Christmas Is Giving . . . Cheerfully

THE FINAL SAY

Read "Beggar's Rhyme: A Blogger as Beggar" (a post in this blog).

Beggar's Rhyme: A Blogger as Beggar

O Christmas is coming,

The geese are getting fat,

Won't you please put a penny

In a poor man's hat?

If you haven't got a penny

A ha'penny will do.

If you haven't got a ha'penny

Then God bless you!

Author Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. This blogger, this poor man, is now passing the hat among his readers. If enjoy reading this blog and would like to make a donation of $1.00 (100 pennies) or more to support my work on this blog -- and to help me pay my monthly bills -- will you please send your donation via  PayPal to oldelway02@duck.com? As Proverbs 28:27 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition) says, "Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing." God bless you! I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

A Christmas Poem on Sin and Redemption

I have quoted the final two lines in each of the second, fourth, seventh and ninth stanzas below from "The Holly and the Ivy," a fifteenth-century English carol. The quotation in the fifth stanza below is from verse 15 in chapter 1 of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy (King James Version).

From the letters of

The name of what month can be

Formed a word of six

Letters that means "to free from

The consequences of sin"?

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed the word REDEEM.

"And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

To be our sweet Saviour."

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed a verb of six

Letters that means "from sin and

Damnation to deliver."

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed the verb REDEEM.

"And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

To do poor sinners good."

"This is a faithful

Saying, and worthy of all

Acceptation," wrote

Paul, "that Christ Jesus came into

The world to save sinners."

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed a word of six

Letters that means "to free from

The consequences of sin."

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed the word REDEEM..

"And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

On Christmas in the morn."

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed a verb of six

Letters that means "from sin and

Damnation to deliver>"

From the letters of

The name DECEMBER can be

Formed the verb REDEEM.

"And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

For to redeem us all."

A Brainteaser and a Biblical Quotation

A communications code word of seven letters and a chiefly Scottish word of four letters have two letters in common. The fourth letter in the communications code word is the same as the third letter in the chiefly Scottish word, and the second letter in the chiefly Scottish word, the Scots' word for church, is the same as the sixth letter in the communications code word. What are that seven-letter communications code word and that four-letter, chiefly Scottish word for church?

To read the answer to this brainteaser, click here  for the communications code word and here for the chiefly Scottish word.

From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,

called to be an apostle

and set apart for God's good news. . . .

To those in Rome

who are dearly loved by God

and called to be God's people.

(Common English Bible: Romans 1:1, 7)

Competition: Runners

THE RUNNER

On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner,

He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs;

He is thinly clothed; he leans forward as he runs;

With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais'd.

Walt Whitman

I can be precise about the day it began. It was December 10, 1974. That was the day I met Billy Sive, and he asked me to coach him.

So begins Patricia Nell Warren's novel The Front Runner (1974), a landmark classic novel that is the most celebrated gay love story of all time. As the back cover of Wildcat Press's 20th Anniversary Edition of that novel says, "Harlan Brown is a tough, conservative track coach -- hiding from his past at a small college. Billy Sive is a brilliant young runner who is homosexual -- and doesn't mind who knows it. When they fall in love, they will enter a race against hate and prejudice that takes them to the '76 Olympics and a shocking, shattering conclusion." To read more about the novel The Front Runner, click here.

An American Thief

 AN AMERICAN THIEF

The quotation in the second stanza is Ephesians 4:28

from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible.

"Old thieves never die,"

said a thief on facing his

thirteenth robbery

charge. "They only steal away."

Once a thief, always a thief?

"If," as Saint Paul said,

"you are a thief, quit stealing.

Be honest and work

hard, so you will have something

to give to people in need."

Monty Gilmer

Fable: The Pot and the Kettle

FABLE: THE POT AND THE KETTLE

by Monty Gilmer

The Pot called the Kettle

black and snapped, "You need to

clean up your act." Indeed

black, the Kettle replied,

"You, blackguardly Pot, ought

to practice what you preach."

A slightly different version of this poem of mine has just been published under the title "Fable" in the 2022 edition of The Almanac for Farmers & City Folk.

