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Merry Christmas

God Bless the USA

Last week I posted a ‘You Tube’ tribute to our soldiers serving our country. My brother-in-law Larry asked, “how can I write to them”, and let the troops know how grateful he was for their sacrifice and service. I did a little research (I googled ‘write our soldiers’) and I was given a long list of web sites. I have put a link here to America Supports You, and I am also keeping a link to their web-page on my side bar. This web site had the most information and a large variety of supportive links to help us put our feelings into actions. They have so many ways for us to show the troops how much we care about them and their families sacrifice.

This was sent to me today, and it reminded me of the verse when Jesus told His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
On this Good Friday and Easter as we remember Him and the sacrifice He made for us, let us offer up prayers and remembrances for those that are far from home, putting their lives on the line for us.
To open the You Tube video “Remember Me” full screen in a new window click here.

If you can’t use You Tube, open “Remember Me” inside GrammLei by clicking here.

Click on Photo to enlarge

I got the coolest email the other day. I liked the comparisons it used to make an excellent point. I hope you do too!

You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, just the absence of it.

Darkness too is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

It is argued that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.

Evil does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.

God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.

A word with Larry today had me going back to a site I like. Creation Science Evangelism This picture of earth from space is from NASA. It must be really awesome to see in person. Pictures are cool, but the pictures we took of the Grand Canyon do not do it justice. It’s hard to believe that just regular people (albeit rich ones) have and continue to go into outer space, perhaps someday it will be like taking a trip to the Grand Canyon, if you consider that just a hundred years ago, only the wealthy took vacations to far away places. Now almost everyone has flown somewhere. So…

The Final Frontier

The Complex Cosmos

This past Saturday I finally caught up on all the ‘Daily Word with Larry’ devotions. The December 29th devotion was all about taking time, pausing and thinking of His glory, it is all around us. I would encourage you to maybe re-read that days devotion whenever you’re feeling stressed out and used up. Below is a song from the group ‘Selah’, it always ‘lifts me up’, I hope it does you too.

Play You Raise Me Up

To read “A Selah Moment”

Now the Birth Of JESUS CHRIST took place in this way. When HIS Mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to Be With Child Of THE HOLY SPIRIT; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, Behold, an Angel Of THE LORD Appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for That Which Is Conceived in her Is Of THE HOLY SPIRIT; she will bear a Son, and you shall Call HIS NAME JESUS, for HE Will Save HIS People from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what THE LORD Had Spoken by the Prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and HIS Name shall Be Called EMMANUEL” : Isaiah 7:14
(which means, GOD With Us). When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the Angel Of THE LORD Commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a Son; and he Called HIS Name JESUS. Matthew 1:18-25

Now when they had departed, Behold, an Angel Of THE LORD Appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take The Child and HIS Mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I Tell you; for Herod is about to search for The Child, to destroy HIM.” And he rose and took The Child and HIS Mother by night, and departed to Egypt,… Matthew 2:13-14

Amid all the Christmas activities, one man is often forgotten.

No, I don’t mean The PERSON WHOSE Birthday we’re Celebrating. Although we often fail to give JESUS First Place as HE Deserves, we don’t usually forget HIM. I’m talking about Joseph—the man GOD Trusted so much that HE Placed HIS SON in his home to Love and Nurture. What a responsibility!

Joseph truly is the forgotten man in the Christmas story. Yet his task was an important component of GOD’S Incredible Plan. As we read the story of the Birth of JESUS, we find that Joseph was Just, Righteous, Merciful, Protective, and Courageous. But most of all—he was Obedient. When the Angel told him to take Mary as his wife, he Obeyed (Matt 1:24). And when the Angel told him to flee to Egypt with Mary and JESUS, he did (2:13-14).

Just as Mary was carefully Chosen to Bear THE SON OF GOD, Joseph was deliberately Chosen to Provide for his young wife and The CHRIST-CHILD. And Trusting GOD, Joseph followed through on everything GOD Asked him to do.

What is GOD Asking of you today? Are you Willing to commit yourself to Do whatever HE Wants you to Do?

We can learn much about Obedience from Joseph, the forgotten man of Christmas.

The Proof of our Love for GOD

is our Obedience to the Commands Of GOD.

INSIGHT:

“THE CHRIST” (Greek) and “THE MESSIAH” (Hebrew) both mean “THE ANOINTED ONE.” JESUS is the Greek form of “Joshua” which means

“THE LORD SAVES.” “CHRISTMAS” originally meant “CHRIST-SENT.”

GOD’S DAILY PROMISE:

“Before you Call I Will Answer,

and while you are yet speaking I Will Hear.”

Isaiah 65:24

My dear beloved Brethren, “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!” Tomorrow is The Big Day! I pray you’all are Celebrating JESUS’ Birth with family all around you. Patty and I will be home with our dog and cats, thinking of all of you and wishing JESUS a “Happy Birthday!” GOD Bless you’all, Larry and Patty

I copied this verbatim from Larry’s Blog “Larry’s Daily Word” – (LINK) To read more

Larry has been sharing his daily devotion with us via email for awhile, and I thought it would be cool to share it with everyone. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am in their midst” Matt 18:20

So I’m going to try and get them posted everyday, at the top of the left column/sidebar. You will be able to look for the old and/or past devotions under the “Other Stuff” heading towards the bottom on the left column/sidebar, and click on “A Daily Word with Larry”.

The colors of the trees are just too beautiful to describe. And there are thousands of them, everywhere. This past summer I thought that it seemed like there were trees and more trees and it was green everywhere, but now that they’re all changing colors…I find it hard to concentrate on driving, I want to stop and take pictures. I looks like I’m in a postcard or a painting. This is our back yard looking toward the house.

Click on image to enlarge

This morning while I was reading about the origins of Thanksgiving I found an interesting site. Here is an excerpt from it.

Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in these words:

“Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling [bird hunting] so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as… served the company almost a week… Many of the Indians [came] amongst us and… their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought… And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet BY THE GOODNESS OF GOD WE ARE… FAR FROM WANT.”

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g007.html

So, did you make a list of “resolutions”? I usually don’t. Not anymore. I did when I was younger, but I certainly don’t need the added guilt of not keeping my word to myself. Read the rest of this entry »