***NOTE*** God spoke to me on 11/24/05 and told me to write this so that WE could right this.
Each year on the 25th of December, Christians celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we call it Christmas. It is also a secular holiday that was made a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant. The secularists are the ones who created Santa Claus and the exchanging of presents, but this secular tradition has nothing to do Jesus Christ. Christians also exchange gifts, but Jesus is always the focal point of this day. The gift giving and family time are all secondary things, a tradition that man created. Man has since made many modifications to Christmas and none of them have been good.
Where did Xmas come from? Some transliterations of Greek spell Christos (or Kristos) as Xristos. The "X" stood in for Christos. It was originally considered to be a perfectly respectful abbreviation, especially as it included a form of the cross in the shape of the "X". Despite popular belief, it was not an attempt to remove Christ’s name from Christmas. More recently however the use of "X" has been associated with irreverent commercialism, leading to the saying "Put the 'Christ' back into Xmas."
Christmas became Xmas and much of the focus went to the gift giving and other secular traditions instead of recognizing the gift God gave to us and Christmas was allowed to dissolve into a non Christian sensitive “Happy Holiday’s” and “Seasons Greetings: This has been allowed to happen for so long now that many stores and businesses will not allow their employees to use the word Christmas anymore. It’s all about not wanting to offend non Christians, but I guess it seemed ok to offend those that were Christians in the process. If there were no Christmas, these businesses would have about 30% less revenue. They don’t want to say the word Christmas yet their customers don’t go Holiday shopping, they go Christmas shopping. Unless Christians stand up and speak up, the next thing I fear we’ll see is a law abolishing Christmas. This is all because a few non Christians had the boldness that many Christians did not have. These are the same people that want God out of our government buildings and off of our currency which I wrote about recently. How far has our affection for Jesus waned, that we allow people to do this to Christianity as easily as we do.
God is not happy that this is tolerated by us. We must look like hypocrites in his eyes. We profess our love for him and our desire to be closer to him in the privacy of our churches or in our homes but in public; few Christians are speaking up defending the name of Jesus when these people come against it. Satan is always behind this; his influence on people that have no foundation with God is huge. He gets in the heads of these people and they do exactly what he asks. We all know that those who come against God will pay a price for doing that, but won’t we also pay a price for standing by idly while this was happening?
A fresh breath needs to be breathed into Christianity and more voices need to be heard to reinvigorate Christianity. We need to mount up and be suited up in God’s Armor. Ephesians 6:14-18 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. We need to jealously guard our excitement in our spiritual walks. We need to stop letting people take cheap shots at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I doubt that we would allow people talk about our mothers the way we allow people to talk about Jesus. He’s been more protective of us than our mothers ever could have been. We now need to protect and take back what the thief stole from us while we weren’t paying attention. Last but by no means least; we need to put Christ back into Christmas and stop being so politically correct. It’s time we become politically incorrect and do the righteous Godly thing.
Let us pray:
Dear God: I pray that you would be with us all during this time as we work to improve ourselves and bring the importance of this day back to you Jesus. May we all walk in the light of your love and may that light beam from each of us into the hearts and souls of other believers and non believers alike, so that they might have a divine encounter with you Father. I pray that you would breathe a fresh breath into the souls of all Christians God, so that they would remember and reclaim the power and authority that they may have forgotten they had. Lord God, we need for you to once again send your holy fire down onto us so that we get fired up anew, so that we can break the strongholds that are in place and reclaim what’s been taken from us. Father I ask for your forgiveness for allowing others to make us stumble when we should have been standing on the rock of your salvation.
I ask this in Jesus name Amen
God Bless You All
Adam
One of the many awesome things that God does is speak to us. It is so incredible to us that we don't believe it sometimes, thinking that it is our imagination. We say how could God possibly speak to me? This thinking is especially true of new Christians, but God is God and who are we to tell him what he can and cannot do. The fact is, he created us to hear his voice and the devil tries to tell us that the things inside that we hear are coming from our own imagination. Some say that God doesn’t speak to us because they think he is too busy. Also they don't feel worthy of God to talk with them. Well, in ourselves we are not worthy for him to have anything to do with us. But because of his son dying for our sins, we are made worthy to have an open communication with him.
Yes, the God that made heaven and earth as well as everything in it speaks to us, and he speaks to us individually at any time if we’ll give him the time and listen. So it’s not that God is too busy for us, but sadly enough we are too busy for him. There are times when if we don't give him the time during the day, he wakes us up in the middle of the night when there are no distractions to have a conversation with us. I speak from personal experience when I say that he loves to talk to us and often, so that he can communicate how he loves us and wants to uplift us. Once we've prepared our hearts to listen through prayer, we're more likely to hear the voice of God. Does he speak to us through an audible voice? Some claim He does, but usually that's not the case. We may not actually "hear" the voice of God, but He speaks to us in many ways. Here are some of them: God speaks through His Word. God speaks through our thoughts, God speaks through conversations with others, and God speaks through circumstances.
