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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

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Christians that were in Russia anytime during the 1950s to about 1990 were familiar with the voice of Nick Leonovich. For decades before the Iron Curtain came down, Nick had been faithfully broadcasting the gospel in Russian to his people. When the doors began to open, and Nick would travel through Russia and meet those Russian believers finally, a lot of them would stop him and they'd say, "Hey, I know your voice! You led me to Christ." Wow!

Monday, December 8, 2014

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You remember when the word window just referred to that opening in a wall that kind of you then covered with glass? Well, NASA changed all that. A window is still an opening, but the folks at Cape Canaveral use that word to refer to that brief period of time where everything is right for the launch: the wind is okay, the weather's okay, they've checked it at the Cape, they've checked it down range, and the atmospherics are okay for communication. The conditions have been predicted for the time of return and they look good, too. But the window will pass soon. If you're going to get this thing off the ground, go when the window's open.

Friday, December 5, 2014

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The occasion was a citywide art contest. They had been told to paint paintings with the theme "Peace". Well, the judges were understandably attracted to this beautiful pastoral scene that a local artist had painted. It was a green pasture, puffy white clouds, a beautiful blue sky, a little boy going by with his fishing pole over his shoulder, and a quiet brook and some birds. That got second place.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

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When I was in junior high school, we usually bought one copy of the local newspaper every day. Until the day I won the County Spelling Bee! Yeah, I can do autographs later. I'm sure you're very impressed. Well, that day my parents bought about twenty copies of the local newspaper. What was the difference? Well, my name was in it this time!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

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It's about that time of year when you start getting all those Christmas letters from people. You know, all those family letters that tell you about all the things they've done: Junior's in Boy Scouts, Emily's in cheerleading. I've noticed there's one recurring word; it's almost like a theme that runs through all those letters. It's that little four-letter word "busy." Everybody tells you how busy they are all year long. "I'm busy, busy, busy and I have a busy, busy, busy family."

Monday, December 1, 2014

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Christmastime is kind of like time to get things in shape; especially around the house. Most of us become very motivated when December arrives in terms of getting things cleaned up. We dust corners and clean areas that haven't been touched for like eleven months. Trouble spots in the carpet that had gone unnoticed, suddenly we notice them and we work on them. That wall in the kitchen that needed some touch-up paint, it becomes a priority. We begin decorating things! Houses are suddenly in better shape than they've been in all year, especially since last Christmas. Christmas is shape-up time for houses…and people.

Friday, November 28, 2014

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When I got my wife a bread maker for Christmas one year, I'm not sure who that present was really for-was it for her or me? I love the smell; I love the taste of fresh bread. I mean, who doesn't? She just pours the mix into the bread machine, punches in all the proper settings, leaves it so it can begin its wonderful three-hour process of becoming fresh baked bread. Of course, we get busy and we forget it's baking sometimes. But we don't have anything to do with it anyway. It's just silently getting done.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

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Our friends were kind enough to loan my wife and me their second home where we could get away for a couple days. Now, when you're in somebody else's home, look, you want to be on your best behavior. You know, make sure you don't break anything, and leave it like you found it. Well, I was having a little bit of difficulty getting the front door un-jammed; or unlocked. My wife said, "What are you doing?" And I jokingly said, "I couldn't get it unlocked, so I'm just pushing it open." She said, "No, no. Don't do that." Now, there's a reason we had that little dialogue. Yeah, it's called history.

Monday, November 24, 2014

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Communicating across the miles these days is amazing and occasionally frustrating. Not too long ago, you would just call someone and if they weren't there you'd try later. And you'd have to do that from a land line. Well today, we've got smart phones, and laptops, and Face-Time, you can text, and leave a voice-mail, video chat.

Friday, November 21, 2014

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My son had dreamed about an old Mustang for years and he saw one advertised for a great price so, he sold some of his baseball card collection, became the proud owner of a 1968 Mustang.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

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You can feel it coming maybe five minutes before the TV program ends. They don't have enough time to get the hero out of this predicament, and you know those dreaded three words are about to appear on your screen; To Be Continued. You have a whole week to worry about how they're possibly going to rescue Dudley Do-right, or whatever his name is. If it's the end of the season you might have to wait until the whole beginning of the next season to see what happens. Of course, you can be sure, usually, that he will get out of it because, well, usually the hero always does.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

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If I'm going to fly somewhere I usually have my ticket well before the trip. And of course you get the e-tickets today but years ago there weren't e-tickets and boy I was looking for it in the mail and it hadn't come. I called them and they said, "Well, we have your reservation here. I'm sure everything will be fine." Thank you for that reassurance, but it does take a ticket to get on the plane. I was scheduled to leave on a Friday, Wednesday was a real important day. Well I checked the mail again. No ticket. I called again and they said, "It's on the way." Yeah great. I've had people say, "The check is in the mail" too. And it wasn't. So I wasn't quite sure. Well, I know you're really worried. Good news! It was there, ready for me, on Thursday afternoon. I was worried because I didn't have it in my hand. But the airline assured me I was okay all those days before, and I did get what I needed but I got it just when I needed it and no sooner.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

