I’ll Tell You What…

From World Vision:

Tens of thousands of children and their families are home-
less and suffering after Iran’s massive earthquake.?Please
help rush Family Survival Kits and supplies now!

Dear Friend,

As we celebrated Christmas here in the United States, a massive earthquake struck the city of Bam in Southeastern Iran.

It is feared that as many as 25,000 are dead, with up to 40,000 people injured.

Over 70% of homes in this area were destroyed or damaged. Two of the city’s hospitals have collapsed.?Electricity and water supplies have been cut.?

The freezing temperatures in this part of Iran threaten the lives of many children and families who have lost their homes and have no food, water or shelter.

World Vision is responding to help save lives and alleviate suffering. We are rushing Family Survival Kits and supplies by air from our warehouse in Brindisi, Italy. The shipment will contain things like emergency food, water purification systems, blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and tents.

Please …

click here to donate right now.


Your gift of $100 will help provide a Family Survival Kit for a suffering family in Iran. A gift of any amount will help to provide immediate aid to those devastated by this tragedy.

Please, open your heart today to the victims of this terrible tragedy. Let the children and families of Iran know that you care.


Click here to donate Family Survival Kits right now.


God bless you for your ongoing support, and for helping to save lives this Holiday Season.

Thank you,

Richard Stearns

President, World Vision United States

P.S.? Many people don’t get time to closely follow the news during the Christmas season and may not know the magnitude of this tragedy. After making your donation, please help us rush aid to the children and families of Iran by passing this email along to 3 friends or relatives that you know would
want to help. Their gift of any amount will go to work immediately to help Iran’s earthquake victims and save lives.

?

More information available online …

*****************************

Founded in 1950, World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization, serving the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries.

Questions? Donations by phone?
phone: 1.888.511.6514
email: info@worldvision.org

By the time this article gets posted it will be Christmas Eve. This day is a reminder of the eminence of Christ’s arrival through the miraculous virgin conception and subsequent birth. A time of rejoicing ocurred after the Lord’s birth. This was the arrival of God’s Salvation. Why shouldn’t there be rejoicing?

Sadly, though, this rejoicing has faded for many people due to a multitude of factors. I’ve been on the borderline this season and I think I’ve finally figured it out…

During this time every year I feel the excitement of the season and just wish that the friendly atmosphere would last all year long. People are more likely to hold doors open for others, say “hello” or some other greeting, start up a conversation with a stranger, etc. This is especially noticable here in New England where most people keep to themselves. This is in comparison to those who live in the South. You could say that I’m a stranger in a strange land. I was raised in Oklahoma so maybe that should say “in a stranger land.”

I am usually affected by this spirit of good will towards my neighbor and try to pass it on to those with whom I come in contact. But this year was different for some reason. I couldn’t figure it out since I changed to a job that I absolutely love, have become more involved with my Bible study at work, have developed a deeper relationship with my children and have the best church anyone could ever hope for.

The down times would only get me when I was alone or struggling with something personal. It was very real but could be pushed aside very easily whenever someone would come around. Not necessarily as a distraction but as a substitute for the down experience. This became noticable over a period of about 3 weeks and it wasn’t until a few days ago that I figured out what it was.

As my friends and family know, I’ve been going through a long, stagnant divorce. Long because the announcement came over three years ago and stagnant because papers on the other end haven’t been fully filed. I’m in limbo, in other words. This is where all the problem pointers, well, pointed. I was feeling lonliness.

Now this loneliness is somewhat self-imposed because I don’t feel comfortable getting into a relationship knowing that I should not bond at the emotional level. The reason is simple: I’m still legally married. In my mind, it just wouldn’t be fair to bond knowing that the relationship could only go so far. Is this a logical statement or should logic have anything to do with it?

