This week is the week of Thanksgiving, a holiday certainly worth celebrating. Here are three major reasons why I like Thanksgiving:

1. People don’t have to worry about buying one another gifts.

2. There are daytime football games on in the middle of the week.

3. It is not a holiday in which people dress up like the devil and demons (translated: Halloween).

But the most important reason than I like Thanksgiving is simply because God deserves our thanks and gratitude for all He has done, for what He is doing for us, and for what He will do for us in the future.

Yes, it is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. But, did you know that giving thanks to God draws our souls and spirits into closer intimacy to Him?

“Enter His gates with Thanksgiving,” says Psalm 100:4.

“Entering His gates” translates into entering into the realm of the Holy presence of God. The next part of that Scripture says: “And into His courts with praise.” Praising God takes us many steps even closer into the presence of God.

So, on Thanksgiving Day, take some time to thank God for His goodness. But don’t forget to praise Him as well.

He deserves both!

Prayer for today

Dear Lord, we should thank you and praise you every day of our lives, not just on Thanksgiving Day. For you are worthy of our thanksgiving and you are worthy of our praise. You are good and faithful and merciful to us. We thank you for who You are in Jesus’ Name, amen.

Today, I was checking my e-mail and I came across a “spam” e-mail message from an entity that identified itself as “Christian Singles.” This organization touted an opportunity for unmarried Christian believers to “flirt with sexy singles.”

Not…..”get to know other young believers who love Jesus Christ and who try to live their lives in a way that brings honor to Him.” But…..”flirt with sexy singles.”

Without wasting my time looking into it via internet searches, etc., I imagine there is a real chance that this is not actually a “Christian” business. But I also imagine there is an outside chance that it could be. Frankly, in the day and age in which we are living, this wouldn’t be altogether surprising to me.

Many people who call themselves “Christian” have never really studied the Word of God, the Bible, to know what it says about unacceptable attitudes and behavior. As the American popular culture (reflected in movies, TV, books, etc.) becomes increasingly more crude and lewd and vile, many young Christians don’t seem to realize that they are being influenced more by the world than they are influencing this world for Christ.

Consider James 1:21: “Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word.”

Christians need to know what God expects regarding our behavior and attitudes and we learn this by studying His Word and in our prayer time with Him.

We should be helping to set standards in our popular culture, not allowing those who don’t know and love God to set standards for us.

Prayer for today

Dear Lord, help us to “lay aside all filthiness” in our lives and to avoid flirting with the evil that is so prevalent in our popular culture. Help us to reflect the light of Your love in these dark times in which we live. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

“What does God really look like?”

That’s a question that many children ask their parents or grandparents.

And the answer is very simple, really. God looks like Jesus Christ.

I don’t know how much more explicitly Jesus could have made this than when He said to Philip (John 14:9-10): “He who has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?”

I often gaze at the stars in the night sky and feel nearly overwhelmed as I ponder the power and majesty of this God who made all of the heavens and Earth.  And who made ME.

But God is not some mystical entity, never fully comprehended and often interpreted in vague and ambiguous philosophical musings by the so-called “spiritual masters.”

We can know God by knowing Jesus. By reading His words in the Holy Bible. By having a vital personal relationship with Him as we daily consecrate our lives and our hearts to Him.

Isn’t it a wonderful thing that our God has made Himself known to us through His Son, Jesus Christ?

Prayer for today

Dear Father God. You are the creator of the universe and all living things. You keep the planets in orbit and you love all of your creation, including me. Thank you for having sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to live and walk on Planet Earth so that we could know You more intimately through Him. In His name we pray, amen.

“Then He said, ‘Do not draw near to this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ “  Exodus 3:5

I saw yesterday in the news a bizarre and disturbing story in which monks of two different religious orders were fighting with one another over control of a Christian “holy place” in Israel. I’ve never been to Israel and I doubt that I will ever go. It would be interesting seeing some of the sites mentioned in the Bible, but I certainly don’t think they are worth Christians fighting over them.

On a few occasions in the past on TV, I have seen representatives of certain Christian sects pushing and shoving one another over control of an area around a “holy site” associated with the life of Jesus.

