As far as I remember last night I watch my first Super Bowl game ever from beginning to end.  Why, you may ask?  Well, it was because I wasn’t in church.  Instead, our family went to some friends home, ate a great meal and enjoyed each other’s company while watching the yellow team and red team kick a pigskin ball around all evening.  Thinking about it now, I’m not even sure who won the game.  But I do know this.  Reports say that 97 million people watched this game.  NBC was paid 3 million dollars for each 30 second advertisement spot which added up to over 200 million.  Wal-mart and other retailers must have made thousands selling Super Bowl snacks and drinks.  And, thousands of church pews must have sat empty while 97 million were kneeling down to the god of sports and entertainment.  I wonder how many of these 97 million call themselves “Christ like” (Christian)?  There are probably several.  Do I think they are wrong if they missed church to watch a football game?  I’ll answer that question by asking this one, “Is the Lord our God a jealous God?”

 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

(Exo 20:2-6)

By the way, our church was completely empty last night.  There wasn’t one person at our church when the super bowl started.  Of course, there never is on Sunday evenings.  You see yesterday, like every other Sunday, we were at church all day.  We have Sunday school, morning services, a lunch fellowship and then afternoon services at 1:30 p.m.  Yesterday, we concluded our day at 3 p.m. with over an hour of singing praises to our Lord.  I’ve been told that our church has kept this schedule on Sunday’s since the “horse and buggy days.”  I love spending all day at church with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I love sharing a meal and fellowshipping with the church.  I love focusing upon Christ all day and then coming home to rest in the evenings.  What usually happens is after coming home on Sunday afternoon our family will usually take a nap or just rest for an hour or two.  Then we will get up and many times go visiting.  Sometimes, we’ll invite people over and play games.  Sometimes we go to someone’s home and have coffee and cake.  Sometimes we’ll go visit someone who is lonely or sick.  Sometime’s we’ll go to other church services.  But regardless what we do, the day is always a day of worship, rest and enjoyment.  We look forward to Sunday.  In fact, it’s my favorite day of the week.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been true.  I’ve spent many Sunday’s exhausted, rushing to church, hurrying to grab some lunch, speeding back to the church for some meeting and the evening worship only to get home after dark, eating a late dinner and falling into bed worn out.  I don’t believe this is how God intended for us to spend the day worshiping Him.  Of course, in spite of the church schedule our attitudes play a huge role in regards to the Lord’s Day.  Once I came to realize that the day is not about me, me, me but all about Him, Him, Him the Lord’s Day took on a whole new meaning.  Having the schedule that our church does only helps to keep Christ preeminent on Sunday.

So back to Super Bowl Lord’s Day, it seems rather like an oxymoron.   But, many things in this world has become such.  Christian, where is your heart?  What are your eyes fixed upon?  Where is your affection placed?  Who do you serve?  To answer that question you must look at how you live, what you spend your time doing and how you spend your money.  Wouldn’t it be something if 97 million Christian people gave one dollar for the kingdom, gave one hour serving others, gave one day over to prayer and fasting for our country, gave one afternoon to witness to a lost neighbor or even spent one Super Bowl Sunday at church worshipping the One and Only True God of Heaven and Earth?  Now, that would be a super day!   

My youngest son is learning about different character traits as part of his Bible curriculum. This week I taught him about being attentive. All six year olds need to learn how to be attentive. Let me correct that statement. Every child, regardless of age, needs to learn how to be attentive. I find myself repeating commands throughout the day, saying, “Listen to me!” or “Are you paying attention?” or “Have you heard what I just said?”

Shortly after we were first married, Dana brought home a Cocker Spaniel puppy that we named Jesse.  This pup was out of control so we decided to take him to Doggy Obedience School. One of the first things the instructor taught us was that when we gave a command to only say it once. If you said, “Sit, Sit, SIT!!!!!” you would be training to dog to not obey at the first command. Since having children I’ve learned a few things. First, children are much smarter than animals. If a dog can be trained to sit, stay, and speak with the smallest of commands how much more should we expect intelligent children created in the image of God to be able to obey a simple command from their parents? Therefore, I’ve learned that the obedience of children will solely depend upon their training. Unfortunately, I’ve also learned that it’s much harder to retrain disobedient children than to properly train them from the beginning.

