Kwanza

I received the suggestion that since I wrote about Chanukah I should also explain about Kwanza.  I thought that was a good idea and since Kwanza is from December 26 thru January 1 that is why I waited until this week to post this blog.  I will also warn you up front, that looking into Kwanza was very eye opening and this will be another controversial blog.  

Dr. Maulana Karenga, a Professor and Chair of African Studies at California State University, Long Beach, originated the holiday, Kwanza.  Kwanza is a Swahili phrase that means “first fruits of the harvest.”  Dr. Karenga started Kwanza in 1966 in order to, and I will quote, “give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.” 

The last statement has upset many Christians because it is like saying that Black people cannot be Christian, and if they are, they are being Uncle Toms by following the white man’s religion.  In the book of Acts, chapter 8, Phillip tells an Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus and leads him to Christ.  This Ethiopian would have been black. 

²⁶ And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
²⁷ And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
²⁸ Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
²⁹ Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
³⁰ And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
³¹ And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
³² The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
³³ In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
³⁴ And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
³⁶ And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
³⁷ And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
³⁹ And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
⁴⁰ But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.

It was not until years later, in the book of Acts, that Paul takes the gospel to Europe in Acts 16.

⁶ Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
⁷ After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.
⁸ And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
¹⁰ And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
¹¹ Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
¹² And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

Paul leaves Asia and goes to Europe, where the white men lived.  You see, black men first received Christianity; it was only later that white men received Christianity.  Therefore, when this professor claims that black people need an alternative to the Christian Holidays, he spoke out of ignorance because he failed to examine the history of Christianity, which explicitly states that black people received Christianity and the Christian Holidays before white men, and there is no need for an alternative holiday. 

Another thing Dr. Karenga said about this alternative holiday is that it is so the blacks do not imitate the dominate society.  However, Kwanza is by definition, a harvest festival, just like Thanksgiving.  Candle lighting occurs each night, just like Chanukah.  Furthermore, on the last night of Kwanza people exchange presents, just like Christmas.  In my opinion, Dr. Karenga took parts from all of the dominate societies’ celebrations and imitated them.

Christmas Eve

I have been explaining Christmas traditions for several years now, and I was struggling a little bit to find a subject I have not already talked about.  With a few suggestions from my wife, I have a found a few and learned some things myself. 

Christmas Eve is one tradition that most people take for granted, but I have learned that it started a long  time ago and held great importance to the church. In fact, Christmas Mass, held at midnight on Christmas Eve, was the most important church service of the year for the early Catholic Church.  The Christmas mass communion service is the only communion service the Catholic Church allowed to take place after sundown.  People would fast all day Christmas Eve and take the meal time to pray for the service that evening.  After mass and the communion service, they would break their fast with a huge meal.  As time passed, in some countries, people would exchange gifts after the meal.  Over time, other countries would hold the big meal just before the communion service and then go to Christmas Mass, and they would exchange their gifts then.  In fact, several European countries still do this today. 

Christmas Eve was also the day that they put up the Christmas tree and decorated it in several European countries in preparation for the Christmas Mass and the Christmas celebration.  Also, the other greens, as they are called, are put up on Christmas Eve. These greens would include Mistletoe and Holly. (I will include old blogs on the Christmas tree and greens)

Another tradition that is done on Christmas Eve is the lighting of the Yule log.  People would keep a piece of wood from the previous year’s Yule log fire. In England, the children would decorate it, it would be lit on Christmas Eve and they would not let the fire go out until the twelfth night, Jan 6. This date is traditionally celebrated as when the Wise man arrived to see the Christ child. 

Christmas tree

The tradition of the Christmas tree and lights was started by one of my heroes in the faith; Martin Luther.  Tradition says that Martin Luther was returning late one Christmas Eve after leading the Christmas service.  This was after Martin Luther had posted his 95 thesis on the door of the Wittenberg Church.  At this time most of Germany had become Lutheran, a church denomination that followed the teachings of Martin Luther.  The Lutheran church kept many of the traditions of the Catholic church, such as the “Christ Mass”  on Christmas Eve, which is still practiced today.

As Martin Luther was coming through the snow that Christmas Eve, the beauty of what he saw, a fir tree silhouetted against the star lit sky, struck him.  He thought it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, and it was more so because he had seen it on Christmas Eve.  Later, as he was trying to describe this to his wife and children, words would not work.  So Martin Luther, being a very brash man, went out and cut down the nearest fir tree and brought it into the house.  He then decorated it with lighted candles trying to capture the same beauty he had seen.  When asked about this later in life, Luther explained that the lighted candles demonstrate the light given to the world through the birth of Jesus.  The evergreen tree represented the deathlessness of the living God. This is why this picture was so important to him.

Mistletoe

Mistletoe has green leaves and red berries which later turn white and have the traditional meaning of green being evergreen or everlasting life and the red representing the blood of Jesus, the white represents the washing away of our sins through the spilt blood of Jesus. Oh, but there is more to Mistletoe than just the colors, continue reading to find out the rest of the Mistletoe story. 

