The Heart of Christmas DVD Review

We watched The Heart of Christmas DVD UPC 014381764321 you can upload it from netflix or if you are like us we have our collection of Christmas DVDs that we watch ever year. Wow, was this a tear jerker, plus it was based on a true story which always has more meaning for me. It is a movie that will bring home the true spirit of CHristmas.

 

The story is about a young family (Austin and Julie) whose child (Dax) is diagnosed with cancer. Austin and Julie take him to St Judes Childrens Hospital (which is an amazing hospital) and start the journey of the ups and downs of a sick child. When the community finds out what is going on in the lives of Austin and Julie they step up with an outpouring of love and support. I do not want to ruin the movie so I am not going to tell you the whole story.

 

The Heart of Christmas DVD is Dove approved and is 89 minutes. It stars Candace Cameron Bure (Make it or Break it), Jeanne Neilson (Faith Like Potatoes), George Newbern (Father of the Bride), Erin Bethea (Fireproof), Anita Renfroe (Bless this Mess), and a song by Matthew West. I would recommend this movie for everyone.

 

What impressed me most was the theme of cherishing every moment. Once Austin and Julie found out about the cancer they did not want to miss a moment. In life we get so wrapped up with the little details of life that we miss life. We are so busy that we miss the little things. Life is so precious and can be take away or turned up-side down, we need to take time to hug, love, and talk with each other before it is too late. Is there a phone call that you need to make? Is there someone that you need to reach out to? After watching this movie you will want to put down the cell phone and take a walk with your loved one.

 

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How To Survive an Affair

There has been a lot of talk in the media lately with the affair of CIA chief David Petraeus. Most of the questions that I have heard have been; "How could a man have an affair?" or "What leads a man to have an affair?" 

I am a Christian man and I had an affair on my wife, and we survived! So I thought that I would shed some light on why I had the affair, and the reasons why we survived. I did a search on the internet and this is one website that I found, "Marital affairs affects one in every 2.7 couples. According to a published report in the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, by the time we are 40, approximately 50 percent of all wives and 60 percent of all husbands, will have had an extramarital affair. Psychologists have estimated only 35 percent of these affected couples will stay together." ONLY 35% SURVIVE AN AFFAIR. My wife and I made it and today we have an amazing relationship. It is better than ever.

Let's start with why I had the affair. First off it had nothing to to with my wife, she is the most amazing person I have ever met. She did nothing wrong. She loved me, tried to please me, and we were best friends. We had a wonderful relationship together. There were times that she would ask "What did I do wrong?" or "What could I have done different?" The answer is NOTHING. It was all my fault.

So why? Why would a good, man that loves Jesus have an affair? In my opinion it starts very slow. It is a break down in moral and in my case religious thinking. There were two reasons that I had the affair. First, I began to tell myself that I had never had a lot of relationships with women and I began to tell myself that I deserved this in my life. I had gotten married young (21 years of age) and I had been a good person meaning I did not sleep around a lot when I was single. I began to rationalize the sin. Instead of saying that having an affair was wrong, PERIOD. I began to tell myself that I deserved it and that maybe it was not that bad. I told myself that I could control it, I would not get burned, so I started to play around with it.... I start to talk to different women and flirt. Well, satan was doing a happy dance, he knew that once I started I could not stop, one thing lead to another and another until I was in a full blown affair that I did not know how to get out of.

The other major reason that contributed to my affair is that I started to hang around the wrong group of people. Instead of hanging around a crowd that would challenge me and tell me what I was doing was wrong, I started to hang out with guys that told me I should have the affair. They saw nothing was wrong with it. I did not want to be around guys that were truthful with me, I wanted guys that would tell me what I wanted to hear. Bad idea!

How did my affair end? After a year of being in this affair I had begun to hate myself. I had dug a hole so deep in sin, and I did not know how to get out. I could not go on living this lie, I was miserable. But I could not tell my wife I knew that my marriage would end. I was stuck and I hated who I had become. Finally, I told my wife, as I literally could not live with myself anymore. This was terrible. The pain and sadness that this affair had caused was terrible. But we we made it, we survived. There are two reasons that we survived this affair. We both had a role to play in our survival.

