Big Christmas

Well, it's Thursday morning and I'm off to Lester, IA to get together with my mothers side of the family for Christmas. It's going to be a big one. Last year we were missing a few and we had 115. This past year has seen some marriages and births, so we should have even more.

My mom, dad, and I will be on the road for around 9 hrs each way, so prayers would be appreciated.

God bless.

Great Grandkids

Grandkids + Spouses

FAITH TO WAIT

By Dr. James MacDonald

“They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” Isaiah 40:31

I used to find it hard to get the significance out of the Christmas story because I was always focused on the individual participants: the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, and the others. But I came to understand that really there is nothing significant about any of those common, ordinary people. Their significance is in their proximity to Jesus Christ.

It’s no different today. There’s nothing significant about you or me. We’re not important in any way except as we align ourselves with Jesus Christ the Lord in the building of His kingdom. That is where our joy and fulfillment is found in this life.

Read More Here:

Everything That Can Go Wrong Listed

FULLERTON, CA—A worldwide consortium of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers is nearing the completion of the ambitious, decade-long project of cataloging everything that can go wrong, project leader Dr. Thomas R. Kress announced at a press conference Tuesday.

"We are mere weeks from finishing one of the most thorough and provocative scientific surveys of our time," Kress said. "The catalog of every possible unfortunate scenario will complete the work of the ancient Phoenicians and the early Christian theologians. Soon, every hazardous possibility will be known to man."

"And listed," Kress added.

Kress, a professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at California State University and the author of several works on probability, would not say how many scenarios of error, peril, and misfortune exist. However, the list is widely believed to include hundreds of trillions of potential scenarios, from "cement truck with soft brakes cutting swath of destruction across quiet suburban subdivision" to "snagging shirt cuff on door latch."

"You know that thing when you don't invite an annoying friend to your party, and then, on the night of the party, an acquaintance from work brings that friend as a date?" said Project Awry researcher Hideko Manabe of Kyoto University. "That's on the list."

Manabe added: "I believe it's right after 'neglecting the maintenance of reactor cooling system, leading to core meltdown.'"

The November 2003 issue of Scientific American included an excerpt from the inventory, which read in part, "Knocking a cup of coffee off a counter with a light jerk of the wrist; breaking a tooth while comically pretending to bite down on the Great Pyramid of Giza; lowering lifeboats into the water when they are only filled to half capacity; tripping on cable and falling to floor with broken ankle while angrily storming off set of 24; building shanty on hillside instead of floodplain in anticipation of monsoon season, then getting buried in erosion-triggered mudslide anyway."

So numerous are the conceivable disastrous scenarios that processing them requires two gymnasium-sized supercomputers, one at the University of Pittsburgh and the other at Moscow State University. According to Kress, the supercomputers process and cross-reference all of these potential "wrongs" 24 hours a day, at a rate of 6 trillion calculations per second.
During a recent tour of the facilities at the University of Pittsburgh, the scenarios were projected onto a large screen as they were processed.

"Accidentally breaking off hand of Infant Of Prague statuette while gently trying to clean it with cotton swab and soapy water," the projection screen read. "Briefs get wedged in area between bureau drawers and base unit, making it difficult to dislodge them; sleeping with neck twisted awkwardly, resulting in headache; absent-mindedly discarding bus ticket with tissue; placing fingers too close to prongs while plugging in night-light, resulting in mild electrical shock."
Once the list is completed, the long task of codifying and categorizing everything that can go wrong will be undertaken. While some have questioned the list's utility, Popular Science writer Brian Dyce said it could have widespread applications.

"Within a decade, laypeople might be able to log onto the Internet or go to their public library and consult volumes listing the myriad things that could go wrong," Dyce said. "It could prove a very valuable research tool or preventative stopgap. For example, if you're shopping for a car, you can prepare yourself by boning up on the 98,627 bad things that could happen during the purchasing process. This project could have deep repercussions on the way people make decisions, and also the amount of time they spend locked in their bedrooms."

Word of God

The following excerpt was taken from a newsletter I received today. I would love to get your opinion on this. Many forget, or have never learned, that the Bible is not just a theological book. It has a self-contained, supernatural power. The Epistle to the Hebrews records, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (4:12, KJV).Do you think the Bible has a supernatural power? What do you think the writer means by "self-contained"?

I guess I've never looked at the book as having any supernatural power. When Hebrews 4:12 says "The word of God...", I didn't think that meant the physical book , but rather the words God has spoken or inspired. I realize that the Bible is an inspired book...and I do believe there is power in the words...but is there power in the book?

Can you tell I'm kind of thinking out loud here? :-) Maybe I'm misunderstanding the author. I'd love to hear how you read it and what your thoughts are on it.

