A CHRISTMAS STORY

A Few Apples - Made for a Merry Christmas

 

I called this a Christmas story because it happened at Christmas and it is a True story.

 

Not that it makes any difference but this is a true story and it is pretty much as I remember it. The best I can recollect it was in 1937 or 38'.

Times weren't good for a young man with marrying on his mind but love over rules most obstacles.  Even in hard times, people were marrying and giving in marrying.

 

This story is primarily about a couple named Jay and Cyn. Jay wasn't like his brothers who were semi-rounder's. They were always on the prowl much like Tom cats. One might say they were a wee bit coarse and vulgar. Also the people the brothers hung around were about the same.

I recall one instance when I was about seven, I met up with several of those men I knew; and one of them was selling what looked like balloons for ten cents each.

Since I didn't have a dime I didn't buy one and besides I thought it was too much for a balloon so I left.

That being said, Jay was just the opposite from his brothers. The time came when Jay found a girl he liked, and she was as shy as he was. Her parents were very strict, and she was very obedient. Her parents didn't have much but were as frugal as one could be. Since she was used to having very little the fact Jay didn't have anything didn't bother her.

Jay got along with Cyn's folks and after a while they were wed. It had taken Jay awhile to save up the two dollars for the wedding. It was a dollar for the license and a dollar for the minister. He might have done it for less but the minister had to eat also. Cyn's folks lived in town and Jay moved in with her folks.

Jay managed to earn a little money to help the family, and then he had the opportunity to become a share cropper. He had been raised on a farm so it was a good fit for him. The problem was the farm he was going to work on was ready to be harvested, and he couldn't get a share of the crop so he had to work for low day wages.

The owner had to run off the previous fellow who had been working there because he wasn't doing his job and left everything in a mess leaving the farmer without funds.  

This first year was going to be touch and go. The good part was there were some range chickens who fed themselves, a cow, and a couple of apple trees. There wasn't much food left except a little flour in the bin and some lard in a lard stand.   

Cyn's folks gave them some of the can goods they had put up during the summer and the farmer threw in a couple sides of fat belly. There was a tater patch that hadn't been cared for, but they managed to find quite a few taters which they put away in the cellar for use later.  

With a cook stove, a fireplace, a couple of coal oil lamps and a bed they were pretty well ready for the long winter. Jay had cut enough wood for the fireplace and cook stove and stacked it on the porch where the snow wouldn’t cover it up. The cow was just about dry but she was going to calf in a month or two so they would share the milk with the calf.  

It was the day before Christmas and they didn't have anything special for Christmas dinner. The sun had come out and Jay was looking through the chest of drawers the former tenant had left, and he found seven 22 cartridges. He decided to go hunting and see if he could get some food.  

With the seven bullets he shot seven rabbits and took them to the general store and asked how much he could get for them. The store owner was actually his uncle but they weren't very close. He said he would give him 25 cents cash credit for each of them so he had a dollar and seventy five cents to spend.

 

Jay bought some apples, oranges and nuts and everything to have a great Christmas.

Since they never had any children it may have been the best Christmas they ever had.

The facts are there and they will never change even though that was seventy five years ago.  RIP Uncle Wiley and Aunt Cynthia.

This post is shared at “Tell Me a True Story.”

 

BLESSED HOPE

Our Blessed Hope In Christ

 I recall some time ago a man was ridiculing the Christian church and he ended up by saying;  Christians are sitting around “waiting for the blessed hope.” 

I must confess I felt offended by his ranting out of his dead spirit. 

 

He surely fit the description of the man who is a fool for he concluded there is no GOD.  

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1John 3:2

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. -John 14:1-3

 

Why is the true church excited about the Blessed Hope?  It is simply because we all face the time when we will die.  Death will come upon us and we will cease to be on the earth as a living being.  If that was all there was to life then we would have the right to be most unhappy.   

Man was not created to be a temporal being but to be everlasting and would have been so if death through sin had not fasten itself upon man’s spirit, soul and body.  

While attending a funeral the pastor there spoke of death being a friend.  I was somewhat taken back by that until she said the deceased was in physical torment with no hope of recovery, and death was the release he needed to relieve his suffering. 