What a horrible witness this is to the world! If this is “Christianity,” then I can see why so many millions of non-believers want nothing to do with it. But the point is: this is not Christianity. It’s simply man’s religion. Christianity is about faith and the love of God. Religion is about rules and regulations and traditions. This is why Jesus chastised the religious rulers of His time. They were so bound up in in various rules and regulations and traditions that they made God Himself angry with them.

In the Scripture cited above, God was telling Moses to be careful where he walked because he was standing in God’s literal presence - on HOLY ground. Holy ground is simply where the presence of God resides.

God’s holy presence does NOT reside where there is religious bickering and fighting and jealousy. What these monks are fighting for is simply a collection of stones, wood and metal.

Some religious leaders were missing the point in Jesus’ time and many continue to miss the point 2,000 years later. “The point” is about God’s love, mercy and forgiveness and our need to love one another as a testimony to the world that the love of Christ is in us.

Prayer for today:

Lord, help us to see where we “miss the point” about true Christianity. Forgive us for the times we have placed “things” above people. Help us to love your presence far more than objects of only temporal importance. Let there be peace in Israel and throughout the rest of the world - as well in our own hearts and minds. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

“Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing Psalms.” James 5:13.

I came across this Scripture today in my Bible reading and just reading it made me feel cheerful.

Lord knows, it’s not always easy for us to feel cheerful.  As the TV commercial says, life comes at most of us pretty hard these days.

But I do find myself walking around the house singing an inspirational tune to God and to myself on a daily basis.

I sing because I know that Jesus is with me, each and every day of my life - through the good times and the bad, through the valleys and the mountaintop experiences of life.

I sing because of His grace and mercy and love for me.

I sing because I’m “on my way to heaven and the journey just grows sweeter every day.”

I think that God smiles when he hears us sing. Just like we smile when we hear our children or grandchildren sing.

Thinking of God smiling makes me feel cheerful. How about you?

Prayer for today

Dear Lord, sometimes we let the burdens and troubles of life weigh us down. Our souls are heavy and we become discouraged and dismayed. But, when we go through these times, we need to fix our eyes upon Jesus Christ and sing a song of praise to Him. In no time at all, this will make us feel much better. Thank you, dear Lord, for putting your song in our hearts. in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

I really don’t ever intend to write about governmental affairs and politics on this blog, but I do think that it is appropriate on the day after a national election to consider this admonition from the Word of God:

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

Whether our candidates have won or lost, we are instructed to pray and make intercession for those who have been chosen to lead us in our government.

On a national level especially, they shoulder monumental challenges. I personally can’t imagine what it would be like to have responsibility for so many human lives - both in this country and throughout the world.

If we disagree with some of the positions the newly elected candidates have embraced, we can pray that God will change their minds and hearts when they take office.

Prayer for today:

Dear Lord, we do pray for the leaders of our nation, our state and our local communities. We also pray for leaders of other nations throughout the world. May you impress upon their hearts that they need to be servants of the people first and foremost.  We pray that they will make wise and compassionate decisions during their time in office.   In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

I came of age during the coming of age of the television election season commercial. The election commercials I remember from my youth were pretty simple: they extolled the virtues of a particular candidate and urged the viewer to vote for that candidate on Election Day.

But over the years, many election commercials began to grow dark - and many now are just plain ugly. They portray a candidate’s opponent as being evil, untrustworthy, mean-spirited and dishonest. Photos are flashed on the screen to make the candidate’s opponent look fierce and menacing.

The saddest part of all of this to me is that many of the candidates who allow their handlers to use this tactic against their opponents claim to be Christian believers. If so, they have apparently not spend much time in the Word of God.

Luke 6:37: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.”

Why isn’t it enough for a political candidate to state his or her qualifications for an office and then take a stand on issues that are important. Why do so many resort to the low road of publicly judging and condemning?

In my mind, I question the candidate who uses this kind of tactic to try to get elected. Is this candidate really humbly wanting to serve the people he/she may represent, or is the candidate actually seeking power and ego gratification instead?

Mature Christians know that the Bible clearly teaches that we should make every effort to avoid judging other human beings. That’s God’s job, not ours.

Prayer for today:

“Lord, help us to be much more concerned about our own imperfections and weaknesses than we are about the flaws of others. Make it our instinct to pray for others who we know are in sin rather than to self-righteously accuse them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”