Reason for Christmas

Many men throughout world history have wanted to become gods, but there has been only one God who wanted to become a Man.

Consider for a moment what it meant for our Lord Jesus to come to earth as a man to secure the salvation of mankind. The King of heaven left His throne and took a stable for a nursery. The very Son of God was hunted by a tyrant king and became an infant exile in Egypt. The owner of heaven and earth was born into poverty and lived without earthly wealth and luxury. The source of all wisdom and knowledge was treated as the greatest of fools.

Holy and without blemish, young Messiah was assaulted by every temptation Satan could thrust on Him, yet He resisted each one to its fullest force. The King of creation willingly subjected Himself to all of what it means to be human-pain, hunger, thirst, sorrow, physical exhaustion, the full range of human emotions-yet did so without sinning.

In an unfathomable act of selfless, sacrificial love, God left heaven's glory to die in sinners' stead. He offered mercy to a people who deserved only His wrath. He stooped to accomplish that which we not only could not do, but also would not do. In love, the God of the universe stepped from eternity to intervene in human history and save those wholly unable to save themselves.

In a word, the lesson we learn from Christmas is love. Christ's love (love that was manifest in His coming, in His life, and in His death) is a love that sacrificed. In the Advent of Jesus Christ, we see a love that sought, not its own needs, but the needs of others. We see a love that considered, not what it would lose, but what others would gain. We see a love that so emptied self that others would be filled; a love that so humbled self that others would be lifted up.

The Christ of Christmas gave to the very end, ultimately forfeiting His own life, so that sinners would find salvation. That's what happened when God became a Man-and that's what Christmas is all about.

Entire Article can be found here.

Satire

Santa Signs Legislation To Help Special-Wants Children
December 14, 2005 Issue 41•50

NORTH POLE—Kristofer Kringle, an international toy distributor popularly known as "Santa Claus," approved elf-penned legislation Monday that grants greater benefits to often-neglected "special wants" children. "Old policies failed to reward the world's children for dreaming big, but no longer—children with special or unusual wants shall see them all fulfilled on Christmas morning," Kringle said, in an announcement met with strong support from parents of the developmentally entitled. "My children were all born with special wants," said Glenda Froman, mother of three. "After years of whiny suffering, they'll finally have their wish: Xbox 360s in every room, matching ponies, and a rocket-powered bicycle they're allowed to fly inside the house."

Spiritual Handoff

In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley

2 Timothy 1:3-7
3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; 4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

People go to great lengths in order to ensure that property and wealth are bequeathed to favored family members or charities. Some people tragically spend so much time preparing for material possessions to be passed down after death that they overlook what their life could impart now.

The Christian’s most vital asset is faith. While belief involves personal choices, our children and friends can receive from us an inheritance of righteous principles and a model for godly living.

A faith worth passing down is based on biblical truth and the confident conviction that God is who He says and will do all He promises. That is to say, we ourselves must experience a growing personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to share it with others. We cannot hand down principles we have only read or heard about from someone else — it simply will not work.

A question we should ask ourselves is, Am I comfortable dying with the faith I have lived by? Many people pick and choose religious philosophies to guide their life but discover in their final hours the fallacy of a self-centered perspective. A faith worth passing down can face the end of life with the knowledge that we are eternally secure in the living God, whose Son died at Calvary for our sins.

A faith legacy is the greatest wealth we can bequeath to those who come after us. Unlike money, a good example cannot be squandered. We can begin now to touch future generations by passing our faith on to those around us.

Are you thankful for what has been handed to you? Are you being careful to hand it down to those who look up to you and respect you?

Choking

Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, ... choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

"Cares of this world"...what are they?

Are they the same for you as they are for me? Some of them probably are. Some of them probably aren't.

Think of something that you care for. It can be anything. Has that thing ever took precedence over your relationship with God? Has that thing ever robbed you of your desire to dig deeper into God's Word?

Picture that thing, in your mind, choking you. Maybe it's just choking you a little bit. Maybe you can still take shallow breaths. Maybe this thing just barely has it's hands on your throat. It doesn't matter. God's design is for you to be able to take deep full breaths of His Word-- of Him.

I know I can think of lots of little things in my life that, while not bad in and of themselves, have a tendency to choke out my desire for communion with God. In fact, some of these things are often considered good things, but taken in too great of quantities, can have negative side effects.
Too often I get caught up in the little things in life. I using the term "little" here to mean: Anything that's of no eternal consequence. We are here for one purpose--to glorify God. We're not here to make more money. We're not here to get married. We're not here to go to church, to get a good job, to go to school, or to become famous. I'm not saying all those things are bad, they're just not our purpose.

Let us strive to put our God at the top of our list. Everyday, all day.