mig007blog

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Jesus had twelve apostles. An apostle is someone with a special mission, who is sent out to do a special job. Jesus chose His apostles to build His Church. The apostles lived with Jesus, learned from Him and traveled with Him around the countryside as He went from town to town teaching about His Father.

Jesus also had many disciples, people who came to learn from Jesus. The Bible tells us there were 72 disciples.

After Jesus ascended into Heaven, the apostles began to preach to the people themselves, and to start the Catholic church. There was a lot of work to do. People came to them with gifts, others came asking for healing, or food. Soon, the apostles were so busy organizing the people that they had no time to teach them anymore.

So, they asked the disciples to choose seven men to take care of the poor and the organizing. These seven men were the first deacons of the church. The apostles ordained them as deacons by praying and placing their hands on the heads of the deacons.

Saint Stephen was one of the first seven deacons. He began to serve the poor and preach to the people about Jesus. More and more people joined the Christians. The high priests of the temple were jealous of Saint Stephen's successes, and accused him of blasphemy, which means telling lies about God.

They took him in front of a judge, just like they did to Jesus. At the trial, Saint Stephen kept on teaching about Jesus. He told the judges that they were hard-hearted murderers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When the crowd heard this, everyone became so angry that they stopped the trial, dragged Saint Stephen outside and threw rocks at him.

Saint Stephen forgave the people who were stoning him, and asked God not to punish the people. Then he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." and died. Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr, the first person to die because he loved Jesus so much that he wouldn't stop talking about Him.

You could read more about Saint Stephen – here -

I want to wish to All those are named Stephen or one of his derived names my warm and honest, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

Cool Graphics at iLLpic.com

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas !

Unique Christmas Comments

Christmas & Santa Claus

Santa Claus as we know him today first emerged when the Dutch settlers came to Manhattan on Christmas day 1624. In Holland, Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) wore a red robe while riding a white horse, and cared a bag of gifts to fill the children's stockings. Christmas Carnivals is here with Santa Claus origin.

The history of Santa Claus explores the past history of the world’s jolliest person. His task is to distribute gifts among Children on the Eve of Christmas. Some are of the belief that he is modeled after an actual Saint while others believe him to be an amalgamation of worldwide traditions. Santa Claus.

Assuming Santa Claus as a counterfeit to Jesus, our Savior might seem weird to many.
Very few of us have lent this a careful thought. Some are of the opinion that, Santa Claus was deliberately posed as a counterfeit to Jesus to malign him and lessen his influence or may be to erase his memories from the minds of posterity.

It is a well-devised plan, a conspiracy to relegate Jesus to the background. It is often presumed that, too many traits of Jesus matches with that of Santa. This can in no way be an accident. Some have gone to the extent of allying Santa with Satan cause Jesus’ end time prophecies went like this: - the hearts of the people would have become extremely cold to Him. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold".

It has been alleged by many that, Santa symbolizes material pleasures. Children are told by their parents to remain good all year round in lieu of the material benefits, which they would be entitled to at the year-end. The eternal Savior nowhere features in the hot favorite list. Are we obsessed with Santa merely for the gifts he delivers at the year-end ? Every thing said and done, it would probably be a gross mistake on our parts to compare a fable or a legend with Jesus, our God. They have their respective domains to rule over. Many of us forget the simple facts that, true! We look forward to Christmas cause Santa would be there, but we would not have had a Christmas without Jesus either.

The favorite children’s icon Santa Claus has emerged after passing through various stages of history. There have been several opinions about the origin of this very dear friend, but can you guess how did we come to know how he looks.

The image of Santa as a jolly and friendly old man, with a small stature but a big heart, emerged through the writings and paintings of the artists during the 1800s. Clement Moore was the first to describe our Father Christmas as the chubby old man, with rosy cheeks, wearing a furry overcoat and hat. Robert Weir, the art teacher, was the first to paint the portrait of Santa Claus in 1837. He made Santa wear a short suit and a stocking hat as he puffs at his long clay pipe. Finally it was in 1863, that we get to see Santa more as a real person through the pictures drawn by Thomas Nast. Through his pictures of Santa’s world, for the first time we got a glimpse of the old man’s magical world. It portrayed him as making toys in his workshop in the North Pole, reading letters from children and making lists of the children for whom he has to take gifts this Christmas. In December 1867, the Godey’s magazine had imprinted a portrait of an old bearded man wearing a long suit. He had a staff in one hand, while with the other hand; he was shown to be holding a doll. However, it was in 1931, that Haddon Sundblom gave the final picture of the stout man with ruddy complexion.

So now you know all about the appearance of the portly bearded man through the various Santa Claus pictures as it has evolved over the years.

For more details on Jesus VS Santa log on to the site – here -

To All visitors of this blog, especially with the occasion of the feast of Christmas, I want to address an warm and honest, MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

My Christmas Present…

With the occasion of Christmas 2007 Feast I want offer to All visitors of this blog, as a Present from me, a Collection of Traditional English X-Mas Songs interpreted by various artists.

1. Jingle – click here -

2. Jingle bells – click here -

3. Merry little Christmas – click here -

4. Noel – click here -

5. Rudolf – click here -

6. Santa Claus is coming to town – click here -

7. Silent night – click here -

8. We wish you a Merry Christmas – click here -

9. White Christmas – click here -

10. Joy to the world – click here -

11. BONEY M. - When A Child Is Born – click here -

12. Oh Christmas Tree – click here -

13. BRYAN ADAMS - Xmas Time – click here -

14. BONEY M. - Jingle Bells – click here -

15. BRENDA LEE - Rockin Around The Xmas Tree – click here -

16. MAHALIA JACKSON - Silent Night – click here -

17. DOLLY PARTON & KENNY ROGERS – Happy Home With Bells On – click here -

18. BONEY M. - Marys Boy Child – click here -

19. GEORGE MICHAEL - Last Christmas – click here -

20. SHAKIN STEVENS - Merry Xmas – click here -

21. ROSE MARY LLONEY - Jingle Bells – click here -

22. Instrumental - The Christmas Song – click here -

23. BONEY M. - The Christmas – click here -

24. BONEY M. - Feliz Navidad– click here -

NOTE: All those songs aren’t published on this blog for commercial purposes, but to made known our traditions, those of the romanians, to All My blog visitors from Romania and foreing ones. I hope that owners of the copyright for those songs will agree and accept to be posted here only for the time of X-mas Holidays. As result I want to Thank them in advance !

To All visitors of this blog I wish to address, with the occasion of Holly Christmas Feast, an warm and honest: MERRY CHRISTMAS ! and an Happy Christmas Time !!!