Martha Bostic, founder and hostess for United Club, began the December meeting by giving two doors prizes to Ruby Ball and Barbara Tucker, compliments of Steve Robinson of Cleveland Plywood.

Bostic said, “This is a good time of year to be happy ... it’s a good time of the year or a sad time of the year.” She said she received some bad news that a great-niece, who was going to college in Cookeville, was found dead during final exams week. She had received a Christmas card from the girl’s mother saying she and her daughter were going to come by to visit her after Christmas. She read the card out to those present and urged the group to remember them.

Bostic led the group with the “Pledge Of Allegiance To The Flag” and Alexander Delk gave the opening prayer for the meeting. Bostic read the Christmas story from Luke 2:10,11.

She said Jesus grew up as a boy like all other boys, a good little boy and he walked among us. He loved us enough to later die on the cross for our sins. “So, if it hadn’t been for Jesus coming to earth and dying for our sins, there would be no hope for us, there would be no hope at all,” she added.

Bostic shared a “News flash” with the group:

“This is liberated news, don’t be afraid, the coming of Christ, He took all the fear from my heart.

— This is supernatural news, it was given by the angels from heaven shouting, ‘look, I proclaim.’

— This is personal news, I promise to claim you. This is good news; I proclaim to you good news.

— This is happy news, I proclaim to you great news of great joy.

— This is global news, that would be for all the people in all the world.

— This is breaking news today, this is saving, saving news today, a savior.

— This is divine news, today, a savior, who is messiah the Lord.

— This is saving news, today, a savior who is the messiah the Lord, was born for us.

— This is royal news, He was born in the city of David.”

Charles Lupo, guest speaker, first complimented everyone dressed up for the Christmas occasion, which is a very special time.

He talked about what we feel at Christmastime, saying Christmas is something that we do every year and a routine overdone can become a rut, and to “not let it become a rut.” He gave a point about the Christmas routine, saying that years ago on Saturday nights in town teens and younger drivers would drive up and down Keith Street in their vehicles and when they got to Keith and 25th Street, they turned completely around and drove back down Keith to another turnaround spot and came back up to Keith and 25th again — only to repeat the route over and over again spending time seeing and talking with their friends, sometimes tying up traffic and making it difficult for other cars to get to their destinations.

Lupo referred to this as, “getting dressed up with no place to go.” He said, that we do that at Christmastime as well saying, “We get all dressed up with no place to go, we have to think about what’s this is all about anyway.”

He said the Fourth of July means liberty and freedom and Christmas is a time of joy and good tidings and he wanted to add liberty to the Christmas list of feelings. Christmas, he said, is about liberty in a way, because the birth of Jesus (and His sacrifice) gave us liberty by paying for that liberty with his death.

He read Hebrews 2:14-15: “Jesus shared in their humanity, so that by his death He might destroy him, who holds the power of death, that is the devil and free all those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

So the other real meaning of Christmas, Lupo said, has to do with us once being held in captivity until we met Christ and we even continued to struggle sometimes with captivity, but we’re no longer subservient to Satan, because his stronghold on us has been broken.

Lupo said Christmas is about the baby in the manger, who is the incarnation on God. In other religions — whether Muslims or Buddhists — people are looking up for ways to reach God, he said.

With Christianity, God sent down His son to share in our humanity, “so this is what the incarnation of Jesus is all about — making us free.”

Lupo said the freedom Jesus brings to us does three things: It delivers us from eternal death (hell), the control of the “strongman” over our lives (Satan) and the presence of sin in our lives.

He went on to say that one day (we as believers) we’ll be taken out of this world into the next and we’ll no longer be in the presence of sin, “So Christmas means being delivered from power of the devil, penalty of sin and one day from the presence of sin and all its troubles,” Lupo said.

Bostic expressed her gratitude for the privilege of being able to be present with all those at the meetings throughout the year, even after heart surgery earlier in the year. She said, “I just trusted the Lord to take care of me and that’s what we have to do.”

The next meeting will be the Jan. 30 at Ryan’s at 11:30 a.m. Lupo offered the closing prayer.

Others attending the Dec. 15 meeting were: Club reporter Shawn Markie, Peggy Meyer, Alexander Delk, Wade Carmen, Wanda Watson, Ruby Ball, Calvin Davis, Lily Cunningham, Juanita Poteet and Joe Ben Chase.

For more information on the United Club, contact Bostic at 479-9207, Charles or Joanie Lupo at 478-5766; or Markie at 476-5426.