A CHRISTMAS THAT JESUS WOULD CELEBRATE

In my 54 Christmases I’ve seen society change from a hardworking mentality to a me first mentality, to entitlement, to greed, to not accepting personal responsibility, and now we face a bankrupt nation. 

But all is not lost. As we watch our dollar grow more worthless each passing day, we are finding ourselves again. Instead of getting lost in the orgy of spending for the perfect Santa Claus morning, we are spending time with those we love. Instead of debt bending our backs with worry, we stand straight and look to the future debt free. And since our gaze has gone from our navel (me, me, me) to the horizon we see others and recognize their need. 

Am I describing you? Have you undergone this change of mind? If not, I encourage everyone to use this holiday season as a springboard into the future. Change your mindset. Don’t regret the past, think forward and ask yourself, “How can I make someone’s life better?” Helping others doesn’t always require money. Time invested in their lives is just as needed. 

Lift up your eyes and be sensitive to those around you. Don’t grumble about the rich or the poor. Do something. Don’t feel that anyone owes you anything. Do something. Make the same choice as our forefathers. Have the attitude and the willingness to do what it takes. 

If you have two cents to your name, give one to someone else. If your house is only 300 square feet, invite someone over for coffee and encourage them. Start giving to the poor and continue giving throughout the year. Help those who have dedicated their lives to the poor. Teach your children to give. Make that the most exciting part of Christmas for them. 

For me, Christmas isn’t a time to celebrate the birth of Christ since he wasn’t born in December anyway. Christmas is the anniversary to renew my resolve to celebrate Christ’s command in Matthew 22:36-40 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU A SHORT BLANKET

Life is like a blanket too short. You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shivers meander about your shoulder; but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night. ~Marion Howard

I came across this quote the other day and thought, isn’t this just like life? It often seems that we get the short blanket more often than the long one, doesn’t it?

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why? Because we learn more from short blankets. Discomfort gets our attention.

If you are anything like me, you will first try to remedy the short blanket situation right away in your own strength and fail. After failure a little self-pity often follows. Then, finally, we turn to God for His perspective and help.

Sometimes He provides a longer blanket. However, many times He doesn’t. What then? Well, we have some decisions to make that will affect our outlook on life.

Let’s look at a few of our choices:

• Gratitude or ingratitude? The wise choice is to be grateful. As the quote above indicates, gratitude for any blanket at all would have me draw up my knees and be comfortable.
• Trusting the truth or the circumstances? It's hard to ignore a raging storm, especially when it is raging in our souls. The cry of our heart is thin in the tempestuous gales of worry. But it comes down to this – I either believe God or I don’t. Philippines 4:8 says, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” I have to strip away all of the what if’s and if only’s from my thoughts and dwell on what I know to be true. When I do that I am able to hear God.
• Hanging around waiting for things to change or using what is in my hand? I’d like to add to the quote above, “Cheerful folks manage to share their short blanket. What ever you have, share it. I have a friend who expressed a desire to practice hospitality, but said she couldn’t because her house was too small. I asked if she had two chairs and a table. She nodded. “Then your house isn’t too small,” I replied. Many lives are comforted over coffee in a small house. I experienced the rejection of divorce in my first marriage. Today, I help others who are walking that lonely, painful path. If I’d chosen to become bitter and broody, what happened years ago would continue to hurt me today. Sharing with others and helping them healed me.

Remember, small blankets make down-filled comforters all the more enjoyable when they finally come. So let’s “draw up our knees” and remain cheerful!

--

WE MAY FAIL, BUT LOVE NEVER FAILS

This is an interesting tree in Liss, England. It is hollow in the middle. Like the one the Keebler Elves live in! You can actually go inside it, look up and see the sky. It is empty, but life thrives.

I think of that tree when I feel I've failed. That same kind of emptiness possesses my soul.

Josh Foliart pointed out that when Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter, meaning rock, he was actually prophesying Peter's destiny.

Think about that. Jesus knew Peter would fail him. Deny him. And yet, that would not change Peter's destiny.

When we fail, we feel hollow, but feeling has nothing to do with destiny. Nothing changes. The only thing that makes failure good is how we use it.

Instead of turning inward pitying and loathing ourselves, we must pick ourselves up and learn from it. Then use that experience to connect and help others.

Just like this tree, we have should have nothing to hide. We should welcome others to walk inside us and see that it is possible to thrive no matter what happens because our life source is Jesus.

We may fail, but love never fails. Our destiny, our purpose, remains intact and strong.

ANOTHER CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT

Oprah Winfrey said a new year is another chance to get it right.

I prefer to think that each new day is another chance to get it right. Whatever "it" is for you, there is new hope for each new day.

