Happy or Joyful Christmas?

I love Christmas! I love everything about it. I love the decorations, the gifts, the food, the fun, the time with family, the laughter, the cooking. I love it all! For me, Christmas is a precious time of the year. Yet it occurs to me that Christmas is not a happy time for everyone. Many are alone, having to do without necessities (let alone luxuries), missing a loved one for the first time, or not in a place within themselves to celebrate anything. For some, Christmas is a struggle.

I know that my enjoyment is temporal. It doesn’t last forever. A time will come when the festivities will come to an end, the decorations will be put away, the food will eventually diminish and we will return home from spending precious time with our families. My happiness will dwindle with the ending of the festivities.

Yet, the joy of Christmas is free for us all and is eternal. It’s the joy of the knowledge that God Himself entered our world to meet with us and to save us. He came to us as a baby – vulnerable, shamed by the gossip surrounding His very existence, His life under threat by those who feared for their position in life. Our God came down to this and was born into the dirt and squalour of a stable. He wasn’t born into a clean, safe environment. His first hours were hours of dirt, mess and fear. He entered our dirty, messy, fearful world to save us from the grip of the enemy. He came because He loves us and wants to draw us back to Himself.

This is the Christmas joy we can all celebrate. This isn’t temporal, it’s eternal. It will last forever. My prayer this Christmas time is that we all find that joy – a joy that deepens as we look to our Saviour and celebrate all that He has done for us. If you’re struggling with Christmas this year, I pray this unfathomable joy will be your strength. For those of us who have much to enjoy, I pray that you won’t lost sight of the deep joy that surpasses our understanding.

Prayer: What can we say to our Saviour who came to this earth to save us? Thank You does not seem enough but it’s all we have. Help us, Lord, to know the joy that is ours for free and is eternal, and help us not to lose sight of this truth as we celebrate your birth. We especially pray for those who are struggling this Christmas time. May You give each one of us the only gift that matters this year: may Your love penetrate our hearts in a deep and precious way. Amen.

IRS’s Lerner Refuses to Resign? She was put on administrative leave instead?

First she refused to testify. Now Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the tax agency scandal, is refusing to resign, according to a top Republican senator.

I could she the headlines now.  If Donald Trump were in charge he might say, "Your fired and You're going to jail."  But to be politically correct our Government is telling her and us, were placing Lois Lerner, the IRS staffer, even though you are under fire for your role in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, we are placing you on administrative leave.  Yes that's right!  You get a payed vacation starting Thursday!

Sources confirmed to Fox News earlier Thursday that Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversaw the unit targeting conservative groups, had been placed on administrative leave, with pay.

But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, claimed she was only put in that status after refusing to step down.

He said the commissioner was in his right to demand her resignation, and said taxpayers should not continue to pay her salary indefinitely.

“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign. She was then put on administrative leave instead,” Grassley said in a statement. “The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly. The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle.”

Capitol Hill sources said Lerner, the director of exempt organizations, was placed on paid leave Thursday, amid calls from some lawmakers for her to be suspended or fired. In her absence, Ken Corbin, the current deputy director of the submission processing, wage and investment division, will take over her duties, according to an internal IRS memo obtained by Fox News.

Lerner, the official who first acknowledged the controversial IRS practice earlier this month, asserted her innocence at a House hearing on Wednesday. She then refused to testify, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. The move angered many who say she should have been forced to answer why the tax agency targeted conservative groups applying for tax exempt status.

Republican leaders of that committee, though, now say she waived that right by giving a statement and want to haul her back to testify.

Pressure has been mounting on the administration to take tough action against Lerner, after two other IRS officials were pushed out in the wake of the scandal.

In a letter earlier Thursday to IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., asked the agency to remove Lerner from office and said they had “lost confidence in her ability to fulfill her duties.”

It’s unclear whether Republicans will succeed in trying to recall her before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the panel, said through an aide Thursday that her Fifth Amendment assertion is “no longer valid,” since she delivered remarks at the start of Wednesday’s hearing.

That hearing was never technically adjourned, and Republicans hope to bring her back.

Others, though, say she was in her right to defend herself and subsequently invoke the right to remain silent.

The IRS has had a series of missteps that have not only publicly marred the reputation of the IRS, but also called into question what the White House knew about the scandal and when they knew it.

Separately, Tea Party-related groups who claim they were targeted by the tax agency have started filing lawsuits this week against the IRS. In some cases they are asking for the IRS to admit wrongdoing. In others, they are seeking monetary claims.

“It’s extremely troubling that it has taken this long for Lois Lerner to removed from the top exempt position at the IRS,” Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, the group suing on behalf of some Tea Party groups, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

Sekulow said instead of putting Lerner on administrative leave, his group is calling for her to be fired.