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 Ten Commandments for the New Year

As you begin your new year let me suggest you try these ten commandments.

1.  Brush your teeth and floss every day and you will be healthier at the end of the year.

2.  Brush up on the Word of God every day.  Memorize whole passages and hide them in your heart so you might not sin against God.

3.  Promise God you will get proper sleep every night and then after you get out of bed always go in the right direction and you will never go wrong.

4.  If you cannot say something good about another person do not say anything at all.

5.  Pray daily for yourself and your family and ask God to keep you from evil and the evil one.

6.  Exercise 30 minutes a day rain or shine.

7.  Eat a good breakfast every day as this is your most important meal.

8.  Live every day as if it were your last and you will be remembered as someone who not only cared for yourself but loved your neighbor as yourself.

9.  Whatever you do try not to miss work for any reason but real illness or a family emergency.

10. Attend Church every week and be part of a weekly small group.   Gary Exman

 Happy New Year from our house to yours

We at the Ex;man's house and the whole Come and See Ministry want to wish all of you a very, very Happy New Year.  May God Bless you and yours and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.  Gary Exman

 Merry Christmas

On this Christmas Eve Juanita and I and the ministry of Come and See want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.  In this time of tough economic situations remember God loves you and we love you.  Gary Exman

 The X Factor makes it the greatest holiday to be happy

Everyone seems to be careful to say 'Happy Holiday' instead of 'Merry Christmas' these days.  Afterall we do not want to offend anyone, do we?  Let me to remind all of us who claim to be Christians that the X Factor is what makes the greatest holiday in the history of the world to be a happy holiday.  The very name of Christ in the origional greek is prefaced by the foundation letter in that name and that is the letter X.  Christ is the X factor in the name of all names and the central factor in the holiday we celebrate called Christmas.  So let me say to you two days before Christmas 'happy holiday' and remind you that only Christ can make that most famous holiday 'happy.'  So may you have a Happy Merry Christmas on this Holiday of Happiness. Is this being politically correct in the true sense of the meaning of Christmas?  You bet it is but I still like the old fashioned way so, 'Merry Christmas to you and all of you kin.'  Gary Exman

 It is better to die for a cause than to die in vain

She had moved to Cincinnati from Sylvania near Toledo and after being active in the youth movement for Christ there joined Crossroads Community Church.  She won a part in the contemporary Christmas play at Crossroads.  Last Sunday night 2,000 people were there to see the play.  She was dressed as one of the Wise Men and the stage was rigged so she and the other 2 Wisemen were to be lifted over 20 feet.  It was practiced and considered safe but the rope broke and Keri Shyrock fell to the floor of the church head first.  Please pray for Keri's family, the church leaders and all the people who witnessed Keri's death in this horrible accident.

Did Keri die in vain?  I do not believe so for she was joyfully helping to retell the old, old story of Christ and his birth.  She was doing God's work by witnessing to who Jesus was and how he came to this earth.  Thank you Keri for being willing to serve.  Even though you only lived 22 years your life and death were not in vain.

During this Christmas Season as I pray for Keri's family I am reminded to pray too for the 4,000 plus service men and women who have died in our two wars these past several years.  My prayers are with their families too and I believe they did not lie in vain either.  There is more freedom in those two countries today than there have been in either of them for decades.  A big thank you to all of their families as we remember them during this Blessed Season. We want those families to know that we appreciate the supreme sacrifice their sons and daughters have made. Remember, it is better to have a cause and die for it than to go through life aimlessly and die in vain.  Merry Christmas, Gary Exman

 

 It is more blessed to give than to recieve

I did not learn it when I was a kid for I loved too much recieving my own gifts at Christmas.  However I guess I did sometimes feel it though when I gave my parents gifts and felt good about it.  However it was not until I became a parent and had my two kids that I really understood it.  Yes it was then I found out it was more blessed to give than to recieve. Now I realize what giving is and I only wish I had understood it sooner.  There was a little boy interviewed on TV last week who got it at a very young age as he is collecting money to buy toys for other Kids for Christmas.  I  hope all of us in small town and rural churches have learned the vital truth of it and are sharing our wealth with those less fortunate. Let us experience the true meaning of Christmas and give as God gave us his son. Let us give ourselves and our possessions to others so they too can be blessed by our giving.

