By Judy Bushy, Editor
For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Facebook showed a photo of Dr. King and Billy Graham and told about when they had become acquainted. Dr; King died April 4, 1968 when Billy Graham was holding a Crusade in Australia.

Dr. King would be a leader in stopping the murder of babies in our country. A disproportionate number of black children are murdered since Roe vs Wade. It is sad to know that over 55 million babies have been murdered since the Supreme Court of the United States said that it was legal. Making murder legal does not make it right. The morality and ethics of America are in sad state and our Land needs revival.

Billy is looking forward to November, his 95th birthday I think it is. Bev who sang at Billy Graham’s Crusades for so many years is over a hundred already. And still it is the same as back in Minneapolis, Always Good News!!!

With all the needs morally, spiritually, politically, economically: in our hearts and minds, that’s what we need….Always Good News!!!

Between now and next November, Billy Graham is praying for an outreach to America, and it is called Here’s Hope!!! There has been no hope for solutions from our political, social or economic leaders, but there is HOPE…Always Good News!

Pray that America will be revived, Here’s Hope!!

“God give me joy in the common things:
In the dawn that lures, the eve that sings.
In the new grass sparkling after rain,
In the late wind’s wild and weird refrain;
In the springtime’s spacious field of gold,
In the precious light by winter doled…
God give me joy in the tasks that press,
In the memories that burn and bless;
In the thought that life has love to spend,
In the faith that God’s at journey’s end.”
~ Thomas Curtis Clark ~

In these few peaceful moments we have together on Facebook right now, may I share with you a few of my Christmas thoughts on this Christmas Sunday morning?

First of all, consider going to church today. It’s where you meet Jesus.

I am struck this Christmas with the overwhelming notion that each of our lives – no matter who we are, what we’ve done and how we’ve lived our lives – are perfectly woven into the full story from before time even began.

For time didn’t begin until there was our earth spinning around our sun in this small microcosm of our universe.

But an omniscient God knew every detail of your life and my life, down to this moment when we virtually sit down together on Facebook, long before He molded our earth into a ball and set it in motion with our little system we have here in our world.

God interweaves and reshapes our personal indiscretions, short-comings, successes and glories according to His mercy and grace into His purpose and His big story. a story He began long before stories began.

And that is what Christmas is about.

Christmas is that radical moment in time when God sent His Son Jesus to be born in our little microcosm because He wanted us to be able to touch, feel, experience and know God in a most human perspective.

Christmas is when God reaches down through space and time to communicate personally with you and me to let us know emphatically that He is alive and He loves us.

God had to do that by sending a human. The bridge of thought to get us finite humans to comprehend an infinite God is such a massive leap of thought we humans couldn’t understand it.

God had to send a human, through a virgin impregnated by God Himself, breaking all time, space and physical barriers to be born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. We needed to touch Jesus and know He is alive. We needed to know Jesus, so we could know God.

My friend, we are coming to a time in our small little microcosm world when we need to meet and know God more than ever before. My sense is we are reading many verses in Revelation and other Biblical prophecies happen before our eyes around the globe.

We need to meet and know Jesus this Christmas.

I need to meet and know Jesus this Christmas all over again..

If you have never met my friend Jesus before, may I introduce Him?

He has the power to reach inside your world today – this Christmas – and be born all over again just for you right here and now. That’s correct, you don’t have to travel to Bethlehem this Christmas to meet Jesus. God is sending Bethlehem right to you, right where you are, right now.

There is an explainable power that happens when a person in the finite world in which we exist reaches out his or her hand to grasp the hand of God. The almighty, omniscient, infinite God has His hand reaching down right now at Christmas waiting for you to take hold of it. You connect hands with God when you meet His Son Jesus.

Jesus arrived on Christmas to be the bridge – the human connection – between us humans and God Himself.

Meeting Jesus is simple. It is something I did and it forever changed my life. It is acknowledging that you, like me, are a sinner and are not even remotely perfect enough to have a relationship with a perfect, holy God. When Jesus came to earth on Christmas, was crucified and died on Good Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday, that physical act paid the price for any and all punishment for your bad, wrongful acts. All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Savior – the one who bridges the gap between you and God. It’s so simple, yet so profound.

When you do this you break through the barrier of space and time and grab a hold of God’s hand Himself.

Do you need to grasp the hand of God this Christmas? Is that why God allowed you and I to virtually connect on Facebook today in this peaceful Christmas moment we have together?

If you want to meet Jesus you can pray with me this prayer, “God, I admit I am a sinner and there is nothing I can do to be good enough to have a relationship with You. Please forgive me of my sins. I accept Jesus Christ, who was born on Christmas in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, as my personal Savior to pay the price and punishment for everything I have done wrong so I can have a relationship with You. Thank you for making me Your child this Christmas. I accept your Christmas gift for me personally.”

If you prayed that prayer with me, you should tell someone. Consider going to church today and sharing your prayer with someone there. God is meeting you right where you are today to take care of your most intimate, personal needs.

I love you. Merry Christmas.
Daniel Webster
Christmas 2012

by Esther Lombardi
It’s the twenty-third day of December. The Night Before Christmas (“A Visit from St. Nicholas”) was first published in the Sentinel on this day in 1823. We also celebrate Festivas today. It’s also time for the Roman festival, Larentalia. Take a look at the reading selection for today.

What do writers say?

“Somehow, not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.

“And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing
Returns to you glad.”
– John Greenleaf Whittier