Good Monday morning! Okay, the Halloween thing is over and done with for another year. Did you know the "Trick or Treat!" thing started first as a bribe to stop pranks and then moved into a bit of extortion? Yup, a lady out east came up with the idea of giving out candy to prevent kids from playing pranks on the town, and then kids started using the "give me candy or I'll play a trick on you" line. As we sometimes say, tomorrow is another day, which is another of those dumb sayings, but in this case today is All Saints' Day! If you don't particularly feel like a saint today, I can completely understand. However, you may be interested to know that the word 'saints' is used many times in the Bible. In Daniel's vision the saints aren't doing so well as the blasphemous horn destroys them and wears them out (7:21, 7:25, 8:24). In each case though the triumph is temporary. Other verses in Daniel remind us that the saints shall possess the kingdom (7:18, 7:22, 7:27). Paul mentions the saints in his letters many times; many more than I want to count at this hour of the morning at least. Finally, in Revelation we can read that Daniel's vision is confirmed as once again the forces of the evil one are allowed to overcome the saints for a time until the final mention of the saints in Rev 20:9-10: And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. All Saints' Day seems like a good time to remember that the saints are on the winning side!
Today, our woman at the well changes the subject, or at least tries to. She may be trying to deflect Jesus from his discussion of her marital status or she may have asked this question of others and found no satisfactory answer.
"So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim where our ancestors worshiped?" John 4:20 NLT
Aha, the old 'let's talk about something else routine'! Have you ever come across a part of the Bible that presses on your heart and felt the urge to go back to that part about how God loved the world? We can't take only the parts of God's word that we like. The times Paul condemns sexual immorality must be read and applied to our lives just the same as the command to love one another. We can read the parts about singing praises to the Lord (1 Cr 14:15; James 5:13), but we cannot put aside that bit about staying away from crude language and jokes (Eph 5:4). In our prayers we might try to stay away from certain areas of our lives. Don't bother; God knows all already. We might as well bring it out to Him, admit it, and let the Holy Spirit do his cleansing work in us.
Do try to stay out of the kids' candy today. Have a wonderful Christ-like day!
Bucky
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