Marley and His Message to Scrooge by R.C. Sproul

It's far too easy to become jaded by all the commercialism and crowds during the Christmas Season. Several years ago, a friend shared this brief article with us and it has helped each year to re-focus our hearts onto the true gift of the holiday.

I sincerely hope you find this very special message enlightening for both your mind and spirit. And, in sending this post, I am wishing you a truly Blessed and Joy-Filled Christmas season!

Marley and His Message to Scrooge

by R.C. Sproul
 

Bah! Humbug!” These two words are instantly associated with Charles Dickens’ immortal fictional anti-hero, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge was the prototype of the Grinch who stole Christmas, the paradigm of all men cynical.

We all recognize that Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean person - stingy, insensitive, selfish, and unkind. What we often miss in our understanding of his character is that he was preeminently profane. “Bah! Humbug!” was his Victorian use of profanity.

Not that any modern editor would feel the need to delete Scrooge’s expletives. His language is not the standard currency of cursing. But it was profane in that Scrooge demeaned what was holy. He trampled on the sanctity of Christmas. He despised the sacred. He was cynical toward the sublime.
Christmas is a holiday, indeed the world’s most joyous holiday. It is called a “holiday” because the day is holy. It is a day when businesses close, when families gather, when churches are filled, and when soldiers put down their guns for a 24-hour truce. It is a day that differs from every other day.
Every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. The church is full of them. We hear endless complaints of commercialism. We are constantly told to put Christ back into Christmas. We hear that the tradition of Santa Claus is a sacrilege. We listen to those acquainted with history murmur that Christmas isn’t biblical. The Church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull-god Mithras, the nay-sayers complain. Christmas? A mere capitulation to paganism.

And so we rain on Jesus’ parade and assume an Olympian detachment from the joyous holiday. All this carping is but a modern dose of Scroogeism, our own sanctimonious profanation of the holy.
Sure, Christmas is a time of commerce. The department stores are decorated to the hilt, the ad pages of the newspapers swell in size, and we tick off the number of shopping days left until Christmas. But why all the commerce? The high degree of commerce at Christmas is driven by one thing: the buying of gifts for others. To present our friends and families with gifts is not an ugly, ignoble vice. It incarnates the amorphous “spirit of Christmas.” The tradition rests ultimately on the supreme gift God has given the world. God so loved the world, the Bible says, that He gave His only begotten Son. The giving of gifts is a marvelous response to the receiving of such a gift. For one day a year at least, we taste the sweetness inherent in the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

What about putting Christ back into Christmas? It is simply not necessary. Christ has never left Christmas. “Jingle Bells” will never replace “Silent Night.” Our holiday once known as Thanksgiving is rapidly becoming known simply as “Turkey Day.” But Christmas is still called Christmas. It is not called “Gift Day.” Christ is still in Christmas, and for one brief season the secular world broadcasts the message of Christ over every radio station and television channel in the land. Never does the church get as much free air time as during the Christmas season.

Not only music but the visual arts are present in abundance, bearing testimony to the historic significance of the birth of Jesus. Christmas displays all remind the world of the sacred Incarnation.
Doesn’t Santa Claus paganize or at least trivialize Christmas? He’s a myth, and his very mythology casts a shadow over the sober historical reality of Jesus. Not at all. Myths are not necessarily bad or harmful. Every society creates myths. They are a peculiar art form invented usually to convey a message that is deemed important by the people. When a myth is passed off as real history, that is fraud. But when it serves a different purpose it can be healthy and virtuous. Kris Kringle is a mythical hero, not a villain. He is pure fiction — but a fiction used to illustrate a glorious truth.

What about the historical origins of Christmas as a substitute for a pagan festival? I can only say, good for the early Christians who had the wisdom to flee from Mithras and direct their zeal to the celebration of the birth of Christ. Who associates Christmas today with Mithras? No one calls it “Mithrasmas.”

We celebrate Christmas because we cannot eradicate from our consciousness our profound awareness of the difference between the sacred and the profane. Man, in the generic sense, has an incurable propensity for marking sacred space and sacred time. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, the ground that was previously common suddenly became uncommon. It was now holy ground - sacred space. When Jacob awoke from his midnight vision of the presence of God, he anointed with oil the rock upon which he had rested his head. It was sacred space.

