Month: November 2019

In the United States, we have just celebrated a day of thankfulness for all the good things we have enjoyed over the past year. The theme of Thanksgiving has changed just a mite. At one time, the thankfulness was directed towards God.

For many people, it remains a day of worship. However, for others, it is merely a day in which to get together with family, eat a lot, and finish up by watching football. It is also the day the proceeds Black Friday.

Black Friday is the day in the year when retail stores cut prices in order to entice customers to spend all of their Christmas gift budget in their store. It was named thus because it was the day when the stores profits went from being in the red to being in the black.

Black Friday. I haven’t participated in Black Friday shopping in many years. When I was in my twenties and had little money, I would wait in line at one store in order to spread my small budget over three children.

As time went on, the crowds at Black Friday sales became rougher, with fights breaking out and, sometimes, much worse. I stopped shopping on that day decades ago. It simply wasn’t worth the risk of being trampled as people battled over bits and pieces of merchandise.

Isn’t it sad that we are willing to fight one another over a few dollars or, in some cases, a few cents?

It seems like we have put possessions above people. I see something, I want it, and I will fight pretty much to the death to get it. What in the world could be worth this kind of behavior? It appears that it is more about the battle to get the item than it is about the item itself. A kind of I’ve got it and you don’t mentality.

Some of the people, at these sales, are individuals who go to church on Sunday morning, sing worship songs and say “Praise the Lord!” However, in their hearts, they are truly worshiping the things of the world.

Maybe it is a large screen TV, or a nifty new vacuum cleaner. Maybe it is a washcloth. Maybe it is simply the need to accumulate more and more.

It’s gotten so far out of hand, it has almost become a spectator sport as well. Those who don’t go Black Friday shopping watch with glee as the news reports the battles in detail. It’s even better if there is video of people fighting over what is mostly junk that will break shortly thereafter. From God’s standpoint, those who watch with enjoyment are as guilty as those who are actually part of the battles.

We have so much and yet we want more. When asked, though, most would say that they have a lot and have no need of more. They will boast of what they have, saying that they are great! They have the means and the ability to get what they want and to get whatever they want done.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The rampant consumerism of this country and all of the other first world countries has spawned generations of people who think they have no need of God’s help.

They say things like “God helps those who help themselves.” That isn’t from the Bible, it is from ancient mythology. We all of us need help from God.

Still, those Bible people who are out swinging fists and shoving baskets on Black Friday, must think that they have what it takes. They will do what they have to do.

God has a special word to say for those in his church who think they are rich and self-sufficient. He literally tells them that their behavior makes him sick enough to vomit them out of his mouth.

Even if you don’t shop on Black Friday, you may still be part of the church which sickens God. If you are feeling pretty full of yourself and feel like you have got your own back and don’t need God’s help, you just maybe are part of this same church that God has spoken to millennia ago.

So many in our generation fall into this category. I know because, in the past, I have been part of that number.

God has been good and gracious to me. He has used events in my life to shock me out of complacency and to realize that I can only rely on him. Relying on myself has led me to the brink of disaster, over and over again.

Each time that I have started thinking that I had my own answers, I now realize, it really meant that I was looking more at myself and no longer looking to God. It is a sinful cycle that repeats over and over again.

Thankfully, the cycles seem to be slowing down and I am learning, more and more, to rely only on God. I sometimes laugh at how I used to be. More often, I am sorrowful and wish I had learned my lesson earlier and with less tragic consequences.

Still, with my sorrow comes repentance and a determination to change my ways. This is only possible with God’s help, so I ask him to help me to stay focused on the tasks that he has set before me.

I ask him to give me the strength in my spirit to do his will. I ask him to help me look beyond myself and keep my eyes on him. These are the types of requests that God wants from his children and they are the kind of prayers that he will always answer.

Revelation 3:14-21

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

There always seems something better to do than just about anything that God has called us to. At least, in our minds, the things that we want to do seem more special and more rewarding. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

I know that I have had a problem with this in the past and that it is a problem that keeps cropping up today. There are so many things to do that I could spin and spin around in circles trying to decide what I want to do with my time.

I’m sure that others have similar issues, though it doesn’t seem as if it is an issue at all. That is, until you look at those things through the words of God.

God has asked us to do what he wants done. What he wants is for us to help others and to be willing to sacrifice in order to do so. Yes, money is a part of it but the even bigger sacrifice for most of us, is that of our time.

We are all so busy and what little free time we have, we want to use in a way that relaxes us and gives us satisfaction. Maybe even some pride in what we have created with our two hands or our mind.