That said, When he calls on you to do something, how will you respond to his call? Will you say "Yes God I Will" or will you do what he asks only if it's convenient for you and doesn't require much effort, or possibly do nothing at all and deny him? Those of us that know Gods voice have a responsibility to do whatever it is that he asks. He expects those that know his voice to be so committed, that all he'd have to do is give us an idea and we'd run with it. I can only imagine how much he would love it if people would be even half as committed to him as he is to us. How many will truly say I God when called upon? God help us.
Galatians 6: 7-9 say’s (7 don’t be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sew! 8 Those that live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.We all could really benefit from taking our focus off of ourselves and our own wants and desires. Humans will never be perfect but there's nothing wrong with letting that be our goal. So many people today operate in what I call I/ME mode. Simply put, if there’s nothing in it for them then they have no interest in it. These same people are the first to say that “God never talks to me”. Well, yes he does talk to them but they’re not listening. There are people that I’m sure have never heard the Lords voice and aren’t familiar with it, but there are others that have heard it but don’t want to hear it because hearing it forces them to make a decision, for or against. If they acknowledge God, then they are committed to abide in him.
We cannot live our lives in a selfish way and expect to be rewarded for it. We need to be more selfless and more like Christ for no other reason than the fact that he died for OUR SINS (not his own – He never sinned). Would you give up your life for your family or friend’s if you knew they would be guaranteed a better life? Christ died on the cross so that we could have back our relationship with God that was lost back when Adam & Eve committed original sin. So many people take what Jesus did for us for granted. That’s something we just can’t afford to let happen.
We are very fortunate that our Heavenly Father is very forgiving. His grace is beyond measure. He wants so badly for us to turn to him. He also looks for us to stand in the gap and pray on the behalf of others. God said “The soul that sins will die” Ezekiel 18:20. However, he would prefer to give grace, therefore he will always look for someone to intercede on another’s behalf. Halleluiah!
So if God should happen to call on you for ANYTHING. Please for your own sake say “Yes God I Will” without even thinking for a second what might be in it for you. I pray that we’ll go from being people that think I/ME to Godly and do the will of God as soon as we’re called on.
Please pray this with me
Father: I want to thank you for allowing me the privilege to be able to speak to you and be heard, but even more for the fact that you speak to me. I ask for your forgiveness God for those times when I haven’t been paying attention to you and also for the times when I’ve heard you and not responded. For this I ask for your grace Lord God. Please help me to focus less on myself and things of this world and instill in me an unquenchable thirst for you. Lord God I realize that on my own, I am not worthy of any kind of relationship with you at all, but because your only son Jesus died on the cross for us, I am able to have fellowship with you God. I ask you to guide me in all areas of my life, so that what I am doing daily will line up with what your will is for me.
I ask this in Jesus name
Amen
God Bless You All
Adam
Each one of us was born with a purpose. I think it's safe to say that not even half of the population of the world knows what their purpose in life is. That being the case, the majority of people (believers and non believers alike) spends most of their time just existing, serving no real purpose in life but living day to day content to just be.
Gods plan never intended for us to merely exist, and be satisfied to be just a human that’s being. He intended for us to do works of all levels, some great and some not so great but all serving him and serving a purpose on this earth. He wants for us to be or become "humans doing". He wants for us to be influential on the world around us. To be doing things that improve the lives of all we encounter bringing them to a better place in their lives and giving all glory to God.
In order to affect change on our immediate surroundings we need to become God pleasers instead of people pleasers. We need to put into action everything that we believe in and have faith in that is unseen. Saying that we Love God and have faith in him is reduced to mere words unless we live our words out in life. How do we treat other people? Do we leave people and things in better condition than we find them in on a consistent basis? Do we say things that build up or things that tear down? There are people that have great intentions when they say things and they think they’re doing the right thing, but they’re not. If you speak one thing and your actions speak another there is contradiction and hypocrisy. That in itself is a form a lying and is a SIN. That will drive people away, not win them over.
If we are to go out into the world and affect change on our environments in a positive way and tell people about the freedom that comes with having a relationship with Jesus, we have to walk our talk. We have to put into action what we preach. It’s hard yes, but nothing that is good in life is ever easy. This is why so many people are content to just be without getting involved. They are humans being instead of humans doing. How big we increase the size of God’s army is totally dependant on how we present God to other people. If we let the Holy Spirit that lives in each one of us work the wait it see’s fit we can win every time, but we have to be fully yielding to the Holy Spirit’s move and stay out of the way. Bill Johnson says it best when speaking of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit was put in us as a stream not a lake” what that means is that the Holy Spirit is supposed to flow through us like a stream to other people, so to change the world around us.
