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[ANNOUNCER]

The subject matter contained in this presentation is based on Biblical principles and designed to give you accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that neither the presenter nor the broadcaster is engaged to render legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Since your situation is fact-dependent, you may wish to additionally seek the services of an appropriately licensed legal, accounting, real estate, or investment professional.

"No one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life-- what you shall eat or drink-- or about your body-- what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

"Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap. They gather nothing into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you, by worrying, add a single moment to your life span?

"Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wildflowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will He not much more provide for you, oh you of little faith?

"So do not worry and say, what are we to eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what are we to wear? All these things the pagans seek. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."

[THEME MUSIC]

[ANNOUNCER]

This is Mejanomics with a Friend of Medjugorje.

[A FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

Here we are, just a few days before Christmas, a beautiful season! Why? You know why. But do we understand it? Do we live it?

We had a feedback that came in, asking a question. She writes:

I picked this random message last week, praying every day since for deeper understanding. Is there an article or Radio WAVE program that mentions it that could give me a further understanding?

The message she picked at random is June 26, 1986:

You will have as many graces as you want. That depends on you. You will have love when you want it, as long as you want it. That depends on you.

How do you explain that further? Its really not complicated. The more you invest, the more you return. The more you love, the more love comes back. Maybe thats too simplistic for what shes asking, wanting to go deeper into it, but Christmas is the same way. We can parallel that. The more Christmas has Christmas in it, the more Christmas we experience. And everythings that way.

We know Jesus has taught us, and the Church has taught us, the Bible teaches us, that if you live the Ten Commandments, you follow that, you strive to follow it, you confess, youll experience more love, because the love of God descends upon those who are faithful to him. Its a return. Its like a boomerang. Whatever you give to God, He comes back ten times the more for you, for your good. And it could be even persecution. But if you understand that in the proper context, thats His love, because persecution brings purification. Purification brings you closer to God and more love. He wants to purify us. Our Lady is here to purify everything, every road that we walk down was a bad step.

Our Lady spoke about this on September 2, 2006:

You know that we have been gathering for me to help you to come to know the love of God.

Thats what the question was, with the message that was picked at random.

You will have as many graces as you want. That depends on you. You will have love when you want it

So, She just says, to know the love of God But then She speaks about the future to the visionary, and then She says this:

God is great. Great are His works. Do not deceive yourselves that you can do anything without Him, not even to take a single step

Pretty amazing. Why? Because weve taken many steps. I dont mean small. I mean many, M-A-N-Y, steps without God, and the road were on is a bad path for everything, even Christmas.

So, I wont go deep in the answer of this because this is not the context I want to answer this person about the random message that she picked says, That depends on you And it is. Were off-course in the culture because we havent taken the right steps. We dont see God as great. We see that man is great, that Gods works arent great, but that mans works are great. Thats the path to take a step in the wrong direction.

We need to take Christmas back. We dont have it anymore. The culture that goes with Christmas now is the culture of materialism. Were just busy, busy, busy people. What kind of preparation are we doing? Were in the middle of doing a 9-day Christmas novena. Its beautiful. Its long. Its probably one of the only things that can be done that you prepare for nine days for Christmas. Its beautiful. But is settles us in for a 9-day novena to Christmas day in preparation for Jesus. Are we preparing that? No. Were getting this gift. Were getting another gift and another and another. Well see all these gifts under the tree. They belong to this person and that person. You spent your whole Christmas in this preparation. And wheres Jesus? Does He have a gift under the tree? If we wanted to explain this, through words, the most powerful way to do it is through a song. Songs speak to us. They touch our heart. And it tells truth when its giving truth, as youll hear now.

[SONG: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS]

Happy Birthday, Jesus. Its that time of year. All the lights on the trees say Christmas time is near. Another years behind us. You helped us make it through. So, Happy Birthday Jesus. This song is just for You.

We all get so hung up on material things that times it seems like we forget what Christmas really means. It should be thanks were giving. Thats why I wrote this tune. Happy Birthday Jesus. This song is just for you.

Theres a gift for everyone but You underneath the tree. No, its not much, but I hope You like this song to You from me.

Happy Birthday Jesus. Thats why I wrote this tune. So, Happy Birthday Jesus. My song is just for You.

