Christianity 101

Thanksgiving Day

Yeah, I know — Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow in the United States.

But why can’t it be every day in my part of the world (which is normally in the United States)?!

Huh, now?

So I purpose to generate a Thankfulness Post once a day. Furthermore, I’ve added a Thankful category and a Gratefulness tag.

(I know, I know — this blog is top-heavy with tags. I need to do some drastic housecleaning and see if I can trim the count down from > 600 to < 30.)

So…for what do I want to say thanks right now?

WordPress and plugins and themes — they drive my six blogs.

Six? 😯

Six 😀

Still Far to Fall

That’s the title of Tony’s piece this morning over at WorldMagBlog. Here are just a few chunks thereof:

Nobody knows where the bottom is for our economy, but the experts agree we aren’t anywhere close to it yet.

We were spiritually poor as well, none of us attending church, mostly because we only knew the kinds of churches where people eagerly look for the failings of others, places where drinking and pornography were regularly denounced, but in which gossip ran rampant.

I carry it in me like a poison, this fear, not for myself any more, but for them, that they will want more food than we have, that they will have to sleep in someone’s basement.

And yet the lover of our souls tells us to worry not for tomorrow, because today’s troubles are sufficient. Let the children come to me, he says, and he may as well have said that we’d best bring them. Because if we are not leading them to him then we are leading them astray, and only God knows what he will do to such parents as that.

Things are going to get worse for many of us. Our children will be watching. The truth is, I don’t know if I trust the Lord to take care of us. And yet these little ones will be watching, and listening, and storing up memories of what it means to be a Christian in times of hardship.

Thanks again, Tony! This dad needs reminders like that.

She Wants Attention

That’s what crossed my mind as I read her article.

OK, so I’ll call some her way. 🙄

Giving Up on God

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I’m bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.

Ma’am, God is a great big problem. You got a problem with that?

She continues:

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party.

Armband religion — that’s the problem, not God!

What everyone needs is a heart-strings, shoe-strings, purse-strings religion — sincere, genuine, committed, liveable.

And there’s more from KP:

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

I say the world needs more preachers “doing” the Gospel on wooden crates on street corners rather than “doing” politics on plush platforms in religiousy buildings.

Then, enveloped in smoke while blindfolded, she adds:

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows.

Oh my! 😯 What makes them “lowest brows”? (Please note: The question does not imply disagreement with the statement.)

And what do you make of this assertion?

And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party — and conservatism with it — eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one’s heart where it belongs.

It belongs there, yes.

But not to stay there!

And if that’s true of religion, it’s far more true of Jesus Christ.

He belongs in the privacy of your heart. And from there He will live out His life through yours.

Now, one more comment from Kathleen Parker:

Meanwhile, it isn’t necessary to evict the Creator from the public square, surrender Judeo-Christian values or diminish the value of faith in America.

Oh?

Breaking News Thought: Does this mean she supports nativity scenes in the public square?

Now for the funniest part of the article:

Kathleen Parker

I think somebody at the Washington Post better fix that!

HT: Harris, commenting over at WorldMagBlog.

Feeling Sorry for Yourself?

Then you should click the link and read the full article:

Afghan girl begs for bread, prays for help

Little Banafsha wakes up in her small mud home, has a cup of tea and braces herself for the day ahead.

She is just 11 years old, but she is the breadwinner for her family. Literally.

Without the bread that she begs from strangers, she, her sisters, her baby brothers and her mom would all go hungry.

[…]

She is not bitter, explaining: “My two younger sisters also work. They beg for bread and sell gum. There’s no choice.”

[…]

“A few days ago, some girls were kidnapped around here, and many people have gone missing. The girls’ mother still comes around here looking for them, but they still haven’t been found,” Banafsha says.

This time of the year, the sun begins to set at 4:30 p.m. in Kabul. But Banafsha continues to roam the dark streets. The 6 o’clock rush hour is her peak business time.

Her eyes well with tears, but she doesn’t allow them to fall, quickly wiping them away and biting her thumb like the vulnerable child she is.

She prays every day: “I say, ‘God, take me out of this poverty and have my father go work so I can go to school.’ ”

[…]

…among the estimated 60,000 other street kids in Kabul, dreaming of a better life.

So?

What of it?

Who will care?

Who will do “to one of the least of these”?

Especially in the name of Jesus?

Where is the Heavenly Father?

I don’t know much of anything about Aschiana, but to the extent that they’re helping this little girl and thousands of others like her, God bless them!

OK, next subject? Now we can move on to our own “real living.”

Above all, love God!