Special Days

Spirit of Christmas [John 14, 16; other topics -Carnality, Christmas, Lust (of the World), Materialism, Spirit]

A couple of years ago my wife was getting a jump on the Christmas decorating; being an insensitive beast, I said, “Aren’t the decorations going up kind of early?” She said, “Oh, I’m just trying to get into the spirit!”

Her response made me think: half the world is unable to provide a decent living, home, or meal for their families, yet here we are putting up decorations worth who knows how much and all to celebrate what the world calls a lie; the “spirit” we’re “getting into” is the spirit of this world, and we’re trying real hard to get into it, while we should be trying to get the Spirit of God into us … or if He is already in us we should trying as hard to reveal Him to those around us; and if we put as much money and effort into reaching the lost or caring for the poor, how would the real Spirit of Christmas be manifested? Christmas is coming again this year, PTL; let’s keep it holy because He is holy!


Mother’s Day [Various Scriptures; other topics - Compassion; Drugs; Responsibility; Welfare]

For the thinking and feeling person it comes as no shock when we read things like the following.

In a LA Times story, by Times Staff Writer Sylvia Pagan Westphal, it was reported that, in the drug-culture, "mother’s day” takes place the first week of every month. It's the day when welfare checks are issued in Los Angeles County.

Drug dealers anticipate “mother’s day” and stock up to raid the extra cash. The day is so named because the checks have traditionally gone to welfare-mothers. Social workers and physicians who see low-income substance abusers are well aware of the phenomena.

In a New England Journal of Medicine study released in early July, 1999, it was revealed that more than 4,000 additional deaths occur during the first week of the month as compared to the last week of the preceding month.

You don’t end a person’s problems by feeding it. There is an amazing difference between the welfare of the man in the parable of “The Good Samaritan” and the welfare our culture engages in; take them to Calvary for “by His stripes are they healed.”

[Adapted from “Study Links Welfare Paydays to Rise in Drug Deaths,” Los Angeles Times, Thursday, July 8, 1999, A17]

Compassion

Run to Win [Philippians 2:3, 4; other topics - others, perseverance]

Rashad Williams, 15, was so moved by the plight of Lance Kirklin, 16, that he ran in San Francisco’s annual 7.5 mile 1999 ‘Bay to Breakers’ race to raise money for him. Kirklin, who almost bled to death, had to learn to walk again after two fellow Columbine students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a rampage killing 13 people and wounding 23 others before killing themselves.

Williams, an athlete at San Francisco's Archbishop Riordan High School expected to raise a few hundred dollars but a SF Examiner columnist wrote about the teen and he raised $14,000. People kept giving and the fund grew to $18,000. When asked, Williams said, "I was tired. I just kept thinking about Lance" describing what kept him going.

You never know what you’re made of until you commit your life to others.