God provides a way

I have been away from this for several weeks now and I apologize for the absence. I have had quite a few contracting production jobs that I really needed in the last couple of weeks. These jobs on top of my job search has made blogging take a back seat. Rest assured I really enjoy bringing the gospel to bear on the day to day of life and will be blogging as often as I can for the sake of directing my heart and others to the great glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

The last time I blogged I promised to talk about a fourth thing to consider when it comes to Halloween. Many would call this an alternative or a substitute but I believe that God in His great grace and mercy ordained that there be a great thing for Christians to celebrate on this day. October 31st is reformation day. It is considered the beginning of the protestant break from Roman Catholicism. Every single church that exist apart from the Orthodox, Anglicans and the Roman Catholics owes its existence to the break that began on this day. It was this moment in history when Martin Luther pounded the 95 Thesis on the door of the church in Wittenberg. It was this action that began the separation that became protestantism and ultimately has birthed evangelicalism. For modern Christianity this is perhaps one of the most important days on our calendar. Why? Well we need to remember the things that caused this separation.
We need to keep before us the points that many of these reformers gave their lives to make. Because without these basic things kept before us we are prone to repeat the errors, that led to the problems, that caused a need for reformation. These are the sort of things that can help to fortify our children's hearts and faith. Reformation day is a really great time to celebrate the lives and the issues that birthed the vibrant rich Bible saturated churches that we have today. We need to remember these things lest we lose them.

I am all for remembering the birth the death and the resurrection of Jesus. But keep in mind we would not have the opportunity to know and enter into an unmediated relationship with Jesus were it not for the reformation. I am not really arguing for an alternative to halloween I am advocating that we embrace something that God in His grace ordained to happen on this very same day. I believe God gave us this so that we could be engaged in something that was God glorifying. Something that could completely crowd out the worldly pagan celebration that we call halloween. I hope that this gives you food for thought as you consider what you do in the future so that you and your families might live a more God focused life.

Happiness: SELF focused vs. God focused - Part 1

I usually scan the headline on my yahoo front page and see if anything strikes a nerve. Today Lucy Danziger published an article called, "4 Simple Secrets to Feeling Happier Every Day." Lucy is the Editor-in-Chief of SELF magazine. I plan on addressing the points of her article over several days. It is an interesting exercise to think through the man made solutions to happiness in the light of scripture. According to their research 40% of our happiness potential is entirely up to us. Her first key point is, "Too much of a good thing is a bad thing." Basically she is saying that people are too busy and have too many things in their lives. She may indeed be correct in pointing out a problem. But the solution is one that is centered on taking care of the inner self. I do not personally know how I could truly take good care of my own inner self with out Jesus Christ. In Matthew 19:13-14 Jesus rebukes the disciples for hindering children and then goes on to say that to such belong the kingdom of God. What does this have to do with taking care of your inner self? I'll answer that in a minute, but first lets look at Jesus comments in Matthew 11:27-30. In this passage Jesus talks about coming to Him all those who labor and are heavy laden and He will give you rest. This is out of verse 28 and is often taken out of the context of verse 27. The background of verse 27 is instructive here. Jesus says that all things have been given to Him by the Father. Then Jesus talks about knowing the Father and the Son and seems to put a premium on it ending with Him revealing the Father to those whom He chooses to reveal Him. If we look at verse 28 in light of verse 27 it would appear that coming to him is with the idea of knowing Him and the Father. Think about it, children come to their parents for comfort and to get aid or help with what they are trying to do. The younger they are the more dependent and needy they are. When we come to God are we dependent and needy? Do we have a desperate need to know Him? You see a Christian should be ordering their day around seeking God in multiple ways. We should be seeking Him to know Him not just to have Him meet our needs. Martin Luther once said, "I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." That is the heart cry of a person who needs God. Are you too busy to spend time with God? When it comes to Jesus too much of a good thing is the best thing for us. Ordering your life around God will help to push out some of those extra and unimportant things that weigh us down.