Category: Uncategorized

Now don’t get angry. Don’t shoot the messenger and don’t stop reading. Someone has to tell the truth about the reason for the season. We hear this phrase all the time and it resonates throughout this time of year. This should be a happy time and I’m not trying to steal anyone’s joy. If you feel closer to God during this time of the year, that’s great news. And there is nothing wrong with that. Anything that can come from this national pastime that makes people even have a discussion about God is great.

With that said, many of us already know that the Holy Bible does not mention when Jesus was born. There are clues like the shepherds watching over their flocks by night. Clearly harvest time had not come yet and that would be sometime in October on our calendars. But Jesus was not born on Dec. 25. In fact, there is really nothing holy about this holiday at all. Moreover, there isn’t anything holy about any of them. Now, don’t take my word for it. Research it for yourself. Below I have listed an overview of the history of Christmas from the website http://www.historyofchristmas.com if you are so inclined.

So the reason for this season has more to do with your wallet than your bible — and I’m not talking about tithing! Which did you do? Did you spend more money for the cause of Christ this season or did you make our retail industry proud? Well, it’s your choice anyway, but if you really want to remember something, remember this: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Celebrate everyday that Jesus died, was buried and rose again on the third day. Spend your life — not a season — remembering what matters most: Not that he was born, but that he died so we could be reconciled back to God and that he lived so we could be saved. Remember that he said, “he who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Respect his words and follow him … And give Christmas to Santa and the rest of the media. Be at peace all year long my friends and show love the same way.

An overview of Christmas:
1600’s: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas’ name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols.
17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.
1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.
1804: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas.
1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book “A History of New York.” Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.
1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.
1821: William Gilley printed a poem about “Santeclaus” who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.
1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem “An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas,” which became better known as “The Night before Christmas.” Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.
1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a “Criscringle” outfit and climb the chimney of his store.
1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper’s Magazine. These continued through the 1890’s.
1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army — an early example of psychological warfare.
1897: Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O’Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It has become known as the “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” letter.
1920’s: The image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim.
1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola ™ company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. Christmas ads including Santa continue to the present day.
1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been “often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight.” He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers.
1949: Johnny Marks wrote the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Rudolph was relocated to the North Pole where he was initially rejected by the other reindeer who wouldn’t let him play in their reindeer games because of his strange looking nose. The song was recorded by Gene Autry and became his all-time best seller. Next to “White Christmas” it is the most popular song of all time.
1993: An urban folk tale began to circulate about a Japanese department store displaying a life-sized Santa Claus being crucified on a cross. It never happened.
1997: Artist Robert Cenedella drew a painting of a crucified Santa Claus. It was displayed in the window of the New York’s Art Students League and received intense criticism from some religious groups. His drawing was a protest. He attempted to show how Santa Claus had replaced Jesus Christ as the most important personality at Christmas time.

Slaves were brought to market and were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Some went real cheap and others cost a fortune. These slaves didn’t want to be sold. They clearly would have rather stayed where they were.

The slaves I’m referring to would be our families.

We auction off our families every time we miss an opportunity to be with them. We sell our families as slaves every time we value some thing over them. We enslave our families whenever a priority supersedes them. Our jobs can become the greatest slave master. It works us and is so demanding that we forsake all others. Things outside of our home can rob us of valuable family time. We’re too busy with professional organizations or volunteer groups or even social clubs to know the details going on in our own homes. Money and status is important, but are they that important? Life does a job on us as well because sometimes we get so tired that we can’t do anything. Life has taken almost all of our energy so that all we have left is enough for a shower and to climb into bed. How did we get here?

We have gotten so busy earning a wage to enjoy life, that earning a wage has become our life. It is our new slave master. By the time we realize that we have missed the best parts of life, it’s over. Image just being a sperm donor and a check for your family? Work has kept you away so you have missed most of the recitals, almost all of the sporting events and all of the opportunities to implant your wisdom and knowledge into your children.

Then, during the holiday season you try to make it up the only way you know how: you write another check. There are only so many electronic devices and video games you can buy before the children just write you off as an investor instead of a parent. Don’t make this holiday just about gifts. Your family needs you! And they really deserve all of you. Let them know you love them the old fashioned way. Just tell them!

There is a key to understanding faith.  Sometimes when we hear phrases like, “count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation” or “be glorious in tribulation”, they seem to be hard sayings that don’t make a whole lot of sense.  No one wants to celebrate tribulation.  Nobody is throwing a party for temptation, but yet the scriptures teach that these are celebratory conditions.  What we need to understand is how God sees these scenarios, and then it will help us to endure.

From God’s point of view, everything is connected.  He wants us to remember the things that happened in the past.  And if we were walking with Him, we should have a testimony.  That testimony would say something about Him delivering us from evil…rescuing us from tribulation…and fighting our battles.  We would remember Him making a way out of no way.  We would recall being snatched out of defeat and lifted up to victory.  He would have made impossible scenarios possible.  Then, going forward, we would have confidence and trust that would remind us that God doesn’t forsake His people.  So for example, there was this little kid in the old-testament who tended his father’s sheep.  And he had some experiences in the pasture that would have been difficult for him if he did not have faith.  God proved Himself to that young man and he was able to look forward with faith.  So, when Israel had problems with a certain giant, this young man was able to open up a can of whoop a–.

