Just a thought

Oft' times over looked

in a world grown much to loud.

Yet with quill in hand, the poet stands,

and reaches...

to heights beyond the clouds.

Good Things

by Everett Christian, McAlester, OK
Friday, December 16, 2011

GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD
(Jesus said) 35 "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked." - Luke 6:35(New International Version).

GOD'S PROMISE TO US FROM HIS HOLY WORD
12 Yet to all who did receive him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. - John 1:12-13(New International Version).

A QUOTE
Let nothing disturb thee; let nothing dismay thee; all things pass; God never changes. - Teresa of Avila -
THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER
Those who sow courtesy reap friendship, and those who plant kindness gather love. - From Reminisce Magazine - A task worth doing and friends worth having make life worthwhile. - From Reminisce Magazine -

NOTES
Today has been a sunny day in McAlester, Oklahoma, with a high temperature of 48 degrees and a low of 30. I had lunch with Charley and then to the post office to pick up my mail. I went by the cemetery before I came home. I took a nap with Rascal and Emmy. At around 4:30 p.m. I went to Country Mart and Walmart. I came home and put out treats and food for the outside animals. I then made a quick trip to Radioshack for some phone batteries and still made it back home just before dark. Since last time I have had e-mails from Mary Jo, Michele and Claudia. I will share the e-mails from Mary Jo and Michele at the end of the Good Things.
The cats are fine. Little Girl is asleep on the floor in front of the heater. Rascal is asleep in the recliner. I just let Emmy out the front door and Tony from across the street came in for a bite of food. All of the cats have been around this evening.
Have a nice Saturday! I will see you next time.
In Christian Love, Everett. ************************************************************************************************************ Here is Mary Jo's e-mail:
Love, MJ
Glad things are going well for you and Charley. Prayers are said for Mary Ellen's husband. I hope everything keeps going well. Take care.
******************************************************************************************************************* Here is Michele's e-mail
Good morning Everett!
I am glad your back is better. My hip had been quite painful. It only happens when we get rain. And sure enough we had a down pour that lasted an hour with thunder and lightening. And there was no rain in the forecast.
That was really sweet of Bobbi Taylor to bring you and Charley a meal. Taco Bobs sounds like a real friendly place to eat.
Yesterday I took a trip to Walmart. I bought a DVD movie called The Help. I had read the book and I loved it! And the movie did not disappoint! It will be one of those movies I will watch again and again. I think one of my favorite movies is To Kill A Mockingbird. I will have to find that on DVD. I have seen it on TV many times.
I hope you have a wonderful Friday and I am keeping you and Charley in my prayers. Today is laundry day. I am kind of weird. I love doing laundry.
Take care! Michele

Nan's Calendar

by Nan Forehand, Statesville, NC
Dec. 16, 2011

Just a quickie tonight as it is getting late and I need to get to bed. I have written my thank you card I'm sending to the gentleman I met in Raffles as he was getting a haircut. He's the one who donated $50.00 to go towards buying more teddy bears for the sick kids who come through the hospital ER. I am also sending bearabbit to comfort him this Christmas as he mourns the loss of his mother to cancer recently. I have to prepare the box for mailing and then I'm off to bed. I love giving surprises!! I hope he will enjoy bearabbit. I don't think it's a silly idea to give this gentleman a stuffed animal because I believe in my heart that it is what God wants me to do.
It will go out in the mail tomorrow after I leave my office.
I talked with a lady on the phone today in my office who said "I hate Christmas". She has four children and she wears an invisible mask on her face. She thinks no one sees beyond this mask, but I believe her children do. Please pray for this lady and her children. God knows who she is and when you pray, He will know the lady you lift up in prayer.
Please continue to pray for my brother Woody who is in the hospital (and wife, Judy) and also for our friend Diane who struggles in the hospital with a weak heart. One more, please. We heard from Allen's Aunt Nell. She has been very ill since Nov. 12th. She had to have emergency surgery and reports doing much better, but she still needs prayers.
It's 12:55 am and I have to get up from here. Take care and be safe out there. Get lots of rest and enjoy the true spirit of Christmas. We are, after all, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ! Thank God!
Love, Your sister in Christ, Nan

Good Things

by Everett Christian, McAlester, OK
Thursday, December 15, 2011

GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH HIS HOLY WORD
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. - Isaiah 5:21(New International Version)

GOD'S PROMISE TO US FROM HIS HOLY WORD
18 Then Jesus came to them (the eleven disciples) and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20(New International Version).

