Happy New Year!

Well, I hope it has been for you thus far ;)

We're starting off the New Year rather slowly. We took down our Christmas decorations in dribs and drabs after the 12th day(Jan 6th) had passed. That's always a little sad, but we had a lovely Christmas together so there are plenty of good memories to store away with the new ornaments.

We don't make official New Year's resolutions in our house, just short term plans. We always have resolutions going on, of course. Exercise more. Get my over-flowing email box under control, that sort of thing. I have made headway on the email, at least.

Main reason you haven't heard from me for a bit was because I had to work on my Ole Pooter. We enjoyed playing adventure games on it over the holidays. We finished Nancy Drew: Secret in the Old Clock, Nancy Drew: Blue Moon Canyon, Keepsake, Sam & Max: Situation Comedy, Spelunx and played in Uru Live. Then it started to really act up. I don't think I had really taken in that it was five years old until I spoke to the shop about it. Repairs turned out to be simple & inexpensive (so I used the money toward a couple of upgrades hehe), but the shop is always busy at this time so it took awhile for them to check it thoroughly & add those parts.

So I've been reading and watching movies and such. We finally found an inexpensive copy of Hoodwinked for sale, among other things. That is such a funny film!

& I heard Pat Robertson's comments on what might be coming up for the New Year. I don't normally go out of my way to listen to his annual speech but I happened to catch the local news growling about it and realized the referenced show was about to repeat, so I listened for myself.

I was glad I bothered to contrast directly what he said and what the media reported him as saying. Pat said that he knows he has made bad predictions before and wondered if he should say anything about the New Year or not. So while he was on retreat he asked God for any words Pat should pass on to his listeners. He said he believes he heard several things.

Pat Robertson got the word that too many believers are not seeking the close daily relationship with Jesus that brings protection and blessings. It is absolutely necessary to put Jesus first in your life, above everything you desire on Earth, above all the noises that would distract you, put you in fear, or undermine your faith. Very soon those who claim Christ but live a carnal life will suffer serious loss because they could not hear the warnings of the Holy Spirit. We must seek the still small voice in order to be guided into the best decisions (and locations) for our families.

This warning is most likely for real & you'll note its aimed at the church alone. Pat is only the latest minister to relay this message. We felt like we received a similar recommendation several years ago. Joyce Meyers gave a similar message awhile back (that would soon be very important that Christ's followers be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in dark times) Basically this is one message that is coming from a number of directions - including several Catholic shepherds. Those with ears to hear, let them hear what Jesus has truly said to his holy church (0f all denominations.) "Watch closely with Jesus & pray with Him daily" has always been good advice, but never more more so than today. Big things are happening.

Pat also said he thought he heard that the first quarter of the year would see some unexpected favor and blessings for a number of believers but by late fall [after the Hebrew new year maybe?] there might be some serious disaster(s) in the world that would endanger many. Robertson said he didn't really know what kind of disasters but speculated anyway as to what he thought this might be (and the local media reported those speculations as his true predictions :P) Since even he didn't claim those speculations were prophecy, I am not going to repeat them here.

This was a much humbler approach than the media's report would have suggested to me. It was much humbler than a prediction session I happened to catch on his show some years ago. Because of his humility in it, I am wondering if he hasn't heard something for real this time. Course the 'good news' for those who have been waiting on God a long time was bound to raise my hopes that he had.

Like most people, we would much like to see overflowing favor & unexpectedly large blessings for the beginning of our year. If we do see this though, we will be cautious later!