Sometimes, the practice of persistence molds and prepares us to be able to receive what we’re asking for. If you feel you have unanswered prayer, keep asking. Let us continually approach the throne with boldness and persistence, such as the woman described in Luke. Or another exaple closer to home let’s be as bold as our 2 year old or pre-teen when they desire something from us. “Mom… mom… mom?” (thedailyverse.com)

He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ Luke 18:2-5

Power Thoughts1. “The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.” Helen Keller
2. “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” Dale Evans Rogers
3. “Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.” Unknown

Good Food Friend Amy: Shares her testimony and tips on how to handle holiday weight gain. (Hear the interview by hitting the play button)

1. Goal setting for the holidays – chose to lose, gain or maintain; making a choice makes a difference.
2. If we don’t take a moment to think about how we eat during the holidays, we can go blindly eating through them – running on empty, living on caffeine and sugar only to end up with a weight gain in January.
3. Choose to gain – set a limit.
4. Weigh weekly, and make adjustments to your intake.
5. Choose to lose – allow yourself one “special occasion” meal per week.

Man in the Red Suit’s Origins: “It started long ago in the Turkish town of Myra when a Christian priest named Nicholas came into church to pray…”
Article: ‘Santa’s Surprising Origins’ – by Rev. Austin Miles
St. Nicholas Center – Who is Saint Nicholas?

Looking for Online Coupon Codes? Tips to Help You Find the Best Discounts (ABC News)

So you think you know carols? This 25-question quiz tests your knowledge of the lyrics of some our most famous winter holiday songs.(Chicago Tribune)

<a href="/redir.asp?http://www.crosswalk.com/1110600/print/" target="_blank">Article: 'Santa's Surprising Origins' - by Rev. Austin Miles</a><br><a href="/redir.asp?http://www.stnicholascenter.org/printable_template.jsp?show_print=no&amp;backPageID=38&amp;smpl_sakey=1507" target="_blank">St. Nicholas Center - Who is Saint Nicholas?</a>

Now these are CHRISTmas Lights !!! Amazing Grace CHRISTmas Lights !!!

Bearing fruit is a process that requires patience. If your goal is to hear the Word, hold it in your heart and bear fruit from it, know that it won’t always be a walk in the park. Your patience and willingness for God to mold and shape you through the experiences He allows you to go through will, however, bear fruit that will bring joy to you and glory to Him. (thedailyverse.com)

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. Luke 8:15

Power Thoughts  

1. “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!” ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

2. “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” ~Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby

3. “The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.” ~Author Unknown

When to Ship: Holiday shipping kicks into high gear (Daily Sentinel)

Linus explains the Real Reason For The Season – Merry Christmas

More Money Advice: Ten holiday money mistakes to avoid (KTRE-TV/Kiplinger.com)

Stress, depression and the holidays: 10 tips for coping … The holiday season, which begins for most Americans with Thanksgiving and continues through New Year’s Day, often brings unwelcome guests — stress and … (MayoClinic)

Christmas Fun Facts

In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

In 1937, the first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria.

In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters.

In 1996, Christmas caroling was banned at two major malls in Pensacola, Florida. Apparently, shoppers and merchants complained the carolers were too loud and took up too much space.

In an effort to solicit cash to pay for a charity Christmas dinner in 1891, a large crabpot was set down on a San Francisco street, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.

More fun Facts here

Look around you. Within your community, whose arms are you holding up? Who is holding up yours? Consider your role in both scenarios; aim to be a great supporter while also graciously appreciating those holding you up.(thedailyverse.com)

But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. Exodus 17:12

Power Christmas Thoughts

1. “I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.” Harlan Miller
2. “The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
3. “Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.” Helen Steiner Rice

Pray for and Support the Troops: Opportunity to ship much needed items to Troops in Afghanistan. For information please e-mail zee.stone@tenethealth.com

Fun Song We Heard On Our Travels: Hippo Song and It’s History (wikipedia.org)
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas Video

Your Health Is Important: How to attack holiday stress head-on (KTRE-TV)

Not sick of Climategate yet? Five AP science reporters sat down to comb through all 1,073 of the leaked East Anglia e-mails. Their story’s worth reading in full, but the bottom line is this: go here for the details. (and there’s more at the link including the  Platypus Conundrum)

Christmas Fun Facts

1. After “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories, one each year, but none was as successful as the original.
2. Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in “A Christmas Carol,” three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.
3. An average household in America will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year and see 28 eight cards return in their place.
   More fun Facts here

When we are intentional to have our mind set on the things of God, His unconditional love for us, and HIs truths, it’s much harder to be shaken by the nuances of everyday life. Consider what rattles your cage, then exercise surrendering both that situation and your mind-set to His authority, and allow that release to bring you peace and assurance of His sovereignty. (thedailyverse.com)

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

Power Thoughts
1. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~ Wayne Gretzky
2. “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” ~ Henry Ford
3. “People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.” ~ Lewis Cass

Manger Network helps local families celebrate Christmas: The holidays will be a lot happier this year for 700 Angelina County children. (LufkinDaily)

More green for You: 5 ways to save money on your meds (myoptumhealth.com)

Box Office Report: What’s Family Friendly? (Plugged In) Yahoo Box office Report (Yahoo News)

Christmas Fun Facts

Where did Christmas Card come from (didyouknow.org)

Though wood engravers produced prints with religious themes in the European Middle Ages, the first commercial Christmas and New Year’s card was designed in London, England in 1843.

John Callcott Horsley (1817 – 1903), a British narrative painter and a Royal Academician, designed the first Christmas and New Year’s card at the suggestion and request of his friend Sir Henry Cole, who was the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Horsley designed the first Christmas card in 1840, but it went on sale only in 1843, when one thousand cards were offered for 1s each. The card was not received without controversy, for it showed a family raising their glasses to toast Christmas. Puritans immediately denounced it. The idea was a hit with others. Christmas card became very popular, and other artists quickly followed Horsley’s concept. A particularly popular card was designed by English artist William Egley in 1849.

The first Christmas cards were printed in 1843 in lithography by Jobbins of Warwick Court, Holborn, London, and hand-coloured by an artist named Mason. They were lithographed on stiff cardboard, with the greeting, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” It also states that is was “Published at Summerly’s Home Treasury Office, 12 Old Bond Street, London.

During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln requested a political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, to illustrate Santa Christmas (Santa Claus) with the Union troops to bolster their spirits. Nast was the first to introduce a Father Christmas in the now-traditional red suit and big leather belt.

Today, greeting cards is a multi-billion dollar industry supplying cards for just about any occasion.

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 – 8.

f you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don’t have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up… It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can’t afford and they don’t need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here.. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don’t know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn’t make so much money on that day they’d close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary– especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

9. Here’s a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no “Christmas” tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don’t know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don’t do things in secret that you wouldn’t do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do.. I’ll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I’ll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember :

I LOVE YOU,

Jesus