Today is Christmas Day. This year has been different for me. I have been more reflective about my life. I am entering a time that I had never been before. I have been thinking about my relationship with God. I am wanting to be more productive in my spiritual and physical life. Since I have accumulated knowledge of a lifetime. But so far, it has alluded me. It seems that I am not relevant for today. My morays are considered old fashion. My ideas are just as old. It is funny, but this tells me that I am needed more than ever. Even if no one will listen to me, what I have to say is as important as the day I learned it. I believe in one God, the Godhead. The Godhead is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that God sent His Son to earth to be born as a man. Jesus came to teach us how to enter heaven and to die for our sins. I believe that Jesus was crucified and on the third day rose from the died. He ascended into heaven as Lord of lords and King of kings. Anyone who believes, and trust in Jesus will enter the kingdom of heaven. This is what it means to be a Christian. And now the answer to the riddle.

The Answer to the Christmas Riddle.

What remains the same and is constantly changing? and Why?

The answer is Man. The constant or the same is change. Eccl.1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

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What do you see as your future? Do you have a future? With the way the world is going, what chance does anyone have? I hate to even to look at the evening news. It is all death and destruction. In the middle of the most joyous season of the year, people are miserable. If it isn’t the weather, which has been rotten. It is the unemployment. Who has money to spend on Christmas?  There are more homeless people than ever before. It seems that everyone is fighting each other. And the message of peace on earth is loss in translation. People seem to think that weapons are the cause of all their troubles. And if we get rid of all the weapons the world would be a better place. All you have to do is look at Mexico and figure out it don’t work. Everybody wants to blame everybody else and anything that can cause pain. It is a delusion and people are sleepwalking. Your future has always been in your hands. What you do determines what happens to you. It isn’t because of your mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle or your dad. It is you period. If you don’t wake up, you will lose your life. And that is a tragedy. When Jesus was born, He came into a world ruled by an occupying army. That army didn’t go anywhere. It didn’t make any difference in His life or how He conducted Himself. Jesus went about doing the work of the Father. He built the church, died for the sins of man and rose on the 3^rd day. You can change the world around you and the world around you can change for the better. All it will take is that you believe and trust in God. Then you can watch as everything changes. The future is in your hands for good or bad. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

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I went to college and studied Communications. I picked that particular subject because I was a shy lad. I couldn’t really hold a conversation with anyone. I found that I could make speeches. It became easy for me to stand up and speechify. It drew attention to myself that I hadn’t had before. It helped me in business. Customer service became my specialty. I married and we had 4 sons. My wife has a younger brother but she really didn’t have to deal with 4 boys at 1 time. I have 3 brothers and it was a piece of cake. My dad had a thick black belt. This belt would come off his pants any time 1 of us or all of us would start something. When we were children, mom and dad took us all over the country. We traveled to all most every state. So I tried to do the same for my sons. Traveling gives you an education that you can’t get in a school. 2 of my sons graduated from college. 3 of my 4 sons served in the Military. The other 2 sons have some college. They grew up in front of me, with their own ideas and opinions. When they were little and visited other people’s homes, the people would come back and say how nice my sons were. I asked them who they were talking about. My wife and I raised them to have manners and to be compassionate. My sons are what God says, if you raise a child in the way he should, when he is old, he shall not depart from it. I was 18 years old just yesterday. And today time has gone so fast. My wife and I have been shopping. We bought toys for our 1^st grandchild. My dad bought a red stuffed bulldog, 3 times bigger than his 1^st grandchild. Do you know what gifts God gave me? My 4 sons. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

