Normality is highly overrated

We need to stop criticizing culture are start creating it.  Sometimes I wonder if we could hear those in, "The Great Cloud of Heavenly Witnesses" ~ they would be shouting, "You're on offense stupid!  You're on offense!"

Christians; Go ahead!  Make a better movie, write a better book, run a better dance club – I dare you!  Michelangelo said we, "Criticize by creating."  And you can never create without taking a risk.  Risk is spelled F-A-I-T-H.  The goal of faith is not the elimination of risk – it is the embracing of risk.  There is nothing safe about following Christ.

So what have you done lately to improve the world and its culture?  Sure, there is a time to be prudent and the measure the mark.  But there is also a time to be valiant and go for it!  We respect the prudent but history only remembers the valiant.  The genealogy of a successful life can always be traced back to the mustard seed of a seized opportunity.  Opportunity may knock – but it stands behind a door marked, "Push" and rarely does it knock twice.

So forget the lame excesses that others hatch.  You have a destiny!  Stop criticizing and go create, even if no one else goes with you.  Others will hatch excesses you will birth a revolution.  Play to win.  Have high expectations. Reject the resume' of your life and concentrate on the transcript, here, now.

Take a candle and go light your world.

'Toil and risk are the price of glory".

(Alexander the Great)

Are you a risk-taker?

Are you conservative?

Do you wish you were  different than you are in this regard?

I have read where people worked an ordinary job for 35 years, and saved---always saved and was frugal ---and would up having a million dollars at the time of retirement. 

When I look around and see how we, and our kids, and our grand-kids spend our money, I  have a sick feeling.

We eat out too much.  We buy presents and clothes that we could all do without.  We entertain ourselves, and make gluttony, and think it is the way to live.

Is it?

You can make it two ways:  either toil   or take risks.

Which do you prefer?

THE COUNTERFEIT CHRISTMAS 

The main problem with Christmas is not the way we trivialize angels and shepherds nor is it the season of the year. I seriously doubt that Jesus really cares whether we celebrate His birth in December or June.

Nor is the problem other religious alternatives to Christmas. While Kwanza, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice may have replaced the Christmas program in our public schools, they alone wouldn't weaken the Church. Just look at China and how the Body of Christ remains extremely strong in such an oppressive place.  It’s when where true believers face the greatest challenges to their faith that they demonstrate Christian perseverance (aka grit) that puts the American church to shame.

The problem is not even the pagan roots of many popular Christmas customs. While these unholy roots may contribute to the spiritual complacency, the real crisis is more personal than that. 

Our root problem has to do with our view of God and our lack of personal relationship to Jesus. We have been taught to think of the King of the universe more like a "Super-Santa" than a jealous God who holds us accountable to His Word. We forget that His grace towards us is designed to conform us to His image, not meet all our wish-list wants. 

He grieves when we, His people, turn worship into self-indulgence -- or pretend to please Him while we serve ourselves. His lowly birth in Bethlehem’s sable points to the hardships our Savior was willing to bear for our sake. Without diminishing His glorious stature as THE Eternal King, His humility prompts us to give Him our lives, surrender to His will, endure persecution and fix our hope on the greatest PRESENT ever; Himself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!