This self-imposed loneliness is also due to the fact that I vowed not to file for divorce since I did not believe that the marriage should end. I forced myself to be a passive player in the game and now I am paying the price for my cavelier actions. I did what I felt was right at the time and I am trying to keep my word. Not because I believe there is any hope of reconciliation but because I want to be remembered as a man who keeps his word. A man who is striving for truth and who wants to make that truth a part of his very essence.

Let’s face it, the holiday marketing doctors are masters at what they do and one of the things that they use is relationships to sell stuff. I don’t watch hardly any TV anymore but the few times I have watched it I noticed that sharing moments with a loved one (read: wife/girlfriend) was a major theme. This may have been what triggered my longings for a girlfriend or wife. I can’t be certain but I do know that it did play a part in it.

Now, before you go and feel sorry for me know that I am a very happy person and find fulfillment through my relationship with Jesus Christ as well as my children. I think we all experience some form or degree of depression in our lives and as long as we do not move into that state of mind we should be alright. It’s when we rent to buy that we find ourselves in deep trouble, even for the Christian. I should know because I struggled with a deep, dark depression for the three and a half years leading up to the “announcement.”

So for now, I am going to enjoy my time off from work so I can really enjoy time spent with my children. They are what’s important right now. And that bit about being depressed about not having a girlfriend/wife? Well, let’s just say that I can’t afford the rent.

Max Lucado is one of my all-time favorite Christian authors. In his book, A Gentle Thunder (Copyright 1995 Max Lucado), Max gives us a glimpse of how Christ affects us during Christmas…

It’s Christmas night. The midnight hour has chimed and I should be asleep, but I’m awake. I’m kept awake by one stunning thought. The world was different this week. It was temporarily transformed.

The magical dust of Christmas glittered on the cheeks of humanity ever so briefly, reminding us of what is worth having and what we were intended to be. We forgot our compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We put away our ladders and ledgers, we hung up our stopwatches and weapons. We stepped off our race tracks and roller coasters and looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem. It’s the season to be jolly because, more than at any other time, we think of him. More than in any other season, his name is on our lips.

And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermesh and we become a chorus. A ragtag chorus of longshoremen, Boston lawyers, illegal immigrants, housewives, and a thousand other peculiar persons who are banking that Bethlehem’s mystery is in reality, a reality. “Come and behold him” we sing, stirring even the sleepiest of shepherds and pointing them toward the Christ-child.

For a few precious hours, he is beheld. Christ the Lord. Those who pass the year without seeing him, suddenly see him. People who have been accustomed to using his name in vain, pause to use it in praise. Eyes, now free of the blinders of self, marvel at his majesty.

All of a sudden he’s everywhere.

In a few hours the cleanup will begin-lights will come down, trees will be thrown out. Size 36 will be exchanged for size 40, eggnog will be on sale for half price. Soon life will be normal again. December’s generosity will become January’s payments and the magic will begin to fade. But for the moment, the magic is still in the air. Maybe that’s why I’m still awake. I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. I want to pray that those who beheld him today will look for him next August. And I can’t help but linger on one fanciful thought: If he can do so much with such timid prayers lamely offered in December, how much more could he do if we thought of him every day?

——————————-

From A Gentle Thunder - Copyright 1995 Max Lucado

At 11:16am today, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Califonia shaking residents from LA to San Francisco. Two people died in the quake and about 10,000 home were without power.

Pray for the people affected by this earthquake.

PNC Bank has released their annual costs of the 12 Days of Christmas. Total traditional shopping costs is up 18.8% this year over last year and Internet shopping for the items is up 1.3%.

This year’s total traditional shopping cost is $65,264.28 and the Internet shopping cost is $101,206.09.

It is rare to see a holiday advertizement these days without a business promoting a sale using the term “Xmas.” Many Christians say this is the secular world removing Christ from Christmas. Where did this term come from and is it really removing Christ?

On Christdot.com, there was a comment made that referred to those who frequent Christdot.com as “the Xdot community.” This peaked my interest in where this term came from and why so many Christians, including myself, found the term offensive.

