Happy Commercial Holidays

Is anyone out there tired of the commercialization of our Christian holidays? Thanksgiving has been overshadowed by Black Friday which has now been expanded to make Thanksgiving Day Black Thursday. Christmas shopping now begins before Halloween which almost rivals Christmas in its celebration which makes the year end holiday season almost two months long. Where will it all end? Has anyone noticed, or is it just me? Does this bother you? With all these black days past and just twenty seven shopping days left before Christmas, my wallet is now in the red. Let me be the first to say, Happy Easter Everybody.

I want to pass a quote along to you, which I think is very significant.

Return the Cross to Golgotha
By George MacLeod

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church.
I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles: But on a garbage heap; at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where he died and that is what he died about. And that is where Christ’s men ought to be and what Church people ought to be about.”

Thanksgiving, More Than Just A Once A Year Holiday

Psalms 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

This Psalm tells us that if we would come into the presence of God, we must come with praise and thanksgiving in our hearts. The truth is we should do this every day. There is a phrase in that verse that gets less attention bur it is the key to thanksgiving; it is, be thankful. To be thankful means we have an attitude of gratitude. It is an ongoing process and not a once a year experience.

When we pause to remember all our God has done for us, we are blessed indeed and we all should be thankful. Never does a day go by that we are not the recipients of something to be thankful for. Our thankfulness should make every day a day of thanksgiving. If we are a truly thankful people, the fourth Thursday in November, each year, will take on a whole new meaning.

Happy Thanksgiving

Prayer Moves God

The electorate of America has spoken and the next two years should be markedly different, in many ways, from the last two years. Could this be an answer to prayer? I believe it is. Many churches, in the last few months, have issued the challenge to their members, and all Christians, to make the state of our nation, our government, our economy and our leaders, the object of their prayers up to the mid-term elections. Christians have responded by bombarding the throne of grace with their prayers. I believe this has moved God to action. God is the great mountain mover but it is prayer that moves God.

There is an interesting verse in the book of Daniel that tells us it is the Most High God that rules in the kingdom of men. “This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” (Daniel 4:17, KJV) It is God that sets up and takes down kingdoms that rule the people of this world. Can God influence elections? He certainly can, and I believe we have seen a good demonstration of it in the election just past. If God couldn’t influence elections, the prayers of Christians would all be for naught.

Could it be that God moved our country to the left so we could see and learn the perils of socialism and its accompanying loss of individual freedoms? Many people wanted to see change in our country but many of those people didn’t like the change they got. And, many of those people turned to the only one who has the power to turn America back to the right, the Most High God.

Since our founding, America has been known as a Christian nation. That didn’t mean Christianity was a state religion but it meant that America was founded upon Christian ideals and principles. We had fought and won a great war for the right to freedom of religion, speech, press and fair representation in our government. It also meant that Americans were free to be a self determining people. After all, God himself had given us that right at creation.

There are many people, governments and religions throughout the world and right here in America that would take that right away from us. Our country was headed in that direction and the people prayed. God has made a move to the right but it is not complete yet. Christians need to keep praying that God will either move our current leaders back to the right or raise up new leaders that will lead us back.
God truly is the only hope for the U.S.A.