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What if there were an enormous Christmas secret that was knowable, you could find it out, and it would be wonderful when you did, and you weren’t aware of it? That would be some secret wouldn’t it? You might not like somebody who knew something that would be good for you and chose not to share it, so that they kept it a secret, would you? Ever play a game of hide and go seek, and the other players all got together and left you hiding there? After a while you got suspicious and came “all-e-all-e ins that’s free.” and there wasn’t anybody there? Well this isn’t a secret like that, rather this is more like a fly that is on the wall of the Grand Canyon; you would need to know specifically which rock outcrop that fly was on, to the inch, in order to set your scope up to find it, wouldn’t you? This Christmas secret is going to be revealed to you, and so, in this brief writing that’s what we’re going to get into, the “how do I,” find this Christmas secret?

First we’ll talk about Christmas just a bit, because it is so important, before it happens, as it happens, and after it happens. Then we’ll talk about, in the next paragraphs, the Christmas secret and how you can find it before Christmas, during Christmas, and we hope, after Christmas, so let’s go?

Before Christmas happens things begin to change, in different cultures the world over, people begin to adjust to the idea that something really “neat,” really wonderful in terms of a holiday, is going to happen. Christmas is a world sized holiday, by the way, which, while celebrated differently, by style, takes place on the same day, December the 25^th. For some it’s just a recognition that the rest of the planet sees this day as significant; for most of those countries, however, it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ. It’s becoming, in America, and in many other countries, unpopular to state it so, which does not make much sense, given that all that Jesus ever did, no matter what else you may think, all He ever did was good for everybody! So in that He was so unlike so many other people, maybe that is why they have chosen to reject celebrating His birthday? But actually, my sense is that good people everywhere know that Jesus the Christ is real, was a real baby, actually lived here on earth, and really did do nothing but good the whole time He was here. If there’s a problem with Jesus the Christ, it’s probably not about Him at all, but about the people who say they know Him; but act like they don’t. People who are supposed to be loving and kind, but sometimes have a very odd way of showing it? Maybe if they weren’t like they are, people would be happier about celebrating their King’s birth? I don’t know, all I know for sure about Christmas is, it does change the world, each year before it gets here, the world gets ready for it, and if you are looking for Christmas, you might find it in that fact?

When Christmas day shines out, my heart rejoices, with so many other hearts, because it is the day in which Jesus the Christ, was born. Historically, maybe not, history is good to study, my preference is to believe that history is kept in the humans heart who knows love, and this day celebrates the birth of the Man who taught love, lived love; and is love. That to me is what Christmas is all about, but it really happens that morning because the night before we have a family tradition, which began when we were extremely poor, a year where we lost just about everything, and even our families health wasn’t good. That year both of us, the wife and I, were trying to think of something that we could do which would be good; we needed something good to take place, those were hard times. So I’d seen this clip of a movie called “A Christmas Carol.” several great actors who have since died, George C. Scott and Edward Woodward, to name a couple; were in it; it is an incredible movie, if you don’t have it, it’s worth the $5.00 it might cost to get it today. Anyway, in our state of down, somehow this movie seemed from the clip to be good, so my suggestion was, “hey, let’s watch it.” She agreed and so was begun the Christmas tradition of watching “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens. If I had a wish to be granted, like they do at the TED meeting each year, I wish every wealthy greedy world sized corporate pirate leader, who believed they had no need of Christmas, would get to watch this with us.

After Christmas things aren’t the same. Children who had hoped that Santa Clause, or, Saint Nicholas, Shengdan Laoren of Chinese name, JuiTomten of Sweden or others, can be found smiling. In fact this website: http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/santafaq.htm seems to be a pretty good one, for checking out Santa’s name, but back to the hoping, smiling, children; they are enjoying what Santa has left. Parents who have actually listened to their children and each other (these would be the 50 or so percent who aren’t getting divorced) are smiling inside, just a little, and that “just a little,” may be the about the only smile they get for a while. Things aren’t the same and that is certainly hard to dispute when such a large scale holiday takes place, Christmas doesn’t leave things the same, so if you are looking for a clue about the Christmas secret, that’s a huge one, things after Christmas change.

