I've missed you all!

My brothers,

It has been far too long and the blame is with me. In part, my circumstances are a factor but, I feel with a bit more effort, I could have posted sooner... None the less, it is nice to sit and share with you all now, just prior to celebrating the season of joy centered solely around the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

I always adored the story told of the nativity and that wondrous night that took place so long ago. As a child I always won the job of setting up the nativity seen. I would recall the events in my head as I set all the figures in place. Even as young as I was I knew what happened and knew the significance and yet it didn't take hold of me through the rest of my day's like I thought it should, or did it? What I mean is, I tend to look back on my life as a sometimes waste of good opportunity, poor choices, broken-relationships, and most important, distance from God. Seeds may have been taking root. I might not have applied the levity of what transpired under that bright star, or even though knowing who He was and why He came not having more than a brief warm feeling effecting me at that moment, but perhaps He was doing something.

I have been through some very low points recently, but it dawned on me that He has stayed the course with me regardless of my recklessly abandoning Him time and time again. Later as I grew up, and thankfully became re-born in Him, I asked to be changed from the inside out. That's exactly what He intended to do, He agreed that I must be changed completely. It put a whole new perspective on things for me, that I don't have to be burdened with so much sorrow because I don't have this or that, can't be here or there... Those things are all my wants and not really what He needs for me. Heart change is what He is after, "delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." psalm 37:4, BUT NOT BEFORE HE CHANGES IT! My very good friends who have known me all my life will tell you I wound up in a whole heep of trouble by wearing my heart on my sleeve. Maybe they were right but, I like to think that's alright, I just feel I was wearing the wrong shirt!

I know this, regardless of any pain or suffering I experience now, I know He has me right where He wants me. And I know this because I asked Him to!

"Oh Holy night, the stars are brightly shining!"

Let me be the first to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!

God bless these men and their works done through them by you...

In Him,

Michael..........