I am reminded of a guy several years ago who came to me with $3,300. in cash and had me send it with no return address to needy families on two Christmases.  In this envelope he had me place a $100.00 dollar bill and another envelope inside with $10.00 dollars in it with a note suggesting the recipient give this $10.00 dollars to someone else.  We did that for thirty needy familes.  This man that had me do this kind deed understood it is more blessed to give than to recieve.  I wish you the best of the Christmas season as you experience this great truth.  Merry Christmas   Gary Exman

 Six ways to be SC correct

Since we are in the middle of the battle with the PC correctiness police let me suggest six ways to be spiritually correct or SC correct.

1.  Ask yourself on a daily basis, 'what would Jesus say and do?'

2.  Be considerate of others and their views even though they might drastically differ with you and your views.

3.  Pray every day that God will guide you to be in positions where you can express what you best  believe are his views.

4.  Talk up your views and make them as spiritually correct as you can but also be a good listener to others.

5.  Be a good student of the Word so you can to the best of your ability can demonstrate it to others by word and by deed.

6.  Love your neighbor as yourself. Gary W. Exman

 The battle between PC and SC

I was reminded of the battle again this morning when I said Merry Christmas to a woman who is a Christian and preferred to say Happy Holidays to me.  She said she greeted everyone that way in order to not offend anyone.  Her point was to keep everyone happy by using the generic expression of Happy Holidays.  The politically correct people have everyone under pressure to use this bland expression of the Christmas Holiday in order to not offend or hurt another persons feelings.  This is the policially correct or PC way of doing things that has Christians in a quandery.  What do we do or say not to offend?

Let me suggest there is a spritually correct way of greetings to all people.  This SC or spiritually correct way is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas unless you know they are of another religion.  Then you should say Happy Holidays to them.  However when you are greeting people who you are unfamiliar with,such as a clerk at a store, you can say Merry Christmas and if you sense that it offends them ask their forgiveness and wish them Happy Holidays.  Most from other religions will not be offended if you say Merry Christmas to them and might even say it back to you.  The few who are offended we must remember to be sensitive to. If they object just say a prayer in your heart for them. A Jewish friend of mine was showing me her new house of worship and telling me of the spiritual trappings in it.  I complemented to her as to how spiritual that place of worship was with what they had done in the building of the structure.  Then I asked her what she would do if the Messiah Jesus showed up some Saturday.  She responded back to me without hesitation, 'give him something to eat.'  With that we both laughed and felt good about our differences.  What I experienced in that encounter was respect for differences, tolerance for another's belief, and polite confrontation of the similarities but yet vast differences of two connected yet different religions.  To me that is being spiritually correct(SC).  Let us work together this Christmas to lift up the spiritually correct way and let our Christlike attitudes help overcome the battle between the PC and the SC.

Merry Christmas Gary Exman

 First Christmas

Every church wants to be like the first century church. So what steps could we take today to make the Christmas Eve worship  services at our church like what happened on the first Christmas? Here are six practical steps we need to be reminded to follow that will make this happen in three weeks. 

1. Hang a lot of lights inside and outside the church.  In Bethlehem the light was supernatural but using natural lights can luminate the Christmas message.

2.  Use many traditional and contemporary music venues to demonstrate the holiness of the moment when all the angels rejoiced at the birth of the Christ Child.

3.  Worship by decorating and celebrating remembering this is the most important bithday party of history.

4.  Exchange gifts with each other and share a special gift to the needy in memory of the Christ Child as we think back to the exchange of gifts three Kings brought in thanks for the gift of God in Christ.

5.  Preach the story from the written word in memory of the living Word who came to forgive us of our sins.

6.  Pray much that the event will become a spiritual experience for all who attend that could become a little bit like what was experienced by the few on that night in Bethlehem.

Remember what happened that night a long time ago has inspired the events of history and we pray what we do at our church this Christmas will enspire us and our church for the rest of our lives.  Merry Christmas, Gary Exman

 6 reasons I will go against the politically correct laws

1.  You do not have to be politically correct as long as others you respect.

2.  It is alright to have differences in opinion as long as you listen to others you have differences with.

3.  The higher law of right and wrong is better than a law that has no foundations other than some peoples' political fancy.

4.  I would rather follow the law of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

5.  I would rather love my neighbor as myself than being too careful what I might say to him or her.

6.  True political correctness (PC) is practicing Christ.(The real PC)  

During this Christmas Season I plan on seeking the ways of the Prince of Peace to help bring his joy to the world.

Gary Exman