Come and See Ministries

Starting off right, not wrong

Published 12/29/2009 7:42:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

The New Year is about to begin so many of us are thinking about making New Year's Resolutions. Let me suggest 5 steps in making resolutions stick for the whole year. 1. Make them realistic so at the end of the year you will not be disappointed. 2. If they relate to personal habits changing, mean what you say you are going to do, and then you will be so glad when you meet your goals. 3. Tell your five best friends so they can encourage you to carry your resolutions through to completion. 4. Pray to God for guidance and he will give you the help. 5. Be sure to make one about relationships with others improving. Especially work on someone who you seem to have problems with. God Bless and have a great New Year making changes for your good and for others around you good too. Gary Exman

The Greatest Gift You Have Ever Received

Published 12/25/2009 4:19:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

It is Christmas Day and you probably have opened all your gifts. If you do not use those gifts this next year they will become of no value to you. For if these opened gifts are put away and never seen again what was the use of opening them in the first place? If you got new clothes and you never wear them then they become of no use to you or anyone else. No, a gift received and opened is for you to use as it is given as something special to you from a loved one or a friend. Yes, open the box and use its contents for it was a gift for you.

So too you went to Christmas Eve Service and heard about the greatest gift of all. The choir and the pastor opened up the story of the Christ Child so you could see it. Are you ready to wear the Message of Christmas they shared with you last night? Do not put it away till next year but wear the message of Christmas so others can see it on you and then receive it for themselves. Gary Exman

Merry Christmas and Happy Holy Days

Published 12/24/2009 11:14:00 AM - Come and See Blogs

Many of us have been in the battle of keeping Christ in Christmas for many years now and this year is no exception. The latest I have heard is that a small town in America has removed some Christmas decorations and the removal comes from a retired decorated Marine who does not believe in God. When will this battle ever end.

Recently i read in my friend David Kerr's news letter a reminder that Happy Holidays comes from the original 'Happy Holy Days.' Thank you David for the reminder and with that reminder let me wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holy Days too as this celebration is the most Holy of all days in the year. As the great Christmas Hymn reminds us, "Oh Holy Night..' God Bless and Happy New Year too. Your friend in Christ, Gary W. Exman

Was The Month Before Christmas

Published 11/25/2009 11:29:00 AM - Come and See Blogs

Here we go again on the day before Thanksgiving with the media and the retail markets, by and large, forgetting the real meaning of Chrismas. We Christians must rise up and be counted on to carry the banner of Christ. How can we do it on this eve of Christmas? Let me suggest four ways.

1. Share the spirit of Christmas by thought, word and deed wherever you go and in whatever you do these next 30 days.

2. Pray for the needy in your town and go out and help them in any way you can with your gifts of time, talent, and trust.

3. Help your own family to give something to someone above and beyond what you share with yourselves this Christmas.

4. Attend Church these next 4 Sunday's and Celebrate the 'Joy to the World, the Lord has come.' Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, Gary Exman

Published 11/18/2009 12:56:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

Here is wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. This is that great time of year when we enjoy family and friends twice. We start out with our big celebrations on Thanksgiving and then we continue until after Christmas and New Year. May you and your Church people have the greatest of celebrations during these weeks and share with those in your congregation and neighborhoods who are without jobs and food. This is a great time of need across our land and a wonderful opportunity for us to share from our own bounty. God Bless you all and may we all have holiday's of sharing and giving. Gary Exman

Let us stop cussing

Published 10/15/2009 3:45:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

My parents and my Church leaders all taught me that it was wrong to swear. Swearing was like an unpleasant odor coming out of a person's mouth. Back then when I was a kid swearing included not only taking the Lord's name in vain but included all kinds of other cursing. I respected my parents and my Churches' teaching on the Lord's Name in vain but I sure used my share of cursing and cussing when I was out with my buddies.

