The older you got the tougher it got.  You felt the cold more, and you didn’t take to sleeping out on the ground so much.  A man that old should have himself a home, a place to hang his hat while he waited for the sunset.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Conagher)

    “From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north.”
              –Job 37:9 (NKJV)
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Brrr, it’s cold outside; sure glad this is East Texas.  My toes surely couldn’t handle that below zero temperature anymore.  I’ve seen the snow in the northeast, and it sure is pretty–pretty that is until it begins to turn to slush, or causes the pipes to freeze, or the car won’t start, or when the vehicles get around and it turns black from exhaust.  My thoughts, in fact, my warmest thoughts are of those family members up in the northern lands.  I was thinking, Christmas is almost upon us, that means Winter will proceed it by a few days, next Monday if I’m not mistaken.  It reminds me of a carol written in 1872 by Christina Rossetti that has made a resurgence in the last decade or so.

         “In the bleak mid-winter
          Frosty winds make moan,
          Earth stood hard as iron,
          Water like a stone…”

Water like a stone, that means ice–ice means cold!  Makes my toes ache just thinking of it.  If I had a fireplace I’d put another log on as I feel that frosty breeze bring a chill down my neck.  
    That brings to my mind part of John Denver’s “Season’s Suite:  Winter.”

         “It’s cold and it’s getting colder.
          It’s gray and white and winter all around.
          And oh, I must be getting older,
          All this snow is trying to get me down.
          There’s a fire in the corner slowly dying away…”

Brrr, winter, cold weather and it’s giving me shivers.  But then, it is proper that we celebrate the birth of Jesus at this time of year.  The world was cold as death; dark without the hint of light.  Into this bleak, dark, dreary, cold world came God’s Son.  The world was in the throes of death and now comes God’s Son to defeat death.  There was darkness all around, but now there is a Light.

         “To you, who were spiritually dead all the time that you drifted along on the stream of this world’s ideas of living, and obeyed its unseen ruler (who is still operating in those who do not respond to the truth of God), to you Christ has given life!  We all lived like that in the past, and followed the impulses and imaginations of our evil nature, being in fact under the wrath of God by nature, like everyone else.”
              –Ephesians 2:1-3 (Phillips)

    Death has been defeated, yet those who do not accept Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, are doomed to feel its cold, icy grip.  The Holy Spirit has come to bring us warmth, to fill us with His love.  Oh, sure winter still brings physical cold with snow, ice, and chilling winds.  Jack Frost and Old Man Winter still play havoc, but there is now a Light in the darkness, and with that Light is a warmth that comes to the soul.  Yes, there is still physical death, but now that coldness that grips the corpse had been defeated and we can look expectantly to that heavenly realm from whence that divine Babe came.  Plus, there is that small gift in the midst of winter and the “virus” that has beset the world.  Jack Frost, won’t be “nipping at  your nose” for you are wearing a mask when going out (ahemm).

That old North wind, howlin’ high up in the timber,
     The only choir that I remember,
     I was ridin’ on the line.
     One lone star hanging over the horizon,
     Like the one that led the wise men,
     As they followed heaven’s sign.
     Snow-capped peaks, like the angels in their glory,
     Seem to sing the ancient story,
     As the wind blows through the pines.
     Driftin’ along,
     To the soundn of spurs a-jinglin’
     Like silver bells a-ringin’
     Christmas on the line.”
              –Michael Martin Murphy

    “Once again the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem.  It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!”
              –Matthew 2:9-10 (NLT)
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Ravi Zacharias once said, “There’s nothing worse than nostalgia except amnesia.”  Well, I’m afraid that I can’t remember all of my 70 plus Christmases, but I will take a moment here, and you will have to indulge me since I’m writing and you’re reading, to display a little nostalgia.
    Fifty years ago, I spent my first Christmas away from home.  I was in a little country home in Pennsylvania, meeting my wife’s-to-be parents.  Annie had survived Thanksgiving at my place in Colorado and now it was my turn.  I don’t remember a whole lot about that Christmas.  I don’t recall if we had snow or not, I don’t think we did, but I do remember going out with the family to cut a tree.  It was misting rain.
    Ah, Christmas!  I have taken to heart over the years that a person can celebrate Christmas wherever they find themselves.  I was fortunate to grow up in the area of snow-capped peaks, and it was rare if we didn’t have a white Christmas.  If for some reason the snow had not come for that day, all we had to do was look to the west to see the high mountains of the Rockies.  Almost any night you could hear the wind blowing through the pines and spruces that were around us.  
    Church and Sunday School was always special at Christmas.  We had our little Christmas programs, and always a bag of goodies when we left church.  Each bag was filled with a popcorn ball, most likely made by my Grandma.  We sang robustly, and sometimes off-key, but to the Lord.  The carols I learned at a young age, and they became entrenched in my mind, if not in my heart by my teenage years when the youth would go caroling to members of the church.  Ahhh, Christmas!
    There was a Christmas in Florida.  We were too poor to travel either to Pennsylvania or Colorado, plus I was the lowest ranking person in my position at Tyndall AFB.  Since then we have spent more than a few Christmases here in Texas.  The cactus and gravel is sure hard on Santa’s sleigh, but he always seems to make it all right.  It’s not the quite the same going out to the hills or mountains in the snow or having a snowball fight, but nothing has stopped Annie’s Christmas baking or having a wonderful treat along with hot cocoa on Christmas Eve.  Ahhh, Christmas!
    I’ve heard of folks out in West Texas, where there’s nary a spruce or Douglas fir taking an old tumbleweed and dressing it up Christmas style.  Nothing can stop the celebration of Christmas or the decoration of the tree, no matter the kind.  See, it’s not the tree, nor the ornaments and decorations that make Christmas.  It’s knowing that the heavenly Father loved and thought of us enough to send His only Son that wondrous morning.  Ahhh, Christmas!  We should be like the angels and start praising the Lord, whether through song, or humble quietness.
    Take a minute this Christmas season to walk outside, whether you be in the desert of the Southwest, the woods of East Texas, the freezing plains of the Dakotas, the high country of the Rockies, or along the coast.  Look at the sky, breathe the crisp air, gaze at the stars and think back to that first Christmas night when Joseph and Mary, weary from traveling stopped in the stable.  Remember that night when the Savior of the world was born, and laid in a manger.  An infant whose footsteps would one day take Him to another type of tree; one where He would be nailed and give Himself for the sins of mankind.  Be alone for a moment with God and look up at His marvelous universe and think of that night and of the Savior.  Ahhh, Christmas!