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You know, flying commercial airlines isn't as much fun as it used to be. I mean it's more of a hassle. A lot of people who have to fly seem to agree with that. There are overbooked flights, and long lines at security, and cancelled flights, and crowded flights, and equipment problems, and all kinds of frustrating delays. Now if you don't like something about the way the airline is performing, guess who usually gets all the grief? I've seen it happen in the airport over and over again. That poor ticket agent.

Monday, November 17, 2014

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So who cares about the weather in Afghanistan, or Germany, or the Middle East, or Asia? Well...if you've got a soldier there, you care. All of the sudden you want to know what's going on, the news about that place is very important to you. You know, when you know and love someone, you're following all the news very closely from the part of the world that is now their home. It's amazing how your interests, how your involvement changes when you have a soldier of your own.

Friday, November 14, 2014

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Hey I love Christmas decorations and I love Christmas music and I love Christmas spirit! Not so much in October. There's actually something irritating about Christmas celebration long before Thanksgiving. So, when the decorations go up, and the advertisements start about, oh I don't know...eight weeks before Christmas, well, in our family we just kind of ignore it all. I came in awhile back, and I said, "Hey, the Thanksgiving lights are up at the mall!" Well good night it's way too early for Christmas right? I'm going to die hard on this thing. Listen, Christmas is beautiful, my favorite time of year. But it's beautiful in its proper season. It just doesn't feel right when it comes too early. It's like delivering the punch line of a joke. Timing is everything.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

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Our outreach to Native Americans has only increased my wife's appreciation for Indian jewelry. She can't afford a lot, but she can look a lot. One night I was busily involved in a conversation and she was over in a corner, quietly working on some jewelry. Actually she was painstakingly trying to glue some tiny little pieces of turquoise into this bracket thing. And then I heard, "Oh-oh!" I said, "What happened?" She said, "I got some glue on my finger. I said, "Well, okay." She said, "It's Super Glue!" And instantly her thumb and her forefinger had become part of the bracelet. "Oh, no! The ads are right! That stuff bonds instantly; it bonds permanently!" Well we had our own little E.R. there and we spent probably an hour trying to unglue my wife. We tried hot water, home remedies, carefully pealing. It was painful, but well, finally we were able to give her back her thumb and finger.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

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The baby in the family! Now the baby in our family happens to be a boy. Today he is far from that baby, in fact he's a father himself. But we have this one photo that we all associate with his childhood which we love to bring up to him over and over again. It's our favorite; it's his un-favorite. He's about two years old. He's in our back yard, and he's standing next to our camping tent that has collapsed on the ground. In one hand he's holding a tent pole about twice his size. And he's holding his other hand against the side of the tent, looking totally bewildered. He's got this pitiful expression that says, "What have I done?" He was only playing with the pole and the whole thing came crashing down. And I hope he's listening today.

Monday, November 10, 2014

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Three New York City boys broke into a zoo there, and one of them climbed into the polar bear area to swim in the moat. He was attacked by those bears and he was brutally killed. I was intrigued by an interview with the Park's Commissioner of New York City who said afterwards, "You know, bears are portrayed to children as friendly animals, even as cuddly animals. We've got Winnie the Pooh, and Paddington Bear, and Smokey the Bear. But the Park's Commissioner went on to say, "Actually, they're carnivorous killers." He was right. I mean look, the image of bears is cuddly; the reality is deadly. And not just in bear country.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

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One of the good things about our yard was all the trees we had. One of the really bad things about our yard was all the trees we had; in the Fall that is. See, our town required the bagging of leaves, and we had the exciting challenge of raking and bagging over 100 bags every year! And as the kids left home, one by one, guess what...my labor force dwindled to one. Guess who?

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

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This could sure come under the heading of "You know it's going to be a bad day when..." Yeah, my wife and I were stopped at a stop light during the rush hour one morning. We were on a local street that intersects the busiest highway in the area in that town. There were two lanes. We were in the left one-the left turn lane. The light turned green, I started turning left. Well, I noticed another car next to me on my right turning from the right lane. Well that's not allowed. You're not supposed to do that; it's illegal, and it's very dangerous at this intersection. Well, suddenly, I guess this guy saw in his rearview mirror – this blinking light behind him. He had just made that illegal turn right in front of a police officer. Needless to say, he was pulled over on the shoulder before he even cleared the intersection. I mean he's not even out of the neighborhood yet and he's been caught.

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