Monthly Archives: December 2017

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The First Christmas Without My Father

Yep, I Am My Father's Son

This is my first Christmas without my Father.  He passed away back in May.  In memory of him we had a breakfast of big biscuits, BACON!!, deer sausage,… and fried squirrel (his favorite).

Over all these years, I learned a lot from my Dad.  Here’s one of the many stories.  I was about 12 years old.  It was Christmas Day, but we were out early giving hay to the cows.  Back then, it didn’t matter what was happening, there were farm chores that had to be done.  Feeding the cows their daily ration of hay was one of them.   So we left the house a little early to get this done that day.  I’m twelve, but I’m feeling just as big a man as anybody.  See, Daddy would drive the truck into the field.  I would jump on back of the truck and throw the bales of hay off for the cows.  (AND I GOT TO USE A KNIFE!!).  For a young fellow, the excitement of using a knife to cut the baling twine from the hay bales was…….. (well, you just have to be a twelve year old to know how that feels)

We are trying to finish early with the feeding. One more small herd of cattle on the way back home to feed.  Then it’s back to the house and play with Christmas presents and eat,eat, and eat.  But first we had to stop by a house.  The house was one of the part time workers that would help occasionally with our farm.  As I remember, Daddy went in and gave the guy some money owed him.  I stayed in the truck warming up with the heater on, as it was really cold that day.

My Father comes out shaking his head, gets in the truck, and says to me, “He doesn’t have anything for Christmas.  He’s not celebrating or nothing!”

I guess that’s all that Daddy needed to see.  We go straight back to the house.  He tells me to wait in the truck.  It didn’t take him long to come back out with a grocery bag.  It was filled with oranges, some sticks of peppermint candy, and a few odds and ends from the food pantry.  Nothing special, no toys, no big surprises.  He told me as we were driving back to the man’s house that oranges and fruit was what my Daddy himself would get for Christmas.  Oh, occasionally they would get a toy or new clothes, but they could count on the oranges and fruit each Christmas.

We made it back to the man’s house.  Daddy got out, carried the grocery bag in, didn’t stay but a minute, and was back in the truck driving towards our home.  and he said, “Now he’s got Christmas.  He may not like oranges like I do, but at least He’s got Christmas!”

So what do you and I do when a loved one is no longer with us for the Holidays?  Well, we keep their traditions going, Don’t ya think?

This Christmas Day, some of my family and I will go somewhere to someone who is not having a Christmas.  It may be a needy family, or someone at the gas station, or maybe the waitress or one of the food servers that have to work on Christmas.  (Wherever my Heavenly Father gives me an opportunity) I will go and give them a present.  When I get back in my car, I will then say, “He/She may not like the present as much as I do, but at least He/She’s got Christmas!”

Yep, I am my Father’s Son!!!!!

But the angel said unto them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”  Luke 2:10 

I spend a lot of time with my Heavenly Father as well.  He’s teaching me a lot!  One of the many things, I’ve learned from Him is this.  This world can sure use a lot more love.  My Heavenly Father has filled me with His Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness till I’m overflowing with it.  So,………. I choose to go out and give some of that love away.  To a stranger, someone I’ve just met, an old friend……………  and to you reading this.  There is a great news of great joy I want to share with all people.  It’s the news of living a Christian Life.  I want to share it with you!!  Truly Merry CHRISTmas!!!!

There, you may not like it as much as I do, but you now have a little Christmas for yourself,…….. and maybe enough for you to now share with others.

Yep, I am my Heavenly Father’s child!!

(UPDATE)  At Daddy’s funeral a man came up to me and said he was a grandson of someone who use to work for my Dad.  Pretty sure because of what he told me his Grandfather was the one that got the oranges.

Merry Christmas!!!  Look for opportunities to “give a gift” to someone.

I thank ALL of you for reading this blog.  For sharing this with others, and for being with me on this journey, THANKS!  I’m looking forward to this new year!  Tell your friends to “saddle up” and join us!   We are all riding “different horses” but we are headed to the same destination!

SEE YA!!!! Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, spreading Christmas Cheer just like Both of my Fathers!!!

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Don’t Let Your Heart Grow Cold and Bitter

How God Keeps Your Heart "Warm"

Merry Christmas!  And then you hear “Bah, Humbug!”  Well, that’ll just ruin your day.

My, my, you’ve got the Christmas Spirit.  You’re wanting to spread joy and good tidings, (and hot chocolate).  Then after a day of seeing scrooges, hearing all the bad, (spilling the hot chocolate and COFFEE!!) you’re ready to give up.

Your heart that was warm and toasty is now beginning to get cold, it’s turning bitter, it’s growing numb……… your heart is turning hard.   That’s what happens when exposed to the cold ,cold world.  You better find a way to “warm things back up”.

This is how I “warm things up” in the log house we’re building.  See all those pipes, tubings, pumps, electrical dodads.  Well, that’s infloor heating for ya!  The pipes are going through the concrete floors warming the floors up.  This radiates to me and you in the room.  It’s comfortable.  It’s warm.  It’s a pleasure especially when it was -9 degrees outside.  When Mike the plummer was explaining to me how it worked………… well, he must have seen my eyes glaze over.  He’s explaning how the boiler heats the water and the computer gizmo activates the valveamabob.  Then the whatchamacallit releases the thingamado………….shoot,….. my head is still hurtin’ from all the info.

