Life Goes On

On Thanksgiving Day my wife and I ate at a Golden Corral restaurant in Orlando. I love people watching, and this was a great place to do it. First, I was amazed at how many people were dining out on Thanksgiving. Next, I observed people making absolute gluttons of themselves. I observed one fellow make at least three trips to the dessert bar, after cleaning several plates of entrees. It occurred to me that we have turned holidays into excuses for overindulgence. The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, arguably the biggest retail day of the year. On this day people will eschew sleep to get a "bargain". I saw in the paper where one store employee was trampled to death as the doors were opened and the crowds surged forward. This will be followed by Christmas, once the celebration of the birth of our Savior, but now an excuse to give and receive gifts personally. How would you like it if on your birthday everyone else got gifts except you? I've observed my own

For the first time in our lives, my wife and I are church shoppers. We've been visiting different churches until God gives direction as to where He wants us to "plug in". Here are a few of my observations as a visitor. All of the churches we have visited are "inner-directed". That is, they are more concerned with getting their own itches scratched, and having their own backs patted than they are in reaching the world for Christ. Worship is an after-thought in most, if not all of the churches we've visited. The pre-set order of service precludes the Holy Spirit leading in any direction other than what has been prescribed. Very little of the worship is God-focused even though the words to some of the songs are. We're still mainly singing to ourselves or each other...not to God. Almost all worship is confined to singing or listening to singing. Little thought is given to the fact that music is only a small aspect of true worship. Sunday school class

The old quote is "We have met and enemy and he is us." In this case though the enemy of the committed disciple of Christ is the same enemy that Christ encountered during his stay on Planet Earth. The truth of the matter is that he is a defeated foe. Jesus took care of that on Mt. Calvary and in the Garden Tomb over 2000 years ago. Someone has said, "At Calvary Jesus pulled Satan's teeth. Though he can no longer bite the believer, he can certainly gum them alot." There are some safe guards for the believer against the arch enemy of Christ. Confess all known sin and repent of it. Unconfessed sin gives Satan an entry into your life and affairs. Confession should be a part of your daily prayer time, and also should occur whenever the Holy Spirit makes you aware of sin in your life. Remove all idolatrous and satanic trappings from your home or person. Often posters, books, statuettes, album covers (or CD gem cases) DVD movie covers, tattoos, jewelry etc hav

I keep hearing people whose candidate did not win say, "Well, Obama is my president now." Why? Did your convictions disappear with your vote? Are you now in favor of abortion, same sex marriage, a soft approach with terrorists? Although we do have a responsibility to pray for President-elect Obama, we don't have to buy his bill of goods. We are strapped with him and his ilk for the next four years at least, but unless we get off our duffs and get busy about promoting the convictions we have that are based on scripture, this will only be the beginning. I've just read Isaiah 3. Among the things that God promised and delivered upon His people (Jerusalem and Judah) was Strip them of their economy; vs 1 Deplete their military; vs 2 Take away their leaders and advisers ; vs 3 Give them young, inexperienced, immature leaders; vs 4 Abandon them to "distress" one another; vs 5 Allow their children to become insolent and disrespectful; vs 5 And that is just thr

I've just had a frustrating exchange with an unbeliever who refuses to even consider any scripture because he doesn't consider it "divine" whatever that means. He is trusting his "body of work" (never heard that one before) and his "resume" to get him into heaven. My question is, doesn't he read other writings that he does not consider to be "divine"? If so, why not read the Bible, just as any other writing? It would seem to me that if one is to be intellectually honest, he must do that. I'm convinced that if a person read the Bible with an open mind, the Spirit of God would communicate truth to them so that they would be without excuse. That is to say, they could never say again, "But I didn't know.". Perhaps that is the reason they don't want to read it in the first place. Somehow they know that if they did, their excuses for not believing would be gone. So, anyone who reads this, please pray for "J