First, Mistletoe is found in trees in the winter, it is there during the summer, but it is only seen in the winter because it is the only thing living. Mistletoe comes from the old English word Misteltan where mistel mean dung and tan mean twig. They literally believed that the mistletoe sprang out of the bird droppings.  These ancient people  saw Mistletoe as a sign of God’s power to bring life out of death to make something beautiful out of something ugly. 

The tradition of mistletoe actual has two different origins from two different countries. The English version is “When Christ’s Message was beginning to shake the very core of the world, the leaders in power decided to hang Him to a tree. They believed this would end Christ’s influence and halt his message. However, like the mistletoe, the beauty and power of the Son of God sprang forth from the tree on which he was nailed, and the world took note. For Christians, the plant thus became a symbol of life after death, of faith that was so strong it could grow even in the midst of the darkness. Like mistletoe, God’s love and true faith could survive even the most barbarous time and the darkest days and believing in Jesus as Savior brought personal peace even in the midst of war.” (p128 The Stories behind the great traditions of Christmas)

Unfortunately, the idea of Mistletoe being the symbol of God’s love was missed, and it became a symbol of just love. This led to another tradition of Mistletoe; kissing beneath it. The saying was that if a young couple passed under the Mistletoe they must kiss and if they did, God would bless them with everlasting love.  

Nativity

Nativity is a Latin word that means birth.  Nativity scenes came about in 1223 when St. Francis of Assisi took wooden statues and told the common people in the little villages of Italy about the birth of Jesus. He would take each statue, explain who it was and set the whole scene for the people.  You see, back in that time, not everybody could read and even if they could read, only the priests had Bibles and the Bibles were only written in Latin.  Therefore,  people knew very little of the Bible.  These nativities become very popular and after a couple of years St. Francis would use his fellow monks instead of using the statues.  As time went on, St. Francis started using the common people in the scenes.  See my blog on caroling for the rest of the story.

Caroling

First of all, I know I told you a couple of years ago about where the word carol came from, but it bears repeating. Carol referred to a popular dance that had a certain cadence back in the 14th century. As time went on, the dancers were starting to sing to the different songs. Later, the word “Carol” became more associated with the music than the dance. Examples of songs that were from the original carols are “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”. 

Songs about the birth of Jesus have been around since the first century AD. The Bishop of Rome, or what we call the Pope, encouraged the priests to sing these songs around Christmas day. In fact, you may recognize one of the songs the Roman Bishop asked for personally, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” which means Glory to God in the Highest. The only problem with this was that only the priests were allowed to sing them and they were only sung in Latin, which most of the common people did not understand or get very excited about. 

In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi, sometimes called the Father of Caroling, would go around to the different towns and villages during Christmas time, and set up dramas about the birth of Jesus and use the common people as the actors. In these plays, he would use simple songs to help teach the Christmas story and he taught the people in the play the songs. After the play was over, the actors would teach the songs to their friends and then they would wander through the neighborhoods knocking on doors and singing the songs they had just learned. People were so excited because they could now sing songs about Jesus their Savior that they traveled from house to house singing about their Lord Jesus Christ. 

By the 16th century, they had wandering minstrels who traveled from town to town accompanying themselves with bagpipes, drums, and fiddles, playing and dancing to the different Carols. They would repeat the concert nightly from Christmas Eve to the feast of Epiphany (Jan 6). This shows that Caroling became popular very quickly.  The problem with this is the common man did not have a Bible. It was not until the 16^th century, when Martin Luther wrote a German language Bible, that the common man could even read the Bible, because up until then the Bible was in Latin and only priests had access to it. Therefore, non-Biblically literate people were writing songs that were not telling the true story of Jesus. The other problem was the church did not like the idea that people were taking common tunes, usually tavern drinking songs, and putting lyrics to them. Because of these reasons, the church worked very hard to stop all caroling. In fact, in England and early America, it was illegal to sing carols, you could be placed in jail or the stocks for singing them. 

The one real hold out was Martin Luther, he supported carols and hymns. He also used the idea of taking the drinking songs and changing the words. In fact, he wrote many hymns like this one you might know, “The Church is one Foundation.” He wrote it using an old drinking song. Several carols come from this era from Germany and from the influence of Martin Luther, the most memorable is “Silent Night” (check out my blog from two years ago on “Silent Night”). It was not until 1840 and Queen Victoria, did carols become acceptable. Queen Victoria was the cousin of Prince Albert of Germany, (where all the wonderful carols at Christmas time originated) and Victoria loved the sound of the carols at Christmas time. The fact that Victoria loved the Christmas carols was published in the London newspapers. The people of England responded to this by coming to Windsor Castle and serenading the queen.  Just a few years after this, caroling was wide spread in England again. These carolers were more sedate compared to the mid-century carolers. The pictures on Christmas cards with the Victorian carolers are more like what carols and caroling had become.

