Hope you had a really wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends that love you.
It's starting to get kinda wild out there now.
You know, believers, it's a real good day for us to encourage each other towards relating to the Lord, towards love in Him, towards doin' what's right, and even towards sharing our faith instead of towards loving one another's temporal junk, towards the world's system or towards what's flat out wrong.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really encouraging unbelievers to turn themselves good or "do good," (would hope they will) or to "do bad" per se (really hope they wouldn't do wrong and will stop em if someone is getting hurt), but their nature ain't like our inner new nature.....yet. I mean, it would be an exersize in futility to try and reform (aka moralize) them instead of just win them to Christ.
But we do pray fo them cuz someone once prayed for and witnessed to us. And we now desire to do what's appropriate instead of ..like they do.. commit to loving widgets, gadgets, and cheap motorized toys this season of the year.
He honest, a whole lot of people that you earlier couldn't even imagine doing so, simply aren't doing what's right or loving. I wonder if the holiday pressure coupled with economic hardships is really intensity everything. So many want to love things far more, but will probably be sorry about that when it's all said and done...and the shiny novelty is gone.
The bottom line is this: People who refuse to love others or do what's right simply ain't of God. How come? Well, because the Bible clearly says…
"Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in Him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." 1 John 3:10
Like me.. do you remember those days when stores were closed on big holiday weekends. I even remember when 7-11 stores were actually open from 7am until 11pm (Ok, enough reminiscing. It was like that far more when I lived in Europe, but perhaps you don't remember anything like that and just mentioning only dates me).
Just know that family time was so cool and can be for your family. Something to perhaps keep in mind for your own personalized/tailored future. Yeah, family members actually had more time for each other, rather than just for perishable tech-stuff, cuz what else were they going to do when all the businesses where closed or a few family rules where in place.
Looking around you, doesn't it seem like the aggressive type of extreme Black Friday "shopping" we see (after widgets, toys and cheap gizmo has become fairly expensive in relation to our post-election ever-reducing quality of lifestyle) has replaced all of our major holidays? What a shame.
I'm not totally sure how it is where you live, but people have been camping outside of big stores here in my city since Monday and now it's been a week long. I think they're just bored. And for what? Don't they remember how fast all that junk turns obsolete or how it looks with a really low garage sale price tag stuck on it?
But, Kurt, there's nothing wrong with shoppin' in and of it self. And you're so right, unless your spirit is so wrong inside. Get this...
There's already been an all out 'gang fight' at a simple Black Friday sale.One man was punched in the face, actually pulled out a gun on a "line-cutting" shopper trying to score a deal.A woman was just busted after throwing merchandise at people...There's been total mayhem at a Omaha Nebraska mall..the very same place where 9 people were murdered in 2007...and a shoplifter now tries to mace the security guards...There's been an I-N-S-A-N-E BATTLE over cell phones.People are feelin' desperate for love and are willing to pay to loo good if they can. And Victoria's Secret seems to be a real draw at the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park today.One man left his girlfriend's two year old child in the car, just so he could go into the K-Mart at the Liberty Street Plaza to buy that must have 51 inch television. He was charged with reckless endangerment to a child.One woman calls the cops on a Salvation Army worker ringing his bells for a cause.Hey, I really want you safe. Personally, I'm gunna stay clear of this mess. You might do that as well. Who really wants to get pushed, punched or shoved during this Black Friday chaos?
Now one of my wild friends in town here, Michael (who I still need to win over), says he was so tempted just to hit it on over to Best Buy last night in his "Sasquatch costume (that none of us knew he had) to tear through all the tents of the many kids sleeping in the parking lot with his bear-like growl, just to make everybody stop and think.. and then go home and into their more normal lives."
Looking around you… watchin' what's happening with Israel, with the Muslim Brotherhood, and also with natural disasters that have been happening with greater frequency and intensity.. do you ever wonder if we are living in the for real last days?
Been re-checking-out some Scriptures that seem to be pertinent to these days we live in. Jesus warned us, "..you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matt. 24:6-13, nkjv). Some of these things will of course happen in days to come, but no one can deny that some have already happened and are happening.
I'd say it's a real good day to turn your Black Friday into a white one of sorts, and just be ready for anything.