[A FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

We stepped ahead without God. Weve taken the wrong step. Thats what Our Lady was speaking about. Youre going to be walking a direction. The question is, is it the right direction? Merry Christmas is becoming more and more not merry, rather, sad and tragic. Why? Weve taken the wrong step. Why? Because Christmas is not defined by Christians. Its rather by the steps we go through toward consumerism, secularism, Hollywood, and the song industry. We must learn our enemy. What is the strategy? We apply that to satan. How does he work? Why does he work? How does he get us off the right path? his strategy is not to block the stream up. When he wants to win over, what he does, is he jumps in the stream. he doesnt do anything. he flows along with it. Hey! Christmas is here! Everybody clap! Everybody sing! Sing to Jesus! Do the Nativities! he flows right along with it. But downstream, what he does, is he makes a little outlet and goes off to the right. Then another step downward, he diverts it to the left, and he does this all the way down the stream. And thats how he dries the stream up. Theres no stream left. Its dried up. Christmas has dried up the same way. Thats his tactic, to flow with the stream to do this. Weve got to do this. Weve got to go buy Christmas trees. Weve got to buy everybody gifts. Weve got to get busy. Weve got to open more stores. Each one of these is an outlet. Im not saying that as a pun. That just came out from the Holy Spirit. An outlet of a stream flows out. A store outlet is doing the same thing. It is draining Christmas and its meaning away through consumerism. How do we do that? How does he start that? He didnt start with the stores. he starts by, in the stream, jumping in with it. Lets celebrate Christmas. Lets write songs, like Do You Hear What I Hear? What about Silver Bells? What about The Christmas Song? What about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Holly Jolly Christmas? Weve all grown up with these songs, even if you were born in the 40s, because this is when it came out. And then lets go to another phase: Rockin Around the Christmas Tree and Winter Wonderland and Its the Most Beautiful Time of the Year, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, White Christmas, all these songs, you can say, and theres two versions, were written by Jewish people in Hollywood. And one side says they do it because they wanted to celebrate the holidays of Christmas, and the other side says that they did it on purpose to get us away from Christmas.

So, it doesnt matter what position you take. The step is wrong. It doesnt matter whos going to win the argument of covering up what was done. It was a secularization of Christmas. This is where it began. And it began to celebrate Christmas, to change it from a holy Birth of Jesus Christ to a holiday that everybody can celebrate, Jews and Christians. Thats the positive way. And the other version, as I just said, that these men de-Christ Christmas, and also Easter. We have the same songs, the same things. Its a de-Christianization of Christmas. De-Christ out of the picture. You can know even if they had good will or bad will. It doesnt matter. The devils behind it. hes in the stream. Lets celebrate!

We didnt look at Gods great works. We looked at mans and his songs. And these are top songs you hear constantly over and over and over. Thats why, on Radio WAVE we dont have hardly any of these songs. Weve got a couple of them, maybe, but it still has diverted and secularized Christmas.

Theodore Spencer was of Harvard, and before he died, he said Jesus was just a myth. And people catch on this. And thats why somebody who doesnt believe in Jesus can stand up and read or put it on the radio, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, because it doesnt mean anything anymore. Theres nothing behind it. And they make it sound real Christmasy on the Christmas radio station. But we buy into these things, because we have slowly, through the decades, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and now, headed toward 2020, another decade. When are we going to turn this around? Thats what were supposed to be. Our Lady is here to reverse this. You are to take back Christmas. Godless people fed us. We ate it. We swallowed it. We grew fat as Santa Claus is. And now, our culture, so secularized, is choking on it. Were dying. Christmas has been dying. And if you cant observe that, if you dont see it, youre way off on your steps.

We have to take Christmas back. Christmas has to go back into the heart. We need to evaluate everything. The messages of Our Lady are just about that.

You will have as many graces as you want. That depends on you

Are you taking Christmas back? One of those steps is the 9-day Christmas novena. You can online on our site and find that or call Caritas. And if you havent started yet, and you want to, go ahead and go do it and go past Christmas because Jesus is still here after Christmas night.

You, yourself, can measure Christmas. Do you think it is what its supposed to be today? Is it really true Christmas, or has it become invisible, the real Christmas? The Church itself has become invisible. Its inconsequential now. Its not convicting. Its not converting the culture. Theyre convicting and converting us to their way, and we go along with it, singing Jingle Bells and all these stupid things that we dont even think about. Am I against Jingle Bells? No. Our kids sing that. But thats not the primary direction we need to be looking at. You might say, Oh, no. I dont despise Christmas or deny it. If youre walking around in the culture and all your preparation is gift-giving, and thats all youre thinking about, Yeah, its about Baby Jesus. Are the same hours you put into that the same hours in adoring Jesus? Is it? Are you honest with yourself? The graces available on Christmas depends on you, what you invest, and are you honest if you say, I deny Christmas? Then why do we accept all the Christmas music on the stations disappearing on December 26^th, just after, just hours after the Birth of Jesus? Its so death. I want to challenge you, on December 26^th, on the stations that are playing a lot of Christmas music, some of them dedicated 24/7, two months before Christmas, or right after Thanksgiving or even now before Thanksgiving, you turn that station back on and listen to it, the very next morning after Christmas, and youll feel coldness. You will feel death. You wont feel the warmth Joseph and Mary felt in the stable.