Caroling has lost its popularity in the last fifty years in large part to our busy lives and recorded music. I would love to encourage your family or your church choir to go do some caroling this year.

Chanukah

I have been doing this blog for several years and have done all kinds of Christmas traditions over the years and have just about run out of traditions to write about. I have been racking my brain and have asked my family to help and we have come up with a few new traditions.  I would also ask if someone thinks of something I have not discussed please forward it to me and I will save it up for next year.

The first blog is not exactly a Christmas tradition, but with all the hype made about Chanukah and Thanksgiving starting on the same day this year, and the fact that Chanukah is always around Christmas time, I thought it would be a good subject to cover.

Now, what is interesting is that the Jewish holiday of Chanukah originates with a revolt. You see, when Alexander the Great died, his four Generals divvied up his territory, one being Syria and another Egypt. When the second generation of Generals had taken over, the Syrian General (Seleuces) got greedy and tried to take over Egypt. He was stopped when the Romans stepped in. This started the good relations between Rome and Egypt, which leads to Anthony and Cleopatra, which is another story. Nevertheless, I digress, Seleuces, on his way back home, takes his frustration out on Jerusalem. He knocks down the walls, kills a lot of Jews, loots the Temple and has the Hellenistic (Greek) Jews sacrifice at least one pig on the alter in the Temple (the number varies depending on where you read). The Hellenistic Jews do this in hopes of winning favor with Seleuces and stopping the destruction. This infuriates the Orthodox Jews. This also explains why the Hellenistic Jews are looked down upon and their widows are ignored in the distribution of food in the book of Acts chapter 6.

6 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecian against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

But this little fight brought around Deacons.

With destruction of Jerusalem, the Hasmonean family moves to the mountain outside of Jerusalem where they gather others. Their leader’s name was Judah, whom they nicknamed the Hammer, which in Hebrew is Maccabeus, thus the name of the revolt was The Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees were able to kick Seleuces out of Jerusalem. Upon taking over the temple, they had to cleanse it. They only found one vase of kosher oil for the golden lamp stand in the temple, and it was only enough to last one day. It takes seven days for the oil to be made Kosher for the golden lamp stand. Once the lamp is lit, it is not to go out. They lit the lamp and it burned for eight days until the new oil was ready. The miracle of God providing the lamp light is what the Jewish people celebrate during Chanukah.

Today, Jewish people celebrate by lighting eight candles placed in a Menorah, one new candle is lit each night to represent the days that the candle burnt on the one day of oil.  The children are usually given a small present every night, after the candle is lit.  They also have a lot of food traditions that are quite wonderful, that I do not have time and space to go into here. 

Chanukah is called the festival of light because of the oil lamp that miraculously kept burning, but it is also fitting that the celebration of Chanukah illustrates the miracle of God, that Jesus is the Light of World.

A Christmas Carol

Next to the Bible, A Christmas Carol is my favorite book.  Ever since I was a young man, I have read the book at Christmas time.  In fact, as my children got older, I read it to them and this year,  my youngest wants to help read it as part of his reading assignments in school (we home school).  Many people do not know the story behind the story and how A Christmas Carol has affected the manner Christmas is celebrated today.

In the fall of 1843, Charles Dickens, a very famous novelist of the time, was facing a financial crisis.  His latest books had only sold moderately well.  Family bills were adding up and the mortgage was coming due.  So one night he decided to take a walk along the river Thames.  He happened to wonder into a rundown neighborhood of London.  The streets were covered in garbage, the gutter had raw flowing sewage, and there were pickpockets and streetwalkers everywhere. 

 This brought back memories of his own childhood.  When Dickens was 12 his father was thrown in debtor’s prison and he had to go to work at a shoe polish factory where he placed labels on tins of shoe polish 12 hours a day 6 days a week for just pennies. 

Upon coming home, he came up with the idea of writing A Christmas Carol.  He wanted to give the people hope again at Christmas time. He thought if he wrote about good cheer and goodwill for the people he loved, the people suffering in poverty as he had, that He could give them hope.  I have told you in my caroling blog that in England and America celebrating Christmas was punishable by prison and fines.  With the Victorian year starting, these laws were repealed because of Queen Victoria and her love of Christmas carols (please read that blog for more details).  A Christmas Carol is credited as one of the biggest influences as to why the changes were made.  If fact, the way we celebrate Christmas has a lot to do with what Charles Dickens writes in the book. 

The problem with the idea is that he only had three months to write and publish this story.  Therefore, he realized it could not be a full-length novel; it had to be a short little book.  He began writing immediately.  He also got very involved with the publishing and he even designed the cover.  He insisted upon the gold stamp on the cover and a red and green title page.  He also insisted that the book be cheap so the common man could afford it.  These all proved to be great ideas because it was published on December 17, 1843, and all 6000 copies were sold out before Christmas Eve. 

Dickens, in a newspaper article, said that little book changed his life.  I will go on to say I believe A Christmas Carol has changed many lives.  Dickens did not make much money on the book because it was sold so cheaply, but his later novels, such as David Copperfield, and Tale of Two Cities saw great success because of his newfound fan base the common person. 

