The Lord bless you, and keep you, make His face shine upon you.

Be gracious to you.

The Lord turn His face toward you, and give you peace.

Good evening, and welcome to the Second Annual Bard's FM Christmas Special.

I'm Scott Kesterson.

This has been a crazy year.

We've seen deception, we've seen the upending of every single thing we thought was sacred.

It has been literally turned on its head.

We've never witnessed more division in our country.

I would say more fear or more loss of hope of what the future has.

And yet this should be a time to celebrate and be excited about what comes.

We are in a time right now when the only way we're going to get through what lies ahead

is to make sure that we hold onto that love of Jesus.

Our solid anchor on the rock of faith, that deep relationship with Father God

and the trust and the Holy Spirit to bring what we need before us.

And so it seemed appropriate this year to dedicate this show to a certain theme, answering the call.

God's talking to every one of us right now.

And in spite of the division and the seeming impossible odds to get things back together,

it's through those hardships and challenges that we learn deeply about ourselves

and our relationship with God and what is truly important in this world.

This season in the past has been consumed with materialism

and the artificiality of whatever Christmas should be.

...