Our Lady said on December 14, 1992 the steps in what you need to do for Christmas to bring it back. Its a profound message. Its an amazing revelation through these private revelations Shes giving to us. Can you imagine, Our Lady came down, spoke to Ivan at the prayer group and said these words? Listen carefully. This is directly from Heaven.

[I want you to] read especially the special passages in the Bible that concern Advent. Pray, dear children, especially during this time

See, this is December 14^th, preparation for Christmas.

and amongst your prayers prepare yourselves for the great day that is coming

This is December 14, 1992. Again, I repeat that. And then She continues,

that this Christmas will be different from the other Christmases

Wow! Shes giving you instructions to back your steps up, to go back in the fork in the road, when you took it to the right when you shouldve kept going straight, and go straight down this path, back to Christmas. Thats worthy of repeating, that one sentence:

that this Christmas will be different from the other Christmases, that it will be joyous, dear children

And then heres the bombshell. This was an incredible part of the message. Beautiful, because we never heard this before. Its not in the Bible. Its private revelations about the Scriptures, public revelations.

Remember, dear children, how we were happy in the stable when my Son was born!

Wow! Do you realize you, in your lifetime, in 1992, the world was spoken to, giving us a revelation about the first Nativity, the first night, that merry, merry, happy Christmas?

Remember, dear children, how we were happy in the stable when my Son was born!

We never thought that. We thought they were sad, there was tragedy. No, Christmas today is sad and tragedy with all the wealth, all the warmth, all the conveniences. They had none of those things. And they were happy in the stable. And She finished with this:

May your family be happy and all those present in the stable.

What does that say to you this Christmas? Its an investment. Experience the stable. Be part of it. No matter what your circumstances are, theres no excuse not to be happy if you prepare for Christmas, no matter what you have or what you dont have.

These are beautiful words, incredible things! You need to be preparing for Christmas, right now. Read to your children Advent. Get this 9-day novena. Even if youre late, start it and go through Christmas as I said earlier.

So, this is not the cultures fault that were following them. It is us who accept abortion of Baby Jesus within hours of His Birth. The celebration of Jesus Birth is mainly after His Birth. Everything before His Birth is anticipation. But it cannot be defined as anticipation. Rather, the period before Christmas is and must be defined for what it has become. And what is that? One: commercialism. Two: materialism. Three: consumerism. What do these three things do? It kills love, it kills values, all those things that you cherish, and we know this! We know this is a truth! Why? Because Our Lady said, March 25, 1996:

In this time, when due to the spirit of consumerism, one forgets what it means to love and to cherish true valuesput God in the first place

Jesus is supposed to be in the first place. But Hes not, because these three things, commercialism, materialism, consumerism, leaves the manger empty at 12 a.m. December 26^th. And for two months and three months, theyve been stocking the shelves for this Baby that they could care less about.

You could respond, Theres vestiges of Christmas the next day. Well, thats true. But the peak of Christmas is crossed over at midnight, and by daylight, four fifths of it is down the other side of the mountain from the peak. The culture weve accepted is clearing out the stores this spring, fashions, bar-be-que grills, that quick! Do a test. You go to the stores and see what happens.

Yes, Christmas has died in this culture that weve accepted. Poor Baby Jesus in this time. He didnt get out of the culture of the new Bethlehem that we built. And Herod has succeeded in slaughtering the Christ Child, their only hope.

So, how do we turn this around? Theres examples. Theres witnesses. People can do things. Im not condemning gift-giving. Its that Jesus has to be a part of it. You have to incorporate that.

We got a feedback yesterday telling of a story, out shopping what happened. Shelley from Missouri writes:

There are angels watching over us all the time, and God takes care of us, even when we least expect it. The death of my father had taken a large toll on me especially since I was the caregiver the last three weeks of his life. Today, I went to Wal-Mart to see about getting a few things for the girls since I havent been able to Christmas shop. I wandered around for about an hour and got a few things that totaled about $75. I got in the checkout line, and a couple got in line behind me. I put my items on the belt, and the couple told me Merry Christmas! We want to pay for all your items. They said they do this every year and have been looking for someone this year, when they saw me, and felt that they needed to pay for my stuff. I started to cry and thank them. I told them about my father passing, and each of them hugged me and said God had directed them to help me this year. Many blessings to these strangers, and may they have a blessed Christmas.

These are the things youre supposed to do. These are the things that happen. This is what makes Christmas.

I didnt plan to tell this story, but this just happened. I was at the airport a few days ago. I fly a lot, so I get bumped up into a better class, comfort seats, sometimes even first class. And I was standing in line, and when you stand in the lines for Delta, youve got premium boarding. And then you have another line over there where a pole says, Priority Boarding. And then youve got One, another line, Two another line, Three. Well, Ive been a peasant for years flying, and two and three are horrible seats. You dont want to sit in them. Its miserable. And as I was standing there, and I like to get on first because you get your luggage on. You dont have to get in the crowd and wait. And then, when youre in the back of the plane, you have to wait ten minutes to get off the plane. Its just very stressful when youre trying to catch another flight, etc.