Most historians will tell you that this little book changed the way England and America has celebrated Christmas.  Because of this book, the holiday changed from no one celebrating it because of fear of prison, to becoming the number one celebrated holiday in America.   

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas this year and as Tiny Tim says, God Bless us, everyone.

Thanksgiving 2013

     This year for Thanksgiving it really did not take me long to figure out what to write about.  I had recently finished reading the book of Psalms as part of my daily devotions.  The last several Psalms are short little praise songs to God.  (Psalms, as I have said before, is like the Jewish hymnal.  They would not exactly sing them but chant them.)  And it reminded me of what Thanksgiving is all about. Thanksgiving is about thanking God and praising God for what he has done for us.

One of my favorite Psalms the 150th, not because it is the last Psalm, but because it praises God using one of my favorite Hebrew words. Halelujah.

Psalm 150

¹ Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary:
praise him in the firmament of his power.
² Praise him for his mighty acts:
praise him according to his excellent greatness.
³ Praise him with the sound of the trumpet:
praise him with the psaltery and harp.
⁴ Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
⁵ Praise him upon the loud cymbals:
praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
⁶ Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord.

The first line there is actually the Hebrew word Halelujah.  Its best translation is Praise Yahweh.  Halelu means praise in Hebrew. Jah is short for Yahweh.  Yahweh is called the tetragrammaton which is a fancy word I learned in seminary (sorry but I paid a lot of money and spent a lot of time to learn that, I need to use it every once and a while).  Simply broken down, tetra means 4, grama means letters, ton means important.  In other word 4 important letters and they are, it is the name of God that God gives Himself when Mosses ask Him.

Exodus 3:13-15

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

¹⁵ And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

In Hebrew I AM are the letters YHWH.  Also, in Hebrew writing there are no vowels. Therefore the 4 important letters are YHWH.  It would be pronounced Yahweh.  The idea of “I am that I am” is like in the New Testament where Jesus calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end.  In other words, I made everything and will end everything I am all powerful. 

The Jewish people will not say this word because they do not want to say it in vain like the third commandment.  So when they come to this word in the Bible they will say Adoni which means Lord.  So when they translated the Bible, they kept the tradition and say Praise ye the Lord.  In fact, throughout the Old Testament, YHWH is translated Lord.  In fact, the Jewish people are so fanatical about not say YHWH they kill Jesus for saying it.

  Luke 22:69-71

King James Version (KJV)

⁶⁹ Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.

⁷⁰ Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.

⁷¹ And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.

Jesus said YHWH, and they used that reason to crucify Him, not their trumped up charges. 

Jesus says YHWH one other time, and it shows you the power in His name. 

John 18:4-6

King James Version (KJV)

⁴ Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

⁵ They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

⁶ As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

Jesus says YHWH and everybody falls backward just by saying his name. 

Some people will say “what about Jehovah”.  Jehovah is the letters YHWH with the vowels of Adoni added in Latin.  You see, the Catholic Church had the Bible translated into Latin first, it was much later that the Bible was translated to English using the Hebrew and Greek texts, but the word Jehovah was already out there.  Also, people ask how we know Yahweh is the right pronunciation of YHWH if there were no vowels and they never said the word.  Admittedly, there is some debate, but as I said earlier, they shortened the word to put it in other words, so from these other words like Halelujah or Isaiah is how they came up with the best fit. 

I am sorry this is so long of a blog but you can see why Halelujah is one of my favorite Hebrew words, and why it is so important to me at Thanksgiving because it allows me to praise God at this time of year that we are to praise Him.

After reading this to my son he reminded me that Halelujah is the one word that in all languages is the same and he wanted me to add it to my blog.

Grandpa, more proof

This incident happened the very night we published “Grandpa,” and it just verified the point I was making.  That night, my family went out to celebrate my wife’s birthday at our favorite local restaurant.  My oldest son and his soon to be wife (less than a week), my daughter and her husband (as I said in an earlier blog, she is very pregnant with my first grandchild) and my 9 year old son were all present.  Yes, God blessed me in my old age with another son.  I was 40 years old when he was born; my oldest son was 12 years old and my daughter was 9 years old.  Our normal waiter was not there, so we had a new waitress who did not know us.  I sat at the head of the table and my nine year old sat at the other end of the table by my daughter and her husband.  When the meal was over, we asked the waitress to split the check without giving her any instructions as to which people were together.  When she came back, she had put my nine year old son’s meal on my daughter and son-in-law’s bill.  She assumed that he was her child and my grandson.  Granted, most of the time my daughter looks and acts older than her actual age, but this waitress thought it was perfectly normal for my daughter to have a son that old, and found it strange that he is actually my son. 

This thought permeates our society, that it is fine for girls to have children very young and most likely out of wedlock.   I beg you to pray for our society, that we turn back to God and His principles.  The Bible says in Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

That is what America is doing right now, calling good evil and evil good.  We are wise in our own eyes.  We are not following God’s way and we must repent and turn back to God as a society or I feel the end is near.

