AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH...

In the first chapter of John, it says that Jesus is the Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:1, 14

In the beginning of this Christmas season, I would like to share the words of a song sung by Aaron Jeffries. The Word is the Word of God--we call it the Bible, the most beautiful story ever told about Jesus. The title of this song is HE IS:

HE IS

In Genesis, He's the breath of life

In Exodus, the Passover Lamb

In Leviticus, He's our High Priest

Numbers, The fire by night

Deuteronomy, He's Moses' voice

In Joshua, He is salvation's choice

Judges, law giver

In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer

First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet

In Kings and Chronicles, He's sovereign

Ezra, true and faithful scribe

Nehemiah, He's the rebuilder of broken walls and lives

In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage

In Job, the timeless redeemer

In Psalms, He is our morning song

In Proverbs, wisdom's cry

Ecclesiastes, the time and season

In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream

He is, He is, He is

In Isaiah, He's the Prince of Peace

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet

In Lamentations, the cry for Israel

Ezekiel, He's the call from sin

In Daniel, the stranger in the fire

In Hosea, He is forever faithful

In Joel, He's the Spirit’s power

In Amos, the arms that carry us

In Obadiah, He's the Lord our Savior

In Jonah, He's the great missionary

In Micah, the promise of peace

In Nahum, He is our strength and our shield

In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's pleading for revival

In Haggai, He restores a lost heritage

In Zechariah, our fountain

In Malachi, He is the son of righteousness rising with healing in His wings

He is, He is, HE IS!

In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He is God, Man, Messiah

In the book of Acts, He is fire from heaven

In Romans, He's the grace of God

In Corinthians, the power of love

In Galatians, He is freedom from the curse of sin

Ephesians, our glorious treasure

Philippians, the servant’s heart

In Colossians, He's the Godhead Trinity

Thessalonians, our coming King

In Timothy, Titus, Philemon

He's our mediator and our faithful Pastor

In Hebrews, the everlasting covenant

In James, the one who heals the sick.

In First and Second Peter, he is our Shepherd

In John and in Jude, He is the lover coming for His bride

In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords

He is, He is, HE IS!

The prince of peace

The Son of manThe Lamb of God

The great I AM

He's the alpha and omega

Our God and our Savior

He is Jesus Christ the Lord

And when time is no more

He is, HE IS!

Sometimes, as little children, we mess up or just get confused a little bit.

Here is the Children's Bible in a nutshell:

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, "The Lord they God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, "Give me a light!" and someone did. Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in, though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.

Pretty soon all of the earthly people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some oter people to join him, but they said they would have to take a raincheck.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange from some pot roast. Jacob had a son name Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: Do't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.

Oh yeh, I just thought of one more: Humor they father and they mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David...He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines...My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there wer a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't ahve to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. I wish I had been born in a barn too because my mom is always saying to me, "Close the door! Were you born in a barn?" It would be nice to say, "As a matter of fact, I was."

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees nad the Republicans.

Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed may leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.

But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again.

He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. He return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

Now tell me, can we mess up?

Blessing,

Brother Gary

DON'T FORGET:

• Jesus became what we are so we can become like He is.
• Life is fragile, handle with prayer.
• Extreme times demand deep faith.
• God is at His best when Man is at his worst.
• Count your blessings, not your problems.
• He who loses money loses much, he who loses a friend, loses more; He who loses faith, loses all.

KNOWING GOD'S PEACE IN TROUBLED TIMES

Billy Graham's Prayer for the Nation

Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask forgiveness and to seek direction and guidance. We know Your Word says “Woe to those who call evil good,” and that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed out spiritual values. We have exploited our poor and called it the lottery. We have reward laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbors possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom and expression. We have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this on his radio program, “The Rest of the Story,” and received a larger response to this program than any other he has aired. With the Lord’s help may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we can again be called one nation under God.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Liturgical Year A, Cycle II

Thanksgiving Day Mass

First Reading: Revelation 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 100:2,3,4,5
Gospel: Luke 21:20-28

Religion is man's way to go...God's way is Jesus to us.

That is why we must share God's way (the WORD) which is Jesus.

Share the Word with a brother or sister. You may be closer than you think to him or her.

Religion is just customs, traditions of man, hearsay, which doesn't come from the WORD of God.

Remember faith cometh by hearing. Our hope is in Jesus, the WORD, that was from the beginning to the end, ALPHA and OMEGA, from eternity past, to the present, to eternity future. The world that was, the world that is, and the world that is to come.

Blessing, may they be showers of blessing,

Brother Gary

DON'T FORGET:

• Brilliant people talk about ideas
• Average people talk about things
• Small people talk about other people

P.S. Try not to even think small this week. Let us try to understand your brothers and sisters customs, traditions of men and religions, they all come from man. We all know we need the LORD.

A THANKSGIVING PRAYER

This is a letter from the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus,

and love unto all the saints,

Cease not to give thanks for you,

making mention of you in my prayers:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,

and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-word who believe,

according to the working of his mighty power.

Which he wrought in Christ,

when he raised him from the dead,

and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,

and every name that is named,

not only in this world,

but also in that which is to come:

And hath put all things under his feet,

and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 1:15-23

Remember when we pray, it's not our power, but His. To be enlightened by His power, we must listen for His voice to be able to understand. It is the power within us who believe to receive the answer to our prayer.

Blessing,

Brother Gary

DON'T FORGET:

• God allows U-TURNS
• We're too blessed to be depressed
• When all else fails, trust God.