Thankful for Pro-Life - Abortion in America

This is the third of three articles on abortion in America.
Click for Article 1 and Article 2

There are a lot of people in this world who are not happy, who are not fulfilled, and who see very little reason to live or purpose for being here. There is one major reason that these things happen, because sin is an affection stealer, it breaks things, it breaks people, relationships, nations, worlds, universes. It is reprehensible and something we should all hate. But we don't; Andrew Fuller put it this way:

Though you be what is called a sinner, yet, if sin were your misfortune, rather than your fault, you might fly for refuge.

Our pride blinds our eyes to the effects of sin, because we feel we deserve the pleasure derived from sin, and that after all, when I'm doing it, it's really not that bad. We have no difficulty rationalizing sin, and unfortunately we pay the consequences afterwards.

As a pastor, I am always on the look-out for people who are feeling down and need a kind word, or an encouragement, or intervention. As I watch, I hear comments that really get me down, things like, "I hate drama," or, "I don't like people," or "I wish somebody loved me." It should be no secret to you, dear reader, that I love drama, I love people, and I am so thankful for so many people to love and be loved by, and in all of that, there is only one person to thank, the God and man Christ Jesus, who gives life, and an overabundance of it.

God is using all things for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). All things? Even drama? Even broken relationships? Even, as this article is about to transition into, abortion? All things. Not all things are good, but all things are used for good for the saint. Drama allows us to know each other better, to break our undue trust in mankind, and place it in God. Drama builds character and, thankfully, crushes pride.

Abortion is being used for good, because it is a constant reminder to the saint that the world is evil, and that life is precious, and that sin is abhorrent but the Saviour from sin is magnificent. This year I am thankful for people who love life, who love people, and who love Jesus. I am thankful that they will be ministers of reconciliation tonight to thousands who are crushed under the burden of materialism and the American Dream. I am thankful that God has called so many out of the darkness of hatred and indifference, quickening them in the love of Christ, and that he is using them to reconcile sinners to himself.

I pray that this Thanksgiving you will awake from slumber to hate sin and love life, to abhor the evil but hold fast to the good. 3300 babies lost their lives yesterday, those babies are held safe in the arms of God, for God saves little ones out of pagan places, "Blessed shall he be, [O Babylon], who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" (Psalm 137:9) But, 3300 mommies and 3300 daddies, 6600 sinners from one sin yesterday, remain dead in their sins and trespasses, the wrath of God abides on them for their sin.

It is estimated that 1 in 4 women have had an abortion in this country, that's 1 out of every 8 people you meet. Abortion is not a victimless crime, it murders the baby and wounds the mother, it robs a nation of citizens, and it blasphemes the name of the one who gives life. But even while we were a nation of murders and accomplices, while sin was utterly our fault, and the wages of sin were ready to be paid out, Jesus Christ in his great love gave himself to save us from this present evil age; while we had an surplus of death, he gave life, and an overabundance of it. In his resurrection he has secured a place in Heaven for everyone who trusts in him, whose faith becomes like a little child.

So, beloved, this thanksgiving, give thanks to the one who gave the free gift of life, then take his saving message out into a dying world who refuse to give thanks for even the breath they steal from their Despot. Show them their danger, show them the anger they have kindled in the Lifegiver, and then show them the cross where love and mercy met, where sin was atoned for and death was crushed by death.

Those who hate God love death; it doesn't take much looking to find people to prove that fact, so take the message of love of life and righteousness to them. One method to do this is by first letting them condemn the actions of Nazi Germany, then showing them they are as guilty as those soldiers, for failing to stand up for the helpless and oppressed. Living Waters has a great movie describing this method, and I hope you'll take time this long weekend to watch it, and send it into the world, for the message of love, hope, and life that it contains is sure to change hearts and minds, and save lives both in this world and the world to come.


Visit their website, and the Pro-Life section of their website

Pro Choice - Abortion in America

This is the second of three articles on abortion in America.
Click for Article 1 and Article 3

In the 8th century a missionary named Wynfred Boniface breached the darkness of Germany and converted a nation to Christianity. His adventures and exploits, recorded by his biographer, are quite entertaining and edifying.

In one story a young boy runs to Boniface and implores him for help, “Boniface! Boniface! They are going to sacrifice my sister!” Boniface and the boy make haste to the place of sacrifice just in time for Boniface to stop the sacrifice of the fifteen year old vestal virgin by shoving the pagan priest into the nearest tree.