Grandpa

I was talking to a young lady, and giving her some advice about work and I said something that I was old enough to be her parent so take it as fatherly advice.  She retorted back that I was old enough to be her Grandpa.  I laughed, but it kind of got to me.  A few days later I was tell the story to several women about my age and we all had a laugh, but one of the ladies piped up and said, you know with the younger generations this is true.  I looked a little stunned so she explained.  Now days children are having children.  There is a very high percentage of girls having children in their teens, and this has been happening for the last two generations.  For example, say a girl has a baby at 16 and that baby has a baby at 16.  That means someone in his or her forties could be a Grandpa or Grandma.  I will turn fifty this year so what that lady was saying is very true. 

She went on to say that in today’s culture, the trend is to have children young.  It is a status symbol in some high schools for a girl to have a child.  I have not come out and said it, but most of these children are out of wedlock.  It is a sign of the gradual decline of our society. 

This reminds me of another incident I witnessed. I stopped by Mc Donald’s on a Saturday to get a cold drink about lunchtime. I sat down in the cool air conditioning and started drinking my drink. Like normal, the place was full of kids and was noise so I did not think much about it. Then I did a little people watching and was a little surprised at what I saw. There were no mothers in there at all; it was all fathers with their children.   A few minutes later, I glanced in the parking lot and I saw a mother hug her kids and then the kids ran over to their dad in a different car and mom drove off.  That is when I figured out what was really going on. Mc Donald’s was the place where these broken families had chosen to exchange the kids. This was very depressing for me. 

As most of you know, family values are big with me in fact; my thesis was titled “Strengthening Family Values.” This was so sad to see.   I was glad that the dads were trying to spend some time with their kids. I have to admit, I have taken my children to M.C. Donald’s and sat and watched them play in the play place all by my self. However, what I saw there was just not right. This is an example of what our country has come to. The divorce rate I have seen reported is as high as 70%. In addition, church attendance is as low as 30%. We are going in the wrong direction. 

I have no magical answer for this, but I do know I have the answer for it. We have to get America to turn back to God. If we would follow God’s principals for marriage, the Mc Donald’s scene would not have been happening. I am asking all my readers please pray for revival in their life and for the life of this nation, otherwise our children may not have an America when they are our age.

Follow up to “Wearing Your Best for Church”

I have had incredible feedback on my blog series of “Wearing your best for Church.” I have gotten so many “Amens” that I cannot shake a stick at them all and almost all the comments have been positive. I have been stopped by people who said that they were very happy that I have said something on the subject. Someone also forwarded it to a magazine, that read it, and then the magazine read several of my other blogs. They liked them, and they asked me to send them one of my favorite blogs (that matched their criteria) and they would consider publishing it. I got word on the weekend that they would publish it in “Church & Family” magazine May- June 2013 issue. First of all I want to thank the person who forwarded my blog to the magazine and encourage everyone to feel free to forward the blog to your friends or even sign them up to receive my blog or forward me their e-mail address and I will do it.     

It is one of those conversations when people stopped me that I would like to share what one of the women explained to me what they do at their church. I first need to explain that we are in the Deep South and we are Baptist, therefore we have an alter and during the service if someone is convicted of something in their life, they go and pray it out right then. Well her church has to have several of the older women of the church sit on the front row with, the best way to describe it is “prayer blankets” (about the half the size of a normal blanket). When a women (because as she said, it is all ages) comes to the alter and kneels down, because of the short dresses or low pants and crop tops and thong underwear or lack there of, the women would be mooning the congregation. Therefore, two older women lay one of these prayer blankets over their backside. Moreover, when their pray is over they will take them to the back and talk with them about their conviction, but also about what they are wearing to church. This is a true mentoring time when the older women teach the young. Just like Titus 2 says 

Titus 2

King James Version (KJV)

2 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

² That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
³ The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
⁴ That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
⁵ To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
⁶ Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
⁷ In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
⁸ Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

My friend told me that I was right talking to the women youth counselors and then having them speak to the girls. She even felt that because I had to write something about the women’s choice of clothing, that the older women of the church were not doing their job. I would agree that the older women are not doing there job, but I to be honest, I do not think they know it is their job, so hopefully by me writing this blog they will learn.

Now this does not leave the out older men, they are responsible for the young men, that is what the last part of this verse is about, starting in verse 6. The Deacons or the men at my friend’s church have also taken these verses to heart and they try to train the young men, but they have taken a little different approach. The younger men have a style of wearing the pants below their butt and showing their underwear. The deacons of her church have gone out and bought a lot of belts. The Deacons stand in the foyer to greet people, but if they see a young man dressed like this, they pull him aside, explain that this style is not acceptable in God’s house, give him a belt, and have him go to the rest room and put the belt on. 