A QUOTE
Our hope is in Jesus and nothing or no one else. - Jerry Hull -
THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER
The secret of patience is to do something else meanwhile. - From Reminisce Magazine - With a good hobby you can find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. - From Reminisce Magazine -

NOTES
Today has been a cloudy day with a rain shower around noontime. High today temperature today was 57 degrees with a low of 44 degrees. At 6:15 a.m. today I went to Charley's house and took him to the hospital to have a small cancer removed from his bladder. The operation started about 8:00 a.m. and was over around 8:30 a.m. I took Charley home about 9:45 a.m. I picked him up at 11:20 a.m and we had lunch at Taco Bob's. He was back home around 12:00 noon. He is doing pretty good and will probably be able to drive himself to Bob's tomorrow. The doctor said they removed all of the cancer. A few days ago when Bobbi Taylor, a waitress at Taco Bob's, heard that Charley was having surgery today, she said she was going to prepare a meal today when she got off work and bring it to Charley and me. Well, sure enough, at about 6:00 p.m., Charley called me and said that Bobbi had brought two meals to his house so I told him I would be right over. Bobbi had already left when I got there and I brought my meal home. It was roast beef, mashed potatos with gravy and corn on the cob. I ate half of mine and have enough left to heat up for my meal tomorrow night. Bobbi is a nice person. I took my nap this afternoon with Emmy. Since last time I have had e-mails from Mary Ellen, Geneva and Alice. If you remember, some time ago, Mary Ellen, who lives in Colorado, asked us to pray for her husband, Kip, who has cancer. Kip is in the hospital and Mary Ellen has a prayer request so I will include her letter at the end of the Good Things.
The cats are fine. Little Girl is lying by the patio door looking outside. Rascal was in the recliner a little while ago but has now gone elsewhere. The other cats are all accounted for.
Have a nice Friday! I will see you next time.
In Christian Love, Everett. ******************************************************************************************************** Here is Mary Ellen's letter:
Feel better Everett! Hope the shot does the job for another six months! Please lift Kip up as he is back in the hospital. His mind is very confused and he talks nonsense all day long. His kidneys are doing better, and he will start radiation on the tumor on his back tomorrow. Please pray that I can take good care of him when he comes home. That the Lord will provide everything that I need to do that with.
Thank you, mary ellen

Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
Decc. 15, 2012

Daily Ornament!
A Week of Joy: Thursday, Day Nineteen of Advent
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.” – Psalm 40:6-8

Gospel Reading: Matthew 25:1-13

“The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” – Matthew 25:5

From today’s Lesson in “Illuminate.”
“Watching and waiting is not a fun activity for most people. It requires concentration. Concentration means you can be distracted. In other words, if you are keeping watch, then you can’t play music, read a magazine, or watch a movie. And longer you keep watch, the easier it is to get distracted by any little thing. So where is the joy in keeping watch?
The joy is when the thing you had been waiting for arrives. If the object of your waiting is important enough, then all the time in the world will have been worth it. In Advent we practice keeping watch for the One who made the world. The anticipation is building for the day that the Light of the World will appear. Keep watching!” He’s right! We don’t like to wait. We don’t like to “watch.” What we want, we want now—with few bells and whistles. We don’t like to wait because it probably means we have to trust! And I have discovered that trust, even and especially among Christians is not our best attribute. But when we learn how to trust, we will learn how to wait! And watch.
Waiting and watching does not mean we stop living—in fact, it means we continue to live as if nothing has happened—just with the anticipation that God will see us through! I like the following story for this very reason. We like nice, heart-warming stories during any time of the year but at Christmas they seen to touch our hearts just a bit deeper. Let me know what you think!

In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.
I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress. I loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck.
The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out Of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added another strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, and just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the owner of the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all-just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning I hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn't wake up before I managed to get home and get the Presents from the basement and place them under the tree. (We had cut down a small cedar tree by the side of the road down by the dump.)
It was still dark and I couldn't see much, but there appeared to be some dark shadows in the car or was that just a trick of the night? Something certainly looked different, but it was hard to tell what. When I reached the car I peered warily into one of the side windows. Then my jaw dropped in amazement. My old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, scrambled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes: There were candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4
Pastor J. T. Carnell