On my writing blog, Daydreaming On Paper, I encourage my readers to make goals instead of resolutions, because if we fail in keeping a resolution there is an element of defeat and/or shame. To fall short of a goal just means we have to keep trying. Hope is still within reach.

Think about 2009:

1. What do you want it to look like as far as you are concerned?

2. What would you like to accomplish?

3. What needs to happen in order to accomplish this?

If you want to enhance your life, help others. This is a worthy goal to focus on. Ask yourself:

1. What do I care about--really care about--what makes me "pound the table?"

2. Is there a person or cause that I could help?

3. What can I do to make a positive impact?

I believe if we concentrate on the last three questions our personal quality of life will be beyond good. When I speak at retreats I have an exercise that illustrates this point:

I ask for three volunteers. Two stay up front with me and one goes to the back. I have one woman look at her belly button, the other looks straight ahead, and the lady in back moves somewhere in the audience and stays there.

Then I instruct the woman looking at her belly button to go and find the lady in the audience, but she cannot take her eyes off her belly button.

She tries but only succeeds to run into a lot of tables.

Then I ask the lady looking straight ahead to find her. Of course she walks right to her.

My point is that as long as we keep looking up and helping others we will find our way easier than if our focus is primarily on ourselves.

If our goals include helping others, we will reach them, and much more.

PEACE

This morning I read John 14:27:

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

That is appropriate in this day and time, as it has been in all generations when our ancestors felt as we do now--can things get worse?

Yes, and they will.

So what is this peace? And what kind of peace does the world give? How are these two kinds of peace different?

The world--kosmos--is concerned with the present. It measures quality of life by wealth and status, achievements and self-esteem. It is a world view of self-reliance, of Independence from God.

Knowing this, what kind of peace does the world give?

Well, some may think money. But as we read in the papers and hear in the news media stars and millionaires are checking into rehabs, going from on broken relationship to another, fall into depression, things that we think would never happen if only . . .. But, as we have recently seen in our economy, no money who you are, your can be gone in an instant.

How about success? Those that I know who are wildly successful have very little personal peace. To stay on top you have to defend your place and keep climbing.

Stuff! How about stuff? You know, cars, big houses, 100+ pairs of shoes, closets full of clothes, jewelry, electronic goodies. Yes, those are great to have, but they get old-someone gets something better. New and improved stuff always makes ours obsolete. Styles change.

There are drugs, and alcohol. Yes, those do give a temporary feeling of well-being, but it wears off. And if one stays in a drugged state, the feeling of well-being gets harder and harder to achieve.

Relationships! That's the ticket! Once again, temporary. We all have our issues.

Religion, ie. the kind that depends on us. Like those that teach we must abuse our sinful bodies by beating ourselves with sticks, crawling on gravel, or those with the view that because the body was made for pleasure, then indulge! Then there are the middle of the road religions that teach that we stay neutral, to blank out, to control ourselves. There are a plethora of religions that teach hate, fear, and superiority. All of them come from mankind's point of view on how things should be.

How about philosophy? It only raises questions and gives no answers.

Art? Knowledge? Subjective.

My conclusion? Peace as the world gives is like cotton candy. It is puffed up, pretty, and sweet, but it disappears in an instant and leaves us with a sticky mess.

PEACE AS JESUS CHRIST GIVES

Jesus gives life, not another religion to follow. However, I can understand why some would include Jesus' peace in the same light as those of fear, superiority, and hate. It isn't because of Jesus' teaching, but because of the stinking practices of those who profess to know him. Those who think that because they are white they are superior. Those who snub the tattooed, pierced, oddly dressed people. Those who think that if they touch, or even speak to a homosexual they are doomed to destruction. Those who want to "nuke" every Muslim on the planet. Those who think that only their denomination will make it to Heaven. Those "Thou shalt not . . . Christians. Don't drink, don't go to movies, don't watch television, don't cut your hair, wear make-up, dress in pants, don't play football, don't! don't! don't!!!!! Negative, negative, negative, doomed to Hell teaching.

How the heart of Christ must grieve.

What does Christ teach? Two simple commandments:

To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our mind. This is the first and GREATEST commandment.

And to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Let me point out that LOVE IS NOT AN EMOTION. Rather it is an expression of faith. Love - agapao - is to "honor, cherish, devotion, respect, loyalty, compassion, generosity, and concern. LOVE IS A VERB!

If left to ourselves it would be impossible to be consistent in this commandment. Some circumstance would break our resolve. Thank goodness that Jesus understands. In fact, that is why he came to earth. He is mindful that we are "but dust" - Psalm 103.

