Joy to the World!

I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  No matter how many (or how few) presents you may have under your tree, may you sense the best "Present" of all this Christmas and New Year:  Our God, Who is a very present help in time of trouble.  He is our Refuge and our Strength!  

God the Father spared not His only Son, Jesus, and gave Him for us, while we were still sinners.  Christ set aside His glory, and came down to earth, to live the perfect life in our place, and pay the sin debt we owed.  He has risen and is coming again one day.  May we all be looking for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Merry Christmas!  And God bless you all!

Hope you enjoy the above arrangement of a Christmas medley the Lord gave me to share. . Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will be doing this live at church, with the music video playing too.  May it be a blessing to those who are there..May they sense the true meaning we celebrate Christmas...the Lord!

Christmas Love and Hershey Kisses!

The Meaning of the Manger

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.  

Luke 2:7

Have you ever wondered at the significance of the Lord being 

born in a stable and placed in a manger for His bed?  It seems

that if we pause and take a closer look we stand to find that in 

His humble beginnings we are given an example to follow.  

 Once we accept Him as our personal Savior, the Lord is to live in and through us on a daily basis.  Just like when He was on this earth and grew in wisdom, stature and in favor with both God and man, we are to allow His life in US to grow as well.  Others are to see His life and the characteristics of His life manifested in us each day.  How do we do this?  Just like John the Baptist said: "He must increase, but I must decrease."  We are to go "lower" or humble ourselves.  

Is it any wonder that God says for us to "humble ourselves under" His mighty hand, and He "will exalt us in due time."  ??  As we humble ourselves and find rest at His feet each morning, He finds "a place to rest" in our hearts. . . just like He did that first Christmas when Mary placed Him in a manger: A feeding trough.  

As the life of Christ is nurtured in our hearts by us reading the Word, and humbling ourselves each day, others will see Him in us.  The world is hungry and in such a need for the only True Food that satisfies:  Jesus Himself!  Just like the little animals in a stable who go to a manger to feed, others will be drawn to the Bread of Life that lives within our hearts too.   Only Jesus satisfies!

Jesus says, "and I, if I be lifted up...will draw all men unto Myself."  John 12:32

May the Lord find a humble place to rest in each of our hearts this Christmas and in the New Year to follow so that others will be drawn unto Him and find the Bread of Life and the Living Water that satisfies the longing in each hungry, lost soul! 

I'll try to write an update soon, but I wanted to share a little lesson from the Lord to my heart in the midst of this Christmas season.  :)  

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Be back soon, Lord willing! :)

Update on my cousin, Michael

Hey everyone. I sure hope that you all have enjoyed your Thanksgiving and are now embracing the Christmas season that has so rapidly "snuck up" on me that I can hardly believe it's that time of year already... AGAIN! : )

Anyway, this week is "finals" week at school...and tomorrow's my daughter's 13th birthday!  Wow.   So there's much to do...but I wanted to share an update on my cousin, Michael, for those of you who are following and praying on his behalf.

I will post the latest email update I received from my Aunt this week:

"We wanted to let you know that Michael will not be going tomorrow (Nov. 29th) to Charlottesville. The nurse called today and said that the three biopsies that Michael had on the 17th showed something different from the first biopsy that he had at Maryview. (our local hospital).  It didn't show the same as what he had here. They said that it showed the kind of cancer that may have come from some cancer cells somewhere else in his body. They were already planning to do a bone scan and a head scan on him and they hadn't done it. Soooooo.........with that flag up, they decided to do a full body scan on him next Tuesday, the 6th of December. They also will do the bone scan at the same time. She also told me that if they went through with the ablation tomorrow, that it had a lot of side effects that could make Michael real sick and it might not even work. One of the side effects was that he could get an infection and that would make him really sick and they don't want to make him sick if this might not even work. So until they find out if there is any more cancer or cancer cells in his body this will be put off.

After next week they will know more of what is going on, 

and how to treat Michael. 

We ask that you still keep him in your prayers and pray that there is no more cancer in his body.

We will keep you updated as we go along.

Thanks for your love and support.

Michael's Team

I thank each of you for your prayers and concern in regards to Michael and our entire family.  :)  God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above ALL we could ever ask or (even dare to) think!  :)

I'll be in touch A.S.A.P.   Until then, have a great week! 

Christmas Hugs and "Hershey Kisses."