Message From Richard

Greetings my brothers and sisters and welcome to our latest edition of Gods Faith Book's weekly newsletter.
My special message follows. If you have a special Christmas message you want to share with your brothers and sisters here at GFB, send it in to me at: mornstar100@aol.com and we'll publish it.

 I'll Be Home for Christmas

 "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."
Hebrews 13:14

Recently, I got my parent's old Christmas records out of storage and began making mp3 files of them so that we could play them again around the Christmas holidays. Bing Crosby's classic rendition of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" came on. Its melancholy sound filled the air.

I pictured the war-weary allied troops hearing this song the year it was recorded in 1943, listening to it on their radios at night, spellbound by the sound; longing to be back at home with their loved ones.

I'll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas... if only in my dreams.

Does any other version of the song capture the sense of sadness to the same degree that he did?

Believers in Christ are soldiers engaged in war (Ephesians 6:10-18). And deep within us there is a longing that nothing can suppress. We want to be home. It's great to know that we are on the winning side, but we often get weary of the fight.

Hebrews 13:14 encourages us to remember and find strength in the fact that "we seek the city that is to come." It's a losing battle to pursue lasting satisfaction in this life. The words "Here we have no lasting city" drive us to only source of contentment: the promise that Christ is always with me (Matthew 28:20) and that He's bringing me home to a place where love, joy, and satisfaction never end.
Things won't always take a better turn on an Earth that is under the curse. Sickness, loss, grief, and death will find us. Just as our reward will come in Heaven, laughter (itself one of our rewards) will come in Heaven.

For those of you who missed our last newsletter, Our first Holy Land Sweepstakes was won by Caroline. Hold on to your points (located in your profile section) because you will be able to use them for gifts and a future sweepstakes that we are planning.

We're featuring a new item in our gift store. Lighted Bows. Make every gift glow! Reusable and contain a convenient on/off switch. Batteries included. Only 19 days till Christmas. There's still time to use these beautiful Bows for your Holiday gifts.. . GFB Gift Store just may be the place for you to get that special gift and at the same time helping those in need. We have made a pledge to contribute profits from our Gift Store to those that have suffered from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and we have decided to continue that practice till the end of Christmas. We are also continuing our policy of not charging anything for postage and handling. You pay for the price of the product and that's it. All purchases are also covered with our "forever money back guarantee" on all purchases. You don't like it and we take it back forever.

When you have a moment, take a look at our e card section located on black menu bar at top of home page. We have a wide selection of FREE E cards for all occasions including Christmas, Easter. Inspirational, Birthdays and Sympathy cards. Just a small sampling of recently added Christmas cards are shown below.