Nativity Pop-up Card

This will be a cute cards for the kids to do this Christmas.  There is a step- by-step tutorial on their site here -
 BIBLE STORY PRINTABLES.com

Thanksgiving Bible Printables

I was looking for lesson plans & printables for my classes this November and found this web site.

Thanksgiving Bible Printables & Crafts

from Christian Preschool Printables 

Printable Thankful Pumpkin Pocket

I love this craft from Christian Preschool Printables

This is a printable pumpkin pocket

children can make to store different
things they are thankful for.  

It includes an art sheet of items for them to cut out.

How to Become President of the U.S. Poster

Love this!
Go to http://kids.usa.gov/president/index.shtml
to print it out or to order a larger version.

CHRISTIANS ARE LIKE PUMPKINS

CHRISTIANS ARE LIKE PUMPKINS

God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all of the dirt off which you may have gotten from other pumpkins.

Then, He cuts the top off and scoops out all of the yucky stuff.

He removes seeds of doubt, hate, greed, unforgiveness, etc.

Then, He carves a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you
to shine for all the world to see.

Are you letting your light shine?

Be a jack-o-lantern for Jesus!

Pumpkins and Jesus

 Pumpkins and Jesus
P is for the People that Jesus came to save.
U is for the Unconditional love to each one He gave.
M is for the Message that we should all be sharing.
P is for the Priceless gift God above showed he is caring.
K is for the King of Kings.
I is for the Insight He brings.
N is for the Nails in His hands.
S is for our Savior who gave His life so we could stand.

Love this crochet afghan edging!

I've been looking for a pattern for a new afghan edging. I finally saw this edging on this web site.  But the actual link to the instructions is here.  I can't wait until I finish it!

Christmas Notebook

This is something I plan to start this year. It includes sections for gift ideas, gifts you gave last year, Christmas card list, recipes, decorating ideas, & more.  Click on this link to see how to make one yourself.

Christmas Notebook




                         Picture from the above website.

The Tale of Jack O'Lantern

       Jack, the Irish say, grew up in a simple village where he earned a reputation for cleverness as well as laziness. He applied his fine intelligence to wiggling out of any work that was asked of him, preferring to lie under a solitary oak endlessly whittling. In order to earn money to spend at the local pub, he looked for an "easy shilling" from gambling, a pastime at which he excelled. In his whole life he never made a single enemy, never made a single friend and never performed a selfless act for anyone.  

    One Halloween, as it happened, the time came for him to die. When the devil arrived to take his soul, Jack was lazily drinking at the pub and asked permission to finish his ale. The devil agreed, and Jack thought fast. "If you really have any power," he said slyly, "you could transform yourself into a shilling."
      The devil snorted at such child’s play and instantly changed himself into a shilling. Jack grabbed the coin. He held it tight in his hand, which bore a cross-shaped scar. The power of the cross kept the devil imprisoned there, for everyone knows the devil is powerless when faced with the cross. Jack would not let the devil free until he granted him another year of life. Jack figured that would be plenty of time to repent. The devil left Jack at the pub. +
      The year rolled around to the next Halloween, but Jack never got around to repenting. Again the devil appeared to claim his soul, and again Jack bargained, this time challenging him to a game of dice, an offer Satan could never resist, but a game that Jack excelled at. The devil threw snake eyes—two ones—and was about to haul him off, but Jack used a pair of dice he himself had whittled. When they landed as two threes, forming the T-shape of a cross, once again the devil was powerless. Jack bargained for more time to repent.
      He kept thinking he’d get around to repentance later, at the last possible minute. But the agreed-upon day arrived and death took him by surprise. The devil hadn’t showed up and Jack soon found out why not. Before he knew it Jack was in front of the pearly gates. St. Peter shook his head sadly and could not admit him, because in his whole life Jack had never performed a single selfless act. Then Jack presented himself before the gates of hell, but the devil was still seething. Satan refused to have anything to do with him.
      "Where can I go?" cried Jack. "How can I see in the darkness?"
      The devil tossed a burning coal into a hollow pumpkin and ordered him to wander forever with only the pumpkin to light his path. From that day to this he has been called "Jack o’ the Lantern." Sometimes he appears on Halloween!

Trick or Treat

“Trick or Treat" is thought to have come from a European custom called "souling". Beggars would go from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers could guarantee a soul's passage to heaven.

In John 14:6 Jesus said:
"I am the way the truth and the life;
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."


"For by Grace are you saved through faith.
It is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast."
~Ephesians 2:8-9~

All Hallows Eve / All Saints Day

 The purpose behind All Hallows Eve has been lost—like celebrating New Year’s Eve without a New Year’s Day. Take away the saints and our beliefs about the dignity and destiny of human beings, and the only thing left is pre-Christian superstition regarding the dead.

The same way people gather today at the site of a tragedy on its anniversary to talk to each other and to reporters, the first Christians gathered on the anniversary of a martyr’s death to remember it the way they knew best: with the "breaking of the bread." They retold the stories to inspire each other at a time when faith meant persecution and more martyrdom. Not even death could break the unity in Jesus which Paul had named "the Body of Christ."

By the mid-fourth century a feast of "All Martyrs" appeared on local calendars. As persecutions grew less frequent, the feast was extended to include non-martyr "witnesses," Christians whose lives were "the gospel in action.” In the 16th century at the time of the Reformation, most Protestants were not celebrating All Saints Day.

 Death is not cute. Halloween began with martyrs, after all. At Halloween we need to use discernment to separate the symbols, to protect our children from very real dangers, to cut through the customs that contradict our relationship with God.

 Most of all, be free from fear. We who are in Christ have nothing to fear, and we should be ready with an answer to those who act as if the devil were the equal and opposite of God. There is no "equal and opposite" of God.

What is Halloween?

 Halloween is a festival that takes place on October 31. In the United States, children wear costumes on Halloween and go trick-or-treating. Many carve jack-o'-lanterns out of pumpkins. Halloween parties feature such activities as storytelling about ghosts and witches, and bobbing for apples.

Hallow is the same word for "holy" that we find in the Lord’s Prayer, and e’en is a contraction of "evening." The word Halloween itself is a shortened form of "All Hallows Eve," the day before All Saints Day.

Halloween developed from ancient new year festivals and festivals of the dead. In the A.D. 800's, the Christian church established All Saints' Day on November 1 so that people could continue a festival they had celebrated before becoming Christians. The Mass said on All Saints' Day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before All Saints' Day became known as All Hallows' Eve, or All Hallow e'en.

April Fool's Day

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. "
- American humorist Mark Twain

 

Why ~ April Fool's Day

In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true.

"God don't make no junk!"

God has no factory rejects. God has no "seconds" store. God has no basement bargain centers. God has no irregulars on His assemble line. "God don't make no junk!"

----from God Don't Make No Junk
----written by Reverend Billy Joe Grandstaff

Announcing the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (BOOK)

The BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology. No wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover!

Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc. Here's how it works:

Each BOOK is constructed of sequentially-numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half.

Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. This makes them thicker and harder to carry, and has drawn some criticism from the mobile computing crowd.

Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it.

The BOOK never crashes and never needs rebooting, although like other display devices it can be unusable if dropped overboard. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK in the exact place you left it in a previous session - even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOKmarks can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus (Pencils).

Portable, durable and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the entertainment wave of the future. The BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

Happiest People

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.