IRISH ED MAHAN HAS BEEN OUR NATIONAL CHAPLAIN SINCE 1999.  HE'S BEEN HITCH'N AND PLANT'N FOR OUR CLUB EVERY SINCE.  HE'S OUR BIKER BROTHER AND DON'T CONDEMN ANYONE FOR THEIR WILD HAIR'D WAYS.  BUT HE DOES HAVE A LOT OF GOOD PEARLS OF SPIRITUAL WISDOM TO SHARE FOR OUR CONSIDERATION.  WE HAVE ASKED HIM TO LAY A FEW OF THEM ON US EACH MONTH IN THE "CHAPLAIN'S CORNER." PLEASE GIVE IT A READ AND SOME THOUGHT.

DECEMBER

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“You Are My Family”

This past Wednesday evening the moderator asked: “any new business?” “Yeah, are we having a Christmas here at the clubhouse” a member asked. “I think everyone will be too busy with their families” the moderator answered. “You are my family, the only one I have to be with” the BoozeFighter replied.

 

Christmas is a time when we all need to be with those we love. I’m told that there is more depression and suicide this time of year than any other. I suspect this is because many people have no one with whom to share life and love at Christmas.

Giving “things” at Christmas is an empty substitute for the gift we all need. Spending time with those we love is the best sign that we love them.

That brings me to the real meaning of Christmas. Seven hundred years before the first Christmas morning the prophet Isaiah wrote:

  “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child

    and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

What does that sign mean? It means that God loves us and desires to spend time with us.

Seven hundred years later with the first Christmas quickly approaching an angel explained this to a freaked out Joseph:

  “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him

   Immanuel- which means God with us” (Matt.1:23).

Bingo! Ring the bell, light the candle, string the lights, decorate the tree, buy the gifts, ride the toy run or however you celebrate the season. But, realize the reason for the season is that God gave Jesus so we could become His family.

I know parents who buy a Christmas gift each year for a child who won’t receive it. Maybe they are missing, lost, angry or too proud to come home to receive their gift. The light is left on, the door unlocked, the gift unwrapped. Could it be that in God’s eyes that child is reading this message? He gave Himself to us through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Don’t allow this Christmas to pass without receiving God’s gift. John said it this way:

  “He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received

   him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of

   God---“(John1:11-12).

Now that is a gift that keeps on giving each day and for eternity!

MERRY CHRISTMAS PEACE ON EARTH ONE HEART AT A TIME

 

Keep it Real

Pastor Irish Ed

In The Wind Ministries

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