When God touches earth, the place is holy. When God appears in history, the time is holy. There was never a more holy place than the city of Bethlehem, where the Word became flesh. There was never a more holy time than Christmas morning when Emmanuel was born. Christmas is a holiday. It is the holiest of holy days. We must heed the warning of Jacob Marley: “Don’t be a Scrooge” at Christmas.

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

The Scriptures and Prayer

Profiting From The Word, by Arthur W. Pink, is one of the most concise, insightful and convicting works on Christian living that I have ever read. I pray you will be blessed, inspired and challenged by this excerpt on the topic of prayer. 

Many thanks to the folks at Providence Baptist Ministries for making this important little book available online.  They have a remarkable online library...check it out!

PDS

Profiting From The Word
by A.W. Pink

4. The Scriptures and Prayer

Profiting From The Word by A.W. Pink - Chapter 4 

---

A prayerless Christian is a contradiction in terms. Just as a still-born child is a dead one, so a professing believer who does not pray is devoid of spiritual life. Prayer is the breath of the new nature in the saint, as the Word of God is its food. When the Lord would assure the Damascus disciple that Saul of Tarsus had been truly converted, He told him, "Behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11). On many occasions had that self-righteous Pharisee bowed his knees before God and gone through his "devotions," but this was the first time he had ever really prayed. This important distinction needs emphasizing in this day of powerless forms (2 Tim. 3:5). They who content themselves with formal addresses to God know Him not; for "the spirit of grace and supplications" (Zech. 12:10) are never separated. God has no dumb children in His regenerated family: "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?" (Luke 18:7). Yes, "cry" unto Him, not merely "say" their prayers.

But will the reader be surprised when the writer declares it is his deepening conviction that, probably, the Lord’s own people sin more in their efforts to pray than in connection with any other thing they engage in? What hypocrisy there is, where there should be reality! What presumptuous demandings, where there should be submissiveness! What formality, where there should be brokenness of heart! How little we really feel the sins we confess, and what little sense of deep need for the mercies we seek! And even where God grants a measure of deliverance from these awful sins, how much coldness of heart, how much unbelief, how much self-will and self-pleasing have we to bewail! Those who have no conscience upon these things are strangers to the spirit of holiness.

Now the Word of God should be our directory in prayer. Alas, how often we have made our own fleshly inclinations the rule of our asking. The Holy Scriptures have been given to us "that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:17). Since we are required to "pray in the Spirit" (Jude 20), it follows that our prayers ought to be according to the Scriptures, seeing that He is their Author throughout. It equally follows that according to the measure in which the Word of Christ dwells in us "richly" (Col. 3:16) or sparsely, the more or the less will our petitions be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit, for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34). In proportion as we hide the Word in our hearts, and it cleanses, moulds and regulates our inner man, will our prayers be acceptable in God’s sight. Then shall we be able to say, as David did in another connection, "Of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chron. 29:14).

Thus the purity and power of our prayer-life are another index by which we may determine the extent to which we are profiting from our reading and searching of the Scriptures. If our Bible study is not, under the blessing of the Spirit, convicting us of the sin of prayerlessness, revealing to us the place which prayer ought to have in our daily lives, and is actually bringing us to spend more time in the secret place of the Most High; unless it is teaching us how to pray more acceptably to God, how to appropriate His promises and plead them before Him, how to appropriate His precepts and turn them into petitions, then not only has the time we spend over the Word been to little or no soul enrichment, but the very knowledge that we have acquired of its letter will only add to our condemnation in the day to come. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1 :22) applies to its prayer-admonitions as to everything else in it. Let us now point out seven criteria.

1. We are profited from the Scriptures when we are brought to realize the deep importance of prayer. It is really to be feared that many present-day readers (and even students) of the Bible have no deep convictions that a definite prayer-life is absolutely essential to a daily walking and communing with God, as it is for deliverance from the power of indwelling sin, the seductions of the world, and the assaults of Satan. If such a conviction really gripped their hearts, would they not spend far more time on their faces before God? It is worse than idle to reply, "A multitude of duties which have to be performed crowd out prayer, though much against my wishes." But the fact remains that each of us takes time for anything we deem to be imperative. Who ever lived a busier life than our Saviour? Yet who found more time for prayer? If we truly yearn to be suppliants and intercessors before God and use all the available time we now have, He will so order things for us that we shall have more time.

