CHRISTMAS MORNING

CHRISTMAS MORNING

                This morning we woke up to a white Christmas; something quite rare in the Portland/Vancouver area. Desi and I went for our morning walk as soon as it was light enough to see and we were amazed at all of the deer footprints lacing the property. We made a couple of circles around the driveway, (two loops making ¼ mile) and then Desi insisted on making the trek down to the main road and back.

                However the ice on the road was choppy and sharp and Desi was soon hobbling, so I picked him up and carried him back to the house. What a beautiful and peaceful morning it was… Desi and me and footprints in the snow.

                This white Christmas came as somewhat of a surprise and did not work out well for my sister Vicki. She had prepared a lovely Christmas Eve dinner for 13 guests none of which could make it on account of the snow and ice. So today Bonnie and I will go over and try to help, doing our valiant best to make up for all of the missing people. and maybe some who couldn’t make it yesterday will make it today.

THOUGHTS ON SNOW

                Water is really amazing stuff. When it gets cold enough the water turns into ice. It goes from liquid to a solid and in the process one would think that water is condensed, but such is not the case. Ice is actually lighter than water and therefore it floats. If this were not the case then fish would all die in the winter. But as it is, the surface ice actually forms an insulating protective shield over the water underneath thus keeping it above freezing.

                Depending upon conditions water can also appear as snow, or sleet, or hail, or rain. This year  (2017) has been highly affected by water either by its presence or the lack thereof. Droughts in California and Australia and other regions have resulted in record breaking fires, while in other regions torrential rains have caused damaging floods and landslides and sink holes and such.

                Many records of all types were broken in 2017 in what appears to be an escalation in apocalyptic patterns. Earthquakes and volcanoes are also on the rise, although this seems strange because 2017 has set a new record for earthquake silence until the last month or so when we started to have a barrage of larger earthquakes in the fives and sixes along with an 8 in Mexico.

                The sun has also been erratic this year, sending several x-class CMEs resulting in high speed solar winds. They normally enter our electromagnetic shields at a speed of around 350 Kilometers per second, but with the coronal holes appearing on the sun, those solar wind speeds can escalate to 750 or more KPS. And while we can’t feel this wind ourselves, these winds do put tremendous pressure on our planet, sometimes resulting in a shifting of tectonic plates. (Earthquakes)

                Not all scientists agree with this theory of plate movement, but evidence is growing as some are seeing a direct correlation between solar winds and earthquakes.

                There is also a concern over the massive injection of gamma rays and other particles that come with these solar blasts. They pass through the core of our earth heating up the magma and causing disturbances in the earth’s mantle. (Also possibly resulting in earthquake activity and the increase of activity in such magma chambers as the Yellowstone Caldera.)

                Oh well, it seems that things are heating up in the political arena as well so that even as mountains blow their tops, so also do many politicians.

                Mankind has grown much too sophisticated to believe that there is any correlation between man’s spiritual condition and geophysical events. After all, how can this planet possibly know if we are being naughty or nice?

                But the Bible… written by our Creator, tells us clearly that once certain cups of iniquity have been filled, judgments come and these judgments are often judgments in nature; floods, droughts, famines, pestilences, plagues, mass animal deaths, locusts and a host of other anomalies brought about by the hand of God.

                Idol worship brings about a plague of demons and demonic activity. Perverted sexual practices bring down the wrath of God. Corrupt political and business practices and other injustices bring about God’s judgments as well as mistreatment of the widow, the orphan and the poor. Violence is another thing that stirs God to anger. But to understand the kind of anger God has, we have to think as a parent. God doesn’t take well to people mistreating His kids. He provides for us a secret place of the Most High and a shelter under His wings.

                In the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to seek and to save the lost. He died in our place to rescue us from our own sins and then He sent down His Holy Spirit to empower us against the enemy.

                Soon He will return to take us out of here, but in this present age, He is using this background of evil to train us… to teach us to love righteousness and to hate evil, to overcome as He overcame, to walk in His footsteps… to die to Satan’s Matrix and to be born again into His kingdom… to commit to His righteousness…to become a Bride that only has eyes for Him.

                Life on this planet only makes sense as a training ground. What Satan means for evil, God means for good. Jesus was not just our substitute. He is the first fruit of the resurrection. He is preparing many sons. Jesus was not only our Savior, He was the prototype of the new creation man… designed to function perfectly with God on board… temples in which God dwells… people of faith living by divine appointment and not by the randomness of the flesh.

                Therefore we are all being formed into His image from glory to glory:

                “For whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30.

                “But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.  2 Cor. 3:18.

                Today the Lord will take the darkness of your heart and cover it with a beautiful blanket of snow, and then as the snow melts it will also soften the soil of your heart and bring forth new life.

                May the Babe of Bethlehem be born in you afresh today and though your sins may be as scarlet, may they be white as snow. Merry Christmas