A BLOG NOTE: If you've looked to the right of this blog page, you've notice large gaps of empty space after the first several entries. I don't know why, but for some reason since recently, I cannot remove those gaps NOR type any new text but one letter at a time. Please PRAY that this might be reseolved soon. In the meantime, please scroll down to almost the very end of that column to find instructions on a) how to post your comments, b) how to contact your Congressional representatives, and c) websites AND THEN books I highly recommend. (You can email me at: yonashiro@bellsouthl.net)
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"TRUTH THAT TRANSFORMS": To you in Central Florida, as always each week, I encourage you to watch this week's program on "Truth That Transforms" at 5 pm (antenna broadcast) on Channel 55.1 or on Monday on Channel 52.2 at 7 pm. You can watch the message portion anytime at www.truthinaction.org but it will not include the special video segment at the end of each television broadcast.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------DECLARE YOUR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL: I encourage you to go to the site below and consider signing the petition to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring your support for Israel especially as it again faces a threat to its very survival. The petition is presented by the Christian group Liberty Counsel. http://www.libertyaction.org/370/petition.asp?Ref_ID=18588&CID=370&RID=37375064 AND of course, try toPRAY daily for Israel.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------NOTE: With Black Friday (referred to in yesterday's blog - #368) behind us but the Christmas shopping in full swing with now less than a month before Christmas, I offer the following essay that is a re-do of one I posted last year about an alternatve to the usual Christmas shopping. I do hope you will prayerfully consider what I share; I apprecate to hear your thoughts.
Christmas Shopping: Bah, Humbug! - A Better Alternative
I was still attending middle school when one year, my Mom suddenly stormed into the living room, placed a small artifical tree on top of the filing cabinet, and announced, "I just called all the relatives. From now on, for Christmas, they don't have to give anything to us, we don't give anything to them." Because I naturally loved getting and just opening presents as much as anyone, I was of course very disappointed and even upset at my Mom. And yet, as I look back on her actions, I can easily understand how much of a hassle it was for my Mom (who worked in effect every day with my dad to run their mom-and-pop restaurant) each year to have to go shopping for our very large extended family, as well as for my parents' large group of friends. And of course, with our family not being Christian, the only meaning to the season was that it was a time of exhausting shopping for the purpose of gift exchanging.
Few would argue that in our increasingly secular society - where for awhile now children have even been told in school it's not even called a Christmas vacation but that they are on "winter break" and communities can be sued for even having a Christmas display outside City Hall - the true meaning of the season is lost on most Americans (as well as in other countries that "celebrate" it). People are now even lured away from spending their entire Thanksgiving holiday with their family so that they can get a head start on their Christmas shopping. How many even know the words of the traditional Christmas hyms that are sometimes merely background music in stores while they are shopping?
And why do most people madly dash about going from store to store to find that "perfect" gift for someone? Almost always, it is being done with the expectation that we will receive something of possibly equal value in return. If you think about it, this is NOT really true giving but merely a gift exchange, where people act out of the conscious or unconscious pressure to be sure to give something of equal value as what they will receive. And what is usually given is just something that person could have purchased for themselves. (I laugh when I think of how for years my brother and I seemed to pass pack and forth the same $5 bill inside whatever birthday care we gave to each other year after year.)
In celebrating the birth of Jesus, THE Gift that can never be returned in kind by the recipient, I believe that we should focus on giving to those who we have NO expectation of ever returning our gift in kind, - those who are truly in need. Rather than going into debt (which the Bible repeatedly speaks against doing) and wearing ourselves out trying to find the 'perfect' gift for someone (who, again, probably has the means anyway to get that item for themselves), I believe we need to rethink our Christmas giving. I believe this will make this season a whole lot less focused on buying things and thus remove the commericialization from the Christmas season. By focusing on giving to those who have truly needy, we will more accurately reflect what God did when He came in the person of the CHRIST of Christmas.
Therefore, I would like to challenge you to meet with the members of your family (and contact others whom you have given Christmas gifts to in the past) and explain what I have shared above. Afterwards, I then hope you and the members of your family will consider doing away with Christmas shopping, except for most children still in grade school. Instead, I encourage you to send each person on your gift list a Christmas card in which you explan to them that in lieu of a gift, you are giving what you would have spent as a contribution to a ministry or organzaton that helps people in need. Also, you can name the specific organization "their" gift went to – either one to whom you are in the habit of giving; a particular missionary you or your church supports, or one of the organizations below that I support and whch you may not be familiar with and that I encourage you to consider gving to:
CareNet (www.care-net.org) - It serves the thousands of pregnancy resource centers (that serves women who might otherwise choose to abort their unborn child).
Focus on the Family (www.family.org) - It provides a huge variety of services to individuals and families in need. I particularly support their burden to help equip pregnancy resource centers with ultrasound machines.
Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree project (www.prisonfellowship.org) - It gives gifts to children of those in prison.
Life Outreach International (www.lifetoday.org) - It has a variety of projects - to dig water wells, feed hungry, rescue those caught in sex trafficking, etc.
Open Doors (www.opendoors.org) - They minister to believers being persecuted in dozens of countries around the world. (It is headed by Brother Andrew of "God's Smuggler" fame.)
Freedom Alliance (www.freedomalliance.org) - It is "an educational and charitable organization which sponsors numerous program activities aimed at supporting and honoring our service members and their families." (This is the only organization on this list that I don't believe is a Christian ministry.)
Of course, this idea may not be well received by children who are no longer in grade school. But just consider how doing this will teach them about the true spirit of giving and in particular how they can truly honor and celebrate God in Christ coming to GIVE Himself for us. And, instead of consumng their time with rushing around buyng gifts, people could spend that time reading and studying God's Word AND directly serving others in their community. Over tme, I believe that each one who decides to do this non-traditional approach to Christmas giving will only reap rich rewards and will most honor the Christ of Christmas.
P.S. -This doesn't mean that there cannot be a gift exchange. Maybe members of the family can just draw names and be given a $5 or $10 limit on getting a gift for the person whose name they drew. Such limited giving would keep it all simple, be anything but costly, and would hardly be a tme consumng activity.
I'm all for giving to organizations that are helping others - even to the point of giving sacrificially. However, giving an impersonal card to a relative or loved one, saying a donation has been made in his honor, defeats the whole purpose of giving a personal gift to express love to another person and to communicate how special he or she is to us. Christmas has become way too commercialized, but I don't think giving up gift-giving is the solution. To agree on price ceilings, to give hand-made items, or to exchange names may be great alternatives, but I think it can be a good, Christ-like thing for believers to express love to family members and close friends through personal gifts once a year.
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