All I want for Christmas ...

My handsome husband's present - check
My adorable son's present - check
My beautiful daughter's present - check - check

The Christmas tree is up
In stead of tinsel and bells
Let's hang up some

... Peace
... Love
... Patience
... Joy

Onto this thin Christmas tree
That is all I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
The moon was so bright
Around the front yard the creatures did wait
With claws drawn out wide
With slivering scales
Waited the horrors of christmas

Inside the house
All cosy inside
Asleep in their beds
Lay the family all snug
The dog & the cat
Awake they sat
Knowing that the horrors of christmas did wait

Unbeknownst to all stood a being alight
With wings spread wide
And golden sword
'Bout 18 feet high from shoulder to thigh
High on the roof top
With  feet planted wide
And fire in his eyes

Death - The Last Taboo

"There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time. 

The word death is used in at least three primary and numerous secondary ways. The three primary usages are: death as an event; death as a condition; and death as a state of existence or nonexistence. 

Biological science assumes that carbon matter is the primary stuff of life, that the brain is the source of consciousness.  What the Bible & the  prophets tell us is; that we are eternal beings.

We are fallen beings inhabiting a condensed fallen world, comprising a mere 4% of the mass of creation, that has been ejected from our true homeland due to a revolt. The revealed information is compatible with scientific evidence, it simply contradicts the belief standpoint of secular scientists, biologists in particular.

Death as an event. In this usage, death is something that happens. As an event, death occurs at a particular time and place and in a particular way. In this sense of the term, death is a phenomenon that stays within the bounds of mainstream conception and observation. Time, place, and cause can be recorded on a death certificate (theoretically, in all instances although, in practice, the information may be incomplete or imprecise). This usage does not concern itself with mysteries or explanations: Death is an event that cuts off a life. 

Death as a state of existence or nonexistence. In this sense, it can almost be said that death is what becomes of a person after death. It refers not to the event that ended life nor the condition of the body at that time, but rather to whatever form of existence might be thought to prevail when a temporal life has come to its end.

It appears that more and more people are asking the same question that Job asked nearly 4,000 years ago in the Bible: "If a man dies, will he live again?" What could be a more fundamental question of life (and death)? Reincarnation theories are popular in Eastern religions as well as the many New Age variants. It seems people are comfortable with the idea of another chance to return to earth and figure things out or make things right. Some nihilist thinkers believe that death is the absolute end; but contrary to what many might think, most people believe that death is not the end. In some shape or form we go on. 

When Jesus was talking with Martha about the death of Lazarus, her brother, He declared "I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Right here, Jesus started presenting the astonishing claim that there is life after death. Jesus then went the next step and brought Lazarus back to life after four days in a tomb. At that point, Jesus put everyone on notice that He would later overcome the grave Himself!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

For skeptics, the whole idea of heaven is just the product of fertile imaginations. For many others, the Biblical idea of heaven is too fanciful or fantastic. However, Christians can live their lives with bold hope, thanks to the evidence of history that establishes with convincing clarity how Jesus not only preceded us in death, but also came back from the deadLife After Death: Proof?

Is there mathematical proof for life after death? No. But if you believe the life-changing evidence for God, Jesus and the Bible, then heaven is as much a concrete reality for you as the Lord in whom you’ve invested your absolute trust. It’s not fantasy – it’s the absolute life-changing hope that strengthens us and gives us peace.

 Some short stories

Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin remembers that in April of 1933 when he lived in McKinney, Texas, his heart stopped beating and his soul left his body." After this, I began to descend lower and lower. The lower I went, the darker and hotter it became. As we went deeper, I noticed the flickering of ominous flames, presumably hell's, on the walls of the caves. Finally, a large flame burst through and began to pull me. Many years have passed since then. To this day, I can picture that hell's flame.

Having reached the bottom of the chasm, I felt the presence of a spirit next to me and it began to lead me. At this moment, above the hellish dark, a powerful Voice was heard. I did not understand what was said, but I felt that it was God's Voice. From the force of this Voice, the whole of the nether world trembled. Immediately, the spirit which had been pushing me, let me go and a wind lifted me back up. Gradually, the light of this world began to shine. I was, once again in my room and I jumped into my body like a man jumping into a pair of pants. I saw my grandmother, who started telling me, "Dear, I thought you had died." After a time, Kenneth became a pastor in one of the Protestant churches and dedicated his life to God. He wrote about his ordeal in a brochure entitled "My Witness."

