Is there any passage in the Bible that gives us comfort like the 23rd Psalm.  "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters."

Did you know that if the water is moving, the sheep will absorb the rushing water in their wool, lose their footing and drown? And that sheep won't lie down if they are frightened or hungry.

So the shepherd takes care of the physical needs of his sheep.  Of course the Psalmist means us.  Christ is the shepherd, we are the sheep.  We do not want.

"He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."  I have needed quite a bit of restoring of my soul this month.  Christ sustains me as grief overwhelms me.   And he does it so that his name will be glorified.

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

I have felt like I was walking in a shadow this last month.  Death casts a shadow, but with a tap of His rod and with the crook of his staff, Christ comforts me an pulls me out of the shadows.

"You prepare a table before  me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;, my cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Goodness, and mercy.  What a comfort.  And they will follow me for the rest of the days of my life.

Psalms 19: 12,14  "Who can understand his errors?  Would you cleanse me from secret faults."  "Let the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

It's a good thing that God doesn't let us see ourselves like He sees us--right off the bat.  I don't think I could have taken it at the beginning of my Christian journey.  But little by little, God revealed areas that I needed to work on. When I was ready for the next step, he provided the strength to deal with my errors.

Looking back, I am reminded of the scripture that says, "To him who knows to good and doesn't do it, to him it is sin."  God will get around to what you don't know you need to improve soon enough.  When you are ready.  That's why we need to be so careful about making judgments of other people.  That's God's job.  He has given us only one commandment.  Love each other.  Warts and all.

I have a much easier time with the meditation of my heart than with the words of my mouth.  I am really trying to make an effort to stop and think before I speak.  But it is so hard.  I just always say what I think before I think about what I'm saying.  Other people don't seem to struggle with this like I do.  Or they have more discipline.

My daughter Pat said: Use the word "THINK" before you speak.  Is it True,  is it Helpful, is it Important, is it Necessary, and is it Kind.  And even if it is true, you don't always need to say it.

That's a good set of five things to ask yourself.  And if your errors seem impossible to correct, remember that what we do we do in the power of God.  If we could correct our sins ourselves we wouldn't need a redeemer.

Finally!!!!   16 days without a computer.  I didn't realize that I was so hooked to blogging to all of you.  To say I am disgusted with my phone company is an understatement.

So, I have read all 150 Psalms twice without sharing much of anything.  I have underlined many of the verses but certainly can't talk about them all.

Psalms 8: 3-5  "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?  For you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor."

Sometimes I get full of myself and elevate myself to the center of importance in my world.  And then, like this morning, I look up when I go to get the newspaper, and there are the stars.  Millions of them.

They are such a contrast to the weather we have been having.  Fog, ice, freezing rain, snow.  You forget the sky.  Everything is gray and gloomy.  And then the temperature rises, the sky clears and the sun comes out.  The night is crystal clear.  The stars twinkle.

And then, like David in the Psalms I ask, "What am I that you are mindful of me?"  When I consider God's handiwork, I am just an insignificant creature on the earth.  One of millions.

Crowned with glory and honor in the eyes of God.  What a privilege to be his child.  The work of his fingers.

Merry Christmas.  The Messiah has come.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God."  John 1:1

For those who do not understand this beginning, there is no way to understand the birth of Christ and what it means to Christians.

He is our hope.  He conquered death.  He gave us eternal life.  There is no end to this beginning.  We will spend eternity with him and with those we love.

The world would prefer to keep Jesus in a manger.  He is so sweet all wrapped in swaddling clothes.  But the point of Christmas is that God wrapped himself in flesh so that he could come and live among us and be a man as well as God.  So that he could die for us.  So that He could die for our sins.

I love Christmas.  I love the story of the trip to Bethlehem.  I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been to have made that long trip on a donkey when you were eight and a half months pregnant.  And get to Bethlehem and not have a place to stay.  And to have your first baby without any of the women in your family to comfort you.  To tell you what to expect and to help you get through it.

I had my first child like that.  In a strange place in California far away from Oklahoma.  No friends. No family.  And Ken was night flying.  I was alone and didn't have any idea what to expect.  Women end up having to have a  baby alone anyway.  No body else can do it for you.  I had five.

God started His life on earth in the most common of circumstances.   I wonder why.  The creator of the universe could have given Himself every advantage.  But He didn't.  He started His life on earth in such a way that nobody could ever say that He had it easy.

And it went downhill after that.  His entire family had to flee to Egypt to keep Herod from killing him.  Thousands of boy babies were killed just to get at that one baby, who escaped.

God always has a plan.  We sometimes don't know what it is, but God does.  And his plan for Jesus was to put Him on a cross.  For me.  For you.

I have been in a broadband crisis for over two weeks.  It doesn't look like it will be fixed before the 26th.  AT@T made a mistake they don't seem to be able to correct.  I certainly don't need this right now, but it has been something to distract me.  Maybe that is good.

However, I have found out that I love writing this blog and that I miss it terribly.  I will be back soon.  Today I'm at my daughter's house so I can use her connection.

In the meantime, I have read all 150 of the Psalms twice.  And that has been so interesting.  He says the most interesting things to God.  Like, "Are you listening to me?  Why don't you answer me?  You promised that you would hear me and rescue me."  This type of conversation goes on and on in almost every Psalm.

And that is what the prayers of David sound like.  A conversation with God.  David does not use the usual phrases that we associate with prayer.

I think I will talk to God differently after reading the Psalms.  No question David asked seems trivial, just a plea from the heart.  An attempt to communicate with his creator.

He uses the phrase, "You promised," often.  I never though of reminding God of the things he has promised us in His word.  Maybe using such phraseology shows our faith--that we really believe what the Bible says.

"I will never leave you or forsake you," sounds pretty good to me right now.

Hi everyone.  This is Janie's eldest daughter.

Mom asked me to let you know that her broadband is out and won't be back up until Monday.  She'll be back and will post then.

She's doing well - hanging in there, cheerful of heart and busy at the task of discovering her "new normal."  Thank you for all your prayers and kind thoughts for our family during this time, and thanks for supporting mom's blog efforts.

God bless you and yours this Christmas season.

Pat