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I did something impulsive last Tuesday; I bought a Puppy for the kids for Christmas. We had talked about getting one months ago, but my OCD (sort of joking sort of not) wouldn’t allow for it. Anyway saw a lady in front of Petsmart with Him on Tuesday. She had sold all the others that she had and was ready to make a deal. So after buying him a year’s supply of food (15 lbs bag – didn’t know the thing would only eat a ½ cup a day), a kennel, and a Santa hat/beard combination; I loaded him up. He spent the remainer of Tuesday and Wednesday with me at work and Christmas Eve he was confined to our garage. But the Big surprise came Christmas morning after opening all the other gifts. As you can see from the photo I did pretty well. We’ll see how things turn out with “Buddy”. By the way he’s ½ Maltese, ½ Cairn Terrier.

Jesus didn’t come to make bad men good.

Jesus didn’t come to make good men better.

Jesus didn’t come to make dumb men wise.

Jesus didn’t come to make smart men smarter.

Jesus didn’t come to make mean people nice.

Jesus didn’t come to make poor people rich.

Jesus came to make lost people found. Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Jesus didn’t come for only Jewish people.

Jesus didn’t come for only church people.

Jesus didn’t come for only white people.

Jesus didn’t come for only your people.

Jesus came for all people. Luke 2:10-11

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord”

Southern Miss lost to Middle Tenn. State last night in the New Orleans Bowl 42 – 32. The Eagles finish the season with the same record as last year; 7 Wins to 6 losses. I love coach Fedora and the enthusiasm he has brought to Hattiesburg good, but there are some bad, and some ugly issues that need to be addressed.

The Good

For years the Eagle nation had become board with our offense; well no more. Our offense is more explosive that it has ever been and both the score board and our statistics show this to be a fact.

Another favorable note is recruiting. We are getting players that, in years past, would have passed up Southern Miss for SEC schools. Fedora has done a good job is this area.

The Bad

One word “Defense”. Yes, as fans, we wanted an Offense; but wanted to keep a decent defense. Well out defense has been pathetic all year. The defenses coached by John Thompson, Dave Womack, and Tyrone Nix are no longer here. I know we had some great players back then, but I believe it’s the defensive system that’s are problem now. I’ve been displeased all year by the lack of adjustments we make on the Defensive side of the ball. We seem to go in with a game plan defensively and never changing it; even if it’s not working. To me the loss to UAB was the lowest part of the Season.

The Ugly

As much as I hate to admit it and wished it weren’t true; we are not a very disciplined football team. There is a looseness about the players that translates into missed tackles (tons), missed kicks (too many) and missed opportunities on offense. I hope we can clean these up.

So My Hopes for Next Year Are:

• Austin Davis back at QB at 100%
• A New Defensive Package (read between the lines)
• A unit to make extra points and field goals

A few years ago my pastor told a story about a Christmas party he had thrown for some kids, back in his youth ministry days. He said that he almost cost his job over the fact that he referred to it as a X-mas party. The church deacons almost had a stroke at his attempt to “take Christ out of Christmas.” But the problem wasn’t Jimmy’s use of X, but ignorance of the meaning of the X by the leaders. X is the Greek letter for Chi. Which (if you can’t tell) is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. It’s not an attempt to cross out Christ, but only a short had for his name. There is plenty of history backing to the understanding of letter “X” for Christ.

Fast forward to today. There is a ridiculous effort by some to take the word Christ out of Christmas. Understandably people, who don’t know the story behind the “X”, get upset when they see the word Xmas used. But to be honest with you I don’t even see people using X mas any more. The preferred saying/writing is “Happy Holidays”. I don’t have a problem with people saying “Happy Holidays”; using it in context to describing the time period of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. But when someone sends a card, email, or greeting in December, along with a graphic of a tree and a wreath and it reads Happy Holidays; I feel like it is an intentional effort to avoid saying Christ-mas.