Today cussing is as common in the corporate board rooms as it is in back alleys. In fact the Lord's Name is taken everywhere including in the bed rooms and recreation rooms whenever the TV is on our own homes. I wonder if I could ever give you reasons not to swear in God's Name, except by reminding you that we are asked in the Bible to honor His Name as Sacred and to never take it in vain. To stop you from cussing in our society would be a reach because just about everybody does it on a regular basis. I can't even ask you not to cuss in the presence of a lady because most ladies will use a cuss word as often as men do.

Maybe we could make Advent and this December the month of no cussing. After all, in this time of year soon coming to us, we have been asked in the recent past not to offend anyone by saying a positive 'Merry Christmas' because of political correctness. So let us, as Christians, start a new movement for December by taking His name as a greeting again. And thus use that greeting as a reminder to ourselves and others of the Christmas Season. Hopefully this will also remind us that we are not going to speak him in vain nor use profain cussing. If everyone who reads this blog will pass it on to ten others we can get started early and stop not only swearing but also cussing for the month of December. Maybe we could then make this a New Year's goal?

Will you join me in this noble exercise of excluding cuss words and swearing? And, by the way, let me be the first to wish you a very 'Merry Christmas.' After all, many of the stores already have some of their decorations up so we can start this 'no swearing and cussing' with the return of the Christmas greeting today. Gary Exman

Doing it in Private, NO!

Published 10/9/2009 11:11:00 AM - Come and See Blogs

Maybe I am totally Old School. I grew up in the 50's and Playboy came out, what, one year before the 55 Chevy. I remember we all read it in a private moment and many boys hid it under their beds only to sneak it out late at night in their bed with a flashlight. Most of my age 'did it' in private like in the back seat of a car. Then after the sex explosion of the 60's and the free wheeling of drugs it got out more in the open, or at least between the rows in the corn field.

Then when College dorms were opened for visitations by the opposite sex the revolution really jacked up. Most of my marriage cerimonies from the late 70' till now have been with couples who were already moved in and keeping house way before that cerimonial rite of passage. Now it is 'no privacy dorm rooms' and your room mate brings in a friend regardless of sexual orientation to 'do it' in front of you, whether you are awake or asleep. God Help Us, and as the question is, what will it be next?

What can the Church do??? Preach purity and righteousness against a flowing tide of Old School ideas such as moral virtures. Pray much for a revivial of truth and true love. What we need to be doing in public is not 'it' but presenting with our lifestyles a life or righteousness. Gary Exman

Sorry I have Not posted for one month but I am back on

Published 10/3/2009 7:10:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

Hope you will join back with my posts as I have missed for one month. God Bless you all and may you have a great month of October and the rest of the year. Here is an early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too. Gary Exman

PRAYERFUL PERSONAL STEWARDSHIP

Published 10/3/2009 7:02:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

Here are 8 steps to prayerful personal stewardship

1. Pray for your job and income everyday including your employer and other employees.

2. Pay your tithe weekly.

3. Remember those around you who do not have jobs or are struggling financially.

4. Give your clothes you do not use to the church clothing store.

5. Teach your children and grandchildren how to give and even tithe.

6. Do not charge for something you cannot afford. Only buy what you can afford.

7. Keep a weeking, monthy and yearly budget.

8. Remember God loves a cheerful giver.

God Bless you and your stewardship. Gary Exman

Is It Really Wrong to Tell Lies?

Published 8/31/2009 3:45:00 PM - Come and See Blogs

Maybe everyone does not lie. Maybe most people are truthful and honest. Sometimes I wonder if honesty is really an 'in' way of living when it seems so many are caught in big time lies. In my local newspaper today there was a op ed by one of the sports writers about this very subject and he named a prominent NFL Coach who has been caught lying twice in recent days. Everyone seems to think that all political leaders tell lies, not football coaches. But is not the point that sports figures and political leaders might lie sometimes but do not we all become less than tellers of truth on occasion? We claim to be honest people and truth tellers at least until we are caught in a lie?

Let us preach and teach in our churches that lying is wrong because it is sin. Let us be the leaders of the pack as Christians and be known as people who do not lie but instead be people who tell the truth no matter what the truth might tell. Let us lie not that we be not lied too and instead be truth tellers so the way, the truth and the life might be known. Gary W. Exman

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