Now, I’m all about choice, I think you should have the choice to be a missionary to America or Germany, you have a choice this Thanksgiving of turkey or ham, the choice is yours to eat apple or pumpkin pie, you have the choice to imbibe in alcoholic beverages or not. But I will not advocate choice in all situations, you DO NOT have the legal choice to drink and drive this Thanksgiving. If you do, I hope you get caught and it costs you $20K in legal fees and cab fare over several years.

Because, like Boniface, I am against your choice to put someone in harm’s way because of what you want to do. It’s illegal to drink and drive, but not all dangerous choices are against mans' law. In this country, it is legal to kill someone before they are 9 months old; in pagan Saxony, where Boniface ministered, it was legal to kill someone in their teens if they were specifically prepared for the purpose; I hope you at least cringe at the thought of a girl having her youth cut short because of some pagan tradition. But in Saxon law it was perfectly legal, which is why we should always defer to the higher and more perfect law of God, which is what Boniface did.

I pray you cringe when you think about babies during gestation cut short because of some pagan tradition. God’s law says so clearly, “Thou shalt NOT murder.” When I think of Boniface’s action, I applaud, thankful that he moved quickly and saved a life; and I pray that if I were in a similar situation I would do likewise. But, beloved, Boniface stopped one immoral killing, today in America over 3300 will be immorally ended. We cannot, and even should not (Romans 12:19), shove every pagan priest of convenience into a tree.

So how do we act? After Boniface helped the girl from the altar, he stood atop it and proclaimed Christ to the crowd; he implored them to flee from idols, to recognize that a sacrifice has been made once for all that saves from death, that Jesus Christ is the righteous given for the unrighteous. When that town was converted, not a single other sacrifice needed to be stopped, because a converted person will not offer their children on the altar of any god, but will love and cherish them (Psalm 127).

We must act by ensuring we preach Christ, that we strive to turn a child-sacrificing nation from idols to the Living God. One way (among many) that you can do this is by watching the 180 Movie and sharing it with everyone you know. Take the world's idols, not their priests, and crush those idols with the truth, and implore them to love the one who gave his life as a ransom for every manner of sin, even the sin of murdering a child. Beloved, be bold, don't worry about what the crowd thinks, think of the little girl on the altar, and act in her behalf while she doesn't have a choice.

Visit their website and the Pro-Choice section of their website

Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. Let us neither be dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers, nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead, where the battle rages, let us find ourselves. Run towards the roar of the lion! Run towards the roar of battle! That is where Christ’s most glorious victories shall be won.

– Boniface, Missionary to the Germanic tribes AD672-754

Loving God and Loving Others

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. – 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20

These are two of my favorite verses in the Bible. They sum up the earthly pay-off of the Christian life; our love is people, not things. Things will be destroyed by moth and rust, but a soul quickened in the love of Christ will persevere forever.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way,

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

The girl that cut my hair today was not interested in spiritual things at all, she said, “I’m happy, and that’s all that matters.” It reminded me of a movement that has swept evangelicalism, that might be called the Ephesizing of America. (Revelation 2:1-7) Our love has turned inwards, the command is, “Love the Lord your God…and love your neighbor…” and yet from pulpits nationwide on Sunday morning we hear that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our life.

It has become me-centered Christianity; love is lost. We’re not really certain of what the word Ephesus means in Greek, it means one of two things, either desire, or remission, depending on which root you follow. The church at Ephesus had forgotten her first love, they were in remission from loving God and their neighbors, and they had replaced that love with something else which the Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly, but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to suspect that they had reverted to loving themselves.

Inward focused Christianity, as sold by the Osteens, the Warrens, the Hybels, the Ortbergs, the Fosters, and so many more, doesn’t fulfill any of the biblical mandates to love one another, and its pay-offs are so piddly that one wonders if these are the threat that Jesus Christ gave to Ephesus, that if they didn’t repent, he would take their lampstand away. Christ was actively warring against Pergamum, but he let Ephesus suffocate themselves in their self-centered anti-love atmosphere.

Paul was a great lover of his churches. He loved Christ first, but he loved the body of Christ just as much. In his boasting fit of 2 Corinthians 11 he tacks onto his physical suffering, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” After the church at Lystra went apostate following after works-righteous antichrists, Paul would write to them, “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.” (Galatians 4:19-20)

Paul loved his churches, which is why he could call them his “glory and joy,” and later, “For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 3:8) In this outward love, Paul was rewarded infinitely more than if he had sought to love himself into such a state of euphoria. Near the end of his ministry, he recorded the words of Jesus Christ, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

Our love should NEVER be inward. Love yourself? Anathema! Beloved, Christ summed up a 613 statute Law in two commands, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Our love should be outward, loving in deed and truth, not just in word and talk.