My part had to do with a change of heart. My wife had to see, not hear (It is easy to tell people what they need to hear) that I truly changed. I had to show my wife that I was a different person. I had to show my wife that she could trust me again. This was not going to happen overnight, it was going to take some time, but I was willing to let her take as much time as she needed. I did not push her and tell her that "I swear I am a changed man, just get over it." I also had to get serious about Jesus and my relationship again. I had destroyed that. Slowly over several years our relationship began to improve, we gained back that love and trust... all the things that make a great marriage, and today we are 10 times what we were before the affair.

My wife's part was forgiveness. The kind of forgiveness that Jesus talks about in the Bible. I do not think that this forgiveness could come from a human. I know that Jesus had to give my wife a heart of forgiveness other wise it would not happen. So, when you come right down to it, it was all Jesus. Jesus gave me the power to want to change, and to stay faithful in years to come. Plus He gave my wife that ability for her to forgive. So give it up all for my man; JESUS!

After I had the affair I was angry at satan for tempting me. I was angry for him messing in my life, so I told Jesus I that I would not be afraid to share my story. There is freedom in truth. satan loves the dark and hidden. Jesus love light and truth. When you bring situations into the light, there may be hurt and sadness, but Jesus can turn any hurt into happiness and joy. If you have any questions you can post a question here or you can post a message on our Facebook Page. Thanks for taking time to share in my story.

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Pray Without Ceasing

God tells us in His Word to pray without ceasing.  See 1 Thessalonians 5:17. What does that mean to you?  How is your prayer life? Are you satisfied or maybe it is time to make some changes in your prayer life with God?

Some time ago God laid this verse on my heart. I meditated on it for some time and the Holy Spirit told me that my prayer life left something to be desired. I was only praying when I needed something or when I was in trouble. After much thought these are some of the changes that I made in my prayer life.

To me prayer is like a phone call. If you only call someone when you need something soon the person you were calling would get tired of your phone calls (Thank God we have such an amazing and patient God). A good phone call is when you talk and listen. A good phone call is when you talk about everyday life. I believe that God loves to hear about your problems, but He also loves to just chat.

My other problem was that I view prayer to be a time alone in a very quiet place. I believe that you need this time, but it does not satisfy "without ceasing." So how do you solve this? I started talking to God about EVERTHING. When I was at work I would talk to God about how I should build this end cap (I worked at Family Christian Stores). When I was driving home and some nice guy would cut me off, I would tell God how mad that made me. When I was at home watching TV I would ask God if He thought it was funny. I started to include God in everything I did. It was very simple and really took no effort at all, but I cannot tell you the peace that I started to feel and how much it improved my relationship with God.

So again, how is your prayer life? Are your "phone calls" one sided? I hope my suggestions can help draw you closer to our very cool GOD!

If you are interested in reading a great book on this subject check The Practice of the Presence of God out by Brother Lawrence. I read it and it changed my prayer life.

Jim
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Be The Miracle

My wife and I watched Christmas Angel DVD By Pure Flix UPC 857533003202. The story revolves are Olivia Mead who has one wish, that her single mom would find someone that she can call dad. Olivia soon finds out that her answers to all her wishes lie in a mysterious house. In this mysterious house Olivia finds Elsie Waybright (Della Reese). Elsie teaches Olivia that some request must be left to God and others they could achieve. This is a wonderful story that you will want to add to your Christmas collection.

The one concept that impacted me was how Olivia and Elsie started two boxes for wishes. One that they could accomplish (Like buying a new bike), and the other was beyond their control, these were left for God.

This is a great idea for this Christmas season. Be The Miracle! When you hear requests from your friends, family, or even strangers you can be the miracle in that person’s life. The other requests that are larger than you, lift them up in prayer. This season keep your spiritual eyes and ears open and make it a point to impact someone’s life.

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Are Christians To Legalize Marijuana?

This last week marijuana was legalized in the state that I live in. At one time I was right winged and thought that it was wrong, and anyone that used it was wrong. But 8 years ago I was diagnosed with a muscle wasting disease that causes a lot of muscle pain and discomfort. The only relief that I got from the pain was through oxys. These are terrible addicting pills. After taking these on and off for 8 years I asked my doctor for a license for medical marijuana.