He made covenant with God to provide the nature we must have to love unconditionally. Of course we will fail, but that is why he sent the Holy Spirit to point out where we failed, to counsel us, to teach us how to overcome, and to comfort us. He reminds us of what Jesus said.

There is no condemnation, beating ourselves with sticks, bowing 100 times, giving up chocolate (thank goodness!) rather, it is like a loving parent correcting a child. The consequences from our actions depends on our obedience or hard-headedness.

PEACE comes from God's divine promise of life with him, from his mercy, and freedom from all the shame and distress that is a result of a broken world. It is reconciliation with God, no longer being in dependant of him.

We can either choose our way or his way. We can either choose a religion that depends on our strength, with no final destination, or we can grow in God's strength, and when our pulse stops, life won't.

Peace. It isn't an emotion either. It is a state of being. Circumstance will make us cry and fret. We will get angry. But we know, oh yes, we know peace. And that is our anchor in the storm.

PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA

I didn't vote for Mr. Obama. However, he won. So it doesn't matter any longer who I voted for, he will soon be my president and I will honor him.

I learned this lesson from a man who honored those who dishonor him on a daily basis, my president, George W. Bush. He has been trashed for eight years and I've yet heard him return a negative word. He has accomplished incredible feats but no one notices. He acted on information given to him as everyone expected and even supported. Too bad that none of us have 20/20 vision for the unknown future, only hindsight.

Millions of Iraqi people are glad we didn't have 20/20 into the future because today they are released from the fear of an evil ruler and are free to pursue their dreams. Citizens of neighboring countries are begging for us to do the same for them.

I have great hope for Barrack Obama. I refuse to do to him what the left has done to President Bush. I would be no better than them if I complain and try to find fault with everything our future president does. Please join me in praying for his and his family's safety and for his success.

I recently received this article from a man I highly respect, Francis Frangipagne. Below is what he has to say and I found it very comforting.


The Day the Lord Has Made by Francis Frangipane

At any given moment there exists, at the doorway to the future, two possible realities. The first realm is a darkened world born as a consequence of sin. It's ongoing rebellion toward God, coupled with the unredeemed events of the past, make this reality an extension of hell. Here, conflicts and wars become more wide spread; in this realm, morality degrades into depravity. Yes, and among those who would make a difference, the grip of fear immobilizes their actions. It is of this demonically manipulated world that the scripture tells us to walk circumspectly for "the days are evil" (Eph. 5:16).

Yet, there is another reality, a different "day" that is also accessible to mankind. This second realm is the "prayed for" version of the first reality. It, too, stands ready to reveal itself. This realm is full of miracles, heavenly reversals of evil plots, and divine intervention. Here, sin is confronted, strongholds topple, and iniquity is redeemed by the power of Christ. The enemy who came in one way, flees seven ways in the brightness of this unfolding reality. Scripture has a name for this realm as well. It is called "the day which the Lord has made," and we are commanded to "rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps. 118:24).

Since time began, both of these realities have always existed. The Scriptures bear witness to numerous occasions when people have cried out to God and found the Almighty a willing ally in transforming their culture. When the Israelites humbled themselves, repented and prayed, and sought again the face of God, the Lord intervened, restored their land, and scattered their enemies.

Yet, this promise was not for Israel only. Consider also the ancient Ninevites. When they humbled themselves and embraced fasting and prayer, the day of mercy dawned upon their culture as well. In just three days, their entire city went from a people cursed to a people revived and blessed.

Recent Elections
I'm talking about walking into either of two realities because after recent elections many Christians are depressed. My friends, let me remind you: the future of our nation is not determined by an election, but by the faith of the elect. If we continue to pursue God, humbling ourselves and not giving up on our intercession, God can turn this nation toward Him in remarkable and powerful ways.

Yet, let me qualify my observation that "Christians are depressed." I should have said, "A number of white Christians are depressed." The fact is, Barack Obama's victory has filled most African Americans with a profound sense of joy. Indeed, the election of a black president by a majority of Americans from all backgrounds, says that the American dream is coming to pass.

Consider the words of our Pledge of Allegiance. Remember, our allegiance is not merely to the flag, but for the "republic for which it stands." Our pledge of allegiance is for "one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

The dream called "America" is becoming reality. Even now, with a black man ascending the seat of authority in this nation, hope is swelling in places bound by hopelessness. This breakthrough of racial healing, beloved, has long been on the heart of God. Although there will always be extremists and racists on both sides of the cultural divide, we are at a new beginning in America. (emphasis mine, la)

Regardless of who was elected president, the problems facing America are staggering. Threats of economic collapse, conflicts around the world, plus the possibility of a new cold war all await the president-elect. We must pray for him on these major issues, for in his success will be our success (Jer. 29:7).