In the past few weeks I’ve seen new and old Christians step out of their own worlds to give to others, expecting to receive nothing in return.

I’ve seen students preach Christ and him crucified to their classmates, caring more for the eternal security of their friends than if the friendship would be ruined because of the offense of the cross.

Others have given up weeks and weekends to organize and participate in outreaches to the homeless, the elderly, the afflicted, and the perishing.

I’ve seen teenagers step outside of their comfort zones to work with toddlers and dance with seniors, expecting nothing more than that in their obedience their Saviour would be glorified.

Students have asked how they can help their deceived friends see that Mary and science cannot save them, but that only Immanuel who willingly drank the Father's cup of wrath and defeated death can revive and reconcile their soul.

This is a mere taste of the love in action of a church motivated by a Saviour who loved them first; a Saviour who instituted a new command, “that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Paul was in love with his church at Thessalonica, he couldn’t stop boasting about them, “you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8)

I understand his sentimentality perfectly; I have not mentioned any names in this post, as I would hate to leave anyone out, but my beloved coworkers in Christ, what is my hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are my glory and joy.

If you have been seeking the peace beyond all understanding by trying to bribe God through prayer, reading his word, attending Sunday School, beloved, you are doing as Hosea said, you are feeding on the wind, (Hosea 12:1) and you should expect nothing for your efforts. (cf. Acts 8:20-23) You have abandoned love; repent, and do the works you did at first. Loving others will, by promise of the Living Christ, be a bigger blessing to you than anything you could receive.

Paul writes to his friend in Colossae, “I pray that in the sharing of your faith you become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” (Philemon 6) Christ was really onto something when he commanded his followers to love one another.

So, where is your ministry? Are you loving God by loving others? God doesn’t need anything, and even if he did, he wouldn’t tell you. Therefore, in order to love God, you love him by feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, befriending the stranger, and visiting the imprisoned, both in the spiritual and natural sense, for when you do something for the least of these, you do it unto Christ.

Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

Can We Fix It? Yes We Can. But Should We?

I'm taking a class in secular psychology as it relates to the Bible as it relates to Catholic Mysticism.

Trust me, it's way more confusing than it sounds.

One thing that is jumping out at me is that every effort to conciliate psychology and biblical counseling is based on the assumption that we are supposed to be happy, and that when we are not happy, something is broken and it must be fixed.

Prior to me becoming a Christian and God taking our economy away, I made a decent amount of money through stock owned in Barr Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Tyco International; the effort to make ourselves feel better through any means available is big business. Antichristian author Thomas Jefferson set the ball rolling two-hundred years ago when he wrote that we have the right to the pursuit of happiness. Certainly we have the ability to pursue happiness, but should we?

Recently I had several events come together, most of them my fault through scheduling errors, overscheduling, lack of rest, lack of forethought, letting down friends on accident, a girl, ect. not necessarily in that order; Beloved, I felt awful. For weeks. The only thought on my mind was, "How do I fix this?" I did indeed fix it, and now I'm back to my old jocular self. And I'm sort of angry at myself for having fixed it, but it has proved to be a valuable learning experience.

Paul writes that we are to rejoice in all circumstances. For some reason I read that and thought, "Be happy in all circumstances." But that's not what he said. While I was seeking to be happy in all circumstances, what I ought to have been doing is rejoicing in my sadness by remembering that this present evil age will not last forever, that Christ has defeated death, reconciled me to God, and given me a peace beyond all understanding. I should have sought not to cut my season of sadness short, but to rejoice in it that as Paul says, "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

In instantly setting out to fix my suffering (albeit suffering may be too strong of a word to use), I inadvertently deprived myself of growing in endurance, growing in character, and growing in hope. I'm reminded of my dad's words that "just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character," and beloved, we can all use more character, more hope, more endurance, not for our own sake, but for the sake of those we minister to, and ultimately for Christ's sake that he receive the glory by proving that his grace is indeed sufficient and his power is made perfect in weakness.

So, this is easier said than done, but I encourage you to rejoice in all circumstances, know that God will use all things for good to those that love him. Don't let happiness be your end goal, if Christ had sought to avoid pain to the exclusion of all else, beloved, we would be entirely deprived of hope, but because he had the glory of God as his ultimate goal, we have become more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us.

