Well it was again "black Friday" in the USA, and again as like other black Fridays .... here and there you had the crazies going ... yes...crazy...over "stuff" to buy. Okay I know you get some pretty super bargains on this day, but.....really now....oh I just shake my head when I see all the frenzied people going bananas over physical "stuff" that will be on sale for the next month, right into the 1st of January holiday.
You'd think most of those people would already have close to the latest in TVs, iPads (remember the huge lines of people ready to buy the iPad the day it came out), and "smart" phones and etc. But it is a part of human nature, that when people are out of work, have lost their homes, the mind tends to go on "material things" - kinda like a "comfort pill" (if there was one...ah I guess there is, it is called alcohol) to take away the troubles and pains of not having the things you once had (which a lot of people were actually not qualified to have in the first place, but we all now know that story inside-out since the crash of 2008).
Then LISTEN TO THIS......on the USA news tonight; ONE IN FOUR people/families in the USA, DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM!!! Yes that is in the USA not some African country!
Some kind "restaurant" people (around the USA) have opened their hearts to give FREE meals to those who cannot afford it, and so a "pay forward" culture has been raised up. If you have the money this week you give a little extra for those who do not have the money this week, and/for you know it could be YOU next week having to ask for a free meal.
That is GREAT, that people have made such a movement, I applaud them all. I know what it can be like. Thirteen years ago I was out of work, for a short time, going through a divorce, no money in the bank, and living just barely on unemployment insurance. I was going down to the charity "soup kitchen" in the local town, about 3 times a week. I know what it feels like, I know how I appreciated that soup kitchen charity. Ya as they say "been there, done that" - I know how it can be, situations you have little control over.
For the first time in my life I, at different times of the day, went weak in the knees, and had to sit down for a while. I was so concerned about it (never had experienced it before in my life) I went to the doctor. They took blood, they tested me with this and with that. I went back after a few days for the results, and was told I had perfect good health. Then I told the doctor my physical situation. "Oh yes, " he said, "that can bring on the very symptoms you have." The next week I found full time work again, and the weak-knee symptoms disappeared within the hour I was hired.
Most of us in North America have it pretty darn nice, maybe too many of us have it too nice, compared to the large majority in the Eastern world and on the African continent. Yes since 13 years ago, I have been blessed materially, in a way, just a very small way, like a Job. I was brought low, to see if I was still willing to walk with the true God and serve and obey Him. I did have my computer and it was during some of those days when there was no secular work for me, that I poured many hours into Bible studies for a website, and the Lord provided me a brother (going into PC work) who built free of charge my original website - John Rumanus was his name. It was a start, and John for about 3 years would upload my studies for me free of charge. He was a married man raising 3 small children, and he finally had to say to me, he did not have the time. I understood. After finding work again in Calgary, Alberta, I met Jesse (whose website is here on my website) and she took up the job of getting my website going again, and before her death, taught me how to upload. Both John and Jesse were a great blessing to me. Then some years after Jesse died, Tara Chapman came along in my life, from the USA. And Tara redid my website as it is today. Tara and Nathan her husband, needed to go to a larger iMac (for their children as they were watching movies on it at times) and they sent me the one they had (plenty big enough for me (it's not some small thing). So my writing right now is on the iMac, and the sermonette studies I've just started (called "What is your attitude towards the commandments of God?) up on: Youtube 1horsesrcool
is done on the iMac.
Yes, I know what it is like for those 1 in 4 USA people who do not know where the next meal is coming from, and I know in a very small way what Job had to go through, and remain faithful to God. And I have been blessed very much so in the last 13 and 1/2 years here in Calgary. I really never expected to get at age 62 (7 years ago) my golden Palomino "Trigger" horse I wanted since age 7, when I saw my first Roy Rogers movie (in color) and was blown away with the beauty and speed of Trigger. Many see her and say "She's like Trigger and just as fast." And indeed she is.
It's not wrong to have nice physical things or "stuff" - but priorities must be put in proper priority list down. As Jesus said, seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you. Some things ... well you may not get right away, maybe decades before you get them.
So you serve the Eternal FIRST, His way of life, His righteousness, desiring to help spread the Gospel; you put all of that first; if married and raising children, that comes next in your life's concern. You be faithful to that first, and in time, God may give you the physical desires of your heart.
But to line up for a day or a week (as some have done) just to burst through the doors pushing and shoving, kicking and "pepper spraying" (as was done this Friday by one lady) others so YOU get to what you LUST after......no friends, that's not the way the child of God does things, or how the servant of the Lord lives their life.
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This is a good time right now for the many fine family movies out already and a few more to come. I did go to see "The Muppets" movie, the day it opened here in Calgary - Wednesday just gone. Yes a fine movie, even the "movie" critics give it a 9 out of 10. Not sure I would have given it a 9, but still a very good family movie. I like Amy Adams, one of my favorites. And she does some singing and little bit of dancing that may surprise you how natural she does it, it surprised me.
You also have "Happy Feet" and "Puss in Boots" - which I have not yet seen, and a few others that look like fun family movies. I must go to see them in the next 3 weeks before I head off to visit my Dad in Kelowna, B.C. (about an 8 hour drive West, but I'm taking the plane - 45 minutes), for 10 days, over the holiday season.
So enjoy some good family movies, be thankful for the physical things you have, but do not be like the world. The Christian is IN the world but NOT a part OF the world.
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