The lack of positive conviction of the deep importance of prayer is plainly evidenced in the corporate life of professing Christians. God has plainly said, "My house shall be called the house of prayer" (Matt. 21:13). Note, not "the house of preaching and singing," but of prayer. Yet, in the great majority of even so-called orthodox churches, the ministry of prayer has become a negligible quantity. There are still evangelistic campaigns, and Bible-teaching conferences, but how rarely one hears of two weeks set apart for special prayer! And how much good do these "Bible conferences" accomplish if the prayer-life of the churches is not strengthened? But when the Spirit of God applies in power to our hearts such words as, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation" (Mark 14:38), "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6), "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Col. 4:2), then are we being profited from the Scriptures.

2. We are profited from the Scriptures when we are made to feel that we know not how to pray. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom. 8:26). How very few professing Christians really believe this! The idea most generally entertained is that people know well enough what they should pray for, only they are careless and wicked, and so fail to pray for what they are fully assured is their duty. But such a conception is at direct variance with this inspired declaration in Romans 8:26. It is to be observed that that flesh-humbling affirmation is made not simply of men in general, but of the saints of God in particular, among which the apostle did not hesitate to include himself: "We know not what we should pray for as we ought." If this be the condition of the regenerate, how much more so of the unregenerate! Yet it is one thing to read and mentally assent to what this verse says, but it is quite another to have an experimental realization of it, for the heart to be made to feel that what God requires from us He must Himself work in and through us.

"I often say my prayers,
But do I ever pray?
And do the wishes of my heart
Go with the words I say?
I may as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God
A prayer of words alone"

It is many years since the writer was taught these lines by his mother—now "present with the Lord"—but their searching message still comes home with force to him. The Christian can no more pray without the direct enabling of the Holy Spirit than he can create a world. This must be so, for real prayer is a felt need awakened within us by the Spirit, so that we ask God, in the name of Christ, for that which is in accord with His holy will. "If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us" (1 John 5:14). But to ask something which is not according to God’s will is not praying, but presuming. True, God’s revealed will is made known in His Word, yet not in such a way as a cookery book contains recipes and directions for preparing various dishes. The Scriptures frequently enumerate principles which call for continuous exercise of heart and Divine help to show us their application to different cases and circumstances. Thus we are being profited from the Scriptures when we are taught our deep need of crying "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1), and are actually constrained to beg Him for the spirit of prayer.

3. We are profited from the Scriptures when we are made conscious of our need of the Spirit’s help. First, that He may make known to us our real wants. Take, for example, our temporal needs. How often we are in some external strait; things from without press hard upon us, and we long to be delivered from these trials and difficulties. Surely here we "know" of ourselves what to pray for. No, indeed; far from it! The truth is that, despite our natural desire for relief, so ignorant are we, so dull is our discernment, that (even where there is an exercised conscience) we know not what submission unto His pleasure God may require, or how He may sanctify these afflictions to our inward good. Therefore, God calls the petitions of most who seek for relief from external trials "howlings," and not a crying unto Him with the heart (see Hos. 7:14). "For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?" (Eccles. 6:12). Ah, heavenly wisdom is needed to teach us our temporal "needs" so as to make them a matter of prayer according to the mind of God.

Perhaps a few words need to be added to what has just been said. Temporal things may be scripturally prayed for (Matt. 6:11, etc.), but with this threefold limitation. First, incidentally and not primarily, for they are not the things which Christians are principally concerned in (Matt. 6:33). It is heavenly and eternal things (Col. 3:1) which are to be sought first and foremost, as being of far greater importance and value than temporal things. Second, subordinately, as a means to an end. In seeking material things from God it should not be in order that we may be gratified, but as an aid to our pleasing Him better. Third, submissively, not dictatorially, for that would be the sin of presumption. Moreover, we know not whether any temporal mercy would really contribute to our highest good (Ps. 106:18), and therefore we must leave it with God to decide.

We have inward wants as well as outward. Some of these may be discerned in the light of conscience, such as the guilt and defilement of sin, of sins against light and nature and the plain letter of the law. Nevertheless, the knowledge which we have of ourselves by means of the conscience is so dark and confused that, apart from the Spirit, we are in no way able to discover the true fountain of cleansing. The things about which believers do and ought to treat primarily with God in their supplications are the inward frames and spiritual dispositions of their souls. Thus, David was not satisfied with confessing all known transgressions and his original sin (Ps. 51:1-5), nor yet with an acknowledgment that none could understand his errors, whence he desired to be cleansed from "secret faults" (Ps. 19:12); but he also begged God to undertake the inward searching of his heart to find out what was amiss in him (Ps. 139:23, 24), knowing that God principally requires "truth in the inward parts" (Ps. 51:6). Thus, in view of I Corinthians 2: 10-12, we should definitely seek the Spirit’s aid that we may pray acceptably to God.