So, when faced with affliction, hardship, and sadness we can pop pills from Pfizer (whom I no longer own stock in), or we can look in the mirror and say, "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and [Don'tcha Know] It, People Like Me!", or we can trust in God who raises the dead, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God, even when we despaired of life itself.

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. Let us not shrink from bearing the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. For he will use all things for good to those that love him.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. For the sake of Christ, then, be content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

Can we fix those things? Indeed we can, but for your sake and Christ's, please don't be so brash in doing away with suffering. God created this world with the purpose of demonstrating the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and if we go around happy to live in a sin-soaked and destroyed world, we miss the point completely.

God is SOOOOO not fair!

Consider the hypothetical lives of two men.

The first lived a reprobate life, living only for himself, making it a practice to lie, steal, womanize, drinking often until he passed out, culminating in one final event of killing his girlfriend after a heated argument. Upon his death bed he is approached by a hospital chaplain who tells him of the salvation available in the good graces of Jesus Christ, to which the man repents and believes the Gospel ten minutes before he dies. God forgives him and welcomes him into Heaven.

The second grew up in a Christian home, attending a good church, loving his mother and father, and especially his little sister, with only your standard adolescent crimes strewn through, some white-lies here and there, a candy-bar stolen from the local store, and the occasional irreverent use of the name of God. During Christmas of his twelfth year, while reading the Gospel of Luke, he realizes that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, and he repents and believes the Gospel, and then goes on to live seventy more years, serving God as a pastor, feeding the hungry, loving the unloved, raising a morally-upright family, praying daily, and dying peacefully in his sleep having commended his soul unto the Lord. God welcomes him into Heaven.

Indeed, God is not fair. Who deserved Heaven? Who deserved Hell? Surely, if there are such places, our standard measurement of morality would say that the pastor deserves Heaven and the murderer deserves Hell, because the pastor was a good man and the murderer a bad man. God would be unfair to the pastor by letting the murderer into the same Heaven.

God is not fair. Consider this startling statistic: People are stepping out of this world and falling into Hell at the rate of about two a second. That is over one-hundred a minute, six thousand an hour, one-hundred-fifty thousand a day, and by the time this century is out, over ten billion people will have died and faced Judgment. Of these people stepping out of this world, falling into Hell, God is catching about every hundredth person and resurrecting them to Life-everlasting. The other ninety-nine never had a chance.

God is not fair. You’re right, he’s not, but not because of those 99 who perish, but because of that one who is saved. Men have no right to salvation, we have no freedom from death, we have made ourselves enemies of God in our minds through wicked works, we have transgressed God and recompense is due. In the wise words of Marshall Foster, you don’t break the law, the law breaks you. In the same way that jumping off of a building results in a few free-falling seconds of gravity transgression with no ill-consequences, this immutable law will ultimately break you into a thousand tiny pieces.

God is the just judge who by no means will clear the guilty. God describes men in this way:

The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. – Psalm 58:3-5

We look at the murderer and think that we’re better than him, and indeed, in an earthly sense we are. But the entrance exam for Heaven is not comparing ourselves to other people, Heaven’s gates are only open to the righteous, and the only way to get in is to be perfect, to have rightly reacted to every event in your life, loving righteousness and hating wickedness, abstaining from evil and lifting up the downtrodden, compared ultimately to Jesus Christ. We have sinned against Heaven, and God will judge the world in righteousness, he has promised to punish the murderer, the rapist, and the con-artist, and in that we rejoice, but we do well not to speak too soon, for he has promised that all liars will have their place in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, and that no thief will inherit the kingdom of God, that no blasphemer will go unpunished, and that no covetous person has a part in the kingdom of Christ. One murder makes you a murderer, one rape a rapist, one lie a liar, and one covetous moment an idolater.

Beloved, we’re in trouble, we stand to be judged by the King of Righteousness, who is angry with sinners every day and is described as a consuming fire. If God were fair, all men would be instantly cast into Hell forever, which is the fair judgment because of the heinous nature of sin and the damage that it has caused, is causing, and will cause. Above all, we have wrongly misrepresented an infinitely big God through our actions done in his image, and therefore our punishment will fit the crime.

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth." – Psalm 58:10-11

But God is not fair. The soul that sins shall die, and after this, the Judgment. But God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked, and he demonstrated his love for us, that while we were in open rebellion to him, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the payment for our sins. The Perfect, Sinless, Son of God faced the infinite wrath stored up for us, and in his substitutionary death, we can become his Righteousness, and face God not as his enemy, but as his sons and daughters.

