"Merry CHRISTmas!"

Next week is the beginning of the Christmas Season all across America; trees and lights will be permeating virtually every neighborhood in our nation. Stores have been touting sales of every kind since Thanksgiving Day and people have been planning holiday feasts for several weeks.

This season also brings out some other folks; I hate Christmas folks, those who are somehow offended by this most wonderful time of the year. Some stores refrain from using the word Christmas, substituting “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” or taking Christ out of the word using an X in His place; what is X-MAS??

Chicago has an annual Christmas Market which displays many of the traditional Christmas decorations and some “manger displays”. I remember Chanukah and Kwanza also being represented in this same venue; no Christians complained.

This year at this celebration there will be a new display; a giant “A” will be lit up for all of the atheists and agnostics who are against the celebration of the Christmas holiday. I don’t believe anybody is forced to believe in Jesus or the Christmas Holiday; I do. Those who wish not to believe in God are perfectly protected in our country. I have never seen anybody dragged into a church or prayer meeting by anyone. Nobody is forced to sing Christmas Carols or send cards if they don’t wish to do so.

We who believe in Jesus would be the first to defend anyone’s right to disbelieve; we would feel sad and sorry for them, yet we would never try to force them to accept Jesus without their free will acceptance.

A question I always ask myself at this time of the year is “Why are some people so threatened by a being they profess doesn’t exist?” This is nonsensical to a logical mind; why fear anything that you don’t believe is real?

I believe in Heaven and a spiritual existence and I believe Jesus is the only way to achieve that goal of an eternity in His presence. I believe Jesus was the sacrifice for all of man’s sin; nobody else could do it but Him. I believe this season is joyful as the birth of the Messiah is the provision of the Father to redeem us from our iniquities. I will gladly share this with anyone who is interested, and if after hearing this, they wish to walk away, I will have fulfilled my joy and my duty to share His Gospel; there is no force, only concern for every man’s immortal soul.

Has any atheist or agnostic ever been “beat up” by a Christian in a “Gospel Riot”?

Billions of people around the world celebrate Christmas as an occasion for hope and joy, an occasion for forgiveness and renewal. I am sorry for those who choose to destroy a belief that has lasted for over 2,000 years and generations of believers.

Answer this question; “Why are people more generous, kinder, more loving and more joyful during this season, more than Thanksgiving, more than New Year’s Day, more than the Fourth of July; more than any other holiday celebrated anywhere on this planet?” Could it be that this day has been touched by God and reached a place in every human heart that loves Him?

I wish all of my readers and friends the most joyful of Christmas’s and the happiest of New Year’s. Be blessed by our Savior, see you all in January!

 

(Last blog for this year, have a great Christmas!)

""Want Fries?"

When I was 16 years old, I worked my first regular job; it was a summer job from June to Labor Day in September. I worked a six day work week with Mondays off. I got up at 5:30 AM to get to the bus stop and be at work by 7:00 AM, I was a common laborer at an amusement park called “Riverview Park”, a place that is now considered one of Chicago’s happiest places to be in the 1950s and 1960s. The “Park” closed down in 1967 and that property now houses a police station and some land development.

My job was “grunt work”; sweeping streets, cleaning buildings and any type of heavy lifting that was needed. I came home dirty, sweaty and smelling bad; my days at “Chicago’s Greatest Amusement Park” weren’t much fun for me, but it gave me the salary I needed to pay for my auto insurance and gasoline (24 cents per gallon).

I was paid $1.22 per hour and cleared $67.00 a week, for a 48 hour week! This job taught me a valuable lesson; I didn’t want to spend my life at a job like this one!!

I had friends who worked at a place called “Henry’s Hamburgers”, home of the 15 cent burger, and they made less than I did with the same long hours and distasteful duties; they weren’t planning a career at “Henry’s” either!