So, I look over there, and Im thinking, Its Christmas, and I look in two and three and I said, Those poor people. Ive been there so many times. My empathy was going out for them because its not a pleasant situation. So, I said to myself, You know what? You need to give up your seat. You have a nice seat. You need to give it to a passenger. So, I looked, and there was one person that I looked at, and I looked at some other people, some of the guys and the girls. But there was one girl that really I came back to.

So, I went over there to her, went in the back of the line, and I told the person, Im coming right back, where I was lined up where we boarded. And I said, Which seat do you have? And she pulled up her cellphone, meaning that she didnt have her boarding pass. And I said, Never mind. That doesnt work. The reason for that is cell phones, they scan the cell phones, and of course, I couldnt take her phone. So, I just dropped it and went back in line.

So, I boarded real quickly, and about 15-20 minutes after I started boarding, she comes on, and I jump up and say, Take this seat. She said, What? I said, Take this seat. Merry Christmas. I get to fly like this all the time. Bump up. You can have the seat.

So, I went on to my seat, and yes, she had the worst seat, in front of the exit seat in the very back of the plane. The seats dont go back. Its uncomfortable. I did this as a gift for conversion. Before I left her, I gave her a card that we pass out that just introduces you to the Virgin Mary. Its just a front and a back, real simple. And so, I prayed a Rosary while we sat there. And we were in the seat probably a couple hours flying and sitting on the runway. I prayed a Rosary for her, gave her a Special Blessing between each decade that she go through conversion. And the reason I was drawn to her is she looked like she needed something like this. I just felt it in my heart just like this person in Wal-Mart, Weve been looking for somebody and praying for somebody. And I scanned that whole crowd, that was the one person I went to. So, I forgot about that. Actually, I think I prayed two or three Rosaries for her, giving the Special Blessing, and Mary, here it is. You take it from there. So that was the end of it for me.

And the plane unloads and it unloads. It takes 15 minutes, at least 20 minutes, maybe, to get from the back of the plane to out. And it was late at night. The people in front of me were blocked so there was almost all the passengers out, and I was among the last. And when I come out, shes standing out where you sit, about ten yards away. And she says, What you did was a very beautiful thing for me. So, I walked over to her, and immediately, she hugged me, and we talked a little bit. And I said, It was nothing. I just felt like I needed to give that to you. By the time we got to the luggage section, she had already told me she had been through a divorce, a second divorce, her mother and father were divorced, and Are you Catholic, because of this card I gave her about Our Lady. And I said, Yes, and I asked her, What are you? She said something to the effect ofI dont really remember what she said. Maybe nothing. What she did says is, The Catholic Church wouldnt have me.

So, we talked some small talk, and we arrived at the luggage section, and we parted at that point. But she was deeply moved. I didnt think nothing of it. You never know the impact youre going to have by sacrificing something, that really isnt nothing in the end, that can add grace and put somebody on a trajectory of conversion. And I can tell you, this was four or five days ago, and I can tell you, Ive not stopped praying for her. Ive not stopped giving her the Special Blessing. I dont go past my bed in the Bed of Apparitions without saying, giving her a Special Blessing, whatever, whether its in the middle of the night, whether its going to the Field, to bring her to conversion. She said, before I left her, she said, Im going to go on this site. I want to look at this. I want to learn more about this. Where she is, is Im confident that Gods going to do something with her.

She didnt tell me her name, but she did tell me she lived in Oxford, Alabama, which is about an hour from Caritas. So, in my prayer, I call her the Oxford girl. So, I want to invite you to feed this conversion. This is what Christmas is about. This is giving something of yourself to somebody else. You never know the impact you will have. And thats the song we should give to Baby Jesus.

[SONG: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS]

My song is just for you

[A FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]

You go out this Christmas. You do something special. Make it hurt. Make it be uncomfortable, whatever you can do, and feed that seed that you planted in that heart, that it will grow into a beautiful flower for Our Lady, and thats a gift for Jesus. And you will neve regret it, nor the person you give it to.

We wish you Our Lady. We love you this Christmas. Merry Christmas. Goodbye.

[THEME MUSIC]

[ANNOUNCER]

The subject matter contained in this presentation is based on Biblical principles and designed to give you accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that neither the presenter nor the broadcaster is engaged to render legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Since your situation is fact-dependent, you may wish to additionally seek the services of an appropriately licensed legal, accounting, real estate, or investment professional.

This ends the Mejanomics broadcast with a Friend of Medjugorje. These broadcasts are available as CDs which are sent directly to your doorstep on a monthly subscription. For information, contact Caritas in the U.S. at 205-672-2000.