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When I was a small boy, we lived in a 2 bedroom starter home. Dad bought this home brand new. It was the first house he ever bought. He had returned for WWII and married my mom. My dad owned a 1951 pink 2 door Studebaker Champion. When we were little, all 6 of us fit into the car. Back then you didn’t have to put car seats for children. As we got older, dad bought a 1954 4 door Dodge sedan. We traveled all over the country in that car. My older brother always got carsick. So we would stop for him to empty his stomach. There was a 55 gallon drum on the side of the our garage. I would take it out each evening and walk on it. I became so good that I could run that barrel all over the yard. We lived so far south in America, that I can only remember 1 winter that it snowed and stayed. In the winter of 1957, it snowed and stayed for 3 days. That year Hurricane Audrey came through and wiped out several cities near the Gulf of Mexico. Mom would make us go to all the family reunions. We would go kicking and screaming. But I tell a truth, I am glad my mother did that. I got to know my family on all sides. My great grand aunt carried me piggyback when she was 75 years old. She lived until she was 94 years old. I can trace my family for 500 years all the way back to France. They never thought they were doing anything extraordinary when they came to America. Their whole world changed and the whole world changed with them. Each person is unique and special to God. And as you go about your life, your world changes. And guess what the world changes because of you. You are important in God’s plan. This is why He came to this earth. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

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Do you know why there is a Christmas? Everyone knows that Jesus came into this world and it is celebrated on Christmas day. The world has made it a special day. There are Christmas specials at the local churches, on television and even at local community centers. There are Christmas lights on all most every house. People are busy buying gifts for almost everyone. Christmas has become a big production. Businesses have to make their yearly income at Christmas time to be successful the rest of the year. The Salvation Army has a Santa Clause at most large retail outlets to collect donations.  But what is Christmas about? Why did God send Jesus to this earth? Almost every culture in the world holds that Jesus is a prophet of God. In the past few years there has a real been an attempt to dethrone Jesus. The other side says that there is no God and we are really God. I don’t want to laugh at people’s heresy, but it is sad what man can think of. Jesus came to earth for a very special reason. Don’t only to fulfill the prophesy in the bible, but to do the work for the Father assigned to Him. The work that God had for Him, led to His death. He took abuse, rejection and betrayal by his disciples. But He didn’t give up at any time, Thank God. God knew what was in the heart of man and was willing to sacrifice His son to redeem the world. The Bible says the Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus came into this world in a stable with animals. It was a lowly place indeed. He came in as low a station that anyone could. And the world came to Him. Honor Him in the same way. Help those who cannot help themselves. Give of yourself to others and Jesus did for us. This is the Christmas story. I want to wish you a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

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Why are we so interdependent as human beings? As newborns we as a species are the most dependent of all the animals. It takes us longer to mature than any other. We rely on our parents all of lives. We grow up and become adults with children of our own and still depend on our parents. It is like it is a never-ending circle. We are social beings that live in close proximity of each other. Yes we like our space but you that is getting smaller and smaller all the time.  I have seen the TV reality show about people living in the wilds of Alaska. What is interesting about the show is that people want to live like that. Living apart from people does appeal to me. But I look at what I need and see that being around people is the only way I am going to survive. So we have developed skills for dealing with people. Some are harder than others to develop. But to be able to living on our own we must have skills. Our parents teach us the skills they know to prepare us for life. Sometimes they are just what we need. But I see the lack of skills in a lot of people. That is when it gets hard to live or accomplish things in our lives. It funny how our teenage years were a practice time for developing skills. It seemed so difficult for somethings and easy for others. Love relationships always seem the hardest thing to do. It was always by trial and error. The affairs of the heart always seem to hurt. But those skills if accomplished help us to make our way into the world of marriage. Being dependent was always the plan for God. We were made with a part missing. We needed to fill that part with God to be completed. Many had filled that part with alcohol, drugs, sex, power or crystals. But you can’t fill your life if anything but God and expect to be whole in this life. Or to be whole in the life to come. All you have to do is ask and He will answer you. Be complete in your life and ask.

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How good are your listening skills? Everybody hears, but I am not talking about that. Listening is something altogether different. I go about my day getting my work done. I hear everyone that talks to me. But many times I don’t listen to them. I am in a hurry and need to accomplish my work in a set schedule. I only have time for so much. I have an allotted time for everything. This many times rules out listening to people. For the most part, when a person speaks to you they are saying more than you are hearing. Some of what they are saying refers to the work at hand. But sometimes they are talking about themselves. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you are too busy with work or preoccupied with something else, you will not hear what they are saying. Most people have resign themselves to knowing that people aren’t listening to them. Still people try to reach other people. This is where the skill of listening comes in. If you have developed a skill, you will hear the most astounding things. We are social beings and need to have interaction with other people. The lack of relating to other people can be maddening. And we always find that people who live alone are strange. If you listen to a person talk, they will tell you their life’s story within minutes of talking to you. It is funny how that works. People want to relate to others and will talk until they find someone who is listening. This is the art of communication. Every animal on this earth communicates with someone. So listen to what is being said around you. And you will find out things that you never knew before. This is the difference between talking and communication.

