Unto Us a Child is Born

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel", which is translated, "God with us."

"And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn."

"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

On this day, around the world, we celebrate the birth of the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who was miraculously born of a virgin in the little town of Bethlehem of Judea over two thousand years ago.

After living a sinless life, Jesus was crucified by the people he had come to save, becoming once and for all the perfect sacrifice for our sins, thereby reconciling us to God.

God has said in the Bible, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Because of what Jesus did for us, we can joyfully sing along with the angels:

"Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Merry Christmas to all, and may God bless you with all good things in 2010 - especially with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Christmas At Our House

I am married to an unbelievably energetic and creative woman who makes our home a beautiful place to live. This week I thought you might like to take a look at some of the lovely things she does around our house at Christmas. Enjoy!

The Gargantuan Challenge

Do you ever wonder where the things we say come from? It's strange to think that the phrases we use actually started with one person somewhere, and gradually came to be used by everybody everywhere.

Most of these phrases were actually started by two guys living in a trailer in lower Alabama.
Really.

How many times a day do you hear someone say, "Have a good one" ? It started something like this...

One day two guys, Butch and Bubba, were sitting outside their trailer, drinking Buds and smokin' Marlboros. Bubba ran out of beer and smokes and had to go into town to get some more. As he was about to climb into his pickup, Butch called out, " Have a good one", and smiled at the way it sounded.

Now when Bubba, who wasn't too smart, heard this, he liked it, and started saying it to eveyone instead of goodbye. It caught on, worked its way through Georgia, up into the Carolinas, and all the way up the eastern seaboard. Truckers carried "Have a good one" out to the west coast.

"Have a good one" is now synonymous with goodbye all over the USA, and probably has been translated into other languages.

Imagine Butch's surprise when one day he heard somebody on TV say, "Have a good one". Knowing that HE had been the first person to ever say that must have been the high point of his life.

Now here's my challenge to you. I've come up with an alternative to "Have a good one". It's "HAVE A GARGANTUAN". It makes just as much sense, even more , because I'm the one who started it. And I don't even live in a trailer.

So I'm asking you, whenever anyone tells you to have a good one, to respond with "Have a gargantuan". It'll be lots of fun to see the strange looks people give you. And it will make me happy. And who knows, when "Have a gargantuan" goes around the globe and comes back to me, it may even be the high point of MY life.

This week's MP3 is the vocal version of The One I Waited For. I wrote wedding lyrics for the song, and there is even a version with ME singing it. But you don't know me well enough yet to hear THAT...

So, until next time, HAVE A GARGANTUAN!

Go thou and do likewise.

Wise men still seek him.

Structure is My Enemy

Structure is my enemy. All structure. Even the structure of this blog has started to annoy me, so I'm changing it. From now on, I'll just tell you in some UNstructured way what I'm doing, or mention something that I find interesting, or maybe I'll just rant.

I mean, does anybody really care what book I'm reading? I haven't noticed Youngblood Hawke suddenly shooting to the top of Amazon's sales chart. Besides, this week I started The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, in 8 volumes. That should take a while. I will, though, try to find a picture of myself in a toga.

You can count on one thing: every Friday there will be a new MP3 for you to download. Other than that, I may blog more than once a week, but for sure every Friday there will be a new post and a new MP3.

This week's song, I Thought About You, (written by Jimmy van Heusen and Johnny Mercer) is a last minute replacement, because I actually ERASED this week's song, which I had recorded a few days ago. George Doerner, nationally known as one of the smoothest trumpet players around, recorded I Thought About You a couple of years ago in our studio, with moi at the piano. I listened to this recording a couple of weeks ago, and thought, "Man, that piano player is good." (I like me, who do you like?) George Doerner lives in Savannah, Georgia, which I think is THE most beautiful city in the United States.

See you next week. Feel free to leave a comment, with questions or requests. IS ANYBODY READING THIS?!

George Doerner cruising in Savannah