I was disappointed to see some Christian Corporate leaders, whom I respect, go to the “Happy Holiday” greeting this year. I understand that they may lead others who are not Christians; but do they not think that Christ has anything to do with the fact that they are leaders? I understand the litigious politically correct culture we are in. But in the name of not offending (aka don’t want a law suit) people are sacrificing the “core confession” of their faith to appease the crowd and by the way, appeasing the crowds never work out really well (just ask Jesus).

So in an attempt to be silly, create more controversy, and provide an opportunity to witness; I propose we start saying to others “Merry Xmas”. This will cause the religious and non religions to take note that something different was said, and maybe afford us the opportunity to educate people about the X, about the Christ, about the cross, about the God who came to rescue mankind from themselves. This Xmas don’t fight just to say Christmas, fight for Christ. Many who use the words Christmas have never connected with the Christ anyway.

Thoughts come at us a million times an hour. Work, school, spouse, church, kids, etc. These thoughts can make you feel anxious, nervous, angry, sad, happy, thankful, etc.

Recently a friend told me a story about his sister-in-law who had been diagnosed with cancer and her Dr. told them he was pretty sure it had spread, so He sent them to an oncologist. Imagine the thoughts that came to this family. Will I lose my spouse? What will happen to my kids? I don’t won’t to die? I don’t won’t to grow old alone? Will we have enough money to pay for hospital bills? Will we lose our house? How much time do we have together?

Thought, thoughts, and more thoughts and with those thoughts tons of emotions.

Now guess what happen when they went to the oncologist? He took a look and reported that she didn’t have cancer at all! Only some irregular cells that the first Dr. had misread! Now imagine the thoughts and emotions. I’m so thankful! I could kill that first Dr. What was he thinking! This is the greatest news we could have received! God is so good! Etc.

See the connections from the thoughts to the feelings. So here is the challenge today you will receive some negative thoughts about events and people in your life. Pause after you start to feel stressed about it and have a second thought. Look for the good. Thank God for the test, for the people, for the chance to run the race of life. People with negative attitudes never have second thoughts. They take the first thing that comes to them. We must train ourselves to see the good and hope in every situation.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Phil 4:8 (NIV)

Every year I purchase a new Christmas album to liven up the Christmas spirit. I’ve gotten into purchasing individual songs from Amazon, but there is still something about having a case to hold that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. So I walked into our local Lifeway store with the intentions of purchasing another album, when I saw this one on the shelf. One of the things that I was looking for were original Christmas songs. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy the old traditional songs, but to be honest they get old.

I was hesitant to purchase this one (I think I payed 7.99) but I have not regretted the purchase. While Chris Tomlin does most of the songs, there are a few where others sing and one where he and Matt Redman sing together. This is a REALLY great Christ centered Christmas album. Tracks 10, 11, and 12 are worth the price of the album.

Saturday

• Played in the Snow with the kids
• Kids and I cheered JJ on in a 5k race. She got first place in the ladies category! J
• Went to wards as a family and everyone got a good ole’ sausage and biscuit.
• Took the kids Christmas shopping for their friends and each other. (Funny what they buy)
• Watched BAMA make Tebow cry.
• Went to the Petal Christmas parade and caught a T-shirt and a ton of Candy. (Even though Ally fell two times)
• Got to hang out with some old friends, eat pizza, and watch Texas almost get beat.

Sunday

• Great prayer service. Had one of those times where I really connected with the Father.
• Turning Pointe had their only business meeting of the year. As a church we gave over 2100 hrs in community service project for 2009. Way to go guys!
• Went to the Funeral of a Great Man. Very sad day yes, but much joy knowing he is “home”.
• Saw my former pastor who performed the wedding ceremony for me and JJ. Also got to hug a lot of the people that nurtured me in the faith while I was growing up.
• Got to have supper with my Parents last night.