4. We are profited from the Scriptures when the Spirit teaches us the right end in praying. God has appointed the ordinance of prayer with at least a threefold design. First, that the great triune God might be honored, for prayer is an act of worship, a paying homage; to the Father as the Giver, in the Son’s name, by whom alone we may approach Him, by the moving and directing power of the Holy Spirit. Second, to humble our hearts, for prayer is ordained to bring us into the place of dependence, to develop within us a sense of our helplessness, by owning that without the Lord we can do nothing, and that we are beggars upon His charity for everything we are and have. But how feebly is this realized (if at all) by any of us until the Spirit takes us in hand, removes pride from us, and gives God His true place in our hearts and thoughts. Third, as a means or way of obtaining for ourselves the good things for which we ask.

It is greatly to be feared that one of the principal reasons why so many of our prayers remain unanswered is because we have a wrong, an unworthy end in view. Our Saviour said, "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matt. 7:7): but James affirms of some, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3). To pray for anything, and not expressly unto the end which God has designed, is to "ask amiss," and therefore to no purpose. Whatever confidence we may have in our own wisdom and integrity, if we are left to ourselves our aims will never be suited to the will of God. Unless the Spirit restrains the flesh within us, our own natural and distempered affections intermix themselves in our supplications, and thus are rendered vain. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31), (yet none but the Spirit can enable us to subordinate all our desires unto God’s glory.

5. We are profited from the Scriptures when we are taught how to plead God’s promises. Prayer must be in faith (Rom. 10:14), or God will not hear it. Now faith has respect to God’s promises (Heb. 4:1; Rom. 4:21); if, therefore, we do not understand what God stands pledged to give, we cannot pray at all. The promises of God contain the matter of prayer and define the measure of it. What God has promised, all that He has promised, and nothing else, we are to pray for. "Secret things belong unto the Lord our God" (Deut. 29:29), but the declaration of His will and the revelation of His grace belong unto us, and are our rule. There is nothing that we really stand in need of but God has promised to supply it, yet in such a way and under such limitations as will make it good and useful to us. So too there is nothing God has promised but we stand in need of it, or are some way or other concerned in it as members of the mystical body of Christ. Hence, the better we are acquainted with the Divine promises, and the more we are enabled to understand the goodness, grace and mercy prepared and proposed in them, the better equipped are we for acceptable prayer.

Some of God’s promises are general rather than specific; some are conditional, others unconditional; some are fulfilled in this life, others in the world to come. Nor are we able of ourselves to discern which promise is most suited to our particular case and present emergency and need, or to appropriate by faith and rightly plead it before God. Wherefore we are expressly told, "For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Cor. 2: 11, 12). Should someone reply, If so much be required unto acceptable praying, if we cannot supplicate God aright without much less trouble than you indicate, few will continue long in this duty, then we answer that such an objector knows not what it is to pray, nor does he seem willing to learn.

6. We are profited from the Scriptures when we are brought to complete submission unto God. As stated above, one of the Divine designs in appointing prayer as an ordinance is that we might be humbled. This is outwardly denoted when we bow the knee before the Lord. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our helplessness, and a looking to Him from whom all our help comes. It is an owning of His sufficiency to supply our every need. It is a making known our requests" (Phil. 4:6) unto God; but requests are very different from demands. "The throne of grace is not set up that we may come and there vent our passions before God" (Wm. Gurnall). We are to spread our case before God, but leave it to His superior wisdom to prescribe how it shall be dealt with. There must be no dictating, nor can we "claim" anything from God, for we are beggars dependent upon His mere mercy. In all our praying we must add, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

But may not faith plead God’s promises and expect an answer? Certainly; but it must be God’s answer. Paul besought the Lord thrice to remove his thorn in the flesh; instead of doing so, the Lord gave him grace to endure it (2 Cor. 12). Many of God’s promises are promiscuous rather than personal. He has promised His Church pastors, teachers and evangelists, yet many a local company of His saints has languished long without them. Some of God’s promises are indefinite and general rather than absolute and universal; as, for example Ephesians 6:2, 3. God has not bound Himself to give in kind or specie, to grant the particular thing we ask for, even though we ask in faith. Moreover, He reserves to Himself the right to determine the fit time and season for bestowing His mercies. "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth . . . it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger" (Zeph. 2:3). Just because it "may be" God’s will to grant a certain temporal mercy unto me, it is my duty to cast myself upon Him and plead for it, yet with entire submission to His good pleasure for the performance of it.