I tell you all this because I think this church is doing the right thing. They are not condemning the people and kicking them out of the church, but they are trying to teach them what is good and right with Christian love. They are also doing it Biblically by having the older women teach the younger women and the older men teaching the younger men. These younger people need God’s love and need they God’s people to show it to them. I think this is something that all churches should consider. 

Abraham's Faith

I had the AWANA large group time again and I related one of my favorite pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament. Gen 22

 22 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

God is telling Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him. Take a closer look, God says “thine only son.” Just like Jesus is the only son of God. This makes Isaac a type of Christ. Type is a seminary word used to describe a foreshadowing of Jesus. On the other hand, another way of saying it is it parallels Isaac’s life to Jesus. 
Like wise, it tells us where he is going. To Moriah, and the mountain that God tells him. Moriah is where modern day Jerusalem is located. Now there are two schools of thought as to which mountain this is. I lean towards the thought that it is the temple mount where the temple and all the sacrifices the Jewish people made for hundreds of years, which are also a type of Christ. I have a pastor friend who believes that the mountain is Golgotha, the place Jesus was sacrificed on the cross. We have had some good-natured debates on this a couple of times. In addition, he makes some good arguments. Either way, it points to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross.

³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
⁵ And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Here is where we see the faith of Abraham. It says the next morning he takes care of business and makes ready for the trip, no questions asked. He believes God at His word.  I will be honest; I am ashamed to admit that I do not think that I could have that kind of faith. 
Look in verse 5, Abraham says, “I and the lad will go worship and come again to you.” Therefore, Abraham believed if he sacrificed Isaac that God could and would resurrect Isaac because Abraham believed that they both would return to the men. This blows me away. God is foreshadowing the Resurrection two thousand years before He did it with Jesus. This is again another type of Christ.

⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

Abraham places the wood on Isaac’s back just as two thousand years later, Jesus carries his own wood to His sacrifice when he carries the cross on His own back, possibly up the same path. This is another type of Christ. It just gets me how God orchestrates this to be exactly like Jesus’ crucifixion.

⁷ And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
⁸ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Here we again see Abraham’s faith that God will provide the lamb, through Abraham’s own son, or through a lamb later, which God did. However, this is just as Christ’s sacrifice, God provides the Sacrifice His own son Jesus. 

⁹ And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
¹⁰ And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
¹¹ And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
¹² And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

We see here that God did provide a lamb for Abraham, just as he provides a lamb for us. One more point is the word in Hebrew that is translated thicket means a thorny thicket. Therefore, the ram substituted for Isaac had a crown of thorns, just as Jesus did.  This shows God was doing a parallel of Isaac to Christ down to the smallest detail of even the crown of thorns. In addition, it points out again that Isaac is Abraham’s only son just as Jesus is God’s only son. This is an exact foreshadowing of what Jesus was going to do two thousand years later. It just kills me how the so many groups miss this, like the Jewish people and even the Muslims. They both have this story in there sacred books. The Muslims change it a little bit and say the son in there is Ishmael. 

The one other thing I would like to point out is that Abraham calls the place Jehovahjireh, which means God, will provide, which He did for Abraham and for us. 

St. Patrick

As most people know, it is time for another Christian Holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. Most people recognize that St. Patty’s day is a Christian Holiday, but many non-Christian things have been added, such as green beer. There are several myths about St. Patrick, but let me tell you what I was taught was true about the man.

            St. Patrick was born an English man. His father and grandfather were in the leadership of the church and there is some debate as to whether they were deacons or priests. According to his own writings, he was brought up in a Christian home, but he was not very devout until he was kidnapped. 

            His family lived in a coastal town. When he was in his early teens, Irish pirates kidnapped him, took him to Ireland and sold him as a slave. His job as a slave was a shepherd. This required him to stay out in the open on the very cold Irish moors. Again, from his own writings, he tells that his master was very mean and cruel to him. He was given very little to eat, and only a small scratchy tunic that had holes in it to wear for clothes. He had to endure the drunken beatings of his master. 

            It was during this time that Patrick became serious about his religion. In his books, he talks about how he would pray for hours and pray as many as a hundred times a day. This is where his faith was strengthened.  

            After about six years of this, he was told to go back to England in a dream. Therefore, he just walked off the job one day and walked 200 miles to a port. At the port, he earned his passage on a ship by tending animals. He finally made it back home. Almost immediately after arriving home, he started studying for the priesthood. It took him 15 more years to be ordained a priest. In another dream, he was told to return to Ireland, which the churches blessed. The first thing he did upon returning was to walk back to his master’s farm and pay the family for his freedom. 

            There are many other myths about him, such as that he rid Ireland of all the snakes, which is not true. Another myth, which I like, is that he used the three-leaf clover to teach about the trinity. Unfortunately, there is no proof of that. Nevertheless, this is the reason green is always associated with St. Patrick’s Day.

            One thing we do know is that Patrick was very successful as a missionary because he was able to convert most of Ireland to Christianity. Therefore, this year when you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, go in his tradition and tell someone about Christ. 

