The Kingdom Come

Well here is my obligatory New Year's message. Typically, such a message is supposed to be full of platitudes and overly optimistic ideas. We're supposed to talk about the blessings of the previous year and the hope for the dawning.

But are we naive to think the new year will be any different than the previous if we do nothing different? This is where we are usually urged to make a resolution; a resolution to do or not do something in the new year.

Every year around Christmas time, some Christians grapple with how or if to celebrate Christmas. Typically the initial argument against Christmas by Christians is that it is not a Christian holiday but rather is a pagan holiday. Further, Protestant Christians may oppose the Roman Catholic connection to "Mass" as in "Christ's mass".

However, whatever Christmas was originally, many people; including non-Christians see the holiday as a specifically Christian holiday. So much so, that there is often a hesitancy for public institutions to overtly connect to the holiday, often using the phrase "Happy Holiday" rather than "Merry Christmas". Interestingly enough, etymologically; these institutions don't really get away from the religious overtone by using the phrase Happy Holiday because the word "Holiday" comes from the phrase Holy Day (ref).

After all the last bites, those left in tupperware tombs and tinfoil firkins. Passes passed and touchdowns danced. Aunt Sandy sighs and waves and hugged. Rug rolled up, door last shut. Another years gathering gone.

The couch calls the listless lingerer. Final sip of watered-down tea. Eyes heavy shades falling fast.

Comfy corner pillows piled high. Palms wrap the waning light. Sleep quickly comes. Dreaming of teaming doors and well wax floors.

Waiting in another line as signs mural. Another register opens by the girl in white. I'm next! I'm next! Cutters creatures and all. Brown hats and baseball bats, all things new.

Forty-five percent off. Scarves and knives for haves and have-nots. Get a receipt for things bought to return on Monday. Black Friday! Black Friday!

Alarm goes off. Wives and kiddies jiggle. Wake up! Wake! it is 12AM. Time to go. This place and that. Baseball bats and brown hats. Fifty percent off shoes.

Tryptophanic Dream. Extra piece of pie, whip cream. Rub your eyes. Time to go. Stretch and yawn to the approaching dawn. Black Friday! Black Friday!

During the days of American slavery, a tactic often used to keep the slaves from organizing was to keep them resentful of each other. To do this, the slave owners would often perpetuate a type of class warfare -- the so-called "house slave" versus the "field slave". The "house slave" was depicted as uppity as if they were better than the "field slave".

This tactic has not ended. It is demonstrated every day in the Liberal policies of the Democrat Party when it convinces most black Americans that it is uppity to be a conservative AND black. Somehow, the Democrats have convinced the majority of black Americans that black Republicans are merely "house slaves". The Democrats have been successful in getting a majority of black Americans to stay unorganized and oppressed. The Democrats have been successful in keeping a majority of black Americans on a new kind of plantation -- a plantation of the mind.

Unfortunately, some so-called "black leaders", like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have spent years helping the Democrat Party keep black Americans on the plantation of the mind.

Since the 2011-2012 Republican presidential campaign is high-lighting America's Social Security system, I thought it fitting to address the issue from a Christian perspective. In the debate, Texas governor Rick Perry has called Social Security "a ponzi scheme".

Contender, Governor Mitt Romney and the other Republican candidates have taken Perry to task saying among other things; "Our nominee has to be someone who is not committed to abolishing Social Security but who is committed to saving Social Security".

Here's the problem before we get into the biblical issues; the candidates are telling us we need to stop "Obamacare" before it becomes a fixture and cannot be undone, yet at the same time, we're being told that we can't touch Social Security because it has been around for over 70 years. See the inconsistency with their arguments?

So, I was looking at an "About Us" page of a church where already the presiding pastor has a reputation as an authoritarian elitist. Typically on these "About Us" pages, you will find something about the people who attend the congregation, even if they keep it private enough to not reveal the identities of the people. I understand that. However, this church's "About Us" page only listed the leadership of the church. So, the church is only "about" the leadership?

A female, non-Christian reader was upset with an article addressing the biblical concept of wives submitting to their husbands. She classified it as a form of slavery, probably thinking that I would recoil and try to water down the submission factor. But instead I accepted the premise and even expanded upon it by saying, I have often thought how people in America are born into a slave system even today. I mean look at it, we can't simply find a plot of land and build a shelter and live our lives. Instead, most Americans must find work doing the bidding of another person. We are locked into paying rent, mortgages, utilities, not to mention taxes. What if I didn't want to be part of that rat race anymore? Where could I go to be truly "free"? If I went to the mountains, eventually some government official would find me and throw me off "public land" and perhaps fine me for squating.

This question seems easy enough to answer. Perhaps a person would say a vice is clearly "sinful" whereas a bad habit is something you ought not do but you do it without thinking. Or further, that a vice is something you willfully do with full knowledge of its negative (and possibly sinful) ramifications, whereas a bad habit is something you do without realizing it, that also is negative and possibly sinful.

Could it be that a vice is controlling and addicting; something you cannot simply stop such as smoking or drugs? Maybe a vice is always negative whereas a habit can be positive or negative?

I've asked one of my daughter's friends this question but purposely requested they do not answer me until more time passes. Please ask yourself the same question...especially next time you or someone else names some action and says, "This is my only vice". What is meant by that?

As my family returned from church today, there were many questions. You see, the sermon was on homosexuality and how it is no worse a sin than any other sin. I mean, the Bible does say sin is sin right (Rom 3:23)? This confuses many people because then who are we to say anything about anyone's sins; specifically homosexuals if we are equally sinful? I mean, what about the Bible verse of removing the board out of your own eye before trying to help another person remove a speck (Mt 7:2-5)?

It irks me when supposed "experts" blather on and they are given a status that doesn't represent the typical. For instance, the entire Harold Camping issue or like an article I read today where a man named Ian Morgan Cron wrote on FoxNews.com, an article titled: Five Words That Could Save the Church (source). Save it from what? The author answers the question with this phrase: "Five words could prevent the public brawls between Christians who differ in their opinions on social and theological issues." Who says we Christians AREN'T supposed to "brawl" to some degree over doctrine? Actually, the Bible says just the opposite as the author of this piece concludes.