“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” (Scrooge) I learned a new word…patronym. It’s a name personally suited to someone. Sara Blizzard is a weather forecaster. Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet. And everybody knows that Ebenezer Scrooge was a scrooge. But, Charles Dickens gave him some help, and Scrooge was able to change. Christmas has a way of changing people for the better. ;-) Jack
FROM LG IN COMMERCE: The modern flush toilet was actually invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington.====JACK: Do you know who invented the outdoor privy?====LG: I know they were in use in ancient Rome.
FROM HONEST JOHN: Had a children's story that was published done tine ago...Murphy the Christmas Dog...that was based on that theme. It sold out. I probably should have looked to have a second edition put out but I got to be too busy. Too late now.====JACK: After retirement I recall being at a worship service where you told the Murphy story to the children. It seemed as though you enjoyed the story as much as they did. A 2nd edition is not out of the question. Why not plan a release for the next Christmas season?
FROM TARMART REV: Interesting season this year particularly . . . I have become a bearer of glad tidings with $6200.00 worth of $50's and $100's to pass out to others randomly with hopefully God's leading and also a bearer of comforting presence this past week with three families.
I was called to a home at 3:00am last Monday to a known family whose sixteen year hung herself after having a tiff with her father earlier in the evening. She has been fighting depression for a number of years. I was asked to share Scriptures and prayers at her funeral mass.
Later in the day I was called to a local motel, asking if I would knock on my alcoholic friend's door as he was not responding to theirs. We found him deceased there on the bed. Over the past 10 years he would come into town, stay sober for several months and then for various reasons fall back into his addiction, often leaving once again only to return maybe a year or so again. This time he hung around and being winter would spend $800 of his $1000 disability check on a room at a local motel. The rest was spend on booze while he often panhandled others for food. He always carried with him a piece of paper stating if anything happened to him, call Pastor Paul 320-212-0000. I received a call one time from Phoenix, AZ where he had passed out drunk and was experiencing some kind of seizure. His body was cremated by the county and we conducted a small service with his scattered family from previous marriages and relationships. Really, a sad day for me.
A dear friend who has asked me the past three years to conduct a "Cowboy Church" service at his fall roundup of horses and wagons touring around and camping out in the northern part of our county. I will be meeting and leading a time of sharing experiences with his family and friends. 0:-/
====JACK: You are truly a modern Saint Paul, being used by God to do his work.
FROM RS IN TEXAS: How about someone named Pat for a football kicker (Point After Touchdown)?====JACK: ...and who can forget Bart Starr, star QB for the Lombardi Packers?
FROM LBP IN PLYMOUTH: got a few of those in my family. Patronyms... not scrooges. : )====JACK: Are you talking about Mr. Bugg, who taught entomology, the study of insects? ====LBP: Well, general biology but bugs were among them. Then there is me, Dr. Poisson, the statistician.
FROM PR JM: I once went to an optometrist who was named Dr. Ivan Doctor. Dr. I Doctor! What a patronym, or maybe an interesting way to discover his calling.====JACK: When I was a student pastor in Canada, I took a picture of a sign...Stiff's Funeral Home.
FROM BLAZING OAKS: Just viewed A CHRISTMAS CAROL again in Bible study; We're doing a series on "The Redemption of Scrooge"...good for the Christmas Spirit! :-) Dickens knew human nature, didn't he? Christmas is certainly a time of caring and sharing for most of us. It amazes me how generous people are, when there is a need, even those with little to share, reach deep! Heartwarming!====JACK: "Bah, Humbug" existed before Scrooge. It meant a hoax, or a sham. BTW, a friend of mine is the overseer of the Humbug Marsh, a stopover in the Detroit River for migrating birds.
FROM RAL IN ILLINOIS: I think I'll change my name to Lill-strum, take my guitar, and hit the road singing and strumming songs of peace.====JACK: I like it when we sing this song in church.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul;
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed his own blood for my soul.
My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
"Even so"—it is well with my soul.
====RAL: Oh, I love that. My heart is so heavy. I'm trying to make sense of this election of a bully. I think of how Jesus was treated, and I don't understand all this hate and greed. Your words help.
This is a beautiful song♡ thank you. God bless you :)
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