By Mel Futrell

In this new year of 2019 it might be good to recall what we needed to “take back” last year because of unguarded speech. There is an adage that says, “The spoken word is like the last opportunity, it doesn’t come back.” And what a true statement that is. Brethren, how many times in our lives have we made some remark and almost immediately regretted the utterance? In all likelihood it is a fault we have succumbed to numerous times through the years. But words once spoken cannot be recalled. So we honestly try to lessen the impact by saying: “I didn’t mean it,” “That’s not what I intended to say,” “I take it back.” Sometimes this helps, but usually the damage has been done.

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by R.C. Lupo

Hanukkah is a feast that was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus (not God) in the year 164 or 165 B.C., in commemoration of him purifying the Temple after it had been defiled by the Syrian, Antiochus Epiphanes. When Antiochus heard that the Jews had made great rejoicings because of a report of his death, he quickly left Egypt, returned to Jerusalem and took the city by storm. Of the inhabitants, in three days, he slew forty thousand Jews; forty thousand more, he sold for slaves to the neighboring nations. Not content with this, he sacrificed a great sow on the altar of burnt offerings, and broth being made by his command of some of the flesh, he sprinkled all over the Temple, including the Holy of Holies, intending to defile it completely.

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