I searched on google.com and yahoo.com using various search phrases and came up with many porn site links or sites that contained x-rated christmas songs. After searching through many, many pages of links I found a link to a RandomHouse.com page called Words(at)Random.

Here’s what that page contains:

Several people wrote:

What’s the origin of the abbreviation “Xmas” for “Christmas”? Isn’t it disrespectful and used only by advertisers?
Well, those are two different questions, but people do seem unusually interested in this issue.

The written shortening Xmas for “Christmas” is quite old, and is part of a large group of abbreviations based on Greek letters.

If we recall, the letter H in the profane oath Jesus H. Christ is derived from the Greek letter eta (which looks like the Roman letter “H”), as the second letter of the word Jesus when written in Greek.

Similarly, the name Christ has for a thousand years been abbreviated as X, which is not the Roman letter “eks,” but the Greek letter “chi,” standing for the first letter of Christ when written in Greek as “Christos” (as transcribed into Roman letters). Some of the words using this abbreviation are X, Xp (Greek chi-rho, or “Chr”), and Xt for “Christ,” Xren for “christen,” and Xtian for “Christian.”

The use of Xmas for “Christmas” is first found in the sixteenth century, in the slightly expanded spelling X’temmas; the Xmas form was in use by the eighteenth century. The X has always been used in religious contexts, and was often lavishly decorated in manuscripts, for example the glorious Chi-Rho page of the Book of Kells, the ninth-century illuminated gospels. The assumption that the abbreviation is somehow “weak” or “irreligious” since it “removes” the Christ from “Christmas” is a thoroughly modern idea.

It should come as no surprise that throughout its history, Xmas has been found more often in letters or other informal works where space is valued. We should note that Xmas and other X abbreviations were usually found in the writings of educated people who knew their Greek.

We should also note, though, that in modern use Xmas is most commonly found in advertisements and the like. For this and other reasons, the abbreviation is viewed with prejudice, and so it would be wise for its use to be confined to informal contexts, its long history notwithstanding.

Wow! Does that match your preconceived idea about the term Xmas or Xtian? It sure didn’t match mine either.

This prompted me to do a search on Dictionary.com for the word Xmas. Here’s what I found:

Usage Note: Xmas has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where the X represents a Greek chi, the first letter of, Xpistos (Christos) “Christ.” In this use it is parallel to other forms like Xtian, “Christian.” But people unaware of the Greek origin of this X often mistakenly interpret Xmas as an informal shortening pronounced (eksmas). Many therefore frown upon the term Xmas because it seems to them a commercial convenience that omits Christ from Christmas.

This seems to makes sense does it not?

Whatever significance the departments stores may give to the word Xmas it is indeed proper to refer to Christmas as Xmas and Christian as Xtian. These spellings have a rich and honorable history that goes back hundreds of years. Is this a case where Christians have been so “dumbed down” that we cannot even recognize something that has existed in our churches for hundreds of years? Possibly.

With the technology that exists today and a little study we can educate ourselves on the “urban myths” of our faith and therefore pass along knowledge to our fellow believer removing stumbling blocks that hinder their Christian development.

It is a good day! Saddam Hussein was finally captured ending an era of suppression and repression of the Iraqi people. Let’s pray that this event will be pivotal in the reconstruction and self-governmental transition of Iraq. May God bring a peace and a calmness to that region that no one can fully understand.

Another storm has blow in bringing snow and rain. For now it’s just snow and that’s just fine with me. We should only get around 2 inches. Tomorrow, it will probably turn to rain as the temperature rises. It should be pretty messy.

I can’t wait until February 25, 2004 rolls around. Why? Because, Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ opens. I don’t know if there will be a showing in my area but if there is, I’ll be there.

There is tremendous potential for reaching people with the good news of Jesus Christ with this movie. Go to the website and check out the trailer, website graphics, and ecards. I am really excited about this movie.