Conclusion of "Wearing Your Best to Church" (All of It)

Somehow, when I posted the conclusion of "Wearing Your Best to Church" last week, it was cut off in the middle of the blog post. Therefore, here is the conclusion of "Wearing Your Best to Church" in its entirety.

With all of the previous said, I must address something else about clothing and for good reason. The item is when women choose to wear clothing that is revealing. This is a tough subject for me as a man to discuss, but while I was a youth minister, this came up several times, especially with bathing suits around camp time. I normally would explain my concerns with the women councilors and let them take care of it, and I never had a problem. However, today, what is considered dress clothes for women is very revealing. I had a youth pastor friend that was doing a great job at getting youth from the neighborhood, but what some of the young women were wearing to youth group was just to revealing. His solution, which I love, was that he had a couple who owned a tee shirt shop in the congregation and he had them make nice tee shirts with the youth group logo on them and when a young lady came who needed extra coverage, he would give her a youth group tee shirt. Most of the other kids would have them on and he never had to ask a girl to put one on, they always immediately put them on. 

The last few years I have noticed these revealing clothes are showing up in the church service itself. Some of you are asking, what is the big deal, I just made a point of saying clothes do not matter. I will put it in simple terms; it is very hard to concentrate on God and preach when the women in the front row has almost her whole chest exposed to you. 

However, you say, I just made a great point about how God does not care what I wear to church. However, there is another Biblical principle at work here. You should not in your freedom in the Bible cause someone else to sin. 1 Cor. 8

⁴ As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

⁵ For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

⁶ But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

⁷ Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

⁸ But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

⁹ But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

¹⁰ For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

¹¹ And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

¹² But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

¹³ Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

Again, I have not been talking about food or meat, but the Biblical principle that if in your freedom of the Bible you cause someone else to stumble; then you are the one who has sinned.  Thus, if by your clothing, you cause a man, who by the Bible’s own words is weak, stumble by looking at you rather than towards God, you have caused him to sin, and you have sinned.

Let me try to explain something about men and women. In seminary, I had to read a book in counseling class called, “Sex starts in the Kitchen”. This book was mainly written to men to help them understand and better appreciate there wives. You see, men are aroused by what they see and the effect is almost immediate. Women are aroused by romance. This difference is why the pornographic industry mainly uses pictures of women and not men. In addition, this is why romance novels are almost all sold to women. Therefore, men, if you want to have relations with your wife that night, you need to begin hours before, in the kitchen, and start romancing her there. That, in a few sentences, is the idea of the whole book. Now let us take this to our subject at hand. Clothes manufactures know that men are aroused by sight and therefore make clothes that attract attention. Women may not know this fact, but they enjoy the attention. Thus, I am hoping that by you knowing the Biblical principal and how men and women are aroused, that women would use more thought when choosing their clothing for church.

Wearing Your Best to Church - Conclusion

With everything that has previously been said about what to wear to church, I must address something else about clothing and for good reason. At issue is when women choose to wear clothing that is revealing. This is a tough subject for me as a man to discuss, but while I was a youth minister, this came up several times, especially with bathing suits around camp time. I normally would explain my concerns with the women counselors and let them take care of it, and I never had a problem. However, what is considered dress clothes for women today, is very revealing. I had a friend who is a youth pastor who was doing a great job at getting the neighborhood youth to come to the church, but what some of the young women were wearing to youth group was just too revealing. His solution, which I love, was that there was a couple who owned a tee shirt shop in the congregation, and he had them make nice tee shirts with the youth group logo on them and when a young lady came to the service who would benefit from extra coverage, he would give her a youth group tee shirt. Most of the other kids would already be wearing them, and he never had to ask a girl to put one on, they always immediately put them on. 

The last few years I have noticed that these revealing clothes are showing up in the church service itself. Some of you are asking, "What is the big deal, you just made a point of saying clothes do not matter." I will put it in simple terms; it is very hard to concentrate on God and preach when the woman in the front row has almost her whole chest exposed to you. 

You may say, "Hey Dr. Brad, you just made a great point about how God does not care what I wear to church." However, there is another Biblical principle at work here. You should not in your freedom in the Bible, cause someone else to sin. 1 Cor. 8

 

⁴ As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
⁵ For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
⁶ But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
⁷ Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
⁸ But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
⁹ But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

Wearing Your Best to Church - Continued

This week I am continuing last week’s topic of “Wearing Your Best to Church”.

I think my friend was on to something when he asked if God cared what he wore as long as he was there. My father’s church planted a daughter church in the Houston area, and in the process, they bought the building of a church that had gone under. When they went to go clean up and get things set up, my father saw a sign that said, “Men without tie and jacket and women without a dress can not enter the sanctuary.” I know this is one extreme example, but it is this kind of stuff that turns people away from the church and I know this is not pleasing to God. It is a form of legalism or man-made laws that prevent people from worshiping God; just like the Pharisee in Matt 15.

