More Christmas Cartoons

Some Christmas Cartoons

Irene Sendler - Remember Her Name

Look at this lady - Let us never forget!
The world hasn't just become wicked...it's always been wicked.
The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving.

Irena Sendler 
Died 12 May 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an 'ulterior motive'.

She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews (being German).

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids).

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family.

Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was not selected.

President Obama won one year before becoming President for his work as a community organizer for ACORN

and

Al Gore won also --- for a slide show on Global Warming.

In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER

I'm doing my small part by forwarding this message.

I hope you'll consider doing the same...

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth'.

It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

The War On Christmas - Franklin Graham

©2014 BGEA By Franklin Graham

Millions of Christians around the world soon will be celebrating the birth of Christ. In many places, like ancient Bethlehem where Jesus was born, commemorating the birth of the Savior is still the main focus. Unfortunately, the United States in the last few decades has witnessed increased hostility toward the sacred nature of Christmas, erupting into what has become a blatant war on Christmas.

Stores, schools and communities across America continue to find new and intolerant reasons to remove any religious references to Christmas, stripping it of any holy or historical significance. Christian songs, prayers and other spiritually vital connections to the Lord Jesus Christ are deleted or diminished.

Some flagrant examples: In Ramsey County, Minnesota, the courthouse banned red poinsettias because someone deemed them a "Christian symbol."

The city of Pittsburgh refers to the Christmas holidays as "Sparkle Days," in an ironic attempt at avoiding offense.

A Veteran's Administration hospital in Augusta, Georgia, adopted a policy banning religious Christmas songs in public areas. But none of this should surprise us.

That's because at its root and core, the war on Christmas isn't really about Christmas at all—it's about the Son of God.

The war on Christmas is a war on Christ and His followers. It's the hatred of our culture for the exclusive claims that Christ made: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

When Christ stepped out of eternity and into a cold animal stall in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, the angels announced His birth with these stunning words to shepherds huddled in the Judean darkness: "But the angel said to them, "Listen! Do not fear. For I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, became as fully man as He was fully God. He took on human flesh for one reason—to die for our sins, to rescue us from eternal separation and unending punishment. He fulfilled that mission three decades later when He hung on a cross in Jerusalem, was buried, rose again and ascended into heaven. Believers in Christ call Jesus' birth His first Advent, or His first Coming.

It was a time for miracles and healings, but also a time for suffering at the hands of sinners. He was betrayed, scorned, beaten and crucified.

When Christ returns—His second Advent or Coming—it will be an entirely different experience. He will come with undiminished power and glory, as a conquering King who will cast Satan and unbelievers into an eternal lake of fire. His kingdom will be finally consummated with the new heavens and the new earth. Scripture calls the time between those two Advents the last days.

We don't have to wait for them. Everyone born from the resurrection of Christ until His triumphant return has lived in them.

The Apostle Peter, in his first sermon at Pentecost, referred to the Holy Spirit's outpouring with the words of the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17).

The writer of Hebrews began his letter with a magnificent description of Jesus Christ, saying that God "has in these last days spoken to us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:2).

And the Apostle Paul told his protégé Timothy that "in the last days perilous times will come" (2 Timothy 3:1). He goes on to list nearly 20 chillingly familiar character traits that describe those days, such as pride, brutality, treachery and heartlessness. We should not be taken aback, then, when a day that should be devoted to meditating upon the marvelous, virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is instead treated in a scandalously secular way that denies His deity and saving work. The name of Christ is an offense to the unbelieving world. The mention of His birth, or life, or death and resurrection, is an insult. The world, the flesh and the devil all hate the mere mention of His glorious name. They are mortal enemies of the Savior.

The world the Bible speaks of is the world system that is set against the rule and reign of Christ. It is enthralled with power and greed, and it wants no part of the Messiah's absolute authority. The flesh refers to the rebellious, sinful soul of man that is corrupted with deceitful desires and refuses to acknowledge God. It is willful, prideful disobedience that reacts with instinctive disdain for the Savior. The devil animates it all.

Knowing that his time to roam on earth is short and that he will one day be cast into the lake of fire, he opposes Christ at every turn. He and his demons will help gather all the nations into a great last-ditch rebellion against the King of kings before he is defeated.

Until then, however, we should expect stiff, relentless opposition to the gospel message from our culture. The persecution that many believers already experience in many countries may still be far into the future for us, but don't expect that it will not intensify and heighten.

However, since we know that Christ has already made every provision for sinners like us, we can steadily and obediently be about the Father's work of letting our light shine before men. We can be about the business of living uprightly in an evil age, testifying of Christ's power to deliver us from sin, Satan and the world.