The whole process of buying marijuana was embarrassing and awkward. I have never taken marijuana so I had no idea what to ask or how to take it. The funny thing was that when I asked the people who knew about it, no-one could tell me anything because of the legalities of it, so I left frustrated and gave up the whole process.
 Now that it is going to be legal I am not sure what I am going to do. It is legal for me to take, but is it beneficial for me? I have lived in pain every day for the last 8 years and most days I pray that Jesus to take away the discomfort or take me home. Am I an exception for taking Marijuana or not? Where do we as Christians draw the line?

As with any situation in life when I have a question, I turn to the Word of God. Here are two verses that I found:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything." - 1 Corinthians 6:12
 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."  - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
 You should not be controlled by anything in life except Jesus. Alcohol is legal for me to drink and I do like to drink an occasional beer or glass of wine, but it does not control me I control it. It is not the most important thing in my life.
 My body is a temple of the Lord; I should treat it as such. I am also a shining example of Jesus Christ. If I walk around drunk or high I am not much of an example for My Lord.

I also believe that it comes down to the person. If they feel that they are not going to be able to control it, they should not cross that line.

I also feel that if a person wants to take marijuana is going to take it regardless of what the law says.

So, what are your thoughts or beliefs? What kind of example should we give others as Followers of Jesus Christ?

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Verse of the Day

My Letter To Satan

How do you picture yourself in Christ? A servant, a worker, a friend? I have always pictured myself as a Knight. I have dirt and blood on my face, fighting the good fight, willing to give my life for the one true King. By me telling you this, the letter will make more sense.

Dear satan,

I just wanted to send you a letter and tell you that you LOST.

You knew that God had plans for me and it scared you. So you set out to destroy me and my family. First, you tried to destroy me personally, you tempted me with bodybuilding drugs, you wanted me in jail because you knew that I would not be as effective in His Kingdom. I did fall into your temptation, but My Lord saved me, I am sure it made you angry.
Then you tried to destroy my family, by tempting me with another female, and again I fell into your temptation. It almost destroyed my family, but again, Our Lord came through and saved us. We beat the odds and survived, I bet it must have made you very angry.

Finally, I had my life together; I was being the person that God wanted me to be. You could not destroy me mentally so you went after my physical body. I found out I had an incurable disease. Looking back I see now what you wanted, it was not the disease, it was the fact that I wanted to kill myself, you wanted me out of the picture for good. You almost got what you wanted, but again my LORD and my family saved me. You LOST. I am still here and still fighting, and because of your failure, and Christ’s victory, He helped Kim start this ebay store, which is reaching new people every day.

You are such a weak creature, I know that you have to ask permission of My Lord to do anything; even you acknowledge God’s awesome power! Every victory in Christ only makes me stronger. My body may be somewhat crippled, but you will NEVER KILL MY SPIRIT.

Victorious in Christ,

Jim

Ps. you may win little victories here on this earth, but I know how the story ends……YOU LOSE.

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Every Life is Beautiful

My wife and I watched October Baby; UPC 602341005296 last night. It is a story of a failed abortion, adoption, and how God has a plan for everyone. This movie touched us as were both in tears. My wife and I adopted our son, and I found out later in life that I was an "accident."
My parents would have never even thought of abortion, but one ponders if my parents did believe in abortion, how many lives I have come in contact with and the difference it would have made.

The story starts out with Hannah. Hannah is sick and all the countless tests point to only one thing; her difficult birth. The doctor's diagnosis is nothing compared to what her parents tell Hannah.... she is adopted. This is another topic that is close to our hearts as we adopted our son, and we agreed that we would never hide this fact from him. We were so happy of this decision. But Hannah's parents choose to keep this a secret from her.

Hannah is angry, and confused. She embarks on a journey with her best friend; Jason. Hannah searchs for her hidden past to find her future. After much pain Hannah realizes that her life (yours too) can be much more that she planned.

I do not want to tell you much more as I do not want to ruin it. I would like to hear your thoughts. Are you or do you know someone that is adopted? Do you agree or disagree that parents should tell children when they are adopted? Please share your stories.

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