Good day dear friends.
I have a dear friend who invented the internet. Well, he could have. He was the first person I knew who owned modern enough computer equipment to have invented the internet. It helped that his wife was the computer guru for the school district where we both lived some years back. He's a minister of the Presbyterian persuasion. So, with the latest and greatest gadgets and the money to acquire them, he soon had what had to be a 60 inch color monitor that sat directly in front of one of the first rear projection televisions hooked up to the first disc players that featured record-album sized discs. He had, I believe, The Blues Brothers and Saturday Night Fever on those discs. Keep in mind the personal computer is a relatively new thing. If you graduated from high school in the 60s or 70s, you did not have one at home waiting to help you research and write your essays and papers. I can almost bet money that this friend of mine was the first person to send me a Forward. Little did I or you know back then how these forwards would impact your life. Heck, we didn't know they would help our spiritual life!
Well, it was this friend that sent me this forward and I will just highlight the spiritual effects he mentions in this forward to me:
"As another year will shortly be a memory, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me "forwards" over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.
"Special thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes 'cause I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to seal an envelope.
Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. Because of your concern, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.
I no longer drink Pepsi, or Dr Pepper, since the people who make these products are atheists who won't put "Under God" on their cans.
I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.
I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.
I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.
I no longer go to shopping malls because someone might drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.
I no longer receive packages from, nor send packages by UPS, or FedEx, since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.
I no longer answer the phone, because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.
" no longer worry about my soul, because at last count I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.
Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
I no longer have any savings, because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time)
I no longer have any money at all - but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special email program.
Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor!
If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7 minutes, a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM (EDT) this afternoon. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of mine's next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician."
Yes, he is a pastor. And a funny one.
We sometimes treat the Bible as a forward. We can take it or leave it. Sadly, I heard (and now I'm sounding like a forward) that yesterday in a city near here some 'students' were having a "smut for smut" trade - if you brought in your Bible you would get a free men's magazine (whose name I won't honor by evening mentioning it) of the pornographic persausion. This is exactly the time of year we need such campaigns and attitudes towards the personal, love letter from God to you and me sent in the form of the baby whose birth we celebrate Sunday.
My prayer is that our attitude towards God be a special one, not only today and during this season but always. May we realize that Christmas was God's answer to our personal needs. No, it's not a plea from the widow of a multimillionaire financial officer of some obscure country who only needs your personal bank account so that she can deposit her husband's money in it; this is God saying, "I will personally deposit in your heart my love."
PRAYER: Come, God of love and share Your love with me. Let me enjoy it everyday as I realize how much You cared by sending Jesus for me. It is in his name that I pray. Amen.
Have a great day! And forward this to 144,000 (that's biblical counting) of your closest friends.....
Blessings,
e.v.
