May you and your family and loved ones have a wonderful celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas season. As we remember and celebrate His birth, may we also open up to and receive His living Presence. The babe in a manger is now the living God in our midst.

Why not express sincere love, adoration, and obedience to Him? After all, wise men still seek Him!

Merry Christmas everyone and all God’s best to you all!

Life is pro-choice. We humans have a free will and most everything we do is a choice. We can choose positive, productive and uplifting behaviors or we can choose damaging, destructive and depressing behaviors. Now that is very pro-choice.

However, all of our choices are not created equal. Negative behavioral choices cause misery in our life and in society, while positive behavior choices enhance the quality of our life.

Wise men and women from various cultures, philosophies, and religions through out human history, have written many books about behavioral choices. Their writings define and point out the differences between positive and negative behavioral choices. Although these writings come from various cultures and time periods, there is much agreement on their views of right and wrong choices.

Some human behavioral choices are so harmful that societies have historically established laws against those choices. Law enforcement attempts to prevent people from making those choices and tries to punish those who do.

Our culture is aggressively attempting to persuade people that many behavioral choices that have been historically considered as immature, unwise, or immoral, are now trendy, cool, and hunky dorie. Perhaps we should ask ourselves this question: How can all those wise men and women from all those cultures and time periods be so wrong?

Where will time carry your life as it flies by? To frustration, disappointment, or depression? Or to satisfaction, encouragement, and hope? Or to somewhere in between?

Your future is no mystery. Time flies, but you are the navigator. The way you use your time day by day shapes your future. Today’s attitude, thoughts, and behaviors will direct you to your future destinations as you journey through the time of your life.

Why not map quest your life today and see if you like where you are headed? If you don’t like your destinations, you can choose to navigate your life in other directions.

Time will fly by no matter what you do. You can choose to let your life fly randomly through time or you can choose to purposefully navigate your life to something wonderful. Why not direct your time here on Earth to the best life has to offer?

Most people have probably never heard of what I consider to be the most important letter ever written in the history of the world. This letter was written around 50-60 AD and sent from Jerusalem to Antioch in Syria.

Why is it the world’s most important letter? Let me explain. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the Pentecost experience of the Holy Spirit, His followers were changed from cowards into bold, passionate soldiers for His cause. Thousands joined their number and were willing to die rather than deny their relationship with the living Jesus Christ.

Almost all of the early followers of Jesus were Jews and those who weren’t had to accept Jewish dietary and religious laws along with their commitment to Jesus. Paul of Tarsus, however, began preaching to and converting thousands of non-Jews (Gentiles) and not requiring them to live by Jewish laws.

This offended many of the Jewish followers of Jesus, so Paul traveled to Jerusalem to meet with some of Jesus’ original disciples there. They listened to Paul’s case and decided that non-Jews could be Christians without obeying Jewish laws.

To communicate their decision, they sent a letter to the non-Jewish followers of Jesus that said: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements. You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”

Why is this the world’s most important letter? This letter freed Christianity from Jewish ritual and regulations and opened it up to all who are willing to follow and obey Jesus Christ.

(You can read more about this letter in the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 15) Do you have a nomination for The World’s Most Important Letter?

Is foul language really “mature language”? Is profanity responsible, grown up, intelligent and other mature qualities? Of course not. It is just the opposite.

When do most people learn to sprinkle their conversation with words that refer to feces, crude sexual intercourse, urination, and the disrespectful use of theological terms? Is it when they are adults? No. It is when they are adolescents or pre-adolescents.

Go to any middle school playground and you will discover the truth. Profanity is adolescent language. It is immature.

So why do we call foul language “mature language”? Because we have been brainwashed by a myth.

Would you like to hear some real “mature language”? Okay. Here goes: honor, duty, sacrifice, commitment, responsibility, character, honesty, morality, service, reverence, respect, faithfulness, parenthood, kindness.

Anybody can speak and act out that adolescent stuff. But it takes a strong and mature individual to speak and live true “mature language”.