That sounds like a great way to spend your time. Especially when compared to those who spend their time playing video games, trolling through social media or even reading or watching the news as it unfolds around us.

Just one problem with that, none of that is going to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only when you sacrifice the things you want to do in order to spend that precious time and money on something that God wants done, that you really begin to understand the satisfaction of walking the path that God has created for you.

There really isn’t anything wrong with having a hobby. It is when you let that hobby consume you or take precedence over God that you start ending into trouble. A hobby seems so simple and easy but if you are not careful, you can start creating an idol.

In the Old Testament, over and over again, the prophets spoke to the people of Israel and condemned them for worshiping the idols of wood and metal that they had made with their own two hands.

That isn’t so unlike what we have today. While we are not necessarily creating actual idols that we bow down and worship, in effect, we are doing much the same with whatever it is that we put above God.

It could be a hobby, it could be a job, it could be a relationship, it could be money. It could actually be an idol. Yes, there are still many who would rather worship a god they made than to come face to face with the God of the universe.

I suspect that is because the god of their hands will never condemn them for what they have done and continue to do. The true God is perfect and anything less than perfect rightfully deserves his condemnation.

What they don’t know is that while God has every right to condemn us and to cast us away, he actually loves us and wants us to draw near to him. He gave us a way, through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus, to have our sins covered for eternity. When we accept Jesus as our savior and accept his free gift of salvation, we become the children of God.

Still, for those who know Jesus and have walked with him for days, weeks or years, it is still easy to start creating idols in our lives. Every time you put that “thing” in your life above God, you are crafting that man-made god.

At this time of the year, we all start thinking about giving. Some of us will even start thinking about giving in a sacrificial manner. We may deny ourselves one more thing in our life in order to give to others.

That’s a good thing. Still, what God wants is for us to have that same spirit of sacrificial giving all year long. We should be actively looking for ways to help other people. It may be in big ways or in small ways. It doesn’t matter how large or small it is, what matters is the spirit with which we do these things and that we acknowledge, if only to ourselves, that we are doing it for God.

On that note, keep in mind that tooting your own horn is not a good thing when it comes to giving. What we do in private is known by God and he will reward. When we start giving and doing for the sake of the adulation of others (or even for thumbs ups or likes on social media), we will have received our reward here and now and God will not consider what we have done to have merit in his kingdom.

We should start looking at how much we are accumulating and what we do with our time and ask ourselves, is this really what we want with our lives? Or do we want to give to others and help them and have a little bit less of our own.

I know that this something that I need to consider over and over again. I hope you do the same and start looking for ways to provide help and assistant to others who are struggling and who are in need.

Matthew 6:1-4

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

A lot of what is called humor today is really not funny at all. It seems like we have begun to consider cutting comments, nasty comebacks and words that are designed to hurt and tear down as humorous.

I have watched a few of the America’s funny videos and I am almost always appalled that people would watch others being hurt. It isn’t funny, it is painful to see the pain of others put out there in a way to make us laugh at them. Not with them, but at them.

How would any of us like it if we were to slip and fall, hurt ourselves and then find out that someone filmed it and put it out for the world to laugh at us. I don’t think many of us would appreciate it. There might be a few who are okay with it, Usually it is one of those things where you are happy to laugh at others but don’t want those same others to laugh at you.

Before I became quite ill two years ago, my husband and I watched a number of sitcoms. One of them, we had followed for years and it was in its last season.

After I was able to sit up again and watch television, we tried to watch our favorite shows which we had recorded. We both found that what we had thought was funny before was, in reality quite mean-spirited. We deleted the shows and have never had a desire to watch a sitcom again. We could not stand watching people be mean to one another for a laugh.

Being mean-spirited or simply mean to other people is quickly becoming our way of life. It is a socially acceptable way to deal with people who don’t look, think, act, or believe what you do. After all, if they are so absolutely wrong, why not mock them, tear them down. Why not crush them and destroy them while we are at it?

After all, since they are wrong, they don’t deserve to live.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? However, that seems to be the way the vast majority of people feel these days. In theory, it sounds ridiculous; in practice, it is dangerous.

When did we become to sure that our way is the right way? As far as I know, there is only one right way. That is the way of God.

Even though I am a Christian, I don’t believe for a moment that I have everything right. I don’t always do, think or act right. When I act out of the true nature of God, I am following the ways of Satan.

Yes, even Christians can be influenced by Satan. We are all, at heart, sinners. We are born with a sin nature and it is hard for us to break away from what seems to be an okay way of acting.