So, my appeal is that we not be unbelieving as this new day unfolds. Rather let us lift our eyes to the possibilities of God. We have a great opportunity to stand in the gap for our new president and intercede. If we stay the course, we will enter the day the Lord has made, and breakthroughs previously unimaginable will come.

Many Questions
I know that what I am presenting will offend the political and even moral sensibilities of many of my friends. Many will ask, What about Obama's staunch pro-choice voting record?

I was a Christian for several years before the Holy Spirit revealed the horror of abortion. It happened in a moment. Perhaps someone was praying for me, but God got through. Likewise, I believe God can get through to our new president. Let's take faith that Jesus Christ could lift president Obama's conscious to the "pay grade" where abortion becomes reprehensible to him.

Let me also say that America did not turn liberal; the majority of Americans in our nation are still right of center. Even in California, voters banned gay marriage. Democrats won because they fielded many candidates that were not liberal but moderates and centrists. They drew upon the discouraged independent and moderate Republican voters, people who felt betrayed or at least let down by the Republican leadership. However, the morality of the nation did not change.

What about Israel? Will the new president turn against the Jews?

The first cabinet position chosen by president-elect Obama was given to Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is a hard charger, very clever Chicago politician. While partisan, he also is more a centrist rather than a left wing extremist. What you may not have known about him is that he is Jewish. His father immigrated to America from Jerusalem and was a former member of the Irgun, a militant Zionist group active in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1931 and 1948. There is no guarantee that Emanuel will defend Israel, but for those of us who see the possibilities created by divine influence, it is not hard to pray for continued support of Israel by America. I might be wrong, but I do not believe Rahm Emanuel, whose family is very active in their Chicago synagogue, would abandon the Jews nor Jerusalem. I think we can pray with confidence that his counsel as chief of staff would be to stand with Israel during these difficult times.

Both Wings
You have heard me say many times that I believe the great eagle spoken of in Revelation 12 is possibly a prophetic reference to the United States. The fact is, the eagle which Scripture describes as a place of refuge and protection, needs both wings to fly: the right wing and the left. What if this election offers us the possibility to heal the divisions between cultures? To bring hope to our inner cities and actually begin to rise toward our destiny?

I'm not saying I agree politically or morally with everything that Barack Obama believes, but you'll remember that one of his initial plans was to bring God and religion into the Democratic Party. He fought the influences of those in his party who had rejected Christianity and he sought to make the Democratic party a place where faith could exist and even flourish.

So, dear friend, it is not a time to despair; it is time to pray with vision and with hope. If all you see is a "cloud the size of a man's hand," then pray with the faith of Elijah that a mighty outpouring of grace may fall. Let us give God the chance to bring into our world a blessed, prayed-for reality.

One word for those who fear we have elected the antichrist, let me remind you that the evidence that identifies the antichrist is that he dies from a wound in the head and then is miraculously raised to life (see Rev. 13). Until such a sign exists, we should pray for our leaders with confidence.

One last thing about Rahm Emanuel. His family chose the surname Emanuel when they were fighting for Israel's freedom in Palestine (see personal life: Rahm Emanuel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). The name Emanuel means, "God with us." I am not naive to assume revival will come easy, but it will never come if we lose faith. Beloved, trust God. All things are possible, even seeing these very days transformed into the day which the Lord has made.

www.frangipane.org

SERVER PROBLEMS

I apologize for not posting in a while. I've had the worst time with Hughesnet satellite services. I DO NOT recommend them at all! We live in the middle of nowhere, and this was my only choice, or so I thought. I have found other outlets and so after my last disastrous altercation with Hughesnet, I fired them. Just to let you know how slow and frustrating this server is, I gladly paid the several hundred dollar penalty for breaking our contract, just to get rid of them.

Hughesnet is 1 step above dial-up. That's all. They do not have the bandwidth to support the customers they have and yet they still keep taking new ones on. Pure greed. If you should happen to view too many youtube videos, you are relegated to dial up speed for 36 hours for punishment. I found that out while trying to find a video to use in one of my presentations. After about 30 minutes of searching videos my computer stopped to a crawl. I'd crossed what they considered fair use. I felt like a child being sent to the corner for using my computer!

To make things worse, the only time you will speak to an English speaking person is in sales. After that you will speak to someone in India who has a poor command of the English language and you will spend your time saying, "repeat that please?" When they put you on hold you will listen to the most irritating song possible.

So, until I get hooked up with a local company, I am without service unless I come to town at the local coffee shop.

I will be leaving for Red River New Mexico on Friday. They will have Internet services there and I will catch up.

Thank you all for your patience!

Linda