"We Will NEVER Forget" .....DECEMBER 7TH,1941 ......WILL GO DOWN AS A DAY OF
INFAMY.... ~ WELCOME to this day that we remember all those of died 64 years ago
today....They died as heroes and not in vain...Our Country came together and put
together a war machine that that is the envy of the World....Good did Win over
evil..Just like our war on these evil terriost will...We shall prevail and we
shall never forget all who have died to keep us free..... ~ My Mom and I went to
Wakefield,Virginia today to attend Church at The Wakefield United Methodist
Church....The Church that "America's Pastor" and Assoc editor G.C. Branton III
now presides over.....He had a powerful message for all assembled and truly
inspires everyone that has ever heard him....He and his lovely wife Linda also
had their Christmas Open house afterwards....It was wonderful to fellowship with
them and members of his Church.....The food was great...The house looked so very
festive and it was a great time..Thanks G.C. and
Linda!!.....I am forwarding a Christmas "Field" that G.C did last year in honor
of today...He will do our Christmas Day "Field" this year.... ~ AND I got back
in time to see the REDSKINS win...Yes Win...And finally we honor the Men and
Woman past and present of The United States Military...God Bless You and Your
Families!!!!.....That's the Sunday "Field" .....Let's Roll!!

johngrahamesq <johngrahamesq@...> wrote: --- In
johngrahamone@yahoogroups.com, yankees7mpt@a... wrote:
TODAY'S FIELD COMES COURTESY OF PASTOR BRANTON...

During Sunday's Children's Christmas Pageant we noticed a bright beam
of
light was focused on the manger. As we traced the light to its
source we
found that it also bisected the altar cross causing a shadow of the
cross to
appear on the manger. The source of light was from the sun shining
through
the stain glass window behind the pulpit. It was an awesome
experience to
see the manger overshadowed by the cross.

It opened a memory of another Children's Christmas Pageant from a
previous
church I served. The church invited all of the community's children
to come
and participate in their Christmas pageant. There was a great
response and
we found that many of the children had not heard the entire Christmas
story
and were not able to repeat the story at any level accurately. It
was a
little stressful but fun to work with children who were interested in
learning the Christmas story.

During one of the Christmas Pageant rehearsals I noticed that one of
the
children, while holding a doll taken from the nursery, would
occasionally
peer into the manger and appeared to be talking to the doll we used
to
portray the baby Jesus. Despite the high noise level and movement of
children around him he remained focused on the child in the manger.
Suddenly
he startled everyone by positioning his doll beside the Jesus doll.
It was
more than one child could take. She reached in the manger and
grabbed the
intruder doll casting it to the floor. Both children were distraught
and
began shouting insults at each other which soon turned into a shoving
match.

Pageant rehearsal being almost over I chose to speak with each child
at the
manger. I spoke first to the child who had cast the doll to the
floor. She
was frustrated because the story's integrity had been compromised,
saying
that, "Mary placed Jesus in the manger. It wasn't right to have two
babies
in the manger." Who can argue with orthodoxy - that's what the story
says!

It was the other child's turn. For having heard so little of the
Christmas
story he did well remembering it was Mary's duty to place Jesus in
the
manger. Then he said something that profoundly changed my view of
the manger
forever. He said, "The manger looked so big and Jesus looked so
lonely that
I asked the baby Jesus if it would be OK if we put another baby in
the manger
to be his friend." Jesus told him it was OK and asked if he would
like to
get in the manger with him.

My young friend had entered the story through the manger and
connected to the
one who would never abandon him in his loneliness or treat him
badly. He had
found the one who would accept him as he was and would stay with him
always.
It was then I realized that God's encompassing love for us is so
great it
takes in the entire world and there will always be room for another
baby in
the manger. We know this because the words in John's gospel say, "For
God so
loved the world He gave His only begotten Son ...." The cross does
cast a
shadow on the manger and we are saved because of it.

This Christmas Eve may we discover like my young friend discovered
that God
in Jesus Christ will never abandon, reject or hurt us but chooses to
cuddle
us in His powerful love forever. And it is a love that says there is
always
room for another baby in the manger with Jesus.

Godbless you and yours now and forever,

From John Graham's, "Field of Dreams" with Marc Techman, In His
Service,
Pastor, G.C. Branton,III
--- End forwarded message ---





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