We’ve spent just a little time together about before, during and after Christmas itself, because nothing is like it, as a holiday, I don’t know one that world wide, has it’s power? New Year’s is celebrated world wide, but it doesn’t have the significance of Christmas and the secret which we are going to discuss, may be a fundamental aspect of why?

Now let’s go into the Christmas secret, because it can be found before Christmas, let me tell you how. You will need to find a quiet place, where you won’t be disturbed for about five minutes; this is going to be tough on you, so you will really have to want to know the secret, because you will need to find a quiet place for five minutes! Here you do nothing, shut off the cell phone and sit – still. Just sit still, for five whole minutes. While you are there ask your heart how many more hurts it can take before it breaks enough to realize that the hurt that you suffer must tell you something about your ability to take hurt? Ask your heart then, if your hurts are worse than the mother who watched her baby die yesterday; because it couldn’t get water. Water- not food, not medicine, WATER- now, ask your heart if you really understand what hurting is? If you will listen to your heart and be honest, you’ll realize that Dickens’s was right, and in the eyes of God “these may be of more importance than you ever will be;” and, we, you and I, and everyone, are letting it happen. It’ll be an interesting five minutes if you do it; and remain true to your heart, I guarantee it will affect how you look at suffering.

The Christmas secret however, is also to be found, by you, right there in the midst of the great times of great joy; you see, we need those, oh we desperately need them, here is why. When you are down, and those times will happen, even when you compare the depth of your down to the greater suffering of someone else; you need to be able to think about good Christmases and good times- its a way of keeping your balance with reality. The Christmas secret, begins in the persons heart, and so, for some, sadly, it’s gonna remain a secret, their heart, is, unfortunately, only a muscle that pumps blood; and that, is, one of the saddest realities of this world. The Christmas secret might have something to do with, changing that; if it is possible to change that heart with little feeling, to one that feels, the Christmas secret might bring it about.

After Christmas if your heart cannot change, the Christmas secret will help you in ways that you might not believe were possible, but all the time were. A very close personal friend who let other things get between us; realized, not too long ago, that “we don’t talk like we used to.” While I almost said, “
no duh,” I stopped my mouth, stayed quiet (like in the car), and listened, because what they said next was something that if your searching for the Christmas secret, will help you, they said, “so every once in a while, let’s just call each other, think we can do that?” You know I really do think we can, and somewhere I hear Charles Dickens agreeing with others “they’re getting close to finding the Christmas secret aren’t they?” What do you think the others say back to them about us?

The October challenge, find amazing parts of theology and
then each day bring one paragraph to you the reader about that.
Did you look at yourself in the mirror this morning?
How closely did you look? Let’s say, not all that closely,
why not, because, with few changes you’ve seen that
same face for your whole life, it changes very little
except with the years. You have come to
depend upon it. God, as a matter of theological
importance, can be depended upon, and here is the
interesting thing, it isn’t so much what God does
that can be depended upon, but what God
doesn’t do. You and I are alive today because God
chose to allow this world to continue to exist.
You and I are alive today because God made
a deliberate choice for us to exist,
and to continue to exist, and the simplest
of truths is, we have become used to being
able to depend upon God not to do the drastic
reality ending sort of things, haven’t we?
Yet here is the subtle theological point of the day, He can,
whenever He chooses to, such is what it means to be, God,
and yet we continue; and my suggestion to you is that this
theological concept become known between us as God’s grace.
It isn’t what God does -it is, what He graciously doesn’t do.
2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called [us]
with an holy calling, not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

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The October challenge, find amazing parts of theology and
then each day bring one paragraph to you the reader about that.
Today we draw from a very deep well indeed, C.S. Lewis, a man
of mystery, a man who fell in love with a married woman, who
later divorced her unconcerned husband, and who C.S. felt was
the completion to his soul. They eventually married, although
they weren’t able to spend much time together, is it possible
that in the years they hesitated to leave their comfortable
lives, they were cheating the joy they felt when they were
finally able to become one soul? One soul- the Hebrew calls
the soul the “Nephish” and they say that, and even Christian’s,
read a Bible which proclaims that man is a soul which has
the breath of God in it. This breath of God separates and
makes man distinct. So each person is indeed unique and
a creation. Creation an ongoing act of creator God, what
is He creating in your life today?
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of]
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.