 

An enfeebled man after suffering for many years finally prayed to The Lord for an end to his suffering. An angel appeared to him and said: "Your sins require cleansing. The Lord offers you to exchange one year of suffering on earth for three hours of hell. Choose." The sufferer contemplated his choices and decided on three hours in hell. Then the angel took him into the pit of hell. All around was darkness, narrowness - everywhere evil spirits, the cries of sinners, and suffering. The soul of the enfeebled began to experience indescribable fear and pain, but only echoes and the surging hellfire answered his screams. No one noticed his groans and bellows; all of the sinners were occupied with their own suffering.

The sufferer felt that centuries had passed and that the angel had forgotten him. Finally, the angel appeared to him and asked, "Well, how are you brother?" "You tricked me!" exclaimed the sufferer. "Not three hours, but many years I have been here in intolerable pain!" "What years?" the angel asked, "only an hour has passed, and you still have two to go." Then, the sufferer begged the angel to return him to earth, where he was willing to suffer as many years as required, if only to leave this place of terrors. "Very well," answered the angel, "The Lord will show His Great Mercy." Finding himself back on his sickbed, the sufferer from that point forward bore his sufferings with meekness, always remembering hell's terrors, which are incomparably worse.

(From the letters of Sviatogortz, pg. 183, 15th letter, 1883).

The World Wide Cattle Show

Look ...

I am not speaking about the four legged kind of cattle show, I am speaking about the very available two-legged meat market out their that wets every fantasy of every man on this planet.

It's not that women don't do it; it's just that the men do it much more.

The day has come when internet dating is considered a legitimate way of meeting new people in the endless search for the right person. 

Chat rooms have replaced bar rooms, and internet dating sites and personal ads no longer have the "stigma" that they once did.

The internet dating "scene" is one of the easiest places for someone to cheat on their spouse or significant other, or to use the internet dating area as a place for promiscuity. The danger of long-distance internet romance is it is extremely easy for someone already involved with a partner to go out and cheat in a relatively safe (for them) environment... or just to play the field, so to say ....
The variety of woman is endless,  its like being in a chocolate store ... a taste from there, a taste from here ... never satisfied with the chocolate he has in hand

So at first he is not thinking he is risking anything. He thinks he's passing time. But as with any cheap thrill once you start you want more and more. Like potato chips. 

Most men will slip down that slippery slope to infidelity, ruined marriages, broken families, btoken hearts like an endless rope behind them .... They will post pics, exchange emails and even phone calls hoping for a real life meet up with their Internet fantasy girl. 

Get real.

• The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior.
•  What do you predict? If your partner has cheated on you repeatedly and now swears he/she will stop, what are the chances that this is true? You can't change what you don't acknowledge. Isn't there a point at which you say, "I deserve better. 
•  He/She may not have any boundaries, but I do. And my boundaries say, 'You either treat me with integrity, dignity and respect or you don't treat me at all'?"

This is not your fault.

• Stop beating yourself up about this. 
•  You have got to know that this has nothing to do with you. 
•  You are not the one who made the decision to break your commitment to your partner and cheat. You have nothing to do with your partner making the immature, inappropriate, self-destructive choice to turn away from you to someone else.

Assess your commitment level.

• You can either handle being vulnerable with your partner again or you can't.
•  And if you can't, you need to get out of this relationship and move on.
• And if you can, then you need to let him/her earn the trust back and start putting this relationship together again.

Consider the consequences.
 

• You do have responsibility here for what you do next. 
• You have to make a decision about whether or not justice is best served by allowing your partner to re-earn your trust, or if it's better not to subject your family any longer to the current situation.

Decide if you can choose to forgive.

• Forgiveness is a choice.
• It doesn't mean what your partner did is OK. 
• How much you trust your partner is in part about what your partner does, and in part a function of whether you have confidence to handle it if he/she disappoints you.
• If you find out that he/she strays again, can you handle that?

If you can't forgive, let go.

• When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences. 
• If you continue to throw this in your partner's face, you will eventually run him/her off.
• Ask yourself if this is going to be a life sentence for your partner.
• Can you heal from this and forgive? If not, don't continue to live in anger and/or be with someone who causes you pain.