Grace For The Journey

  Last Friday was “Black Friday,” the day widely regarded as the first official day of the Christmas shopping season, although now many stores are beginning on Thanksgiving evening.   On a day when many are resting and recovering from massive overindulgence in food and football, retailers open early and stay late, hoping to entice crowds of shoppers to their establishments. It has been suggested that the term “Black Friday” originated from retailers’ hopes that their books will be solidly “in the black” after their registers ring all day.

So . . . as many will spend this day engaging in uncontrolled eating and spending, we might do well to take a moment to consider the words of God through the prophet in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”   This verse teaches us one of those biblical contradictions between the ways of the world and the ways of God . . .

The world is calling us to come, spend as much money as you possibly can!

Christ calls to those who have nothing to offer. . .

How easy it is to make the stuff of this world more important than our Savior!

You see, the desire for more is not bad; God set this desire in our divine design.  The key, however, is to know where we should be seeking to find “more.”  Adam and Eve were designed by God to seek more of Him.

• He was to be the object of their deepest desire.
• He was to be their greatest love.
• He was to be their first priority.
• And, they were to seek more and more of this each day.

It was not until Satan slithered into the picture and offered them more outside of their relationship with God that they considered looking for “more” beyond their divine design.

We have been doing the same ever since, and there is no better example than Black Friday.  Now, I am not saying that looking for a bargain is a bad thing.  Taking the time to prayerfully consider and purchasing things on sale is a good thing.  It reflects good stewardship of the resources God has provided.  But, as I have said in the past, good things become bad things when we make them ultimate things.  When was the last time you heard about a congregation lining up Saturday night to get a good seat in the worship center for Sunday morning?

Because of our sinful nature, we must be careful how we approach the shopping season.

Instead of bigger barns,

We need bigger hearts

That are

Sold out for Jesus.

He will tolerate no rival, nor should we.  We are blood-bought and grace-filled, and our lives should show and shout these facts to the world!

Consider this exhortation from 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “We ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).  Now there is a desire for more that brings joy to the heart of our heavenly Father!

The Bible reminds each us in 1 Peter1:18-19, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  It is my prayer that this “Black Friday” we would all remember the very first black Friday, when darkness covered the earth between the sixth and the ninth hour . . . the day when our Lord purchased us with His precious blood.

Let us commit to spend all that we have in the pursuit of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10).

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”