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The video on the “Revelation Song,” so passionately
and with anointing, done by Kari Jode, exemplifies
what worship can become.

We have become familiar with worship as
connecting to God, a place where
you and God are together, it is as if, you and God
are there and no other person is present, that
sense of His presence invades your heart, touches
your soul, and as you listen to the truth of
adoring Jesus, and the power of that adoration;
the heart of worship develops.

It is that heart which can love, it is the
forgiving and understanding,
and compassionate heart, it is the heart of love.
It is that heart which God gives you. One of the
deepest mysteries of faith in my life is to see
people who believe they are born again, yet they
have not had this change take place in their heart?

Someone asked me how a person can know that they
are a Christian, and near as I can tell, the answer
isn’t hard, their heart won’t be; because the heart
of God, the new heart which God puts into a person
who confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior
and asks Jesus to forgive them of their sins;
that heart, can’t be the same hard nature one
that existed in that person before.

When a person has this heart surgery,
the meaning of their life becomes love
and to love; so let’s cut through it today,
is that the purpose of your life, to
love and be loved? In my heart it sure
seems that is what John meant in writing
about his Jesus: 1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God.
1Jo 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love.

Let’s pray for each other today,
that we will love and be
loved, thank you for allowing me to be.

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We’ve been looking at judging this week,
we might even take it a bit further and
deeper next week, but for today I want to
take a little break away from the deep
and dark woods for today. We’ve been to
the parted path, seen the majestic snow
with absolutely no prints in it, blown
across ground that shows nothing beneath
the clear, crisp, delightfully pure white.

We’ve been into the depths a little about
what judging is, and is not; and the
personal aspect of it, and that gets deep
so today I thought we’d just lighten up
a bit, if that’s O.K. with you?

Somebody told me one time that the way
that sound travels is in waves, and
at about 186,000 feet per minute, light
multiplies that to 186,000 miles per
second; but that distance traveled
at that given rate for one year is
then called a light year.

Here is the mind bending part of that, it isn’t
a measure of time but of distance.

So when we say that the universe that we
detect light from is 473 million light
years distant, we are, nevertheless
measuring a passage of time. The
universe is not only very old, very
large
(beyond comprehension, which is,
by the way, what God describes Himself
as, beyond comprehension “Iam that Iam”
literally means, I was, I am now and
I will be Forever” Which is beyond
comprehension), and very beautiful,
the universe, somehow, is balanced.

What I mean by that is, when it all
works out, all the factors necessary
for you to be reading this as you are,
happened, and you are, reading this.

Balanced.

Hope you will ponder; that; in order for
that to take place, Martin Luther,
had to nail his 95 theses on the Wittenberg
castle door? The Guttenburg printing
press people had to get it printed up
and out to the people, as one of their
mass printing efforts?

Hope you’ll consider that in order for
that to have happened, the unified body
of worship, the general or “Catholic”
way, had to exist. That they had gotten
off course by claiming to be able to pray
loved ones out of purgatory for contributions
to the rector (called selling indulgences)
; a practice Luther found
without merit in scripture, which was
largely Latin. Few Greek texts survived
Diocletian who approximately 299 to 306 years
after the Ascension of Christ, actively
sought to destroy any Christian writings
or markings of any kind from the Roman Empire.

Hope you’ll ponder that the unified church
came about as methods of worship arose out of
the principally synagogue style of gathering
together to share the knowledge gleaned in
the process of revealed God interacting with man?

Hope you’ll ponder that; as that; was the style
then, so it is still today- and so, some
things just don’t change easily, no matter
how fast light travels!

Ponder that the next time you figure you
need to judge somebody.

That God who created all of this
has declared Himself to be solely capable of
judging sins- and then realize, you may judge
less, but we all sin from time to time.