An amazing thing happened today in the world of mathematics: a number expressed as 2 to the 20,996,011th power minus 1, which has 6,320,430 digits, was discovered to be prime. This may not hold any significance for you directly but to mathematicians, cryptogists, musicians as well as others, this is big news…

In an article over at Mersenne.org, details are given about the number, how it was, who found it, etc. Here’s a quote:

Prime numbers have long fascinated amateur and professional mathematicians. An integer greater than one is called a prime number if its only divisors are one and itself. The first prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, etc. For example, the number 10 is not prime because it is divisible by 2 and 5. A Mersenne prime is a prime of the form 2P-1. The first Mersenne primes are 3, 7, 31, 127, etc. There are only 40 known Mersenne primes.

An integer greater than one is called a prime number if its only positive divisors are one and itself. For example, the number 10 is not prime because it is divisible by 2 and 5. A Mersenne prime is a prime of the form 2P-1. Mersenne primes have been central to number theory since they were first discussed by Euclid in 350 BC. The man whose name they now bear, the French monk Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), made a famous conjecture on which values of p would yield a prime. It took 300 years and several important discoveries in mathematics to settle his conjecture.

This is only the 40th Mersenne prime number so far. It is over 2 million digits larger than the previous record holder but not quite large enough for the $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for a ten million digit prime number. That a lot of money for you not having to do anything but install a program on your computer that runs in the background!

Here is another article from Of Prime Importance on the subject.

And another from Yahoo! News.

Nathan Hart over at Spera in Deo posted a comparison of Bob the Bachelor and Martin Luther. The resemblance in uncanny. Ha ha ha ha

The Christmas Story, as recorded in the first two chapters of the book of Matthew, is rich with drama that unfolds in a straightforward way. There exists great joy (Matt 1:20, 21 and Matt 2:10) and sadness (Matt 2:16-18) in the telling of this miraculous event. This event changed the very way we track time and yet we still continue to live our lives as if it never happened…

Matthew tells us the story from Joseph’s point of view. The first mention of Mary’s pregnancy is of the form “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 1:18) The appearance of Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:26-38 is left out. It’s as if the integrity of Joseph is revealed through his responses to his circumstances. His is referred to as “a righteous man” (Matt 1:19a) who respected Mary so much that he wanted “to divorce her quietly.” (Matt 1:19b). Not divorcing Mary could have exposed Joseph to public ridicule but his mind was on Mary’s public disgrace. But, in the middle of Joseph difficult decision, God intervened and directed Joseph in the decision he should make. Joseph was a man who sensitive to God’s guidance and willing to do God’s will no matter what the consequence.

When Jesus was approximately two, “wise men” visited Jesus and offered to Him gifts worthy of a king. That night an angel again appeared to Joseph in a dream directing him to take his family to Egypt because Herod was going to try to kill Him. This second dream directed Joseph how to protect Jesus and assured Joseph that God would direct him when the time was right. A footnote in Life Application Bible for Matt 2:13 states “Although Jesus was not Jesus’ natural father, he was Jesus’ legal father and was responsible for His safety and well being. Divine guidance comes only to prepared hearts. Joseph remained receptive to God’s guidance.”

Some time after Herod died in 4 B.C., an angel again appeared to Joseph in a dream. (Matt 2:19, 20) This time Joseph was instructed to return home because “those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” Joseph wasted no time. Verse 21 says, “So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.” Joseph was still very receptive to God’s direction as demonstrated by Joseph’s immediacy of action. How many times do we say to ourselves, “Does God really want to me to do ” only to find out that the window of opportunity has passed while we debated with ourselves? That happens too often in my life, I’m embarrassed to say.

Why the focus on Joseph during this Christmas season? Joseph was a man of integrity, a descendent of King David, Jesus’ legal and earthly father, and a person who was sensitive to God’s guidance. The notes in my Life Application Bible say that from Joseph we can learn that “God honors integrity, social position is of little importance when God chooses to use us, being obedient to the guidance we have from God leads to more guidance from Him, and feelings are not accurate measures of the rightness or wrongness of an action.”