God is not fair, a fair God would crush all sinners where they stand. But he is patient, and he is kind, and his goodness is meant to lead us to repentance in faith in his Son, who defeated death and rose from the grave three days after he was dead and buried. A fair God would see all sinners punished for eternity in Hell, but a loving God would send his only Begotten Son to ransom a people who had utterly sold themselves into hopelessness, so that the Son would face the wrath and the sinners would go free.

In the eyes of God, the intent is as damnable as the offense. Jesus Christ said that whosoever looks upon someone to lust after them has committed adultery with them already in their heart. The physical action is a sin, but the damnable intent begins in the heart. The life of sin or the moment of sin have transgressed the law, the law which will find fruition in the eternal torment of the sinner. Whether you’ve lived the life of a reprobate or a man of God, without the mercy afforded in Jesus Christ through the cross, God would be perfectly fair in condemning you for eternity because of your sins.

God is not fair, he is better than fair; thank him for that, that he has extended his mercy and kindness towards us, giving us peace through the death of his Son and life through his Resurrection. Repent towards God and trust in Jesus Christ, and he will save you, and then while you see 99 perish, you will know that God is our only source of goodness and our gracious Lord, who saved us in spite of our actions, for his glory.

Beseech the angel of Smyrna

Note: I wrote this last year, it is being updated and reposted with our new Pres-Elect in view.
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The United States was founded under the care of the angel of the church of Philadelphia, faithful to the word, birthed on the preaching of George Whitefield, supported by God; even though the founders had no power, God opened the door, and no man was able to shut it, not the King of England, not the Native American chiefs, not even Satan could close the door which was opened.

America was made a pillar of God, a city on a hill, on her was written the name of God, and many were saved.

But the church in America forgot her first love, and the ravages of sin entered the doors. The angel of the church of Thyatira took possession of the American church, within her doors, sin festered and no-one opposed it. The sorceries of prosperity, tolerance, and of evolution were introduced and embraced, and the church fell sick and any who entered were afflicted; her children were stricken dead.

The angel of Thyatira conceded America to the Laodicean angel, in the churches, Christ could not be found. Behold, He stood at the door and knocked, but no saint was there to open the door.

Today we are on the verge of another change, the angel of Sardis stands at the door and knocks, God is about to open the door. The churches that walk in white in America can be counted on one hand, what remains is about to die.

Pray God that instead, He gives us to the angel at Smyrna.
Pray God that Christianity is outlawed by the humanists.
Pray God that with Barack Obama the persecution begins.
Pray God that hate-speech laws are passed and enforced.
Pray God that Christians preaching against homosexuality are thrown into prison.
Pray God that Christians who refuse to deny their Saviour are murdered in the streets.
Pray God that hatred for the Christian church spreads.
Pray God that the world hate us as it first hated Him.

Pray God that the blood of martyrs be the seed of the church.
Pray God that He bring us through the fire.

Pray God for the angel of the church at Smyrna.

Lest we become the church at Sardis, dead with the reputation of being alive.

Happy Holy-Days

In Responce to On-Faith's question, Why are many holiday family gatherings marked by tension and unhappiness?

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I've spent Thanksgiving apart from my family in England, France, Sicily, the Middle East, and now, the East Coast. I've eaten all sorts of things for Thanksgiving dinner, in Palermo I ordered camel, in Paris, the closest they could get to turkey was squab, and we just decided to drink Thanksgiving Dinner in England, after all, it was a four-day weekend. I've been served Thanksgiving dinner by Muslims, eaten it with atheists, Buddhists, and Christians, had it brought to me in a Styrofoam box as I rewired the countermeasures set on an F-15. Probably my worst memory is the pumpkin pie in Qatar, it was so processed and old that my plastic fork shattered in the process of trying to eat it. But I was thankful that I had people to care about, and people that cared about me in each place.

It puts a whole new perspective on things when the most you have to worry about is if everyone is pulling their own weight in getting the meal ready. We should ask ourselves, "What did Jesus do?"

Lets go see, the date is AD 28, the town is Bethany. Jesus and his disciples are welcomed into the home of His good friend, Lazarus, and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha is busy with serving, and is visibly upset that Mary is content to sit and hear the amazing teachings of Jesus. Martha consults Jesus, she reprimands Jesus, "Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone! Tell her to help me!"

