Thanksgiving and Leftovers

November 25, 2011Allen Frederick Leave a comment

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Ah those wonderful Thanksgiving dinner leftovers! They are just as good the day after as the day of, at least in my opinion. I can eat turkey sandwiches for a week after Thanksgiving and not tire of them. It is the week after Thanksgiving. Many have left the warm confines of their homes and ventured out into the wild world of Black Friday. Some were out at midnight for those specially advertised sales. Others have been waiting in line since way before daylight.

But not me; nope I have made it a rule for myself to do everything possible to never even leave home on the day after Thanksgiving. If at all possible I’m staying in, watching movies and yes, eating on those delectable Thanksgiving leftovers. I might even watch the news to see how shoppers have fared on their day-after excursions. Some of the stories are tragic and others just plain old funny. On either end of the stick I’m glad that I’m not one of the stories.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against those who enjoy the Black Friday experience – To each his own. I really hope they find what they are looking for and have a wonderful time in the process. Folks it just isn’t my cup of tea and I don’t think you’ll ever find me out in the crowd. If you need me, I’ll probably be right here at home.

The word “leftovers” often doesn’t get the right rating. A lot of people snarl their nose at leftovers. In the Bible there were two times when a miracle of Jesus produced leftovers. Once He had fed five thousand people with a few fish and a few loaves of bread and on another occasion the number was three thousand with the same menu. Each time there was more leftovers than what He originally started with. You know what; I think I might have liked to have tried those Heavenly leftovers.

In Nehemiah 12:46 we read, “For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.” The people were remembering how it had been during the days of David and Asaph. The offices of the singers were very important to these men in the worship of God. After their thanksgiving celebration the people of Israel under Nehemiah’s direction were trying to duplicate that so as to re-establish the wonderful worship of days gone by. In a sense they were making trying to stretch the leftovers of their own worship for the coming days. I believe that was a good thing.

When we have an unusually good time of worship with our Lord we want to bask in the leftovers of that experience, and we should. That wonderful feeling of worship and closeness to God is something we want to last on and on. It makes us to want to stretch that experience until the next one. It’s a Heavenly leftover that we can always look forward to.

I pray that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I sincerely hope that things went well for you and you made memories that will serve as pleasant leftovers for a long time to come. We should want those kinds of leftovers. We need to cherish those times and remember them in our hearts. We never know when tragedy may strike and take away some of those family members we love. But we can always relive those good times in our minds.

It’s the same with our spiritual thanksgiving. Those times well spent with our Lord serve as pleasant memories that can encourage us in days to come. Hold fast to them. Never forget them. Keep them close to your heart. Then draw from them as the need arises. Of course there will be new experiences in the Lord. We’ll have more good times to come. But never forget them and always give thanks.

Jerry D. Ousley is the Author of five books, “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey” “Ordeal” “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Listen to the daily broadcast Spirit Bread. Find out more by visiting www.spiritbread.com

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com

These are the times that try men’s souls (eagleviews.org)
The Appetite of the Greedy is never Satisfied (eagleviews.org)

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day

March 18, 2011March 25, 2011Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Oh I know today is not really Saint Patrick’s day but indulge me for a wee bit and you will see why I say today really is Saint Patrick’s day.

Patrick was one of Christianity’s first outspoken opponents of slavery. ¹

Patrick lived after Christianity became mainstream in the Roman Empire. He was born sometime around AD 386 in Britain and died around 460 in Ireland.² His grandfather was a priest, and his father was a Roman official who was also a deacon in the Roman church. Patrick left two documents: his Confession and Letter to Coroticus.

Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus described converts taken into slavery, with the sign of the cross still fresh on their foreheads. Patrick pleaded for their safe return. He begged Britain’s Christian leadership for help, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Patrick’s decision to identify himself with the Irish, a culture outside of Roman Christianity, diminished his ability to influence the church in Britain.³

Patrick was especially concerned about how Christian women suffered in slavery. Cahill quotes Patrick as saying:

“But it is the women kept in slavery who suffer the most — and who keep their spirits up despite the menacing and terrorizing they must endure. The Lord gives grace to his handmaids; and though they are forbidden to do so, they follow him with backbone.” ⁴

His outcries against slavery were eventually successful. During Patrick’s lifetime (or shortly after), the slave trade in Ireland stopped.

Human trafficking is today’s equivalent to slavery. Women and children are held against their will and forced to work for their masters. Some sources suggest that 100,000 minors suffer as sex-slaves within the U.S. borders alone, and even more shocking, 100 million people in India are sex-slaves. Of India’s prostitute population, 40% are children. ⁵

St. Patrick’s Letter pleaded for such as these:

“Hence the Church mourns and laments her sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were removed and carried off to faraway lands, where sin abounds openly, grossly, impudently. There people who were freeborn have, been sold, Christians made slaves, and that, too, in the service of the abominable, wicked, and apostate [unbelievers].” ⁶

WHERE IS ST. PATRICK TODAY?