 

I understood this a little better when my uncle was dying with cancer, and had to have a shot of morphine every 2-3 hours.  He wanted desperately to pass on. 

The time will come when we shall be beyond the power of death pain and suffering and that which is temporal.

1Corinthians. 15:19, 26 "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  But now is Christ risen from the dead ...even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

We dwell not on dying but on living and for whatever reason the thought of death passes through our mind we remind ourselves of THE BLESSED HOPE for our reality is rooted within it.

 

Please click on the link below to listen to this beautiful song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhdNUQrZ9uw

This post is shared at “Tell Me a True Story.”

 

 

 

AS THE TOP SPINS

 

As a boy I had a toy top that would spin when activated with a built in auger. All I had to do was push it up and down and it would go faster and begin to make a humming noise.

 

After a while it would slow down and require me to once again to propel it to a fast speed. The problem was it always needed more stimulus - - much like the way the federal government works today.  

Someone has made the statement that; “Today we elect people to serve us and as soon as they are elected they only serve their party.”   

Our two (spend and tax) senators in California are a prime example of that statement. 

President Obama has been victorious in getting over two trillion dollars to further his program of the redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have not’s.  Upon Obama’s reelection the number one item on his agenda will be the raising the debt limit and taxes.  (We should remember that a tax by any other name is still a tax).  

So far he has been far more successful in raising money for his reelection than running the country.

Just when I have built my case against redistribution of wealth, I read that Marie Kolstad, Orange County, 83 year old Great-Grandmother, Gets Breast Implants.    Go figure!

 

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Hazel’s  Tell Me a True Story

 

Is Heaven Your Goal?

God is always listening to your Cry!  Are you Listening to Him?

 

 

How to Make Sure Heaven will be your Eternal Home

1. God loves you and has a plan for you!

The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, [Jesus Christ], that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” — a complete life full of purpose (John 10:10).    But here’s the problem: 

2. Man is sinful and separated from God.

We have all done, thought or said bad things, which the Bible calls “sin.” The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

The result of sin is death, spiritual separation from God (Romans 6:23).  But there is good news.

3. God sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins!

Jesus died in our place so we could live with Him in eternity.

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

But it didn’t end with His death on the cross. He rose again and still lives!

“Christ died for our sins. … He was buried. … He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Jesus is the only way to God.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).

4. Would you like to receive God’s forgiveness?

We can’t earn salvation; we are saved by God’s grace when we have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. All you have to do is believe you are a sinner, that Christ died for your sins, and ask His forgiveness. Then turn from all sin—that’s called repentance. Jesus Christ knows you and loves you. What matters to Him is the attitude of your heart, your honesty. We suggest praying the following prayer to accept Christ as your Savior:

Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God. I believe You died for my sins. I believe You rose from the dead. And now, I ask You to come into my heart. I repent of my sins. I turn my back on the past. I renounce the devil and all of his works. Please forgive me and give me a fresh, new start. I ask You to be my personal Lord and Savior, and I thank You for coming into my life and saving my soul. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Did you pray this prayer?

Jesus - I Believe !!

 

The Camel's Nose In The Tent

I said "Only your Nose!"

 

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said”, let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

America finds itself at the point of the camel’s head and neck within the tent of Christianity. Some would say the camel is even farther in than that.

One doesn’t have to be a prophet to get the message from on high that the vortex of evil is sucking the true spirituality of this nation down to oblivion.

Many of those in the pulpit who should be exposing this unrighteousness have compromised with it and are accepting it under the guise of being acceptable according to their code of spiritual ethics.

The fist of unrighteousness is being shook at the nose of GOD without fear of retribution. The courts of the land are in league with that which is unrighteous. Not only is the nation becoming a nation of dope heads and sexual deviates, but now it is being lauded as being legal.

The nation has gotten in bed with Satan and is producing offspring of like nature. It permeates the government, the courts, the public schools, and the job place.

When GOD is rejected then the evil one is free to do as he will and those wise enough to discern it can already see clearly what the future holds for this nation who loves the evil ones way rather than the Lord God Almighty.