Unless we do that we are working in the natural which isn’t the wrong way as much as it is the hard way. God knows best how to use us, so it just makes sense to let him work through us to cause the changes that he wants to take place. That can only happen if we are yielding to him, and we are Humans Doing instead of Humans Being.
Heavenly Father I thank you for this word God. I thank you for showing us where we can improve and where our shortcomings may be. Lord God help us to be more sensitive to your desires and more yielding to your will. We want to impact the world around us in a positive way Father. We want to be Humans that are doing your will instead of Humans that are just being, watching the days go by without changing the atmosphere around us even a little bit. Father God you know what’s best and the best way for us to do things. I pray that you will instill in all of us, a burning desire to increase our prayer life God, to spend more time communing with you, so that we are more like you as a result, able to make positive changes in the world one person at a time.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen
God Bless You All
Adam
Do we really trust in God today? I know there was a time in this country where people trusted in, and depended on God for everything. Today we have a portion of people that do trust in God for everything. They're lives wouldn't be complete without him in it. However today there are groups of people that want any reference to God removed from society. They want prayer removed from our schools. They want the Ten Commandments removed from our courts and government buildings. Lastly they want the motto "In God We Trust" removed from our currency.
The people that want this don't want it removed because they don't believe God exists as much as they want these references to God removed because of the lifestyles they lead; they don't want constant reminders of God to be around them as they live life THEIR WAY. Having a constant reminder that God is with us, makes these people very uncomfortable and to that I say AMEN. It should make them uncomfortable. These people seem to have forgotten that you can't hide from God; he knows all and sees all. Furthermore if they take God out of their lives, they are setting themselves up for failure because they will be depending on man and not God, which no good can come from. The dependency America had on God from Civil war time’s right up until the 1950's was huge. An example of this is found in a letter that was sent to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1861 by Rev. M.R. Watkinson.
In his letter he wrote “One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins. You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the allseeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW. This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters. To you first I address a subject that must be agitated."
As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto.
He wrote "Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition."
The phrase "In God We Trust" does not appear in the Bible. Nevertheless Biblical passages such as 1Timothy: 4-10 ("Trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe") and 2 Corinthians 1:9 ("Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.") are cited as scriptural inspiration. And just as the pleas of Rev. Watkinson and the National Reform Association had led to the inclusion of "In God We Trust" on coinage, similar religious sentiments were used to justify the mottos addition to the nation's paper currency. Evidence of this comes from an examination of the Congressional Record. On June 7, 1955 for instance, Congressman Bennett of Florida rose in support of H.R 619, a bill "Providing for the inscription of 'In God We Trust' on all United States Currency and Coins." Bennett declared:
"I sincerely hope that the Senate will give its prompt approval to this proposal. In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continuously look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and His guidance. As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail. To serve as a constant reminder of this truth, it is highly desirable that our currency and coins should bear these inspiring words 'In God We Trust."
The number of people in this country that actually have morals has declined over the last forty years and there doesn't appear to be a turn around of any kind in the near future. The number of people that want God out of the picture are far less than the number of Christians in this country. The problem is that we Christians are not making nearly as much noise about this issue and the people that want God removed from everything though fewer in number are showing the boldness that we should be showing. There are not enough Christian people that will speak up and stand for what's right. It's sad to say, but unless we start mounting up and go to battle over this issue, the loud few can win this thing, then what will we do? I personally know many Christians and non Christians alike that want to win this battle, but they're afraid to speak up, they don't want to step on toes.
With our Father God watching our backs, what have we got to be worried about. We should have no fear, no trepidation, no trembling, and no worries because we're fighting for God, we have a very strong message. It's the people that don't want prayer in Schools, God on our money, and the Ten Commandments removed from all government buildings that should be trembling with fear.
Father God, help us to grow in our boldness. Help us to overcome the obstacles that Satan has put in our way to discourage us and instill fear in us for standing up for what's right. You did not give us a spirit of fear God, you gave a us a spirit of sound mind and understanding. Lord God I pray that you would fill us all with the Holy Spirit and give us the strength and right words to say to turn hearts and change minds. Lord we want to not only win this battle, but we want to win the souls of our opposition back for you God. Protect us in our coming and our going as we do your will. To you goes all the glory God.
I pray this in Jesus mighty name.
Amen
May God Bless You All
Adam
