People

You know it does not take long to find out Paul is right (Romans 3) "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." You get married and soon enough your spouse finds out you are not perfect. Friends have feuds and disagreements too. Even places like church where you expect to find the very best people have problems. If you read scripture thoughtfully you will notice that all of the NT letters were written to Christians in churches who needed instruction, admonition, edification, correction and discipline because THEY HAD NOT GOTTEN IT RIGHT.
So what shall we do with all this imperfection running loose? Jesus says to treat others as you would be treated - love your neighbor as yourself. A little reflection tells me I do not reject myself because of my failure. Honestly I give myself leeway because I know my heart, my motives, my intentions. So, I give myself a break. God calls it grace and he has poured it out abundantly on all of us. Maybe, just maybe all those imperfect people need a little grace from me....I wonder how that would work? Foree

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas has always been a real special time for me. It meant my sisters and brothers, whom are mostly older than me by several years, would come home for the holidays. It meant the bay window in our house in Raton would have a decorated tree in it which we cut down ourselves(the decorating it was always a special event). We hung our stokings on little red chairs because we had no fire place. It meant a very difficult nights sleep for a young boy who had visions of Christmas morning and what it might bring. It meant thinking about how the siblings would feel as they opened the gift you bought especially for them. It meant another turkey dinner with Mom's dressing, home made yeast rolls, wonderful fruit salad and Grandma Foree's creamed corn (nothing like it in the world). Christmas afternoon was a time for shooting. Dad would gather up the guns and off we would go to the old sawmill and shoot cans and paper targets. We played "42" and Monopoly and through it all we ate really well made at home pie: apple, pumpkin, cherry all with whipped cream. Often we would get out the song books and sing away the evening. In Raton we usually had a white Christmas and that made it all the better.
Christmas was a gathering of family and friends to celebrate togetherness. It was/is a wonderful time. I hope it is a great one for all of you. Foree

On the left is the Whitetail taken on the same hunt as the Mule deer. We (my hunting buddy and I) were riding a 4 wheeler in some rolling, thickly covered, hills and drove upon this deer while he was laying in a bush. His head was the only thing we could see. He jumped and ran and my buddy and I were frantically trying to get off the wheeler and take a shot. I happen to get one off and three shots later he was down- 4:30 in the afternoon. Note, if you can see it, the drop tine over the right eye - this is a special gift for a hunter. The rifle is Ruger M77, 7MM caliber with the Nikon scope. The Mule deer in the other picture here has a 24in spread. This was one of the best hunts I have been able to take. Enjoy - Foree

Mule Deer?

Here is a picture of my "Mule" deer. It is a little hard to tell from the picture but this Muley has a Whitetail rack. He is a long eared, gray bodied, white caboosed normal Muley except for his rack. Right before he was down he was walking parallel to me 175 yards away and I thought then he must be a Whitetail. But after a closer inspection he was both. Taken with the Ruger M77 in 270 cal - Leopold VXII scope. I was hunting on a ranch NW of Amarillo with a good friend who was friendly enough to invite me. I hope you enjoy looking as much as I did. I saw this buck jump the fence on the horizon (5oo yards away) at 7AM. It took him two hours to get within range because he laid down twice and was content to rest for an hour each time. He was coming from a pivot where he had been eating alfalfa. Foree

Church

From the very beginning (Acts 2:46ff) "church" was a gathering of believers who had left whatever to be joined to Christ and depended on their relationships with other Christians for spiritual sustenance.They studied, prayed, took communion and shared (had fellowship). Theidea that there was some rule about attendance was most likely foreign to them. Being together was a matter of need, of necessity. To have to have a verse which constrained their attendance probably would have been insulting. I would suggest that church attendance done out of other promptings than necessity some
how have lost true significance. Mandatory attendance demanded by
and elder, done under compulsion, would have been as foreign to them as a
father demanding children to attend the Christmas tree gathering. Odd
at least, it would seem, who wouldn't want to go? Maybe, if attending
the assembly has become a burden we should look deep inside and ask
why? Perhaps there is no "felt need" and that may say a lot.Foree

Christmas

The penetrating effect of Jesus on our world is amazing. You know
almost every country has some form of Christmas celebration. They do
different things; Uruguay, SA has a Judas doll they kick around and
Kings Day when they give gifts...search the web and you will find
numerous examples of Christmas celebration...Jesus came into our world
(Galatians 4:4) at just the right time. The Father planned it...Jesus'life
was simple, he was not rich, he died a victim's death and was
dishonored by the powers of the world. You would think a person like
that would go down in infamy...yet here we are all these years later
seeing his effect upon the world...Of course He wanted more from people
than X-Mas but think about it...His coming sparked a worldwide holiday that has lived for centuries...that should tell us something....Foree