7. We are profited from the Scriptures when prayer becomes a real and deep joy. Merely to "say our prayers each morning and evening is an irksome task, a duty to be performed which brings a sigh of relief when it is done. But really to come into the conscious presence of God, to behold the glorious light of His countenance, to commune with Him at the mercy seat, is a foretaste of the eternal bliss awaiting us in heaven. The one who is blessed with this experience says with the Psalmist, "It is good for me to draw near to God" (Ps. 73:28). Yes, good for the heart, for it is quietened; good for faith, for it is strengthened; good for the soul, for it is blessed. It is lack of this soul communion with God which is the root cause of our unanswered prayers: "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Ps. 37:4).

What is it which, under the blessing of the Spirit, produces and promotes this joy in prayer? First, it is the heart’s delight in God as the Object of prayer, and particularly the recognition and realization of God as our Father. Thus, when the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to teach them to pray, He said, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven." And again, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba [the Hebrew for "Father"], Father" (Gal. 4:6), which includes a filial, holy delight in God, such as children have in their parents in their most affectionate addresses to them. So again, in Ephesians 2:18, we are told, for the strengthening of faith and the comfort of our hearts, "For through him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." What peace, what assurance, what freedom this gives to the soul: to know we are approaching our Father!

Second, joy in prayer is furthered by the heart’s apprehension and the soul’s sight of God as on the throne of grace — a sight or prospect, not by carnal imagination, but by spiritual illumination, for it is by faith that we "see him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27); faith being the "evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1), making its proper object evident and present unto them that believe. Such a sight of God upon such a "throne" cannot but thrill the soul. Therefore are we exhorted, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16).

Thirdly, and drawn from the last quoted scripture, freedom and delight in prayer are stimulated by the consciousness that God is, through Jesus Christ, willing and ready to dispense grace and mercy to suppliant sinners. There is no reluctance in Him which we have to overcome. He is more ready to give than we are to receive. So He is represented in Isaiah 30:18, "And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you." Yes, He waits to be sought unto; waits for faith to lay hold of His readiness to bless. His ear is ever open to the cries of the righteous. Then "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22); "in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God," and we shall find that peace which passes all understanding guarding our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6, 7).

Sacrifice, Values and Sports

SACRIFICE

What do you think of when you put the word 'sacrifice' into the context of sports?  Bunts? Fly-balls? How about salaries?  Now, move the word 'sacrifice' into the context of your life.  Do you see a difference? A discrepency?

Recently, I enjoyed a spirited 'blog-versation' with an old friend on the use of the word 'sacrifice' in the context of the James Harden trade (you know...the 'bearded one') from our beloved OKC Thunder to the Houston Rockets.  In short, his point was that Mr. Harden was being asked to "sacrifice" more than the Thunder organization was willing to "sacrifice" in their negotiations to keep Harden in OKC, so the trade was a good career decision for him and a "value" for Houston because he is "worth" the 80 or so million dollars they offered him.

Now, I like sports very much, and I'm not going to argue (nor do I disagree) with The Bearded One's decision, but I do take exception to the appropriateness of using the word 'sacrifice' when speaking of the give-and-take of contract talks, ESPECIALLY those of professional sports.  My friend's argument is that sacrifice is relative and that it is an appropriate use because the athlete (or organization) is having to give up something of value.

Fair enough, sacrifice is indeed relative; subject to the cost to the one making it. I would still argue however, that sacrifice is NOT occurring in this context. True, in comparison to the Thunder organization, Mr. Hardin seems to have been the one who was willing to give up the most but, there is (or should be) a distinction between ‘sacrifice’ and merely giving up a portion of one’s wealth, while still remaining wealthy. (What’s a million or ten between friends…LOL!)

Likewise, when one makes a real sacrifice, they receive nothing tangible in return and the cost is significant, commensurate to the wealth and/or ability (or lack thereof) of the one making it (consider The Widows Mite, Luke 21:1-4).  An athlete giving up a couple million dollars out of a salary of many tens of millions is NOT making a sacrifice; it’s a carefully calculated business and personal decision that does not significantly alter either their fiscal status or lifestyle.  Granted, they might have to settle for the Citation instead of the Gulfstream, but then, times are tough all over. (Why isn't there an emoticon for sarcasm?)

