This morning I read a great article published by Desiring God, and one line really caught my attention.
What if Halloween wasn’t a night when Christians retreated in disapproval, but an occasion for storming the gates of hell?
Here is the title and link to the article. Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission
What do you think is the appropriate response to Halloween for a follower of Jesus? Comments welcome!
The financial collapse of 2008 (and the one that may be coming), can be explained by the following analogy of “Heidi’s Bar.”
This helps us see the consequences of our decisions!
I got the below info/article from here:
http://www.jessmcvay.com/2010/03/parable-of-heidis-bar-or-financial.html
The Parable of Heidi’s Bar or Financial Armageddon Explained in Laymans Terms
I can’t take credit for this piece. I lifted it from another website that I read obsessively. Here’s the link by way of attribution.Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed in a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around about Heidi’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit.
By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.
Consequently, Heidi’s gross sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic Vice President at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets, and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.
One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. He so informs Heidi.
Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations, she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs. Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Heidi’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with not only having to write off her bad debt but also with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, and her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.
Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar, no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi’s bar.
PSALM 56:10-11 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Gal 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
A Trustworthy God
Our God is worthy of our trust! He is faithful in all of His promises. My greatest delight is in the promise of His mercy, provided in Christ, that I am now an adopted child of God. How amazing and glorious is this promise of God.
Let me ask you, does your life reflect that God is trustworthy? Or, do you play it safe, putting little dependence upon the power and sovereignty of God?
Numbers 13 & 14
Summary: GOD IS TRUSTWORTHY; His people trust Him very little.
Here is a link to Number 13 & 14
http://www.esvstudybible.org/search?q=Numbers+13-14
It goes like this. God promises a land to His people. They are to go and live in it. They don’t trust God, not taking Him at His Word. They trust in their ability to reason over that of God’s power, so they send in spies to determine if the land is suitable and inhabitable. Twelve spies come back, ten spies saying we’re too weak and the enemy is too strong, the other two spies say something different.
Num. 13:30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”
Num. 14:6-10 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
Observations:
– speaking truth may cause people to want to stone you.
– having confidence in God’s power and promises will reveal God’s glory.
– Joshua and Caleb believed that God was sovereign.
– Joshua and Caleb thought God to be trustworthy; enough so that they would risk their lives by speaking the truth in the face of opposition. (10 vs. 2 – WOW!)
– Joshua and Caleb were confident in the outcome because they knew God’s will in the matter.
For us:
– Speaking the truth may get you fired; make sure you know exactly what God’s truth is(His Word), then stand on it, trusting God with the outcome.
-God’s character is revealed in His Word. Christian’s will not see God’s glory in their lives until they seek to match their lives to His Word.
– A god that is not sovereign is not God at all, and he surely cannot be trusted.
– If you are going to trust our sovereign God, then you must know what the will of God is. Primarily God’s will is revealed in His Word. Know the Word, Know His Will! Drawing near to God and being led by His Holy Spirit will also keep you in the will of God. God’s Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to His written will, the Word.
So, Joshua and Caleb knew God’s will, they knew God’s power, and they trusted in God’s sovereignty. In the end, 40 years later, only Joshua and Caleb would enter the land. The rest of Israel faced God’s judgment. They failed to obey God’s will, and they failed to trust God.
Quit playing it safe. Know the Word. Trust God.
Our God is TRUSTWORTHY!!
Pastor Wade
One of my favorite men of God is Jonathan Edwards. I am reading a biography on him written by Douglas A. Sweeney (I recommend the book to you). The book title is A Model of Faith and Thought; Jonathan Edwards and The Ministry of The Word
A flame fanning quote from page 84.
“Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt an harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light, exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing ravishing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading. Used oftentimes to dwell long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.”
Praying that God will grant more desire for Him through His Word!
WadeC
My morning Bible reading unearthed this treasure of Scripture- Ephesians 1:5-8 In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. . . .WOW! Praise our awesome God! What kind of love and grace is this? God is willing to forgive all our sins!!
Read the full chapter here http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=eph+1&src=esv.org
for Him,
Wade
Prayer right are being taken away . . . three school employees may be put in prison for praying.
Bucee’s is the Wal-Mart of gas stations. If you have not been to one, you need to find one! They are full of all kinds of things. A bakery, a deli, multiple kinds of gifs, and yes, gas! Below is a pic of some very interesting popcorn.
Keeping Thought 