My First Christmas in Heaven

My First Christmas in Heaven

 

 

Dear Champions,

 

The following poem has given a lot of comfort to my wife, Beth, as this is her first Christmas without her mother.  The poem was written by Beth s mom to Beth after Beth s father died 11 years ago.  We do not know who wrote the poem, but we thought that it may bless others that are missing a loved this Christmas.

 

My First Christmas in Heaven

 

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below,

With tiny lights, like heaven s stars, reflecting on the snow.

 

The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away that tear,

For I m spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

 

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,

But the sounds of music can t compare with the Christmas choir up here.

 

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description, to hear the angels sing.

 

I know how much you miss me.  I see the pain inside your heart,

But I am not so far away.  We really aren t apart.

 

I send you each a special gift, from my heavenly home above.

I send you each a memory of my undying love.

 

After all LOVE is the gift, more precious than pure gold.

It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

 

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do.

For I can t count the blessings or love He has for each of you.

 

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear.

Remember, I m spending Christmas, with Jesus Christ this year.

 

Author unknown

 

Champions, have a Merry Christmas!-David Vining

 

P.S.  If you have not seen this video of the Christmas story, then you will be blessed to take just a little over 3 minutes to watch it. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWq60oyrHVQ

The Undeniable Rather Than the Unexplainable

The Undeniable Rather Than the Unexplainable

Dear Champions,

The following is part of a sermon by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is  John 9:6-7 After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man s eyes.  Go, he told him, wash in the Pool of Siloam (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

You do not have to understand everything or have all your questions answered to believe in something or to put your faith in someone.  The lie that some of you struggle with is that you have lots of questions and you have bought into a mentality that says until I understand everything I cannot believe in anything as it comes to God and His son Jesus Christ.  Even though there are some things that are unexplainable there are also some things that are undeniable.  We focus on the unexplainable and avoid focusing on the undeniable, so we will never have faith.  But as you begin to embrace the undeniable then the unexplainable will not shipwreck your faith.

 

Everybody has misunderstandings about God, and one reason Jesus came was to clear up this misunderstanding.  What they believed back then was that a person born blind was paying for his sins or for someone else s sin.  When the blind man was healed his neighbors keep asking how he got healed, and the blind man was probably thinking, Who Cares?  I have been a blind beggar all my life, and now I can see.  All you want is an explanation, but how about let s have a party and a celebration.  I do not know how I got healed because it certainly does not make sense to me.  All I know is that I can see, and will someone just celebrate with me and get me a cake and hire a band and get a parade going?

 

Jesus should have known better than to heal someone on the Sabbath-who does He think that He is?  The Pharisees basically said, this man is not from God because we know what God is like.  We have God here in a box.  We know what God does and does not do, we know how He acts, and we have God completely under control because we are smart and know God like no one else knows God.  Since we know that God would not heal on the Sabbath, then God did not heal this man-end of case.  What happened does not make since with how we view God, therefore we know that it was not God. 

 

What a bunch of narrow minded, arrogant, ego centric people to think that they know so much about God that they would know everything that He could or could not do.  They could not explain it, so they refused to believe it.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Gratitude

Gratitude

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is Luke 18:17-18   Jesus asked, Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

There are two hidden sins that no one ever goes knows about.  One is greed, and the other is ungratefulness.  No one thinks that they are greedy, and no one thinks that they are ungrateful.  If you could interview the nine men that did not come back and thank Jesus, they all felt grateful and would deny being ungrateful.  However, unexpressed gratitude communicates ingratitude and is actually a form of rejection.  If gratitude is not expressed, then it does not exist. 

We gravitate toward environments and relationships where we feel accepted, and we are repelled by environments where we fell rejected.  Unexpressed gratitude drives people s hearts out of the relationship.  Gratitude closes the loop in our relationships with God and with others.  To refuse to pay my debts of gratitude is to live with an inflated view of myself.  You have never met an arrogant person that is grateful, and you have never met a humble person that is not grateful.  A returner is someone that is willing to go back to thank those that allowed them to go forward.  We all owe someone a debt of gratitude.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

A Tribute

A Tribute

 

The short excerpt is by me, and the Scripture is Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

 

Monday morning, November 14 at 4 A.M. my wife, Beth, and I got the phone call that her mother, Ina Frazier, had passed away.  While it was not unexpected as she was in her last stages with her battle with cancer, it still brought lots of emotions and tears to us both.

 

Ina Frazier spent most of her adult life as a missionary in Africa with her husband and seven children sharing the gospel.  She was a prayer warrior and a rock to so many, and my wife lost not only her mother but her best friend.  Close to her final days and breaths here on Earth, she insisted that her tithe check make it into the church offering plate and that a good donation was made out of her account to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, a Baptist church offering that goes to support missionaries. 

 

Matthew 6:31 says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Ina Frazier is now spending eternity where her treasure was when she was here on Earth.  Now she has a new body, and in heaven there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4). 

 

I can almost hear the words spoken from heaven.  Well done, good and faithful servant!  You finished the race well!

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining