Memorial Day

I don't know about you but ever since I was a very small boy I often wondered what Memorial Day was all about. I'm sure I asked my mom and dad every year why we celebrated it and was thankful at the same time that it was a day off school and my dad was home from work, at least from his main job. I can even remember being at my grandmother's over Memorial Day and going to my grandfather's grave and seeing other family members tombstones and placing flowers on them. Not really understanding why?

As I've grown up, now passing the half-century mark, I'm beginning to remember some of the things that my dad told me about this momentus holiday. In that it wasn't really a holiday at all. A short study in history will show that many women of the south would visit the graves of their fallen men and place flowers on their graves, it was done with the intention of giving the idea that no one be forgotten for the sacrifice they had made on befalf of the south. This idea spread and before you know it people from places all over America began to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Hence the name originally of "Decoration Day". Other things have come out of this tradition such as the red poppy flowers sold by the VFW and the proceeds going to help care for veterans. In the early years these funds were used to help care for orphans and widows of soldiers slain while serving their country.

Many wars and battles long past were fought to gain freedom for or maintain a country's freedom. For those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior many battles and wars have been fought by veteran Christians and novice Christians. We fight the battle not "...against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12) Satan works so hard with all his allies, the demons of hell, to get us to turn over our lives to him without even thinking of the consequences. And the sad thing about it is that many will do just that. Give up without a fight. Many are happy to fight for something that they can see with their own eyes, like freedom in America, but can hardly think about their spiritual freedom. Freedom that Christ gave His life for, freedom from the bondage of sin and freedom from the consuming evil passions of this world. And let me remind you that this world is ruled by Satan and he will do everything possible within his power to defeat Christ. Jesus said in John 8:31,32 that whoever follows his teachings, all of them not just the ones we like, then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.

On Decoration Day we go to the graves of our loved ones and give them flowers and honor them for their service to the country. As Christians we are indeed thankful for those who gave their life in service to maintain our spiritual freedom, but oh so much more thankful to a Savior who died on an old wooden cross, to give me freedom not just from sin but freedom from an eternity forever separated from God in a miserable place called hell. Do you know this kind of freedom?

New Life in Christ AND the Holy Spirit

Okay, after last Sunday's message I felt like I needed to do some research. As I was praying for direction about this business of receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit at the same time I knew in my spirit that there was a passage of Scripture that would "exhonorate" me. Sure enough, it was actually a passage that I had chosen to us in my message but didn't get to it. The passage is Acts 2:38. Just a side not, I'm not a big fan of text-proofing. For those of you who don't know what text-proofing is, it's the use of scripture to prove a principle or belief. You might ask yourself this question, Isn't that what reading the Bible is all about? Yes and No. The point of the Bible has nothing really to do with proving whether God is God or that anything He did whether through the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit is valid or not. The point of the Bible is let us, mankind, know what He has already done and what He desires to do and plans to do in the future. You can prove the existence of God through His Word, but that is not the primary purpose of the Word. Read II Tim. 3:16, 17 and that will in a nutshell tell you the purpose of the Scripture.

But back to my proof-texting. Luke in writing about the early days of the church recorded an event that took place with Peter. The folks he was addressing got under conviction and said "Brothers, what shall we do?" It was then that Peter said to them, "Repent, be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." There you have it. The forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit all in one fell swoop. So is that the end of it all? By no means NO! Because as we move in our journey of faith and deeper into our relationship with God we learn to surrender more and more to Him and as we surrender more of ourselves we are filled up with more of Him. We pour ourselves out and He pours Himself into our spirit. There are times where we stall out, get discouraged, perhaps even want to give up. Don't give up friend, simply reach out and take the hand of Jesus and He'll pull you closer to Himself then you and I were before. Why don't you let Him do that today? He can be trusted!