A quotation from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans

(New King James Version):

The Power of the Gospel

From the Bible: Romans 1:16-17

(Good News Translation)

Paul wrote:

I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, "The person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

Quoted in the June/July 1986 issue of the

American Bible Society Record

To read an article about Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), click here.

Kind Words

Learn to speak kind words -- nobody resents them.
     --Author Unknown

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
     --The Bible: Colossians 4:6 (New International Version)


Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

To read an article about the apostle Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, click here.

"The Final Say: The Best Revenge"

THE FINAL SAY: THE BEST REVENGE

by Monty Gilmer

     In his letter to the Romans Paul wrote, "If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good. Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God's anger do it. For the scripture says, 'I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.' Instead as the scripture says: 'If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink; for by doing this you will make them burn with shame.' Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good" (The Bible: Romans 12:17-21, Good News Translation).

"The best revenge is

no revenge. Move on.

Be happy."

(Anonymous)

"The Final Say: Saint Paul"

THE FINAL SAY: SAINT PAUL

by Monty Gilmer

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

     SAINT PAUL

     to the Galatians (in the Bible: Galatians 3:28-29, King James Version)

He knew that each fish

was given paradise

in its slimy skin,

in its little gasping kiss of the sea.

     ANNE SEXTON

     From "The Saints Come Marching In"

     in The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975)

"Canticle of Prayer" from the Bible

Here, from the King James Bible, is a poem that I have based on the words of the hymn "Canticle of Prayer" that Alan Luff adapted in 1962 from The Revised Standard Version of the Bible. I have quoted the first, third and fifth stanzas from the King James Version of the epistle of Paul to the Romans. The second and fourth stanzas are bits of poetry by Jesus Christ that I have quoted from the King James Version of the Gospel according to Luke.


CANTICLE OF PRAYER
from the Bible, King James Version:
Romans 8:26; Luke 11:9-10

We know not what we should pray for as we ought:
But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
With groanings which cannot be uttered.

Ask, and it shall be given you;
Seek, and ye shall find;
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought:
But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
With groanings which cannot be uttered.

For every one that asketh receiveth;
And he that seeketh findeth;
And to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought:
But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
With groanings which cannot be uttered.

"The Final Say: Labor of Love" by Monty Gilmer

THE FINAL SAY

by Monty Gilmer

Quotations I have paired up for comparison

   Labor of Love

     Paul wrote, "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election."

     THE BIBLE:

     1 Thessalonians 1:2-4 (King James Version)

     Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

     HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862)

     American writer

Henry David Thoreau

"The Law of Love" by Paul : The Bible

THE LAW OF LOVE
A found poem from The New Oxford Annotated Bible:
Romans 12:9-18 (Revised Standard Version)
by Paul

Let love be genuine;
hate what is evil,
hold fast to what is good;
love one another with brotherly affection;
outdo one another in showing honor.
Never flag in zeal,
be aglow with the Spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in your hope,
be patient in tribulation,
be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints,
practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you;
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another;
do not be haughty,
but associate with the lowly;
never be conceited.
Repay no one evil for evil,
but take thought for what is noble
in the sight of all.
If possible,
so far as it depends upon you,
live peaceably with all.

"Love" (1 Corinthians 13) by Paul : The Bible

LOVE
from the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13 (Revised Standard Version)
by Paul, an apostle of Christ

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
But have not love, I am a noisy gong
Or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers,
And understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
But have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have,
And if I deliver my body to be burned,
But have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind;
Love is not jealous or boastful;
It is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
It is not irritable or resentful;
It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things,
Hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends;
As for prophecies, they will pass away;
As for tongues, they will cease;
As for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect
And our prophecy is imperfect;
But when the perfect comes,
The imperfect will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly,
But then face to face. Now I know in part;
Then I shall understand fully,
Even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide,
These three; but the greatest of these is love.

"Love": a poem from the Bible, Contemporary English Version

Today is Valentine's Day. Read the poem "Love" (1 Corinthians 13), by Paul, an apostle of Christ, from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible.

Happy Valentine's Day!