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Remember your heart is who you are. Your heart is your mind, will and intellect. This is the part of you that is eternal or immortal. This is what most people call your spirit. Everything you have ever learn is stored in your spirit. All the good things, bad things, everyday experiences are there for you to recall. This shapes what you believe and who you are. So the attitudes of your heart are important part of your life. Each of us are basically the same. We each have parents and came into the world the same way. This is where we differ. According to where we were born and taught as a child determined what we became when we grew up. I like just about most foods. You can tell that by the size of my belly. I like to cook also. My latest thing is jams and jellies. I will taste them to get the consistency right but I can’t eat them because of the diabetes. I don’t want it or need it, but it is there because of my life style or because of what my parents had. Yet I am not going to quite just because I am being tested.  I am determined and persistent. It is an attitude that I developed when I was a child. Some might say I am stubborn. But I am not stupid about what I will or will not do. I have a positive attitude that everything will work out like it is supposed to do. And no matter what happens every morning is new and ready for me to begin my life anew. I didn’t always think like this. It took a force of nature to change me into the person I am today. That force had to move heaven and earth for me to believe and trust that I had hope for the future. I have only found that hope in one person, God’s own son, Jesus.

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I am looking at my cat and she is snoozing away. Her feet are in the air and not a care in the world. I haven’t slept like that in years. I can remember that I use to be able to drink coffee and go right to sleep all night. You look at children and they don’t have a care in the world. They can sleep like a log. My oldest son use to sleep for 8 hours at a time. That boy could sleep more than anyone I have ever seen. As you grow older it seems that sleep eludes you. That restful and peaceful kind of sleep that we all enjoyed when we were younger. What has changed? Why don’t we have a good night’s sleep anymore? I know people that use alcohol to get a night’s sleep. And even worst to use drugs. The things of this world can’t bring you peace. And peace is the only thing that give you a good night’s sleep. So where did the peace go? Why don’t we have peace like we did when we were young? Do you remember the first time you lied to get your way? And how bad you felt afterward. And the lack of peace in your life. How often have we done that so we could get ahead? And what did it cost us to get there? In 1983, Gallup poll took a survey across America. They ask what was the 3 most important things in your life. Surprise, Surprise, #3’s answer was peace or the lack of it in their lives. It hasn’t changed. The answer is still the same. We need peace in our lives to live on this earth. And I know of only one place to get peace in our lives. And that place or person to ask for peace is God Himself. There is no one else that can give us peace in our lives. And you know how to do that is just to ask God Himself for the peace to live your life.

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I have lived in many parts of this nation. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful. I lived in a little town called Golden, Colo. It is a suburb of Denver. There was only several million people in Denver. But the attitude of the people was of a small town. My cousins lived up the mountain in a town called Evergreen. Now that was a small town of only a few thousand. Then I lived in Indianapolis, Ind. You would think that it is one big city. But it isn’t at all. Indianapolis is made up of over 200 towns each individual and distinct. They claim to fame when I lived there was that there was a bank robbery every week. Indianapolis is bisected by no less than 7 interstate highways. The people would come home at 5, change their clothes and go out until 2 or 3am. They did this all the time. It like to drove me crazy. I couldn’t stand living in that kind of life style. I have lived in Houston and San Antonio. I always liked traveling around the country. My parents would take us on vacations all over. The only states I haven’t been to are New England and the pacific coast. My cousins in Pierre, SD., have a 80,000 acre wheat farm. They fly airplanes to check the crops. Life is different everywhere. So are the people who live there. Discovering who those people are has become one of the most important things in my life. There is a real diamond mine in Murfreesboro, Ark. I love to talk to strangers. My wife gets embarrassed when I do. But you never know what you going to find when you do. I guess it goes back to me being shy when I was young. And wanting to meet people freely. Mark Twain said that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” I don’t travel as often as I would like, but I still want to.

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