You see, everything really is connected.  We cannot run from our past, we cannot run from our present, and we cannot hide from our future.  God doesn’t give the spirit of fear…EVER!  He gives us power, love, and a sound mind.  So dear reader, don’t let faith remain a mystery, but seize this word and be empowered…for your future awaits!

I have seen some strange things this week as I traveled from the south to the north and back.  And these things kept making me ask the question, “Who does that?” Let me give you some examples of what I mean.

A utility bill collector calls a homeowner wondering where the payment is.  The homeowner gets irate and slams the phone down thinking they’ve won.  Clearly the lights will be shut off…”Who does that?”

A person volunteers to help with a project.  They get with the committee and their idea isn’t chosen.  They pack up their things and leave in a huff…”Who does that?”

A woman goes and purchases a luxury car that she can’t afford.  When she gets behind on the payments, she asks the church for help.  The church tells her that’s not what benevolence is for.  She says that she just feels that God wants her to have this car.  The benevolence committee gives her a strange look then she walks off angry threatening to leave the church…”Who does that?”

A husband and father of four, starts a brand new job (he’s been out of work for two years).  He’s on the job for two weeks then he meets with his boss to start dictating his schedule based on the perks of his last job…longer lunch periods, flex time, etc.  When the boss refuses, he threatens to quit…”Who does that?”

The person “who does that” is someone who has been over loved or under loved…the results are the same…they have a sense of entitlement. People who over love (ie. Enable) are people who were normally love starved as a child and they’re over compensating for what happened in the past, by over doing it going forward.  There are some cases where this person was over loved as well, but do it now as a learned behavior.  The under-lover follows the same pattern, where in most cases they were over loved to the point of being privileged, which created the stinginess within them.  There are a few cases where and under-lover is imitating an under-loved upbringing.

Love should be balanced.  It is the responsibility of the sender of love, not the receiver of love to balance it.  By balance, I mean that it is not logical to give someone everything they ask for just because you can.  It is not logical to deprive someone of everything, just because you didn’t have it when you were young.  It is not logical to accept any old response for the under and over loving and call it love.  As we learn to love better, we strive for a balance that allows us send genuine love to the receiver who then sends genuine love back.

Now that you know “who does that”, can you help somebody stop that?

Commitment is defined as an act of to a charge or trust; the state or instance of being obligated or emotionally. I had to read this definition a few times myself. I wanted to get a grasp of what makes people over-commit. It must happen when the committed person becomes too emotionally connected.

This is a bad place to be in because normally this person ends up getting hurt. They cannot see how their actions look to others. They give advice to people who don’t want it; they give money (with strings attached); and they over extend themselves and most of the time disguise it as general help. And in their subconscious mind they actually understand that whatever they were over-committing to is over, but at the moment, realizing it’s over is more hurtful than over-committing and looking like a fool.

If you see this over-indulging creature, be careful with them. They are fragile. They are not in a state where logic resides. They are emotionally lead and you must look out for their well being.

Unfortunately, some people take advantage of these over- committers and hide behind the fact that they didn’t ask for anything. Shame on you! What should happen is that you take NOTHING. You speak the truth in love to them, and end the relationship. Be consistent because the overindulgent can’t handle mixed messages. Over time they will see that you actually did them a favor.

The following is five questions to assess if you are dealing with an over- indulger.

1) If their help comes with hidden expectations
2) If there was a recent break up and the person is working too hard to be friends
3) If the person is over emotional especially with regard to helping
4) If the person has limited friends
5) If the person is controlling

Contact me for further information.

Remember when it was common place to end a letter with the word “sincerely”? This word is rarely even used in our society anymore. It’s been replaced with “regards”, “best regards”, “warmest regards”, “kindest regards”… it’s all the same.

Somewhere along the line we changed our scope of practice to simply “a protected interest” or just “attention”. The term is considered to mean respect. It speaks forward — from the writer to the reader.

Sincerely is a word that speaks forward a different way. It says something about the character of the writer to the reader. Sincerely says that the writer is being honest and of pure thought. It meant you can trust what the writer was saying.

Today, too many people just have regard for Jesus, but they are in no way sincere. It’s the same as believing in him and not doing the things that he says — the Lord himself said that couldn’t be done.

Instead, God wants us to respond to his love with obedience. He wants our whole heart and desires to have true worshippers in his presence.

Christ expects us to know him in an intimate way — as one of his sheep. He said his true sheep would hear his voice. Everything Jesus did when he was on earth was to connect the dots of prophecy. In John 10:25 Jesus said, “I told you and ye believed not: the works that I do in my father’s name, they bear witness of me.”

This blog asks this very sincere question: Dear reader, are you sincerely following Jesus?