Actually, that is the point. The world is sinful so when we act in sin, we are just one of the crowd. We are joyfully accepted by those around us because darkness loves other darkness. What darkness can’t stand is light. Darkness flees in the presence of light.

Jesus is the Light of the World. No darkness of this world or of the spiritual world can stand against him. Just like the legion of demons, who possessed a man, recognized Jesus as God and begged to be sent into a herd of pigs rather than be destroyed, sin will always flee from the light of Christ.

Christians are called to walk in the Light. We are told we are to follow the teachings of Jesus and to live our lives the way he lived his. And while our sins have been forgiven when we accepted Jesus as our savior, we still continue to fall into sin.

That isn’t something that surprises God. He knew this would happen. That is why it took God himself, in his son Jesus, to be an acceptable and perpetual sin offering for the sins of the world. He knew that we were born in sin and that, throughout our lives, we would continue to sin.

One big difference between a Christian and a non-Christian who sins is that the Christian will know that they are sinning. It will lodge in their heart and come into their mind over and over again. It will continue to torment them until they take it to our Father and ask for him to, once again, forgive us and to teach us to act in accordance with his holy way.

When we do so, God is good and just to his word and will forgive us forever. It doesn’t mean we won’t suffer because of those sins but our suffering will be limited to the short amount of time we spend on this earth. That amount of time pales in comparison to the eternity that we will spend in the glory of heaven which is God the Father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit.

So, being mean to one another is another way of hating one another. That is not what Jesus called us to do. He wants us to love and help one another just as he loved and helped us.

We need to start paying attention to what we watch and read and understand that those things have great influences upon us. It is much easier to start changing how you talk and feel when you are no longer being constantly exposed to these types of shows and books.

Once you have cleared out the things that tempt you to hurt others, you can start reading the Bible to see how we should love. Since Jesus is Love and he showed us that love on the cross by giving himself up in our place, we can start by reading the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in which we see his words and his actions and what he asked us to do.

1 John 4:7-11

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Pride is something that I have had issues with in my own life. Many people think that there is nothing wrong with being proud of what you have accomplished. I’ve been learning that nothing could be further from the truth.

Recently, in a group of stitchers that I belong to, a question was asked, “What is the project that you are most proud of?” I struggled with the wording of the question and finally responded with the project that gave me the most satisfaction. Oddly enough, it was my first such project and, on the whole, was lacking in many ways. However, it introduced me to a hobby that I am still involved with more than four decades later.

Self pride is something that most of us feel pretty much on an on-going basis. Whenever we accomplish something, we are, generally pretty quick to pat ourselves on our own back and take all the glory from the fact that we did something special.

This type of pride, though, is more than just satisfaction. Pride is placing yourself above others. It is seeing that you are better than those who didn’t accomplish what you did.

It’s interesting to me that the world, usually defines pride as a well deserved feeling of enjoyment in the high quality of your work, effort, what have you. In the Bible, self pride is not something that is good in the eyes of God. It is one of the things that will quickly bring an individual down, no matter how highly placed they are.

When you are busy feeling proud of yourself, you forget that pride is something that we don’t usually admire in others. There’s something about it that just sticks in the throats of most other people. They may feel that if they had the same benefits and advantages in life that you had, that they might have done as well or better than you.

Think about it, when you are feeling so proud of yourself, you think your pride is well deserved. When others around you talk about how proud they are of themselves you probably, as most of us do, think they are self-centered and boastful. You are quick to see the faults in others that you are blind to in yourself. It reminds me of when Jesus told us that we had to remove the beam from our own eyes before we try to remove the speck from the eyes of others.

For whatever reason, pride is not an appealing part of an individual. If you think of a famous book, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, the Pride part of the title has to do with a young, rich man who takes inordinate pride in his family and his station in life. The village people, in the town where he is visiting, feel that he is stuck up, thinks too much of himself and is not someone that they care to spend time with. He has to learn to be more humble before the individual he professes to love will learn to care for him as well.

The other problem with pride is that somehow, when we are in the midst of it (speaking for myself, at least), it feels as if whatever I am proud of is going to last forever. Around about the time I start getting those feelings, I find myself knocked back down.

If that doesn’t happen, I find that the accomplishment that I was so pleased to do has become something that I no longer care about. Either I have to strive harder or walk away. I’ve done both. To be honest, the best thing I’ve done is to walk away from things that make me feel proud of myself.

There is not a single thing that I have accomplished, in my life, that was done by my own power. God gave me life, he gave me my inspiration and skills, and everything that I have ever done was because of him.

There really isn’t much there for me to be proud of for myself.