So, since this training is so important I wanted to really instill the trait of attentiveness upon my son. I took him to Proverbs 4:20-21, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.” I explained that being attentive means to listen with your ears, with your eyes and with your heart. “How do you listen with your eyes?” He asked. “Well son” I said, “There are times that you can just look at mommy and know what I want you to do without me even saying a word.” “And son” I said “without putting that knowledge in your heart you’re not really paying attention.”

Since I am but a child and my Father desires my attentiveness I have tried to apply these truths to my life as well. How many times does He have to say to me, “Listen to me”, “Are you paying attention?” or “Have you heard what I just said?” Too many times I’m afraid. So I’m learning to pay close attention to my Father and listen to the Words He has to say. But, I’m also learning that I can listen to my Father with my eyes. Psalm 32:8-9 says, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” In other words, don’t be as an animal that must have incentive to come to their master. Don’t be like the out of control puppy that is trained to expect a treat. Be the obedient child that gazes upon the Father and willingly and joyfully attends to His words. I know that when my eyes are fixed upon my Lord that all He has to do is nod His head to get my attention. On those days He doesn’t have to say a word because His Word is already hidden in my heart. But, I can always do better for there are many times I take my eyes off Him. So Lord, my prayer is that you will forgive me when I’m inattentive and help my be stay focused upon You.   After all, every child, regardless of age, needs to learn how to be attentive.

No news, no internet, no email, no TV, no cell phones, no home phone just quiet, nature, family, worship, peace, stillness…..No I haven’t just described some respite for overworked and stressed out families; I’ve just described my new home.  It’s located in a beautiful National Forrest, 4 miles past the middle of nowhere, Mississippi.

I can handle not watching or even listening to the news, for its rather depressing, and we’ve done without TV with the exception of a video now and then, and I knew before we moved that we would have to drive miles to get any kind of cell phone reception, and I had even accepted the fact that it would be a week or so until we could be hooked up for internet and email but when my home phone quit working I didn’t know what to do.  All of a sudden I had lost all connection to the outside world.  What if someone had to call us?  What if there was an emergency?  What would we do then?  Then I realized that we would do what everyone else use to do when faced with the same dilemma….we’d hop into the horse and buggy (or car in our case) and drive to town.   So, with that conclusion I started to enjoy the quiet.  I took time to watch my children play outside and took pleasure in the environment, my children gathered around the piano and we sang songs, I worked and worked hard around the house, I enjoyed the day and the quiet.  I recalled the scripture in Psalm 46 that said, “Be still and know that I am God.”  It’s a lot easier to know and recognize God all around you when the noise of the world is absent.

As soon as the phone company came out and fixed our phones I immediately called my family and friends.  Come to find out, no one had even tried to call.  So much for thinking I had missed something.  Could it be that my Lord wanted to show me that it’s ok to slow down and enjoy the simple things of life?  If I’m not careful I’ll spend my entire life running around doing what is good and completely miss the best things in life.  Sometimes it just takes slowing down and being quiet in order to see what’s best. With that said, I think I’ll go and take a walk……

“And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isa 32:18)

It was American author and historian Washington Irving that said, “Sweet is the memory of distant friends!  Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.”  Oh, how I wish I could express my thoughts so eloquently.

In a few days our family will pack the last boxes onto the moving truck and start a new ministry.  This move will be bitter/sweet.  Sweet because we are so excited about our new church and know that we’re living in obedience.  Bitter because God has blessed us with many friends that we will greatly miss. In the journey of life it seemed as though I’ve passed by this place but for a moment yet I have not gone untouched and my prayer is that my life has touched others as well.   It’s never easy to move and leave behind dear friends yet it is in the leaving that we have hope of meeting again.  For it is in the meeting again that makes those moments even more precious.   So I will not cry because this journey is over; I’ll smile because it happened.

Note:  The following article was written a few days ago and because of my anger when writting it I have purposely waited on posting.  While I am still angry at the direction our country has taken I do not want my anger to influence my love for others or even my logic.  This article deals with professing Christians voting for Obama.  Many of these people are blind to the truth, in fear of judgment, and I will fervently pray for them and our nation as a whole.