15 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

² Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
³ But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
⁴ For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
⁵ But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
⁶ And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
⁷ Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
⁸ This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
⁹ But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
¹⁰ And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
¹¹ Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
¹² Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
¹³ But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
¹⁴ Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
¹⁵ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
¹⁶ And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
¹⁷ Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
¹⁸ But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
²⁰ These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

I have not been talking about having washed hands or food, but about the Biblical principle given here.  That principle is that man-made rules are keeping people from worshiping, and sometimes, even finding God.  A suit and tie and a dress are not going to keep you from God, but man-made laws will. 

I will publish the conclusion of this article next week.

Wearing your best to church

I have a pastor friend who posts a daily question on Facebook that he has people comment on and then he likes to give a Biblical summary.  We agree on almost everything, and I have a great deal of respect for him.  A few days ago in his summary, he said that he felt that you need to wear your best to church because it is a sign that you are giving your best to God.  Twenty years ago, I would have agreed 100%; that was the way I was raised. I still always wear a jacket and tie to church myself, but a friend of mine gave me his testimony and it gave me a lot to think about. 

His testimony goes something like this.  When he was a young boy, he never went to church, in fact, most weekends his parents were sleeping off the alcohol from the night before.  One Sunday morning when he was 5 or 6, they had been doing some utility work in the neighborhood.  There was a huge pile of dirt there.  On the Sunday morning, my friend and another kid were out just playing in the dirt.  They were both with out a shirt no shoes and just covered in dirt.  It was a warm Texas spring morning they had been playing a little while.  Therefore, they were sweaty and the muddy dirt was all over them.  An older lady was on her way to church and saw the boys out there play and stopped to ask them why thy were not getting ready for church and they said they had never been to church.  She asked them to go to church with her and if they did, she would make sure they got donuts before church and a coke afterwards.  Of course, both boys agreed.  She has them get in the back of her car dirt, mud and all, no shirt or shoes.  She gets them to church she cleans there hands and faces and gives them the donuts and takes them to a Sunday School class and then takes them to church.  Then after service, the church had a coke machine in the basement and she buys them both a coke.  They had a great time and she tells them that if they meet her at that Conner next week she will take them to church.  They both agree and they go with her to church for a couple of years.  In that time, my friend became a Christian.

My jaw dropped at the story. I could not believe that my friend went to church with out a shirt and that he was not kicked out.  I will be honest I do not think I have ever been a member at a church that would have allowed the boys in the church door with out a shirt.  When my friend told me this story I had smart off about wearing something nice to church and was offended and point blank asked me why because God did not care what we were as long as we were there.  Then he told me his testimony.  I was greatly convicted about my thoughts on this manor.  

February 2013

Dear Blogger Friends

I know it has been months since I have bloged. Many people have asked why I have stopped writing. I really have not stopped, while I was busy thinking I was in control and making plans of my own; life happened. I have been in the hospital twice with what ended up as five ulcers. Sharon, my wife, also ended up in the hospital. My daughter got married and she and her husband are now expecting our first grandchild. With all of the doctor’s appointments associated with the all of the after care, I just have not had the quiet time to sit down and write. I hope that with the New Year, things will settle down or I will just have to make the time to sit down and write.

One topic that I had wanted to talk about in December was the meaning behind the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. It is called the Festival of Light. I will have to go into a lot of background to make some sense of this Holiday, so bear with me through the history lesson. When Alexander the Great died, his four Generals divvied up his territory, one being Syria and another Egypt. When the second generation of Generals had taken over, the Syrian General (Seleuces) got greedy and tried to take over Egypt. He was stopped when the Romans stepped in. This started the good relations between Rome and Egypt, which lead to Anthony and Cleopatra, which is another story. Nevertheless, I digress, Seleuces, on his way back home, takes his frustration out on Jerusalem. He knocks down the walls, kills a lot of Jews, loots the Temple and has the Hellenistic Jews sacrifice at least one pig on the alter in the Temple (the number varies depending on where you read). The Hellenistic Jews do this in hopes of winning favor with Seleuces and stopping the destruction. This is a precursor of the abomination of desolation talked about in Daniel. (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11).  This infuriates the Orthodox Jews. (This also explains why the Hellenistic Jews are looked down upon and their widows are ignored in the distribution of food in the book of Acts.) With this, the Hasmonean family moves to the mountain outside of Jerusalem where they gather others. Their leader’s name was Judah, whom they nicknamed the Hammer, which in Hebrew is Maccabeus, thus the name of the revolt is The Maccaben revolt. (This revolt is the subject of the book of Maccabes, found in Catholic Bibles. In Seminary, this is studied as part of Jewish history.) The Maccabes were able to kick Seleuces out of Jerusalem. Upon taking over the temple, they had to cleanse it. They only found one vase of kosher oil for the golden lamp stand in the temple, and it was only enough to last one day. It takes seven days for the oil to be made Kosher for the golden lamp stand. Once the lamp is lit, it is not to go out. They lit the lamp and it burned for eight days until the new oil was ready. The miracle of God providing the lamp light is what the Jewish people celebrate during Chanukah and this why Chanukah is called the Festival of Lights.