New Year's Around the World

I found these following  ways to celebrate the new year in a magazine many years ago.  No author was given.

To ensure a prosperous and healthy New Year, Americans in the south eat Hoppin 'John (a stew of black-eyed peas and rice).

In Mexico, a large fruit center piece graces the New Year's table.  At midnight, each guest eats 12 grapes, to welcome the 12 months of the new year.

In Switzerland, godparents traditionally inserted a coin into a Zupfe (a milk-bread load) and presented it to their godchildren for good luck in the new year.

In Germany, Karpfen (carp) is served whole; each guest removes a scale and keeps it for good luck.

In Brazil, eating pomegranates is a New Year's must. The Brazilians believe that the many seeds symbolize wealth for the future.

Italians eat Cotechino (rich pork sausage) with lentils, which are thought to resemble small coins. The more lentils one eats, the richer one will be in the new year.

Hungarians eat roast suckling pig-putting an apple in its mouth and a four-leaf clover in its snout for luck.

In a traditional Moroccan New Year celebration, Herbel (crushed wheat with milk) is eaten as a symbol of prosperity for the coming year.
Graif Mekhtamrine-a pancake that inflates when heated is also served. The bursting of the pancake symbolizes wealth and happiness.

In Greece, a coin is inserted through a small slit in the bottom of Vasilopita (New Year's bread).  The bread is sliced at midnight, and the person who finds the coin has luck for the coming year.

New Year 2014

The following is a quote from Norman Vincent Peale.  I've heard that when Jews assemble for the New Year's celebration, they often recite a prayer which begins, "Today  is the birthday of the world."  And a Jewish educator says:  "Whatever was our yesterday, today as every day, we start a new."
A new start, a new beginning   - the past is in the past. What a motivation for a new year.

Dr. Pearle went on to say that when he was a young boy at home, his father would bring a Bible to the dinner table on every New Year's Eve and he would read the first four words of the first chapter of Genesis  - "In beginning God." That was all - just those four words.  That they were remembered shows that they registered. With such reliance on God you can be victorious over any difficulty the new year hands you.  His power activates a new start and with it the belief that you can forget yesterday and go forward confidently into the future. 

The Bible is filled with new start and fresh beginnings.  Such words as:  "Forgetting those thing which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark."  And again, "Old things are passed away, all things are become new."  And still again, "Behold, I make all things new."

Yes, we can leave the sins and failings of the past year behind us, accept His forgiveness, wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start.

Remember that New Year's Day can be the first day of the rest of your life.  And don't forget "in the beginning God."

Jesus loves me!

This is an e-mail I received some time back. A  church in Atlanta was honoring one of its senior pastors who was 92 years old and  had been retired many years.  After given a warm welcome, with great effort he went to the podium.  Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then  quietly and slowly he began to speak... "When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching.  I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials.  The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me...the only thing that would comfort was this verse:

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong, we are weak but He is strong...
Yes, Jesus loves me...The Bible tells me so."

Let us remember the manger  where Jesus was born, but also  the cross on Calvary where Jesus took our sins that we might walk free.

This is my Christmas message this year:
JESUS LOVES YOU AND HE LOVES ME!

 

Why are we fearful?

"And Jesus said unto them, 'Why are ye fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?"     Mark 4:40

It seems today as never before, every one is more or less fearful of what tomorrow is to bring.   With our boys and girls scattered all over the world and, too, families in our own United States moved from one state to another  - everything different to that to which we have been accustomed - we are thinking more than ever before: "What will tomorrow bring?"

It is a question that we cannot answer alone, we must have faith in our Heavenly Father, and pray often to Him for the help that He alone can give.

Jesus often said to his disciples "Fear not" and "Trust in the Lord".  Jesus knew that when we are frightened we lose our heads.  Fear is the main cause of blunders and mistakes.

Nothing is more necessary for the stability and wise guidance of the coming years than men and women in all lands to face the world's changes with "FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY."

We Christians dare not fail.  We must be sincere and "Love the Lord , our God, with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds, and love our neighbors as ourselves."  There is no other way in God's plan.  This is the test to which we are called to prove ourselves worthy.

Then, we have the assurance that God will be with us - "Even to the end of the world!"

This was written in the 50's by Mrs. C.A. Bachman, a member of First Presbyterian Church, Garland, Texas.