Can We Just "Get By"?

      Many people believe in hard work and good luck, but not in God’s wisdom and supernatural intervention.  Maybe you know someone like this?

     Many people don’t get serious about who God is; they generally ignore what He says. Their philosophy of life is “get by.”

     Jesus got to the crux of the matter when He told His disciples, “. . .You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37).

                        What does God really expect of me?

     Nothing less than complete obedience will do.  If we don’t obey His requirements for salvation we will be lost.  If we don’t obey His requirements for living we are wasting our life, and we are being a stumbling block to others who need to know Him as Lord.  Getting by is never good enough.

                                 What’s holding us back?

1. Tradition, culture
2. Apathy
3. Misunderstandings in the past
4. Beliefs that take the place of worshipping only the God of the Bible
5. Rebellion against God — what we think He caused to happen, what we don’t like about the Bible, what we don’t like about His plan of salvation and His way of life for us.
6. We think we’re doing OK and don’t want to appear to be fanatic.
7. Peer pressure from people around us
8. We may have convinced ourselves that we are Christians because we used to go to Sunday School when we were kids.
9. (Can you add to this list?) . . . 

     Does God allow people to make up their own rules? 

We Keep Memorial Day Because We Should

We owe it to them to remember their courage, sacrifice, dedication;              

We must celebrate with joyful solemnity across our nation.

We owe it to each other to honor the memory of those who served so well;

We owe it to those in service now who strive to keep us safe, this we must tell. 

Our small measure of thought and remembrance is certainly due,

And we must verbalize our appreciation, and so we will do.

Fly the flag today and other days, but look deep with our heart;

Persistent vigilance must stand tall to faithfully do its part.

Some would have us surrender to evil, by their behavior and speech,

But the truth of morality shall always be within our reach.

We owe it to ourselves every day to acknowledge what is good;

We owe it to our Maker to live as His Word says we should. 

by Elaine Hardt ©2013 

Are You a Christmas Person?

        Are you for Christmas, or against Christmas?  Is it a matter of gimme-gimme-gimme, or showing off when we give something to someone else?  Is it outdoing the neighbors in decorating house and yard? 

        Is it party time, dress up time, go to see all the cute holiday movies?  Whose birthday is it, anyway?  Santa Claus or Jesus of Nazareth?

        Beyond this, a deeper controversy is heard every year.  Dare we do any of the “worldly things” for Christmas?  Are we being bad to take part in any kind of celebration?

        A look into the Bible brings to light some facts.  Nowhere are we commanded to keep December 25 as a holy day.  Nowhere does it specify that Jesus was born on December 25. History shows some pagan traditions that do claim December for their unChristian beliefs.

        Do we advance the cause of worldly traditions when we take part in some of them?  No, there is an advantage for the believer and a blessing we can give to the unbeliever.