As I scroll through my newsfeed and listen to and watch the news I can’t help but have the lyrics of this song go off in my head…

“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine”

Whew! All I can say at this point is that I am glad that God did not call me to save the world… that’s His Son’s job. I’m just here, as in the words of Forrest Gump, “to do what ever He tells me to.” He has told me to love Him and love my neighbor. He has told me to seek first His Kingdom and He would take care of the rest.

The world, like the song above, is overwhelming. There are floods, earthquakes, sink holes, refugees, terrorist, sex traffickers, murders, police brutality, child abandonment, political unrest, corrupt governments, rebellion to authorities, cancer, homeless, domestic abuse, drug addiction, porn addiction, divorce, bombs, school shootings, and the list goes on and on. I can easily become discouraged, disheartened, and even worse… desensitized.

The latest in the news is the Syrian refugees. This has been a topic of discussion in my last precept class as we dug into the Sermon on the Mount. The back and forth on what to do concerning the refugees can go on forever. It’s really a sticky situation.

In my Chapel time with my babies at my preschool I have been teaching the children 1 Thessalonians 5:18,

in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

When our middle daughter was around three years old and we sat down to the dinner table to eat and she would ask the blessing she would thank God for each individual item on her plate… except the items she didn’t like. We would say, “Shelby you didn’t thank God for your peas?” She would reply, “I don’t like peas.” Sadly, I think we too easily become thirty, forty, fifty year olds that still only thank God for the things on our plate that we like.

God didn’t say His will for us was to thank Him when He did something we liked. He said in everything give thanks. Everything.

The verses preceding this charge to us help us to set the context of this everything.

See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;  in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

That in everything follows a section of Scripture that seems to be dealing with experiencing evil from another person. So it seems pretty clear to me that this in everything means everything, good or bad.

This is hard isn’t it?

Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. This. This current circumstance. This present situation. This time. This place. This person. These people. This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. He then commands in 1 Thessalonians 5:19,

Do not quench the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses (Romans 8:26). The Spirit helps us to discern truth (John 16:13). The Spirit helps us to see all things, all experiences, through the eyes of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

We, as believers, are not to suppress His leading or His fruit bearing in us in any way in any situation. Once we discern that we are acting outside of the fruit of the Spirit, we have quenched Him. We are no longer listening to His discerning voice, but are acting out in our own ignorant, childish, fearful, sinful flesh. In this state we will choose wrong. 

Are these refugees truly people seeking asylum and freedom? Are they islamic terrorist seeking to come in and get a toe hold in the heart of our nation? Will they come in and attack us in the dark while we are distracted by what appears to be light like my Daddy’s cancer did in his body and destroy us as cancer did my Daddy? I don’t know. They might.

Could this be an opportunity for the church to rise up and take in whole families and share the gospel with them and then Christ take root in their hearts and they go out and share the gospel with the other refugees and salvation come to a whole nation as in the days of the repentance of Nineveh? Sure. It could. Yes, they might. I don’t know.

Perhaps both could be happening at the same time…   

All I know is that the leaders of our nation will stand before God for their call on this situation and whatever repercussions come with whatever choice they make. I suggest we choose to bow our heads before the Father and pray that He would turn their hearts according to His will.

The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Proverbs 21:1

Then in everything give thanks to God and trust Him to remain on the throne and sovereignly rule the world as He continues to carry out His predetermined purposed plan. It’s just too easy to spout out our could’ve, should’ve, would’ves if it were me’s when it’s NOT.  Grace goes all ways.

and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you

1 Thessalonians 4:11

We are approaching the Christmas season again and with it comes the protesting. The protesting of companies that have never claimed to be Christian removing the term “Merry Christmas” from their apparel and products or supposedly not allowing their employees to say “Merry Christmas” to customers. I wish we could see how utterly stupid and childish this makes Christendom look. Satan has an army and its called “let’s get our panties in a wad about things that don’t amount to a hill of beans and ignore the lost and hurting because reaching the lost and hurting requires effort and little acknowledgment while ranting like an idiot about coffee cups and leggings gets me on Fox News“

Joshua Feuerstein is a false prophet and a hypocrite.

Really can you imagine Jesus walking through the streets of Jerusalem and demanding that Happy Passover be on the clay cups passed out at the local tavern?  I believe He probably would have responded in the exact opposite of this supposed “evangelist”.

Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”  They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”

Matthew 22:17-21

If you want to say Merry Christmas by all means do it, but do it with gentleness and kindness and humility. The arrogance and tone that this Feuerstein man and others like him promote is insulting to the true Gospel of Christ. He is not seeking to make followers of Jesus, he is seeking followers of himself. So please just stop. Stop sharing his rants and others like him. Please for the love of God and the lost world He is trying to use those of us who truly want to see the sinner saved, stop sharing his rants.

“Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) was never meant to be interpreted as “Go and trick Starbucks into writing Merry Christmas on their cups!”

There are people in your community who will spend Christmas this year alone. Go to there house and write Merry Christmas on their cups. There are people in your church who won’t be able to make it to church any this season because they are too sick to attend because they are fighting for every breathe they take. Go to their house and write Merry Christmas on their cups. There are kids who have just been ripped out of their homes because their moms and dads chose drugs over them. Find out where they are and go and write Merry Christmas on their cups.

Jesus never ranted. Jesus never tricked. Jesus rebuked his disciples for the very attitude this man and those like him promote.

 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He  was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.  When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;  for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” 

Luke 9:51-56

 So please, this season, let us be real. Let us love. Let us be kind. Let us be gentle. Let us lead a good and quiet life that causes those that are desperate for the peace of God in their lives to see His light in us. Let us be approachable not boastful. For we might be the only Jesus that many get to see… so let them see Him.