#MerryChristmas

•  Merry Christmas to all and a Most Happy New Year.

One week from today we celebrate Messiah's birthday.  Preparations have started days ago with deciding special gifts for everyone and special meals to have on the table.  Packages have been wrapped and cards signed and groceries bought all with excitement and love.

The birth of Jesus, the Messiah, was planned for from before the foundation of the world.  Bethlehem was foretold to be the place God would come into the world as a baby and the Roman governing authorities had decreed a census which forced Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem.  God's plan was working perfectly.  God's plan is still working perfectly today.

With so much thought given to this birth, we might consider how important it is for us to prepare for more than physical things.  Is our heart prepared to submit to the Lord's instructions?  Before Jesus died for our disobedience, He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."  When asked about which commandment was most important, Jesus answered, "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself."  This is quite simple - Love God and Love others as you love yourself.

"The Preparation of the Gospel of Peace" are what the shoes we wear every day are called.  We are to be prepared to share this Good News about redemption.  People are put into our lives by God Almighty and He wants us to really love them by kindness in word or deed.  We may be preparing their hearts to receive some message that will come to them later in some form or another.  We may motivate them or shed some light that will help them see Truth.

Yes, we need to celebrate this wondrous event and enjoy each moment we are given.  Father God gives us all things to enjoy and we honor Him by celebrating His coming into our world.

Let us Praise Him!

#FrogsAndSnails

 Sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what little girls are made of.  Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails; that's what little boys are made of.  So, the sayings go.  Our daughter was our first born and she was the most beautiful thing to us. She was pure sugar and spice.  We found such joy watching her grow up and did a little bit of catering to her.

When our second one was born, I remember crying as my obstetrician shared this news to me as she placed a beautiful healthy baby boy in my arms.  She was shocked.   "Why are you crying?" she asked.  "I never expected a boy." I replied, "I'm from a family of all girls."  She laughed.  That son was only the first of three more.  I need not have worried about having only girls, but when I brought number four home from the hospital, our daughter got mad at me.  "Why did you give me another brother?  I wanted a sister."  She had had enough of frogs and snails.

Yes, sisters are wonderful and I did feel sorry for our daughter, that she did not have that lovely experience that I had growing up.  The memories I have of my sister and I sleeping in a double bed and struggling over space and pulling covers from one another are special.  She was the 'sugar' and I was the 'spice' in our family.  She still is and I love her dearly.

"Children are a heritage of the Lord."  Psalm 127:3  "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."  Psalm 127:7

Whether it be frogs and snails or sugar and spice, we are gifted with precious children and the Bible urges us to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN, ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE. THEY ARE PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT. JESUS LOVES THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD.

#Debts

 It was our first Christmas as husband and wife.  We were living sparsely in an efficiency apartment and had no money to spare.  I am sorry to say that I do not remember what I gave my husband, but I do remember what he gave me.  It was beyond my imagination and way out of our budget.  He gave me a crisp new 50 dollar bill!  There were no stipulations going with it.  It was mine.

I had never owned a credit card, nor borrowed any money and debt was foreign to me, until.  Until, we decided to purchase a television set and chose to (because we had to) buy this set on time.  We had not had any monthly payments, except for rent, and I really felt uncomfortable owing this debt.  I did not tell my husband what I thought about doing with my $50.00 gift and just did it.  Yes, I went to the store and paid off our television set.  I felt so proud of myself.  We were debt free, again.

I proudly shared with my husband what I had done with my gift and, of all things, he got mad at me.  He had wanted me to spend it on myself and I had misunderstood.  I thought I was doing something good, but he was confident that he could take care of the payments on our television and I interfered.

Several lessons I learned from this experience.  Sometimes, when we think we are doing good, we are only fowling up.  There is more at stake than our feelings.  The giver's feelings need to be considered because they are worthy.  The idea of being indebted has taken on new meaning,  I have learned to live with being indebted.  There are so, so very many people that I am indebted to and then there is God.  Each day is a gift that we can never repay the giver for.  Each breath we take is a gift and there is no way we can repay for that.  Salvation is a free gift to all and this gift is so costly that we can only take it with a grateful heart, grateful every day.  Health and family and home and job and sunshine and rain and country may be ours and the considered worth of these things makes us indebted.

God is so good.  He is the giver of good.  He deserves our praise and thanksgiving every waking moment.  We all live with debts much bigger than our ability to repay.  Our life, our being is the only acceptable thing that would give the giver satisfaction.  Telling Jesus "My life is in your hands." is the perfect response.

#BlessingsAbound

 The list is very long.  Starting out this morning, I woke up from a very nice sleep.  That is the first thing I am grateful for and second on my list is that I woke up.  Number three is that I could walk.  I might have been walking crookedly, but I was walking.  My list keeps growing with having a home and a bed and covers and heat.  Of course, there is gratitude for the kitchen with food in the pantry and refrigerator and the toaster and stove to cook the food.  There is so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my family.  God gave me a loving husband and absolutely wonderful children and grandchildren and even great grandchildren.  There are really no words to convey my gratitude for this family.  I have a job and a car and good health to be able to work.  God brought into my life a church family and pastor that is so dear to me.  Then there is my country, the land of the free, and this is such a blessing when other parts of the world is hurting so badly.  These are filling me with great thankfulness.