It was one thing to sit in a comfortable living room and talk about the west, but it’s something else when you are face to face with it.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Quick and the Dead)

    “By knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.”
              –Proverbs 24:4 (NKJV)
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I am convinced that we do not spend enough time contemplating the Word of God.  Take this time of year, for instance, we know the Christmas story, but do we really look at it?  I mentioned how “dreams” played a part in the story.  Today I want to look at Luke 2:7.

         “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
                   –Luke 2:7 (NKJV)

When I read this verse my mind went to a song written by Dallas Holm several years ago.  In fact, Annie and I were in the audience the day he first sang it in public at a David Wilkerson rally.  It is a humorous parody about Joseph and Mary doing to Bethlehem.

         “Well, the man said, ‘All I’ve got to offer is a little old shack.
          And you can find it if you look close; it’s out ’round back.
          Well, chase those cattle out, and move some things about,
          I’ll see you in the morning, and don’t forget to check out!”

    Look at verse 7 again, and you’ll see one of the saddest phrases in all Scripture:  “there was no room for them in the inn.”  Have you ever been in that situation?  I remember the time that we moved from Florida to Colorado.  I was being transferred from Tyndall AFB to the Air Force Academy.  We had been driving all day, pulling a trailer, and both of us were weary and tired.  As we approached Dallas we began to search for a motel.  Nothing!  All were full.  We kept driving and driving, and finally, there was one room left at a motel in Gainesville, TX.  All we heard along the way:  No room!  No room!
    I wonder how Joseph felt.  There must have been concerned for he knew that the baby was going to be born.  Yet, at the same time, he was a man of faith and he knew that the heavenly Father would take care of things.  
    But go back to that statement.  “No room for them at the inn.”  Look around you and you’ll see the same thing today.  There is “no room” for Jesus in this modern, enlightened, woke culture.  I believe that the innkeeper saw their plight and was concerned.  He gave what he had left.  The culture of liberal America scoffs and scorns.  They mock the thought of the miraculous Incarnation of the Son of God.  There is no room for Him.
    How about the place where you work?  The workplace often has “no room” for Him.  I know of some places where people are not allowed to speak of Jesus during working hours, nor are they allowed to place a Bible on the top of their desk.  There’s room for other things:  swearing, taking the Lord’s name in vain, lewd conversation, politics, but no room for Jesus Christ.
    We are supposed to have freedom of speech in our land, but there is “no room”, except in certain locations to speak of God.  He has been removed from schools in prayer.  If a person wants to speak of God, of the Savior, they are to go to the church building on Sunday, but even now, many are those are closed up by the government.  There is no room for Jesus.
    I will also say that there is “no room” for Jesus in higher education and it is working its way down into the secondary and elementary schools of our nation.  “God,” how archaic and mundane the scholars say.  Jesus proclaimed that He was the Truth, but the enlightened men in the halls of academia laugh, saying that truth is relative, or truth in what you perceive it to be.  No, there is no room for Jesus in education.
    May I then dare ask–do you have room for the Lord in the inn of your heart?  Don’t look for Him in the beer joint or the casinos.  Don’t look for Him in the halls of bureaucracy or the prisons.  We must provide for Him a place to stay in our hearts.  Dare to open the doors of your heart wide and invite Him in, not just as a guest, but as a permanent resident.
    I will say one more thing in this regard.  If you accept Jesus to live in your heart, you will find that there is no room for you in the world.  You are now a pilgrim traveling through this wicked and sinful world.  The world’s opinion and yours cannot coexist.  The world’s opinion is now against you.  You are in a foreign land looking for that heavenly city.
    “No room,” I pray that it is not so with you.  Open up the door of your heart and give Jesus His rightful “room.”