Christmas ponderment:

May the joy and hope and love of our Christmas celebration bring you ever closer to Jesus Christ our Lord - for it is He who is the joy and hope of the world because of His love for us…and the reason that we celebrate!

May our souls magnify Him as we celebrate our Messiah's coming as was promised from the foundation of the world…for God so loved the world.

Rejoice, the Lord has come - Emmanuel, God with us...and He shall be exalted and His name lifted high forever and ever!

Luke 2:13-14 

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

you have heard it said.....

You have heard it said -
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

But I say -
All it takes for evil to triumph is for men of faith to ignore and diminish the power of prayer...

we are to....

We are to -
Fear the Lord, resist the devil

But we end up -
Resisting the Lord and fearing the devil...

do we boast....

Do we boast in our arrogance; 
For all such boasting is evil. 
James 4:16 

Submit therefore to God. 
Resist the devil 
Draw near to God
Cleanse your hands, 
Purify your hearts, 
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, 
And He will exalt you. 
James 4:7‭-‬8‭,10 

He gave...for us....

He gave Himself for us to 
- redeem us from every lawless deed, and 
- to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 
Titus 2:14 

do we....

Do we "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect"?
Titus 2:10 

my struggle....

On the one hand -
To deal with the disappointment and frustration of where the last ten years has taken me; no job, no income, savings used up, retirement and college provision vanished, debt increased, no remaining goals or dreams, ambition erased, enthusiasm gone, pride in my abilities and capabilities destroyed, no focus, no accomplishments, hardship brought upon my family (financial, physical, emtional), five months of sickness and a major life-changing operation, being tired of being tired of dealing with all of this....

On the other hand - 
I have an amazing wife and kids that love me, we have been able to financially survive and not lose our house, we have food to eat, cars to drive, clothes on our backs, enjoy bountiful Christmas and birthday celebrations, I survived my sickness, found a part time job (although that is a two edged sword), have the ablility to still work out, emily and natalie graduated from college, benjamin and maggie are doing well...

The continued back and forth of dwelling upon these issues of life that I deal with each and every day...but the most difficult for me are the lack of my financial stability (ability), the loss of my dreams and goals AND the ever present question to the Lord  "why and what am I to do".....

So I struggle on day to day trying to make the best of it...desiring to love my family the best I can while retaining hope in the Lord...some days I do better than others...