But Jesus answered, "Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things, when only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen this thing, and it shall not be taken away from her."

The greatest Commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do this, everything else will follow. The next time we see Mary and Martha, in AD 30, they both have jobs to do and are content with their roles, and the result is much rejoicing at dinner.

Now, of course, this rejoicing may have been spurred on by the fact that they now knew that death had lost its sting, that the Messiah had come and would indeed take away the sins of the world.

How many of us are guilty of placing the creation above the Creator? Martha sought to please her guests by her own doing, by serving an impeccable meal, which was sure to impress everyone. When it wasn't going the way she expected, she got angry, and the meal was almost ruined. But Mary was content to trust in God, not to strive to please men, but only to please God, and she was rewarded for this.

How many of us are guilty of wanting just a little more? When God gives us enough, we want just a little more? How many of us have come to this Thanksgiving and wish we could have afforded that new car this year, or are disgusted that we couldn't buy an X-Box because gas prices drained our wallets? What an insult it must be to God, who has given us life, knowledge, breath, love, food, and this beautiful country, that we would say it's not enough, could I have just a little more?

We've succumbed to the fallacy of equality, that I am at least as good as everyone else and therefore I deserve to be happy, to have a new car, and to have an X-Box. Martha was working hard and believed that it was only fair that if she was working hard, Mary should be working hard. After all, she set herself up as the measurement of how much ought to be being done.

But just how good are we? The Bible says "there is none good," then in order to drive the point home, it finishes the sentence, "no, not one." How much do we deserve? Job tells us, "Know that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves." What guilt? I don't have any guilt...or do I?

Have you ever taken God's name in vain? The Bible is clear that God will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.

Have you ever committed adultery? Jesus said, "Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in his heart." The Old Covenant punishment for adultery was instant death, today you get a few more years before the wages of sin are exacted upon you.

The truth is, we're all going to die someday, just like a criminal waiting to see the judge, we are in a holding cell. On this beautiful Thanksgiving we should be grateful that our holding cell is so huge and has such a beautiful blue ceiling and wonderful fresh air, but be assured of this, Alcatraz and San Quentin have nothing on this holding cell, because no one has escaped yet.

When you stand before the just Judge of all the Universe, how will you plead? The book of your conscience has recorded every thought, word, and deed, and it will be opened by your prosecutor. Deeds done in darkness will be brought to the light; every idle word will require an account.

Your guilt is assured, the evidence is overwhelming. What will you say? I have done good deeds? Good deeds do not commute sentences on earth, and they will not help in front of the Great White Throne in Heaven, at best the Judge will ignore this insult, at worst He will multiply your sentence for trying to bribe Him.

Will you repent and ask for forgiveness? To what avail? The Judge will say that your repentance is good, you should be sorry, you've done terribly wicked things to the detriment of all of humanity and creation, but the punishment requires payment. The Judge reads your sentence:

"But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the fornicators, the adulterers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

This punishment is almost assured, but here is the Good News, the eternal reason to be thankful. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, was born of the Spirit through the virgin Mary. He lived a perfect sinless life, He was tempted but He didn't succumb, He was perfect in every way. Love hath no greater man than this, that he would lay down his life for his brethren. Not that you loved Him, but that He loved you, Jesus Christ willingly gave Himself up to be crucified in your stead. Your fine was amassed, Hell awaited, but Christ stepped in and took your lashes, and died in your place so that you can be absolved.

Now the Judge can look at you and say, it is good that you have repented, and because your fine is paid, you are free to go.

Today as we remember what we are thankful for, I am thankful that I didn't get justice, because justice is what I deserved. I am thankful that I received mercy, because mercy is not getting what I deserved. But I am the most thankful for grace, that I get what I don't deserve, that being the righteousness of Christ attributed to my sake, so that when God looks at me, He no longer sees an enemy, but an adopted child.

Mary and Martha were rejoicing that death had been defeated, Jesus Christ first showed that this was possible by raising their brother Lazarus, but made it permanent by raising Himself on the third day, He defeated death and will live forevermore, and so will we if we will approach the throne of grace in humility, and repentance, and absolute trust.

On this beautiful Thanksgiving, I ask that you don't let another day go by without being reconciled to your Creator. He has provided the means, please reach out and receive this gift which was purchased at such a price. I cannot promise you that after you are born into the family of God, that you encounter prosperity or persecution, but I will bet that your Thanksgivings and Christmas' take on a whole new meaning after you do.