A few weeks ago I finished reading Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, by Shane Hipps. I must say this was the perfect book for me. First it was a relatively short read with 184 pages, but more importantly each chapter was byte sized I didn’t get overloaded in the middle of a chapter. Secondly the content of the book is about Faith and Technology, two things that are near and dear to me. Finally it was a book that really made me think and taught me some things. In the end, I understand better how media (and its history) affects the way we see life, including God. It was very informative. And while I agree with some of the observations Shane Hipps makes, I don’t agree with how he applies some of his conclusions to the Christian community. Everyone should read this book.

My take away: In the end we must realize that the way we see things through the medium of television, internet, and mobile devices affects not only what we learn, but how we learn. At the end of the day; all of this technology should simply be an extension or supplement to our real lives. Facebook should supplement our REAL relationships, not become the relationship itself. Current technology trends can undermine reality in that we actually become isolated individuals who miss living in the moment with the people that we love, opting to connecting with “friends” who themselves keep others at a safe distance. I don’t think we really want people to get close. For me it’s easier to not let people know the real me. If I do that I’ll have to spend hours explaining to them why I have all these quirks so that they will understand and accept me. Real relationships are messy, but virtual ones can be nice and orderly. None of us want to be rejected so we accept facebook invitations and hope to go over 1000 friends. Remember in 1 Corinthians 6:12 Paul said;

“Everything is permissible for me” –but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me” — but I will not be mastered by anything.

We should use the technology of today and leverage it for God’s Glory and the good of humanity. But when the technology starts to master us (be the center of our money, time and attention) we need to reevaluate. After all we will stand in God’s presence one day and face Him in all of his reality. There will be no texting and the secrets of our hearts will be revealed. Go find people that love you. Let them know your joys and your pain and experience the reality of true friendship.

This past Saturday night we went with some friends to see Journey of the Wise at Blue Jack Ridge in Poplaville. Earlier in the fall I had a few people tell me about their corn maze and how their family had really enjoyed visiting. I like some traditions, but visiting the same place every year for Christmas gets a little boring to me. Last year we went to Landrum’s Country and for the past several years we have visited Lewis Lights. With that said I was ready to try something new this year.

We saw on their website where you could purchase tickets in advance. We thought since it was the weekend following Thanksgiving it would be busy, so to save time we purchased ours online. After stopping to eat, we turned off of HWY 11 and started looking for the “5 Million Lights”. We finally saw the entrance and were expecting a line of cars, but there was none. We pulled in and handed our receipt to the lady and drove along the entrance, which is several hundred yards long. As you drive along the road, you stop every so often and read signs with portions of the Christmas story. The stories are usually illustrated by lights outlining characters and events. (The are no painted wooden characters). The lit trees along the road and the story is nice, but when you spread millions of lights over a hundred acres, it does look as stunning. At the end of the “journey” you park at the downtown area that really is covered in lights (see photo). You can walk into the saloon and order hot chocolate and kettle corn. They had free brownies for the kids and that was nice touch. And at the end of the street there is a live nativity along with stalls of animals that you can pet. The live nativity is simply people playing the roles of Mary, Josephs, Angels, Shepherds, etc. They don’t talk; just kind of hang out and look at the baby (doll) Jesus.

My kids said they enjoyed our visit, though Lizzy admitted that Landrum’s country had a little more to offer. Though I never meet the owners; the people working were nice, and most of them were related to the owners. I couldn’t get over the small number of people attending the night we were there. In all there were maybe 25 people visiting during our hour a haf there. The cost associated with the trip could have contributed to the lower turn out. It’s $5 per person 3 and over. By the time we paid for gas (for 90 mile round trip to poplarvile), purchased tickets, and snacks we had about $50 in the trip. It was OK but adding horse and buggy rides or something more would create a bigger draw. I’ll give it a 6 out of 10 with the potential for it to be better next year. It’s a neat place and I think we will visit gain next year during the fall.