I just finished reading an article that said a poll taken by The Barna Group states that half of “born again” Christians will be voting for Obama come November 4^th.  (www.onenewsnow.com/election2008)

There is no doubt that we are living in the last days.  When people who confess to be “born-again” can vote for a man running for President who is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate, it is indeed perilous times.  Not only does he support abortion but also strongly approves homosexual activism.  From questions about his Muslim background to his anti-Israel comments; this man is just plain scary.  Yet, according to the polls, half of “born-again” Christians will be voting for him.   The article went on to say that those who will cast a vote for Obama will do so because they believe that he will do a better job restoring American’s reputation and handling the economy.   Let me see if I’m clear on this…what these so-called Christians are saying is that voting for our pocket books should triumph over voting for godly principles.  And, voting based on morals really has no place in our current society.  In fact, our religious beliefs should be left out of government all together.  Christianity has been taken out of our schools, universities and government.  We the people have stood by and let it happen.  And now, people actually believe that their Christian convictions should be separate from their political views.  Unbelievable!

I guess if the liberal left had their way Christianity would be taken out of every aspect of society.  Let’s just leave it for Sunday mornings in the churches.  Are we really that far from it?  Let’s see.  Christians will work for companies who are anti-God (how many times have you heard about Christian people working for casinos, beer companies, etc), they will allow their children to be indoctrinated by anti-Godly systems (children being taught evolution, homosexuality and humanism), they throw money into the hands of the anti-Godly media (supporting the filth of Hollywood), and they will cast votes for people who promote anti-Godly views.  It won’t be long until they start coming into the churches proclaiming that the doctrines are too harsh, that the speech is too hateful and that preaching against sin is unacceptable.  Oh, never mind, they’re already doing that!

Americans  –  If you don’t live like, walk like, work like, talk like, look like or vote like a Christian  –  quit calling yourself one!   I guess these people will continue to call themselves Christ-like until one day when they wake up and are told by Christ himself, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  Matthew 7:23 

I fear greatly for our country.  If it was just the unsaved that were blinded I would have hope.  But God help us when “born-again Christians” have become so blind to the truth.  America, take off the blindfold, for there is one truth that we will witness found in Galatians 6:7.  Be not deceived; God is not mocked:  for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  Our country has been sowing, now we reap!  God have mercy!

Last night my husband and oldest son and I watched Ben Stein’s “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed”.  If you have not had an opportunity to watch this I highly encourage you to.  In this eye opening documentary, Stein exposes the hypocrisy of the atheist’s double standards of teaching in classrooms and universities and well as brings to light the connections between Darwinism and abortion, euthanasia and Hitler’s killings.  As he interviewed atheist after atheist one thing that I noticed was that many of them referred to their early religious beliefs and how after a semester or two of college their eyes were opened to the “truths” of evolution.  As I’m watching this I’m wondering how many people have been brought up in Christianity (including Darwin himself) only to have the influence of one professor destroy their faith.

It’s not just college students who are having their faith destroyed.  Evolution is taught as early as pre-school.  Just try and go to the local library and find a picture book on dinosaurs without having the lie of evolution jump off the pages.  It usually goes something like this….Dinosaurs lived millions and millions of years before humans. 

If we as parents leave the teaching of science up to PBS, the classrooms or universities then we will have children who will question their faith and be taught that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of stories for the weak-minded.  So what is a Christian parent to do?  First, you must educate yourself.  Mom and Dad, Have you looked through your child’s textbook for accuracy?  Do you know how old the earth is?  Can you explain the Creation account found in Genesis?  Can you explain what happened to the dinosaurs?   Can you explain the difference between micro and macro evolution?  God has an answer for all of this.  True science can be verified by the Word of God.  If we do not ground our children in the Rock-Solid Scriptures they will easily be deceived to believe a lie.  We must not be naïve.   Evolution is not an innocent teaching.   Evolution is not only anti-science (for true science can be tested) but it is a dangerous religious belief.  The same belief that molded the evil thinking of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Margaret Sanger, and Karl Marx  –  all of who have caused untold suffering and pain in this world. Why would we allow our children to be indoctrinated in these same teachings?  If an hour of Sunday School each week is all the teaching our children receive then they will not be strong enough to fight off the lies of the enemy.   It’s time to wake up.