Then as you are wondering about all of that,
and judging, realize that you were, as you
read it, judging. Life isn’t possible
without judging, and so, that really isn’t
what God meant when He said we aren’t to
be judging, what He likely meant,
(as God who made all of this is hard to fathom,
in my meager brain, I don’t know about
you, but God is so far beyond my ability
to comprehend, that I just read his word
and try to take it for what it says,
how about you?) so when God says to me
that I don’t need to be judging my brother;
it’s generic, it isn’t relegated to any
gender, and God means what He says.
I don’t think He winks at it, I don’t think He
“Aw shucks,” it as some would suggest, I
feel in my heart that to God judging is
very, very, important, and when it comes to
your sin, none of my business.

Why do I say that? Because Jesus said this:

Mat 5:22 “But I say unto you,
That whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca,
shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

I love you and pray for you this day-
remember if you feel led to keep this
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to do so.

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Ever read something so profound it
makes you wonder how such insight
can exist? Just finished watching
a movie (I know of all things) that
I’d have to classify as a should
see, it is profound. That is with
with one caution, I don’t think
you can watch this movie and walk
away feeling nothing. “Seven Pounds”
stars Will Smith in the title role,
and it is a movie which has so much
soul that it oozes from the heart
of the essence of it. Please do
yourself a favor and see it. But
better than that, do yourself a
real favor, and live it. The
reality which this movie speaks
of, is people, and love. NOW
we said we were going to get
through all five elements of the
school of soul, right? So here
is number five:

(5)The food has never tasted better,
and as the meal progresses you
find yourself hauled into actually
feeling the food, rather than just
eating the meal?

There isn’t any way to explain this
one- it is rare for me. One time when
I was a teenager my family went to
a new restaurant in town, it was a
theme restaurant, the Casa Bonita
withentertainment and
the chance that you might see
the incredible Ricardo Montalban who
was associated with it. You may remember
his show was“Fantasy Island”.

The eatery was an experience,
still is it seems from the web page. As
you entered the water falls and
mariachi bands took over
and the ambience set in. You felt the
experience, it got into your soul.

There- that’s the whole enchilada, bad pun,
I know; but it is, where faith, soul,
experience and results all meet up- in the
life that you live. Does the Bible support
that there are special times of higher sensation?
Oh my goodness yes…consider one that is just
about as sensational as it gets:

Exd 3:5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither:
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the
place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground.

Act 7:33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off
thy shoes from thy feet: for the place
where thou standest is holy ground.

There are several thousand years between
these two renditions, the first is the
Moses experience, the second in Acts as
the record, from the Latin Vulgate roots,
wherein the actual is described. The tale
is told, God and Moses were there, and
Moses took the time to dwell upon this
before it was written down, (would be my
guess), yet several thousand years later
it will be recounted, and today we are
reading it. We aren’t just reading it,
though, so much as we are, taking it in.
Which is how God probably intends us to
take the Word, one bite at a time! Don’t
leave this table hungry- not today.

Stay strong in the faith- prar for one another.

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“Four”- it’s what golfers shout to let
people on the fairway know they
have hit a tee shot. It means,”Watch
out I don’t hit straight!” No actually
it means “Beware!” which is what
part four of our spiritual questions
journey will bring in today…

(4)You see the trees everyday, but
on this morning, the greens seem
somehow more brilliant? The blue
of the sky seems more intense,
the clouds are wispy and brilliant
white, and you smile, for no
particular reason, you smile.

Situation four is subjective – we
as people are entirely subjective-
you can eat a meal on Tuesday when
you are feeling good, and having a good
day, and it will taste great, Thursday
of a week later, same exact meal, but
this day you are stressed and don’t feel
good and didn’t sleep well, and it will
not taste good. We are subjective.
God, being God, isn’t. God is God-
not subject to anything. I know people
who preach an interesting legal non sense
that God is bound by God’s own rules-
apparently these geniuses have never
read the Old Testament, where God-
under his rules, had to kill every single
entity- and yet- did not! God, is not
subject to anything, a result of which
is an interesting attribute of God called
MERCY! Mercy we see as GRACE-
but my challenge to you is to understand
that mercy isn’t grace, and God is God.

