MERRY CHRISTMAS....

On the way home last night, we were listening to the radio

when a newscaster
called his little 91 year old granny to talk to her about the 'Holidays'.

He mentioned that he had noticed that Christmas has become so 'politically
correct' that no mention of Christmas is made by most retailers,

we now wish
people 'Happy Holidays.'

His granny said she missed the Old Fashioned Christmas

 when everyone
wished each other 'Merry Christmas'.

We thought about it and agree...so this year we will be making a conscious
effort to wish everyone Merry Christmas...

our way of saying that we are
celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. 
 

 God Bless and  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

from: my email buddies concerned about the signs of the times, however,

"As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

 ¹⁴ Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. ¹⁵ It’s not what goes into your body that defiles (pollute, corrupt, filthy, unfit, unclean) you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.^[h]”

 ¹⁷ Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. ¹⁸ “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? ¹⁹ Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

 ²⁰ And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:14-23

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 ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. Hebrews 13:8-9

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 ⁹ “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
      and desperately wicked.
      Who really knows how bad it is?
 ¹⁰ But I, the Lord, search all hearts
      and examine secret motives.
   I give all people their due rewards,
      according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

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 ^{23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26}

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^5  He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:5-8

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⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

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⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) Ephesians 2:5

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¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.  John 1:17

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²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. Romans 3:22

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⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6

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⁵ For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. ⁶ He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.1 Timothy 2:5-6

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²⁰ “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. ²¹ Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.  Jesus on Revelation 3:20-21

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¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

 ¹⁶ “This is the new covenant I will make
      with my people on that day,^[c] says the Lord:
   I will put my laws in their hearts,
      and I will write them on their minds.”^[d]

 ¹⁷ Then he says,

   “I will never again remember
      their sins and lawless deeds.”^[e]

 ¹⁸ And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. Hebrews 10:15-18

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¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16

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⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus^[c] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

 ⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1: 5-8

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²⁶ Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. ²⁷ There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. ²⁸ For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. ³⁰ For we know the one who said,

   “I will take revenge.
      I will pay them back.”^[h]

   He also said,

   “The Lord will judge his own people.”^[i]

 ³¹ It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31

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 ^{27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.}

 ^{29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.[j] 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. Romans 3:23-21}

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²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
      Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2:18

²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"^[e] and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. James 2:21-24

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²If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."^[a]

 ^{4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness Romans 4:2-4}

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¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

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⁵Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? James 2:5

The upshot is this, Israel:  I'll judge each of you ACCORDING TO THE WAY YOU LIVE. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won't drag you down. Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? I take no pleasure in anyone's death. Decree of God, the Master.  "Make a clean break! Live!"  Ezekiel 18:31-32 (The Message)

Years ago before I came to the Lord, I used to hide the feeling of emptiness by doing things in excess. I used to buy clothes, not only based on the popular brands, but I'd buy in quantities. By the time I was done with shopping, I've racked up my credit card charges with things I don't even need. I've accumulated so much clothes, bags and shoes that I've never worn the same things twice in months. But still, I felt there was something lacking. And when I feel I would get that dreadful feeling of being downtrodden, I would repeat the same cycle of buying everything but the kitchen sink.

Economic analysts indicated that the major reason why we are now in an economic crisis is due to consumers' excessive desires of owning things well and above what their income can afford. They were sucked in by what the advertisements on TV and newspapers are promoting that you need to have and own in order to be part of the bandwagon called "success."  If you have all the latest bells and whistles, it indicates that you have arrived. In the eyes of man, you have successfully achieved the American dream. Showing off at all costs becomes man's downfall. Pleasure and what it represents become a man's main focus in life.

They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a SLAVE to whatever CONTROLS you. 2 Peter 2:19

Today's teaching on pleasure by Pastor Robert Jeffress, he pointed out that there's nothing wrong having pleasures in life. When God said we need to endure life, God is also saying we need to enjoy life.

The key word is BALANCE. In everything we do, we need to have balance in life. We need to learn personal discipline in life. The times when pleasure becomes our downfall is if we do it in EXCESS. When pleasure becomes the FOCUS in our life. When pleasure VIOLATES the teachings of God's Word.

When pleasure dominates your life, to the point of excess, you surely will have a hard fall that you don't even know what hits you. Nowadays, excess pleasure can be seen in what you consider  part of your life; something you cannot do without, you seem like you are not happy or content if that pleasure is taken away from you. It is your focus or your IDOL. We can think of many things in our life that concentrate to that truth.

Most of us fall on that category of WANTING. Wanting something that we cannot even afford. Wanting something to get extreme sexual pleasure, irregardless if it's an abomination to God.

Wanting to be rebellious against God's commands and instructions is what we see in most of our young generation today. Free for all, go for broke, the sky is the limit, painting the town red, drink or smoke to excess, everything in excess. But just about anything that would take that feeling of emptiness in life, unfortunately, has been part of every generation, even the Old Testament times in the Holy Bible (Ezekiel 18:31-32). The only difference is, as we move on in generations, the excess in life increases in numbers and so is the numbers of terminal illnesses and diseases in humans.

Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. James 5:5-5

Honor and enjoy your Creator while you're still YOUNG,
   Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
   Before your vision dims and the world blurs
   And the winter years keep you close to the FIRE. Ecclesiastes 12:1 (The Message)

Fortunately, as I grow in God's wisdom, it led me to the true realities of life. God's wisdom saved me from consequences that could lead to my eventual destruction and risk my eternal destiny. God's mercy and love have given me a hope and a future. God prospers my mind and teaches me everyday the path to take. His wisdom is not to restrict me in life's pleasure and joy, but His wisdom is the light and lamp on my feet so I will not stumble in darkness. God created this life, so God is never wrong, He never fails and nothing is impossible with God. When I've aligned my life's pleasure with God's wisdom on pleasure, life on earth is not EMPTY after all.

But friends, you're not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You're sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6  (The Message)