Today’s Saint Patrick are people who (a) love God deeply and are able to discern His calling, (b) are able to teach deep truths by illustrations from common experience, (c) prove their faith through a genuine love for people, advocating the cause of those who cannot defend themselves; often this advocacy is motivated by personal experience, and (d) have a deep and personal prayer life.

Patrick’s life was full of obstacles for those who would want to become leaders in a local church much like today: he lacked education and experienced a terrifying adolescence. Those experiences prepared him to be able to reach out to those who are also outcast by the established church. Patrick’s lack of formal education made him a practical theologian, but a theologian none-the-less. Imagine if God only used the seminary trained to reach the lost? Perhaps that is why the populations of the lost continues to grow rapidly while the population of the church continues to decline?

Today is Saint Patrick’s day, a day for all those who have dedicated their lives to God, who may be overlooked by the church, and perhaps considered by some to be uneducated, to arise and go forth like Saint Patrick of Ireland. There is still much work to be done in the world. Make today and everyday Saint Patrick’s day.

Just a view from the nest

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Along for the journey

¹ Dates taken from the Dictionary of Christian Biography. Ed. Michael Walsh. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001.

² As claimed by Thomas Cahill, and evidenced in both Patrick’s Confession and Letter to Coroticus. Also mentioned in Jonathan Hills What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? How It Shaped the Modern World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

³ Both his identification with the Irish and a sin he confessed before entering the priesthood hindered his influence with the British. His confessed sin somehow become a scandal among church leadership, and prompted him to write his Confession.

⁴ From Patrick’s Confession, and quoted in Cahill, 109.

⁵ These statistics are from http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2010/01/facing_modernday_slavery_1.html

⁶ “Letter to Coroticus.” http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1166.htm

The Real Saint Patrick (bricehope.wordpress.com)

Where’s the Line to See Jesus?

December 23, 2010December 26, 2010Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Well Christmas Day is here and the malls are all closed. Even WalMart looks like a deserted island as families gather around the Christmas tree to exchange presents and memories. Did you wonder as you wandered through the stores seeking gifts for your family friends and as you stood in the long check out lines at departments stores across the country where the line was to see Jesus?

Do you see church lots full of cars several weeks before Christmas as the parking lots of the malls and discount stores? Are the eager children who are standing in line to sit on Santa’s lap just as eager to learn about Jesus? Has good old Saint Nick replaced the Christ of Christmas? Do wise men still seek Him who was born King of the Jews?

In all our seeking are we seeking the Prince of peace? Where exactly is the line to see Jesus?

Think about it and Merry Christmas

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GROUNDHOG DAY

February 2, 2009admin Leave a comment

A View from the Nest

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

Insight from the Journey across the Sky

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (GW)

Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others.

In the Harold Ramis film “Groundhog Day”, TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to cover the “Groundhog Day” ceremonies in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, for the fifth year in a row. It is an assignment he truly despises, but this year something truly bizarre happens: When he awakens the next morning, eager to leave, he discovers it’s “Groundhog Day” all over again.

When the same thing happens the next morning, he thinks he’s going insane and wreaks havoc throughout the town. More mornings pass, all of them “Groundhog Day”, and with each, Phil grows angrier. Desperate to escape, Phil attempts suicide, but yet another “Groundhog Day” dawns.

As Phil starts realizing that his exploits are not making time march on any quicker, he begins to change his behavior. By observing life around him, Phil becomes aware of the needs of others and along the way learns more about himself than he ever thought possible.

Although a lighthearted film, “Groundhog Day” offers the viewer opportunities to look deeper into the meaning of life. Punxsutawney Phil, not the groundhog, has become trapped in a prison of his own making. After four trips to this tiny, western Pennsylvania town, Phil has had enough. He feels that his talents could be better utilized in a larger more prestigious station or network. Instead he is stuck in a tiny station, in a tiny market, covering a tiny animal, coming out of a tiny hole in the ground. By diminishing himself through the belittlement of others and his surroundings, Phil gets to relive his worst nightmare-“Groundhog Day”. Phil Connor’s life became what he disliked the most.

Imagine having to live the worst day of your life over and over and over again. What if no matter what you did you could not change the outcome of that day. How would you handle it?

Romans 7:24 (BBE)

How unhappy am I! who will make me free from the body of this death?

To those who deal with emotional scars and the ravishes of sin, perhaps you can see yourself in Phil Conners. Although trapped in a time warp, Phil was making progress.

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