A "Road to Bethlehem" Encounter

During the past couple of days, I have some interesting encounters with the "fat man in the red suit." The first meeting with Santa Claus came Sunday night following our church's Youth and Children's Christmas production.

Santa was there to have his photo made with the kids. You should have seen the look on each child's face as they waited for a chance to sit on Kris Kringle's lap. Some kids were about to explode with excitement, while others looked intimidated by this "Christmas Icon."

My next "Santa" moment came when I was typing up local letters to St. Nick for the newspaper. Each year we publish these letters in our last edition before Christmas. While the kids were all quick to ask for their favorite present, they also expressed their love. From a simple, "I love you Santa," to many hearts drawn on the page, these kids were serious about their devotion.

A close friend of mine told me how her grandson "really, really believes" in Santa Claus. This faith was strengthened when a chimney sweep brought a torn piece of red cloth to him and said he found it in the chimney. "You found part of Santa's suit in there!" the youngster exclaimed.

Kids all over the globe are doing their best to be on their best behavior these final days before Christmas. They don't want Santa to pass by their house.

Each of these encounters reminded me of Jesus. Or should I say, how we should be thinking of Jesus. If you took the time to re-read the preceding paragraphs and replaced the word "Santa" with "Jesus," you would see what I mean.

We should all be serious in our devotion to the King of kings and Lord of Lords. We should "really, really believe" in Jesus. We should be on our best behavior so that He doesn't pass us by.

The Bible says we should all have a "child-like" faith. We certainly see a great example through the faith kids have in Santa. We should teach them to have such faith in the One whose birthday is celebrated at this time of year.




May the Blog Be With You. And Merry Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Today's predicted high temperature is 78 degrees. Last night's low was a balmy 62 degrees. This certainly doesn't feel like a "Winter Wonderland."

Even the grass on the highway is confused. There are patches of green showing up all along the interstate. I fear mowing may be in my future if things don't change soon.

Does this feel like Christmas at all? Certainly, the temperatures are not making things all that "Christmas-like" -- or is it?

Just for fun, I searched for today's forecast for Bethlehem, Israel. After all, the most important Christmas of all was the first Christmas. To answer you Bible scholars: Yes, I know that the first Christmas was not Dec. 25. But it is still the "Christmas season."

Anyway, lo and behold (that sounds somewhat biblical) the high and low temperatures for today in Bethlehem are: 69 degrees and 52 degrees respectively.

Well, then. Perhaps it is indeed beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Now, if I can just avoid the holiday gardening -- lol

May the Blog Be With You.

The compass points to controversy

There has been much ado concerning the movie "The Golden Compass." Much like "the Harry Potter uprising," Christians have organized their opposition and have been quite vocal (at least in email and blogs) about it.

As a Christian, I too am concerned about what can influence our kids - either on the big screen or in the pages of a book. I also enjoyed reading fantasy novels in my youth. So, I don't think I could be considered one of "those people" who are against any and every fantasy book/movie.

Having only read some of the opposition emails, and not the books themselves, I can only draw limited conclusions. Here are some of the undisputed facts:

• The author, Phillip Pullman, describes himself as an Agnostic and an Atheist.
• Reviewers describe his books as "anti religion."

There are many who would defend the books and movie as pure fiction, and should not be considered a threat to those who are grounded in their faith.

Here is my take (for what it is worth):

• Why make money for someone who is anti-religion, regardless of how good the book(s) or movie is?
• While most adults can discern fact from fiction, is it worth the risk to a child who may not make the distinction? (Who wants to be a Transformer when they grow up?)
• Back to the first point - Why pay money to someone who hates you? I still can't get past that one. End of argument for me.

I applaud those who have been vocal in their concern and opposition to this movie. Christians need not be the "silent majority" in the United States.

If only we had the Internet and email when prayer was being taken out of our schools.

May The Blog Be With You.

Subscribe today and receive 100% off the cover price

We all know that my blog posting schedule is erratic at best. Sometimes, I post every day. Then it could be weeks before my next post.

Since I know all my loyal readers (thank you, mom) can't wait until my next installment, I have a neat little thing that lets you know when I have posted an entry.

On the right-hand side of this page, is a little "widget" that lets you subscribe to email notifications for this blog.

As far as I can tell, it won't sign you up for any spam (at least not any that you aren't already receiving.)

So put your email address in the form and be up to date on all the strange things on this blog :)

May The Blog Be With You.

Give your best

The day after Thanksgiving, I watched the movie "Facing the Giants" for the second time. If you can get past some of the corny acting in the beginning, the movie is a very good story, and very inspiring.

At one point, the coach in the movie tells his place kicker to "give God your very best and leave the rest up to Him."

That phrase stuck with me. How many times have we asked God to take care of a situation, and yet we have failed to "give our very best?" This phrase has become a recurring theme in the work around the office - both mine and that of some of my employees. I believe if we give our very best at each thing we put our hand to -- in order to give Him glory -- he will bless the effort.

One such instance came last week. With Benton facing Bastrop in the semi-finals of the Class 4A playoffs, I came up with the idea of a "Beat Bastrop" post to run in the newspaper. Ok, I didn't actually "come up" with the idea -- it had been done in other newspapers -- but this was the first time we've attempted anything like it. It figures it would have to do with football.

We would put "Beat Bastrop" on one side of the page and sell the other side to sponsors. It was a good idea, but not a lot of time to get it all together.

My advertising manager was excited and decided to sell the entire thing himself. He hit the ground on Tuesday afternoon and headed to Benton.

Upon his return, he was a bit disheartened. The people I thought would jump on this say their budgets have been spent on the Benton football radio broadcasts or somewhere else."

He said he would try again the next day (Wednesday.). Time was running short, however, as Friday's edition would have to be sent to the press by 10 a.m. Thursday.

Upon his return, the entire page had been sold to 4 sponsors. Two ads would be created locally, while the other two would come from a corporate office or agency. My ad manager was excited.

We shared a couple of "Praise the Lord(s)" and "God is good(s)."

Then came the "monkey in the wrench."

At 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, we learned that one of the sponsors had backed out. Instead of throwing in the towel, or running the page with just the three sponsors and losing money on the deal, I told my ad manager, "Give God your very best and leave the rest up to Him."

He went to work, and secure not one, but two sponsors to finish out the page. It all happened within a span of less than an hour, and the page went to press on time, and on budget.

This was truly an effort where God moved on the scene and received the glory after we had "given our best."

Skeptics may want to explain it away as good fortune or luck. It's amazing people can believe in luck and not believe in a loving God... but that's another post.

The principle of giving your very best is not new by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, God gave his very best to us.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son...

May The Blog Be With You.