of what you spend on others. For instance, if you spend $1,000 at Christmas on gifts, determine you’ll give $100. My family does this. Over the years we’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of it through Christian Life Missions, our nonprofit partner. If every reader of Charismagave only $5, it would total more than $1 million this year.

Yet giving isn’t just about money. That’s why we picked Steve Sjogren’s article from our December 1994 issue to show another side of giving. His article on page 46 tells how his church donated time to wrapping presents for shoppers at local malls and showing other free acts of kindness at Christmas. Maybe you’ll get some creative ideas while reading it.

When we planned this issue I wanted to motivate people to give generously, not out of tradition or compulsion, but because giving is a principle of God’s Word. So we invited Dallas pastor Robert Morris, who exemplifies this principle as well as anyone I know, to shed light on how God gives back to us—“pressed down, shaken together and running over” (Luke 6:38). Make sure you read Robert’s teaching on page 50. 

To highlight a few ministries you can bless this Christmas, and to make it easy to give, we’ve included the following section that shows the ministries supported through Christian Life Missions, the nonprofit partner we’ve worked with for more than 25 years. Every penny you donate will go to the ministry you choose. If you give through Christian Life Missions, your gift will be sent to the ministry and you’ll get a receipt for tax purposes.

There are many other ministries or needs you can give to. It doesn’t matter so much whom you give to, but that you give and do it as unto the Lord. We believe it will make all the difference in the way you celebrate Christ’s birth this year.

Steve Strang is the founder and publisher of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter @sstrang, friend him on Facebook or sign up to receive The Strang Report at strangreport.com.

My wife and I have four girls, and I was in the hospital room for each birth. There was a normal amount of blood, but no serious complications. Our oldest took forever to be born. Our second was in such a hurry that we thought she might end up on the floor of a hospital hallway. Our third tied her umbilical cord in knots in the womb. And our youngest calmly slipped out as if to say: “OK, I’m born. What’s next?”

I had very little to do in the delivery room. My wife was the hero. She sweated, strained, pushed and gasped for hours. I stroked her arm a few times—and ate some doughnuts.

Normal births are amazing, whether they occur in hospitals or homes or the back seats of taxis. But when I consider the birth of Jesus, I’m in total awe—not just because of Mary and Joseph’s bumpy ride from Nazareth, Mary’s lack of a doctor (and no anesthesia!) and the crudeness of the manger, but also because of how Jesus was conceived. Mary was a virgin. Joseph, the “father,” had nothing to do but stand in the background. 

Secularists and liberal theologians have mocked the virgin birth for centuries. Thomas Jefferson called it a fable, while Episcopal heretic John Shelby Spong called it an “entrance myth.” The concept of a woman giving birth to a baby without a man’s involvement is ludicrous to unbelievers. It contradicts all the laws of biology.

Yet Mary was not a scoffer. She asked the angel how she would bear this child, and he said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). 

I would have asked for more scientific information. (“Um, thanks Gabe, but how does this process of miraculous impregnation work?”) But Mary didn’t quibble over details. She believed Gabriel’s announcement and submitted to God in childlike faith.

The Greek word for “overshadow,” episkiazo, is a reference to the cloud of God’s presence that materialized in Moses’ tabernacle. The Amplified Bible translates Luke 1:35 as: “He will overshadow you like a shining cloud.” This same cloud hovered over the ark of the covenant, led God’s people through the wilderness and filled Solomon’s temple with shimmeringshekinah glory. 

Think about it. The same cloud of glory that caused Moses’ face to shine hovered over a virgin and deposited a divine seed in her womb. The God who hid behind a veil in the Old Testament clothed Himself in human flesh in the New Testament. 

The Incarnation cannot be explained in purely biological terms. There was nothing sexual about it, yet Mary’s ovum was fertilized without Joseph’s sperm. Divinity merged with humanity. Jesus, fully God and fully man, began a nine-month gestation.

When the Savior was born, there was a normal amount of blood, sweat and tears—because Mary was human. But this birth was surrounded with wonder because Joseph was not the father. He came from a line of kings, but his pedigree was not enough to save the human race. He could not contribute to this miracle.

Doubters think Joseph got Mary pregnant out of wedlock. If that were true, Christianity itself would be a lie because (1) if Jesus were not born of a woman, He could not have identified with our sins fully; and (2) if God were not His biological father, He could not have redeemed us.

This is the most glorious revelation of the nativity. Bible teacher R.T. Kendall put it this way: “The virgin birth of Christ shows that salvation can never come through human effort.” God performed this science-defying miracle without our help. All we can do is receive His amazing love and forgiveness.

We just stand there in awe. I pray you and your family will be overshadowed in a fresh way by the presence of the Savior during this holiday season. Merry Christmas.

J. Lee Grady was editor of Charisma for 11 years. He now serves as contributing editor while devoting more time to ministry. You can find him on Twitter at leegrady or online at themordecaiproject.org. His newest book is 10 Lies Men Believe (Charisma House).

