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There's a week-long celebration this week in Branson, Missouri, when this tiny town, made famous with its family-friendly entertainment, rolls out the red carpet for Veterans Day--to honor and revere men and women who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States. Veterans come from all over the United States for a wonderful time of remembrance and honor of this special day in the land we love.

Now these wonderful men and women who have served us so honorably have two choices in life. They can celebrate--as they do--with vitality, vigor and victory--or they can vegetate somewhere in a dark, depressed cavern of lost memories, lost limbs and latent fears of the past, present and future. Some of them have been to hell and back--their war stories prove it--but they are alive, wonderful, fun-loving, God-and-country-loving people who grace our world...and we gladly honor them today!

There's another celebration taking place on Saturday, November 12--in Peggie's REAL place, when Father Time prepares to turn the time clock to another year of love, life and laughter. Now never mind the decade in which this wretched body has me captive--all I know is that I don't feel it, I don't . . .

We've been seeing the familiar red poppies pinned on lapels and collars for some time now. Today is Remembrance Day, here in Canada. Schools are closed, as are many businesses. At eleven o?clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, people will stop what they are doing and many will stand in silence for one minute, to honour the men and women who died during past wars. We honour them because they fought and died to preserve our freedom. And well we should.

Freedom from tyranny is a great cause. There isn't anyone on earth who doesn't value it, especially those who have had to fight to gain it. But there is something of even greater value ? something we don't have to fight for ? freedom from sin and reconciliation with God. We don't have to fight for it because it has already been won by the death of only one man on a cross over 2000 years ago. When Jesus willingly laid down His life for us, the battle for our souls was won eternally.

Being reconciled with our Father in Heaven should be the highest value anyone could subscribe to, because without it, earthly freedom is a brief illusion. Ask the thousands who are in prison because they refuse to deny their faith in Christ. They have considered freedom of lesser account. Ask those who have lost their jobs and their property because they follow Christ. They have considered . . .

Suppose someone built a car with everything as it should be, but instead of the usual tyres, they filled the inner tubes with concrete, or left out the steering wheel. The car would still go, but it would not be very efficient. Just one change to one significant variable would spoil the performance of the whole machine.

In a similar way, if there was any significant alteration to any of the mechanisms which comprise our galaxy, or our solar system, or our planet, or our environment, or our own bodies, we would be either dead, or hovering on the brink of extinction. Let me explain, what I mean in layman's terms.

The speed at which our galaxy turns is important. Any faster or slower and catastrophe would soon follow. The fact that our sun is a medium size and very stable is also important. Many stars emit huge solar flares, but ours doesn't. We also whiz through a very empty, and therefore safe area of the galaxy.

Our Earth has a tilt of exactly the right angle. This ensures seasons, which bring warmth periodically to the surface, and also help the oceans circulate. The circulation of water is important for all life, as it carries oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the planet, and also mixes fresh with salt, and cold with warmer waters. The spin of the planet is . . .

On July 25, 2000, Air France Concorde flight 4590 on July 25, 2000, which crashed on take off in Paris. One hundred passengers, nine crew, and four people on the ground were killed when the Concorde banked, went into a stall, plunged to the ground, and exploded on impact in a fireball.

The cause of the crash was a 16-inch strip of metal found on the runway that burst the aircraft's tire, and the debris from the blowout ruptured a fuel tank in the aircraft's wing. With the plane on fire the pilot could not halt the take off; he planned to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget airport a minute's flying time away.

As investigators sought to discover the reason for the accident, they listened to the tapes of the pilot's conversations with the control tower. His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were, "Too late."1.

"Our oil is run out", "the door is closed", and "sorry, I don't know you". Words of Jesus in the parable of the wedding attendants. It's too late.

William Barclay says that a casual visitor to Palestine in the early part of the 20th century would have witnessed the scene which Jesus describes in his parable. A wedding celebration was not a matter of . . .