Twas The month Before Christmas….

Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas – no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ‘ Holiday ‘.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe’s the word Christmas – was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears*

*You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate ‘Winter Break’ under your ‘Dream Tree’*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS , not Happy Holiday!*

I can not take credit for this poem for this Christmas holiday. But I feel it shows a good picture as to the status of our faith in this country. In other countries, Christians are persecuted, beaten, and even killed for there faith. But here

we give ours away little by little and don’t even realize it. Take a stand and remember what the purpose of Christmas is. It is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He came to the earth to live and suffer for you and me. So as you unwrap your presents and enjoy that family time, don’t forget to give thanks for the greatest gift of all. The life that was brought in just to die for us. I hope all of you have an amazing Christmas. May God bless each and every one of you. And may you resolute to make Jesus your focus from now on.  

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

 

How Do You Beat Your Donkey?

In the book of Numbers we are introduced to a man by the name of Balaam. In the story of Balaam, he saddles up his donkey and takes off on a journey (Numbers 22:21) where the angel of the Lord puts Himself between them and there destination. This caused the donkey to steer off of the road and Balaam beat the animal back onto the road. A second time the angel of the Lord stands before them and causes the donkey to run into a wall and crush Balaam’s foot making him beat the donkey some more. A third time the angel of Lord blocked there path causing the donkey to just lay down. Needless to say Balaam began to beat her some more. Only this time the angel of the Lord allowed the donkey to speak and asked Balaam why has he beat her since he has always ridden her and never before she failed him. Only then was Balaam able to see the angel of the Lord and understand what was going on.

How can this apply to us today. Well, the bible is clear on how narrow the path is that keeps us righteous. The path in this story is our lives as we live them on a daily basis. The donkey is the vessel in which we navigate through our days. The angel of the Lord is Jesus and how He cares about us so much that He involves Himself in every aspect of our lives. When life is rough and the choices we are making aren’t working out the way we want them. It may just be the the angel of the Lord is causing our lives to be shifted along the path that He wants us on and so we don’t end up at a disastrous ending. It’s kind of like beating your face against a cement wall. Eventually the wall will win and you end up on the floor bleeding and still going a different direction.

I believe that this story is telling us in a very simple way that we should trust in the Lord with everything because He already knows everything especially what is good for us. To often we fight and try to “muscle” our way through the direction we want to go. Even if that means beating our donkeys, or ourselves, until total submission . If times are tough and things aren’t going the way we want them to. Then we need to step back, humble ourselves, and ask God what He wants us to do. Then trust Him and just do it. So ask yourself next time things are going rough. Am I just beating my donkey even though it is trying to do the right thing?