Americans today face economic challenges, but we have nothing to complain about.

We Americans are a blessed people, but we are also spoiled. I know I am. I can get flustered over the stupidest things—like when my cellphone doesn’t get a good signal, when a flight is delayed or when my computer takes too long to load a website. Most people in the world don’t have iPhones, can’t afford air travel and don’t have computers. My impatience reveals my ungrateful spirit.

So how can we avoid this virus of selfish immaturity? Thankfulness is the antidote. It melts our pride and crushes our sense of entitlement. It reminds us that everything we have comes from God, and that His mercy is the only reason we are blessed.

I pray you will invite the Holy Spirit to convict you of any whining. Here’s a list of 10 blessings that many people in the world don’t have. Go over this list and then see if you still have anything to gripe about.

1. Got clean water? The next time you uncap a bottle of water or grab a drink from the tap, remember that one in eight people in the world (that’s 884 million people) lack access to clean water supplies. Millions of women around the world spend several hours a day collecting water. When you take a five-minute shower, you use more water than a typical person in a developing country uses in a whole day.

2. Do you have a bathroom? About 40 percent of the world’s population (2.6 billion people) do not have toilets. Lack of sanitation facilities spreads disease and is a major reason why more than 2 million people die annually of diarrhea.

3. How’s your electricity? The power in my house might be interrupted briefly three times a year because of Florida storms. But 1.6 billion people—a quarter of humanity—live without any electricity. And, because of unreliable infrastructure, at least 2 billion people on earth don’t have any light at night.

4. Got a roof over your head? One billion people live in slums. That’s almost one-sixth of the world’s population. Of this total, 640 million children live without adequate shelter; they live in cardboard boxes, tin-roofed shacks, one-room mud huts or filthy, crowded tenements. It’s been estimated that 1.4 billion people will live in slums by 2020. Meanwhile here in the United States, between 2.3 to 2.5 million people are classified as homeless.

5. Is there food on your table? In the United States we are battling an obesity epidemic. Yet according to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are chronically undernourished, and almost 28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted.

6. Got a stove? In developing countries, some 2.5 billion people use fuelwood, charcoal or animal dung to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 80 percent of the population depends on these crude, traditional means for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China. The really sad part: Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of 5.

7. Got regular income? You may have had to take a pay cut during the recession. But keep in mind that at least 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. The world’s average income is about $7,000 a year. Still, only about 19 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with per capita incomes at least this high.

8. Did you go to school? Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Enrollment data shows that about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005 (and 57 percent of them were girls).

9. Are you generally healthy? Americans face illness like people in other nations—and more than 12 million Americans are battling cancer in any given year. But many of us have access to health care. In the developing world, more than 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized. An estimated 40 million people in developing countries are living with HIV/AIDS. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities, mostly in Africa.

10. Are you free to worship God? More than 400 Christians die for their faith every day around the world, and most of these believers suffer in Islamic countries—although the top hot spot for Christian persecution, according to Open Doors International, is the atheist regime of North Korea.

In these tough economic times you may feel the urge to complain. Be thankful instead! God calls us to live above this negativity. When we give thanks in all things, God gives us a supernatural attitude adjustment. When we thank God for all He has given us, acknowledging that we don’t deserve His goodness, our grumbling melts into gratitude and our impatience turns to praise.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. His most recent book is 10 Lies Men Believe (Charisma House).

Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” —Genesis 42:36

Self-pity is feeling sorry for yourself. You feel that you are the object of unfair treatment, that you have had to carry a load that few, if any, understand or appreciate. You perhaps feel you were unlucky with having the parents you had, the environment you grew up in, the education you received. You may have been abused by an authority figure, lied about, rejected, and discriminated against. Whenever you get a chance to excel, something happens to derail what had possibilities. The future looks bleak, life is passing you by, and there is little to live for.

Speaking to none other than God, Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. … I am the only one left, and now they are tying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:14). First of all, Elijah was not the only prophet left and should have known better. Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hid them in a cave—and Elijah knew that (1 Kings 18:1-15). There were a good number of prophets around. But owing to persecution he was feeling sorry for himself. He took himself too seriously.

Once before Elijah had stated publicly that he was the only prophet left and uttered thoughtless words before hundreds of the prophets of Baal. It shows he had completely dismissed those one hundred prophets that Obadiah preserved. He thought he was a cut above them, that he was the only true prophet.

God is so patient with us when we utter foolish comments like that. Had God required sinless perfection before Elijah could be used, God would have interrupted the proceedings at Mount Carmel at once—and called the whole thing off. God could have thundered, “No, you are quite wrong”—and stopped the whole thing. But He let Elijah continue.

It was some time later that God said, as it were, “Oh, by the way, Elijah, you might like to know that I have reserved seven thousand who have not bowed down to Baal.” (See 1 Kings 19:18.) God patiently waited for the right time to deal with Elijah. So too with us.