When it comes to sports, some say that athletes “sacrifice” their bodies "for the game". Again, I disagree. This is not a sacrifice, it is a sale.  The athlete knowingly pursues and enters into an agreement whereby they sell their skills, their personality and often their health to the highest bidder, after having considered the cost and finding it agreeable. They are well paid for what will likely be a lifetime of pain; but, a sale is NOT a sacrifice. If one is paid for what they give, it is not a gift.

SACRIFICE IS the family that spends their hard earned vacation time and money on a mission trip instead of the cruise they’ve dreamed of for years.

SACRIFICE IS the struggling single mom who skips lunch each day for a month so she can buy cleats for her kid that wants to play ball more than anything else.

SACRIFICE IS the successful career person who leaves a comfortable, stable, well-paying job to follow God’s calling into a ministry for a fraction of the pay.

SACRIFICE IS…

2 Samuel 24:24 (PerryPhrased) David speaking; "I refuse to offer to my God, a sacrifice that cost me nothing."
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VALUES

Value and worth on the other hand, are terms at least as relative and subjective as sacrifice.

An athlete that brings millions of dollars in revenue to an organization is obviously ‘valuable’ to that organization and may well be ‘worth’ their salary to those paying it because of that revenue. But, in the reality of the world around us and the society in which we live, how ‘valuable’ are they? Are they really ‘worth’ 50-60-80 million dollars (multiplied several times, over multiple contract periods)?

Why is an athlete ‘worth’ more than a firefighter, or police officer, or soldier? Why do we, as a society, count our athletes more ‘valuable’ than our teachers? Are these ‘values’ based on what the individual contributes to society? If so, then the athletes should be the least paid of those groups mentioned.

An athlete merely provides entertainment for a period of maybe 10 or 15 years. A responsible and good-hearted athlete gives from their wealth and time to improve their community and the lives of those who live there. This is admirable to say the least, but does that increase their ‘value’?

In contrast, a teacher gives their heart, mind and strength to improving not only the daily lives of their students, but improving their students chances for a lifetime of success,  often changing whole generations and their progeny for the better. Yet, we pay our teachers pittance, compared to what they give, often sacrificing (yes, really sacrificing) from their own pockets to supply their students needs!

Firefighters, police and our military willingly place themselves in harm’s way for OUR benefit, often suffering physical injuries rivaling ANYTHING a professional athlete will face and suffering a lifetime of pain and disability. But, do we ever consider them ‘worth’ tens of millions of dollars because they “sacrifice their bodies”?

Why then do we so easily excuse and justify the excessive salaries and demands of our athletes and their organizations, when all they really give us is a few years of entertainment?

Value and worth are important; but what is it that we are considering valuable and worthwhile, and why?

AND SPORTS

As I said; I really do enjoy sports, but it seems evident to me that this unhealthy, unbalanced obsession our culture has with sports and athletes has contributed in no small way to the up-ending of our values as a people…or is it the other way around?

Just sayin'
PDS

Is Halloween OK?

A friend of ours, Rachel Cobb, posted this on her blog last night and I was very impressed by how she has so graciously addressed what can be a 'touchy' topic among Christians. Rachel has kindly agreed to let me repost it here.

 

I encourage you to check out Rachel's blog at http://rachelcobb.blogspot.com/.  Her Godly perspective and wisdom shines throughout all of her writings!

PDS

________________________________ 

 

This is in response to some messages I received via social media tonight after posting pics of a six year old Iron Man, and a three year old Bumblebee, and a Mommy (me) with a cat mask on...

We don't celebrate Halloween in our home.
We celebrate freedom in our home.
We believe we are to share the good news of Christ with others.
What other time of the year do people knock on your door to get something free?
Give them the FREE good news of Christ with their FREE candy.

We always dressed up when I was little.
Creepy, scary, or bloody costumes were never allowed.
They will not be allowed in our home either.
...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Phil. 4:8

Our Children are only tiny for a short time.
I love to see the joy on my children's faces when they put on their costumes for the first time.
We love spending time together as a family.
We have some of the greatest family memories of Halloween.
The overflow of candy in our home is used as a tool to teach giving and sharing.

I believe in taking a stand against evil forces aka: spiritual warfare.

