My favorite secular book is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. I have watched almost every movie
made from the book, along with every movie that is some sort of “take” on the premise of the book. I
think we are all pretty familiar with that premise of the book: A grouchy old miser is shown his past,
present, and future and, upon the realization of the results….he becomes a changed man.

Here it is: December. We are just a few weeks away from Christmas. I don’t know if it is because the
pandemic has subsided, but people seem a little “extra-excited” this year. Christmas decorations began
going up after Halloween and many of the decorations I’ve seen have been exceptionally big and festive.
Of course, those have been the secular decorations.

“A turkey sat on a back yard fence, and he sang this sad, sad tune, ‘Thanksgiving Day is coming, gobble,
gobble, gobble, gobble, and I know I’ll be eaten soon’”.
That is a thanksgiving song I learned as a child. We don’t sing many Thanksgiving songs, do we? If I
were to ask you to name your favorite Christmas song, you could do that quickly, right? Well, what is
your favorite Thanksgiving song? That’s a little tougher, isn’t it?

Have you ever wondered why so many people hate Jews? Anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jewish people, is
on the rise again according to many experts. What have the Jews done to warrant such animosity? Have
they been a vicious people, attacking and ransacking other nations? No. They weren’t even a nation
during the Holocaust; they had no government, no national leadership, and no army.

We just got back from our vacation in the Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Most of you
know that the mountains are my “happy place”. Angie and I go there on almost every vacation. A very
long time ago, when I’d only been here in Bluff Park for a couple of weeks, Charlotte Wilson was taking
me around to visit the shut-ins who were members of her Sunday School Class.

Sunday, October 23, was Pastor Appreciation Day. I want to thank everyone for your cards and words of
encouragement, and your generosity! Angie and I have been here at Church on the Bluff for over 16
years and I’m always amazed at the love and care you show for us. God blessed us by leading us here
and allowing us to minister to you all. It has been such a wonderful and exciting time for us; I praise the
Lord for His loving and providential care that brought us here.

A very popular social media site asked its members to name the most over-rated people in history.
There was quite a list, including such notables as Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Christopher Columbus,
Alexander Hamilton, and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few. But one name made the list that kind of
startled me (though I guess it really shouldn’t): Jesus.

A couple of years ago, during some particularly tough times of racial strife, it was popular to post a sign
in your yard that read “hate has no home here”. That is a wonderful sentiment, isn’t it? I would hope
that, even if there was no sign in your yard, hate doesn’t live at your house. But hate is just one of
several emotions that, when used wrongly, not only causes grief and trouble, but also displeases God.
Note that is said “when used wrongly”.

FROM YOUR PASTOR 10-13-2022
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5 NIV).
So often, we look around us and see wickedness; absolute wickedness. It seems that everywhere we
look we see depravity in all of its ugly forms.

FROM YOUR PASTOR 10-13-2022
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5 NIV).
So often, we look around us and see wickedness; absolute wickedness. It seems that everywhere we
look we see depravity in all of its ugly forms.