The war on Christmas—the war on Christ—is doomed to fail. Christ came the first time to rescue us from our sin; He is coming a second time to establish His kingdom forever under His righteous reign. Every believer from every age who has repented and trusted in Him for the forgiveness of sin will be with Him. The Babe at Bethlehem will be the conquering King.

So this Christmas, don't worry if you see the opposition building. Praise Him that He came to earth 2,000 years ago on a rescue mission, that He has rescued you.

Black Friday Savings

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us, they showed us each in turn,
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come.
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshiped the Gods of the Market, Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew.
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true.
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four.
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man.
There are only four things certain, since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins.
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

This is a poem written in 1919 by Rudyard Kipling and his editor and friend Andrew Rutherford shortly after Kipling’s only son was killed in a World War I battle.

From a historical perspective, Kipling’s son had poor eyesight and was exempt from serving in the military, but the boy wanted to due his duty to his country. Kipling’s influence helped to get son in the military and onto the battlefield.

It was during these horrid years, the young men of British villages served together in units. In them was distilled the belief to fight and die for God and Country. When the cry was ordered to “go over the top” meaning to get out of the trenches and try to overtake the ground held by the enemy, thousands of young men were shot and killed. This left their home villages tragically bereft of young men.

The poem demonstrates Kipling’s ire and disbelief in the failed system that promised valor and glory and ended in grief, loss, anguish and disgust with the system. It reminds me of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Longfellow's son Charles went off to join the Civil War without his father's permission. Young Charles was severely wounded during a battle but survived. Longfellow's poem recounts the senselessness and apprehension of war.

Copybooks were the note pages used by British students to write their assignments. There were maxims or proverbs printed at the top of the pages extolling virtues such as honesty of fair dealing. Students were encouraged to write these over and over to commit them to memory and put them to use in their lives.

The period of time leading up to World War I when Britain was in the midst of much social progress; schemes that promised a better life for all through social engineering, politics and philosophy. Some of these ideals went against the grain of natural law. Worship of market place ideals were hailed over traditional religion.

The philosopher George Santayana told us those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. He also said only the dead have seen the end of war. This poem echoes these facts.

I cannot recall a time since when I was a young man in my late teen years that the United States has not been engaged in some form of war. Even as a child growing up, the threat of the Soviets using the nuclear bomb to attack a city in the United States loomed large. The draft of 18 year old men threatened my generation and left its mark on cemeteries throughout this nation.

We have just had a national election which sealed the disgust and national anger against the current administration and our president. Despite the election nothing has changed; in fact things are becoming worse.

Those words fashioned in 1919 still ring true in 2014

That Beautiful Scandalous Night

Go on up to the mountain of mercy

To the crimson perpetual tide.

Kneel down on the shore

Be thirsty no more

Go under and be purified.

Follow Christ to the Holy mountain.

Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall.

Cleanse your heart and your soul,

In the fountain that flows,

For you and for me and for all.

Chorus

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree,

On that beautiful scandalous night you and me,

Were atoned by His blood,

and forever washed white

On that beautiful scandalous night.

 On the hillside you will be delivered.

At the foot of the cross, justified.

And your spirit restored By the river that pours,

From our blessed Saviour's side.

Chorus

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree,

On that beautiful scandalous night you and me,

Were atoned by His blood,

and forever washed white

On that beautiful scandalous night

Bridge

You carry the sin of mankind on your back.

And the sky went black.

Go on up to the mountain of mercy.

Go the crimson perpetual tide.

Kneel down on the shore Be thirsty no more.

Go under and be purified.

On that beautiful scandalous night Beautiful scandalous Miraculous night.

This is one of my pastor’s favorite songs. I have added it to my repertoire for Sunday’s guitar songs/hymns. The opening line is reminiscent of My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. Don't take this as a criticism, it is a memory trick for me to remember songs.

The song was written by a young guy named Bebo Norman (Jeffrey Stephen Norman). Norman has written quite a few Contemporary Christian songs and had some success.

He was a member of Young Life Ministries and gained a considerable following at their summer camp programs. From there his career as a Christian musician took off.

He has toured with several well known bands such as Caedmon’s Call. One of his songs, To Find My Way To You, was chosen as the theme song for a CBS situation comedy called The Class. His songs have been recorded by several Christian bands and entertainers.

His last album was released in 2010. In 2013 he announced his retirement from Contemporary Christian Music.

I have known several people who had careers in the Christian Music industry and became disillusioned that it was an industry whose main concern was making money and gaining profit. Several acquaintances walked away because they felt let down and the companies they signed up with now owned the rights to their music.

I certainly hope this has not happened to Bebo Norman.