Those jobs provided us with spending money, and they also taught us that those jobs were something you did to gain experience in the working world, not a lifetime occupation. None of us needed any special skill to do those jobs, and they could be filled by almost anybody who could walk and chew gum at the same time. Nobody I met at my job was planning to be there for 20 years; that job was just a “rite of passage” in growing up.

Over the last few week,s we have seen people demonstrating in front of some “fast food” restaurants for the cause of raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. I know everybody needs a job, especially in the “Barack Obama Economy”, but this idea won’t help America at all.

McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC can’t operate at a profit by paying that rate to their store employees and maintain the prices they need to remain attractive to the American consumer.

I’m quite sure all of the above companies pay their production workers and delivery drivers quite a bit more than minimum wage, as those jobs require special skills or special training and are meant to be positions to be filled for several years by those skilled employees.

In order for Americans to continue to enjoy the convenience and low cost of “fast food”, the store workers cannot be paid the same as “skilled workers” or their next hamburger will cost them $10.00 and the French Fries will be $6.00. How many of you will continue to frequent those businesses at those prices?

Many of those companies offer educational benefits to employees who wish to better themselves, and some employees take advantage of those programs, but those who don’t, shouldn’t think the company should raise their salary for being stagnant in their jobs.

If you think driving McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC out of business is a good idea, then you should support the $15.00 per hour minimum wage, because it won’t take long for all of those discontented workers to be part of America’s unemployed workers, and there won’t be any raises for anybody.

If you want to get ahead, you have to MOVE UP in your job, not cry about something you are unwilling to change. Nobody should be saying “Do you want fries with that” when they are 55 years old!!

"Look Into My Eyes"

Do any of you recognize the name Svengali? No, my friends, he’s not the host of a “horror movie program”; he is a fictional character created by George du Maurier who had “mystical power” over men’s minds and could control their thoughts and actions. There have been two or three movies about Svengali and they were all pretty creepy.

How many of you remember the name Grigori Rasputin? He has been called “The Mad Monk”, yet he had no religious education or degree. Rasputin held some power in Russia over the Romanov family as he used the “power of hypnosis” to cure hemophilia in the royal family. When the royal family was executed, so was Rasputin; but his legend lived well past his death.

Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer is known as the father of modern hypnosis, as he developed this treatment in the curing of some physical and mental disorders.

People have been fascinated with the practice of hypnosis since its inception so long ago. There are night club acts done by hypnotists all over the world. I remember seeing people act like dogs, chickens and Martians on stage while under the influence of hypnosis. The shows are always funny and entertaining, and when they are finished with their volunteers, the hypnotist always “releases them” from his control.

The hypnotist uses his voice and concentration to obtain power over his subjects. I find that power just a little disturbing, so I never stand up when they look for volunteers. Mind control scares the heck out of me.

President Barack Hussein Obama is, once again, on the road trying to promote the virtues of “Obamacare” to America, even though it has been a program that has seen little success thus far. The millions of Americans that have tried to sign up for this program are unable to access the web-site and only a small percentage of people have gotten through successfully.

I have said in previous articles millions of Americans are having their health-care plans eliminated and lost access to their doctors who don’t qualify because of Obamacare’s regulations.

This week, Mr. Obama has stated this program is “working well” and will be a success. Judging from past performance, this program’s success is dismal at best and can hardly be called “working well” by any stretch of the imagination.

I believe Mr. Obama thinks if he “concentrates” and uses the “power of his voice”, he will be able to “hypnotize” the American people. This President has used his gift for public speaking to great advantage in the past, but now, Americans from all walks of life are feeling the effects of this ill-conceived program and they are not the “willing subjects” he requires to do his “mystic act”.

Sorry Mr. Obama, not Mesmer, Rasputin or Svengali can make this program work. I know you have ultimate faith in your “charisma” to pull this off; but “personality and B.S.” will only carry you so far; facts are a bitch and you can’t get around that Mr. President, even if you think you’re SVENGALI!!