So finally Mike says, “Just trust me, all you need to do is work the thermostat.  If you’re cold turn it up!”   Hey, I can understand that!!!  If I get cold, just turn it up.  Easy enough.

So, when you and I start feeling cold spiritually, do we “turn up the thermostat”?  Sounds easy enough.  But for some strange reason, (probably that we are human), we tend to stay in our own little world and grow cold.  Then grow colder.  Then grow bitter, then stone cold, then HARD!!

 

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused;   they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,  understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13:13-15

What Jesus is saying here is “I will heal you”.  He will make our lives better.  We hear but don’t understand. (Mike the plummer just as well to have been Jesus because I was hearing, but I sure ’nuff wasn’t understanding!!!)

Ok, how do we HEAR from God??   By Believing and trusting!  There are those two little words again.  Seems like they are always somewhere close by when it comes to taking a Christian journey in this world.  I can’t see or understand with my own eyes.  But, if I use my Heavenly Father’s eyes it gives me a whole new vision.  It restores my soul.  It warms my heart.  It gives me back my Christmas Spirit.  The true C H R I S T mas Spirit.

“Lord, I know sometimes these true stories I share with readers are really simple.  But you speak to me with these everyday happenings.  I’m asking that You speak to the one reading this prayer.  Give them the gift of seeing with Your eyes.  Give them a moment when they feel your presence in an everyday activity of their own.  Keep their heart from growing cold.  Let an opportunity happen today when they feel your “warmth” in their heart.  Amen”

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher

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What God Gives Me For Christmas

For Unto You (that's me and YOU!)

For Christmas, God gave me a gift!  A one time, yes you can have it gift!  I accepted my gift from God, and this has led to daily gifts.

Not just a present to open one day a year, but gifts given daily.  Gifts from a God to a little ole me.  Now that’s what I call a Christmas experience!!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord  Luke 2:11

First things first.  One step at a time.  The first Gift from God that I accepted was His Son Jesus.  You see, along with choosing this gift, I chose to make Jesus my Saviour, my King.  I willingly decided that I will follow His teachings, read the Bible and follow His directions.  I accepted God’s Gift of Love into my life when I was about 10 years old.  I eventually accepted His desire to lead and guide me when  I was in my teens.  I FINALLY accepted His gift of wanting a TRUE LOVING RELATIONSHIP with me when I reached my 50’s.   (I’m a slow learner with a stubborn streak. aka a human being)

After receiving and accepting God’s Gift of Love, (Jesus), into my heart, I was given another gift.  I didn’t ask for it.  I really didn’t know about it, much less how it worked, or how to use it.  Didn’t matter.  There the gift was right there in front of me…..  With my name on it……. I opened it……. It said “Forgiveness”!   I realized I had been forgiven for what I had done wrong….. and I learned to forgive others.

There were other gifts that began to appear…….. peace, comfort, joy.  I realized that this Christian way of life was truly filled not with just words, but with a daily walk with an omnipotent, all powerful God.  And……each day there was another gift.

UHOH!  Confession time!!  I have a confession to make.  There were many days that the gifts given to me from God weren’t opened.  Some small gifts, some large……. and for whatever reason, I chose not to open them.  Seems strange that I would choose NOT to open a gift.  Honestly it appears that I was either selfish, doubting, stubborn, “in a bad frame of mind”, lazy, or just plain human stupid.  Somehow, some way, I decided not to open that day’s gifts.

But the gifts would keep coming.  No matter how bad, disrespectful, selfish, or I’ll say it like this……….no matter how bad a sinner I was being, there would still be another gift waiting for me to open.

So,……. if I can make my decision making, my thought process, my everyday walk in life line up with what Jesus wants and has in store for me, then these presents and gifts are mine on a daily basis.  Wheww, that’s a mouthful.  What I’m saying is this.  Follow Jesus.  His gifts to you are there every day.  You are the one making the decision to OPEN them.

Every day, there is a new gift from God.  Not because of you, but because of Him.  Each day another gift of abundant life, a closer walk with Him, a prayer (that goes both ways).  Each day a new beginning.  Each day is a gift from above.

What about you?  Are there too many gifts from God that you haven’t opened?Are there too many gifts from God just waiting for you to accept?  Yet, you won’t open them.  Why is that??

Look in the mirror in your home and you’ll honestly see why you don’t open God’s gifts to you.  Hey, go right now.  When you look in the mirror you’ll see the problem.  Nothing to be ashamed of.  You are just plain human stupid. (I should know.  I’ve got a mirror too…….in my house, in my car, mirrors everywhere).  We see our own human stupid weaknesses.  Other people are sometimes quick to point them out as well.  We aren’t good enough, we don’t understand, we don’t deserve, we can’t, we can’t, we can’t.  See, plain human stupid thinking going on right there.

Do you want to get rid of the “stinkin’ thinkin’ ” that keeps us from opening God’s gifts to us each and everyday?

First things first.  One step at a time.

For unto     _____your name_____    is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.  There, that’s the first gift opened.  Now be watching for all the other daily gifts given to you.  And tear into ’em.  Now that’s Christmas!!!  Wishing you a DAILY Merry Christmas!

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth  wilderness preacher