So you say, “Dang Dana how am I supposed
to talk to God then, since I have no idea
how overwhelmingly powerful He is.”
Talk to God knowing that He is merciful,
He is love. Do you trust love, or, are
you going to remain, subjective?

Love, is not subjective.

OK- now we need to see if in the over
all picture of things describing love in
the Bible, will that claim will hold up…
and guess what, it does.

The Bible uses this term love 311 times
in 281 verses on that page if you click on
Lexicon, you will see both the Hebrew and the Greek
use of the term, and that, the way that God love
is usually described, has been inaccurate. Hah,
what’d you think I was gonna leave without a
question to consider…
until tomorrow let’s pray for one another…

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Yesterdays entry caught some people up short
because they aren’t used to someone being
so blunt. That is true, here is something else
that is true- the damage to love that ruthless
evil has done, is pretty blunt, isn’t it?

One of the very real problems in this war
is just understanding how it is to be fought.
We want to fight it in a way that makes sense
to us, only problem with that is, such a means
doesn’t accomplish what you want, it has
the exact opposite effect. Want to know
why so many churches are struggling
it is this very thing- this reverse role of the
warfare of the spirit- we don’t win this war
with means that make sense to us.

Because of that, you feel powerless in
this fight; and that is the supreme paradox
of trust and relationship to God, letting go
and letting God. Sounds easy, turns out
to be very hard. One kind gesture, one
kind moment, one simple essence of
taking yourself off the center of the life
and considering the other person. It
does make a difference, they do notice
it, it does matter. Yes it gets to the point
sometimes that you do wonder if such is
true, but you can believe, on the life
of the one who gave that life up, that
it is true- He didn’t back down, when
they told Him, “If you’re gonna keep
on tellin’ us you’re God- we’re gonna
have to silence you.” He knew then,
the road to the cross he was asking you
to take part in- do so with GLEE!

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Suppose you’re there- you’re watching him…
it’s early dawn…you’re up, the others aren’t;
it’s quiet- the hills that are dry and hot and
sweltering in a few hours, they’re dew misted
right now, but it’s already warming up.

The sun has just cleared the rise and
you see him. A lone figure, kneeling on
the ground, he looks tired, even from this
distance, you can tell his shoulders are
shaking, and you know, you just know
he’s weeping, and you know that like on
so many other days; you’d love to ask
him”why”, but you probably won’t.

Then he looks your way, and the look in his eyes
nails your soul, and you know, the man
who is the only man besides your father
that you have ever loved, loves you.

It shakes you down, and your heart which
had jumped a bit at his gaze, now settles
back, and your mind knows, you can’t do
a thing about how you feel- you know that
what he has been praying is what he told
you he would; he said it goes like this:
“Our father…”

Now it’s several thousand years later,
you are peering over the edge of heaven
and what you’d like to tell the person
reading this is…

You see, the gaze of love never changes,
does it?

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You may have wondered about why we are always
seeming to be so excited about the kinds of knowledge
that twitter is bringing our way of influence to a lot of people.
In one week a nicely sized church joined our ranks
as over 700 people joined drd4U, and we’re a relatively
tiny organization, many of the stars of twitter reach
over 200,000 people a day- that’s a lot of influence at
the touch of a key- wouldn’t you say?

Yet as Jesus looked out, across the lonely
night hills of Jerusalem, he looked into
this future that he knew so well, and saw
the plight of the heart without attachment
that has meaning stripped from it. Jesus
looked at the lonely, looked at the popular,
looked at the poor, looked at the wealthy;
looked at all the people who were at stake
on whether his decision was right. Now just
because we can, let’s pause and get our
perspective correct for this next statement:

There at the end of that entire universe the
creator stood- and reached his decision before
any other decisions were made:
Jhn 1:3 All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made.

Now that we’ve got the perspective about right,
let’s understand this one sort of odd part of this,
you are in every letter of John 1:3!

Have a great day