We have Bibles readily available and books to read and stores to shop in.  There is such an abundance of so much that we have the 'problem' of making choices.  We have policemen to protect us and firemen to help just in case, and stop signs and green lights to control traffic or we would have a big problem.

I am ever grateful that the most Holy Creator God saw fit to place me in a God fearing family which took me to church every Sunday where I would hear about sin and it's consequences and about the Savior who paid for all sin.  I am thankful that the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin and judgement and interceded for me to the point of tenderizing my heart to be able to place my faith in Jesus as my Savior.

There is a home being prepared for me in heaven and I am so thankful that my final destination is there.  I am thankful that God loves us so much and is always working for out good.  And, I am so grateful that this loving God hears and answers our prayers.  These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving Season.

#Togetherness

 It was a bold idea, that, perhaps Nimrod had, yet, it took hold and everyone supported it.  It would take hard work to accomplish this project. The result would make them famous and create a name for them, so togetherness became the by-word for these people.  They were determined to build a city and a tower that would prove they were to be admired and respected.

They made bricks and used tar as mortar and began this major project.  This happened on the Plain of Shinar which is where Babylon is located, today.  Genesis 11:1-9 tells the story.  The people all spoke one language which made it so easy to communicate and all were of one culture which led to few misunderstandings.

There was one big problem - God had told them to go and fill the earth.  They had decided that was not a good idea.  They liked togetherness more than they liked to obey God.  So, this enormous tower was under construction and moving along quite well.  That is when God got involved.  God knew that upon completion of this tower more confidence would develop in them and they would continue on the road of disobedience.  The one very simple solution developed that led to mass confusion and an utter inability to continue.  They began speaking in different languages and could not understand one another!  The work stopped and they scattered away from each other.

It states in Proverbs 18:10 that "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: The righteous runs into it and is safe."  If they had only trusted in the name of the Lord instead of wanting to create a name for themselves, they might have continued to enjoy togetherness.

This appears to be the first instance of globalism when the people decided to stick together instead of separating and developing their own nations and filling the earth.  How God handled this 'togetherness', this globalism, shows us what He thinks of the idea.  A one world government is not what God has in mind for us humans.  One leader who has made a name for himself instead of honoring the name of the Lord is not a leader to gather around and follow.  We are to trust in the name of the Lord which is our Strong Tower.

#Believers

 We are called 'BELIEVERS' because we believe.  "Everyone believes." you say. Yes, everyone believes something.  It is what you believe that makes the difference.

Would you believe the media?  It is interesting that when a witness is called to court to recount what she saw or heard she is required to swear to 'tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'.  She cannot leave out any information concerning the event in question or tell a falsehood because leaving out information is the same as telling a lie.

"Let God be true, but every man is a liar." Romans 3:4 tells us.  The Holy Spirit spoke through Paul to make us aware of this fact - every man is a liar.  When the 'rubber meets the road' everyone of us will lie.  We lie for many reasons, but we do lie.  We can't take the word of the media or advertisers or politicians as absolute truth.  We must be discerning and in order to be discerning we must know some facts about the subject.  Otherwise, we will be snookered in.

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of Himself as 'TRUTH'.  Believers choose to believe God's Word, the written Word and the Word become flesh.  Jesus said, " Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one if born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 and again in verse 18, "He who believes in Him is not judged: he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."  These are facts and Jesus told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  We can believe these words and place our trust in them, absolutely.

Believing Jesus' words makes all the difference in this world and in the world to come.

#BaconAndEggs

Peanut butter and jelly or bacon and eggs - some things just go together. Then, there are some unusual connections that may cause us to stop in our tracks.  When someone is speaking gracious words, words that lift our hearts and minds, words of praise and worship and then begin words of warnings, it is disconcerting.  

Suppose you are a Jew and live in the land of Israel.  There is peace and prosperity in your country and a pleasant future to look forward to.  Your parents have told you the history of your ancestors being slaves in Egypt for 400 years and how God had raised up Moses to deliver them through the miraculous parting of the Red Sea and led them through the wilderness for 40 years.  The story of how these freed people had been so arrogant to test the Lord God at Meribah was part of their history.  You remember hearing how they had grumbled because there was no water for them to drink.  They had even begun to believe that God was not with them because of their need.  Just a few days before they had witnessed the waters part and they walked on dry land to freedom.  This done by the hand of God.  Yet, they began to doubt.  What an insult to God their doubts were displaying.

Psalm 95 is nine verses long.  The first seven verses are a reminder of the greatness of God.  It is asking people to sing for joy and thanksgiving for the Lord is a great God.  It reminds people that the whole earth, from the peaks of the mountains to the depths and the sea are in His hands, for He has made it all.  It is asking people to worship this King and give Him the praise He deserves.  Verse seven changes the tone.  Today, today, it says, if you would hear His voice, harden not your hearts as at Meribah.

Then comes the warning.  Blessings and warnings are here together like salt and pepper.  As that people had experienced God's blessings and yet tested Him by doubting Him and showed that they had not taken an interest in learning of Him and His ways, this Psalm ends with the result.  They would not enter into God's rest.  And so it went, all but two men died in the wilderness and did not enter the land promised to them.

We should take note of this sugar and spice psalm.  The thing that made God angry was that His people doubted Him.  God is faithful. God is trustworthy. We honor God by believing His Word. Let us not harden our hearts because we have needs.  There is a reason for everything God does or does not do.  Let us praise Him.  Let us worship Him.  Let us believe Him.