Romans 12:21 (NIRV) Don't let evil overcome you. Overcome evil by doing good.

John 10:10 (NIV84) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
 

Some Christians think we are sinning by participating.

I don't really care what they think, because I live under and IN HIS truth.

This year, Halloween was a good distraction for my kids.

This year, everyone who knocked on our door got invited to church.

This year, people noticed our JOY, HIS JOY, Joy that doesn't come from candy, or worldly things!

This year, we prayed for the people that would come to our home, before they arrived.

This year, my children got to SEE what evangelism is about, when a bloody zombie came to the door.
 

Do you think Jesus would be mad about that?

I don't.

 

WHY?!

I recently heard someone say that, when we have trouble in our lives, it's because we aren't walking right with God.

Now, while this may SOMETIMES be true, it just as often is not; and we in the Church need to understand, proclaim and protect this distinction, without equivocation or apology; we need to exercise a true compassion, lovingly share in their burden (1 Cor 12:26) and quit repeating the sin of Job's "friends" by using other people's suffering as an excuse for judging their faith and walk.

I am reminded of John 9:1-3, As he [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

This gets me thinking about some things, one of which is the "WHY?!" we all experience when, as believers, we (or someone we love) suffer some manner of harm, hurt, loss or tragedy. We want to know, sometimes even demanding from God, "WHY?!" He would allow such things when we, as faulty as we are, try so hard to be faithful and live right?

While we may not receive the answer we so desperately seek (at least in this lifetime), I have observed over the years, a recurring theme, that illustrates the very real and practical truth of what Jesus told his disciples.

I'll explain by way of example.

Back in the eighties, someone very close to me was raped. She wrestled and agonized with the "WHY?!" for years. One day, when she was crying out "WHY?!", someone who loves her told her that she was allowed to experience this awful, horrible violation, so that she would be able to minister to others who have experienced similar pain, in a way that only someone who has known that pain ever could. She listened, but was only nominally comforted by this.

Some months later, after counseling with her pastor, she was blessed with the miraculous ability to truly forgive her attackers and from there, she began to grow rapidly in her faith, with a heart more peaceful than she could have imagined.

A couple years later, she was attending a fund-raising event for a local crisis pregnancy center, when she was struck powerfully with the calling that she belonged in that ministry. She began first as a volunteer peer-counselor, where she was able to openly share about her experience, comforting hurting women and girls; sharing the Word of our Lord freely and experiencing the joy of having some of them come back months later, bringing their new babies to share with her!

The healing she experienced in this ministry was beyond words and surpassed in significance only by the lives changed through it.

After some time, she was asked to take the lead in developing, coordinating and presenting a new Abstinence Education program for the center, to take into the local schools, churches and community youth programs.  She was NEVER a person that could speak in so much as a room full of friends without getting nervous, but God empowered and nurtured her abilities to become an effective and passionate speaker, presenting her testimony to groups both large (hundreds) and small.

(On a side note: she learned through her counseling that one of the first places we NEED abstinence education is in our churches. An alarming number of the teenagers that came to the center were from active Christian homes and were active in their church's youth programs. Some were even pastor's kids. But, many of the churches blindly, pridefully rejected the program as "unnecessary". Anyway...back to the story.)

Word of her powerful, presentation spread rapidly and soon she was invited to speak all over Southern California, at community (troubled) youth programs, Native American/Tribal youth programs and even some public high schools and "continuation" high schools for the violent and legally troubled students (an amazing and providential feat, in the fiercely liberal and anti-Christian public school systems of California).

Some of these places and groups were so rough that she was provided armed security during her visits!  Yet, even from the toughest, gang-infested audiences, she would often have girls (and sometimes even guys) come to her afterward and share horrific, heart-wrenching stories, tearfully exclaiming their longing to regain their "purity" and get right with God.

You see, God had built a powerful and effective ministry out of that pain; A modern-day repetition of "What man has intended for evil, God has used for good" (Genesis 50:20, PerryPhrased).

So, while God does indeed use painful, even tragic events to rattle our cage and get us back on track when we stray, it does not always mean that pain or difficulty in our lives is the result of our personal sin or faithlessness.

Sometimes, when it just doesn't make any sense, the best thing we can do is to trust Romans 8:28 more than we trust our own understanding: "And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (NIV, emphasis mine)

 

I hope and pray that this story helps and encourages someone today.

Blessings!

Perry