If a work honors God, then it is inspired by him. If it doesn’t honor God, then it is inspired by the prince of this world, Satan. It is always one or the other.

Even if we do the work of God, when we start magnifying ourselves as something bigger and better than others, we have lost the blessings of God for that work. We can live godly lives and lose so much blessings because of pride.

It is something that I have struggled with and, will continue to do so. I say that because it is a sin that almost all of us have problems learning to overcome.

I am learning to turn to God when I feel full of myself, when I think I have it all under control, when it seems like life is becoming a tad easier than before. It’s oh, so easy to walk away from God at those times. When we have problems, we run to him. As soon as those problems get better, we start to walk away again.

If you have said you have self pride of something in your life, look closer at what you are really feeling. For Christians, feeling pride and taking all the credit for the thing you are proud of, is something that we need to stop. Give God the honor and glory for both the good and the bad and know that without him, we are nothing.

Luke 18: 9-14

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We have just celebrated Halloween. The holiday has grown in importance to many people. At the same time, Christmas, the day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, has not grown at the same pace.

For most of us, Halloween is a day of fun, with costumes worn by children and lots of candy. Lots of candy. Unless you are a diabetic, there isn’t anything about candy that sounds bad, right?

Actually, for the past seven years, I really haven’t been able to eat candy but I sure enjoy seeing the cute little boys and girls getting dressed up in their costumes.

The last two years, I have only been able to watch from afar. Because of my illness, we can’t have people coming to the door who might be ill. So our days of giving out candy is a thing of the past. I miss that.

I really can’t speak to the origins of Halloween. I haven’t studied it. What I can say is that for a very few, it is actually a religious holiday. It’s the day that they celebrate their ties to their lord and master, who is Satan.

For many, the thought of Satan and demons is nothing but a fairy tale or, at best, an allegorical story told in the Bible. Nothing could be further than the truth.

Satan was once the brightest of the angels. He was created by God and was the highest ranking angel as well. He was beautiful and intelligent. He was powerful. He was so full of his own importance and pride, he thought he was equal to God.

He led a rebellion with a full third of the angels. They wanted to overthrow and defeat God. They wanted to put themselves on the throne of heaven.

Well, that didn’t work out well for that group. It really wasn’t a contest at all. It would be like the craft that you just created trying to become the creator and toss you out. I don’t think my coloring books, cross stitch, or yarn have that kind of strength!

The angels only had the power that God had given them, nothing more and nothing less. When they rebelled, they immediately lost and God cast them down to the void that would one day be the Earth.

God then created the heavens and the Earth and everything in it. Mankind was created to show the angels that a creature who was lower than they were would rebel but ultimately repent and accept God as their savior.

The first man’s sin started the destruction of the creation. The universe was broken. If the son of God had not been sent by the father, the entirety of the creation would have ultimately been torn apart and destroyed.

Jesus did come to the earth. He has been called the second Adam as he, like Adam, was born without a sin nature. That is true of his human side. Jesus was fully human just as we are. The difference was that Jesus was also fully God.

Because of his connection with the father (who lived within him), he was able to live his human life sinlessly. He didn’t give in to the temptations that the rest of us do. They were presented to him, over and over again, but he relied on the strength of God to overcome them.

Even so, he gave up his life as the perfect sacrifice to make an atonement for all of the sins of every man, woman or child from the beginning of creation until the day he comes back for us.

When Jesus died and rose again, Satan and his fellow fallen angels were utterly defeated. They are still ruling the world today in hopes of dragging down more and more of humanity to suffer with them for eternity. Their final defeat is coming.

That will happen when Jesus returns to judge the world. Each persons sins will be made public. Those who never accepted Jesus will be found guilty and thrown in the place that we call Hell. Those who did accept Jesus will find that their sins have been wiped away and that by the sinless blood of Jesus and their name will be recorded in the Book of Life.

So, while I enjoyed watching children playing dress up at Halloween and have sneaked more than my fair share of their candy (though only the ones that my kids didn’t really like), I have also looked at the world full of sin and which is controlled by Satan and his demons.

I will glory in the fact that Jesus has won this battle and that I accepted his gift of salvation. If you are a follower of Jesus, I hope you will do so as well.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your personal savior, I hope you will. We are not promised anything beyond the moment that we are alive. Waiting for tomorrow may be too long of a wait.

Jesus can return at any moment or your life may be over in the blink of an eye. Now is the time for repentance and for accepting the free gift of salvation, love and eternal life that Jesus is offering to you.

Revelation 20:11-15

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.