Today is “Halloween”—a holiday that never ceases to amaze me. Funny how we’re allowed to openly celebrate witchcraft, demons, evil . . . But there’s a ton of hoo-ha about openly celebrating Christmas. (The politically correct term for Christmas now is “Holidays”). Funny eh? Not really. It’s tragic. So what can we do?
Well, to start with, we should pray. But American citizens also need to vote on November 4th. And Christians need to vote biblically—from the standpoint of a clear, biblical worldview. We have the opportunity to vote for the candidate who most represents our values. Biblical values. As Chuck Smith said on radio yesterday, in this election, the choice easy.
So today, millions celebrate the day of the dead. Looking at where the elections might be headed, makes sense. Many are being lured into choosing death (read my last post).
Elections are always electrifying. Some are even scary. This one tops them all.
America is supposedly a democracy – but that may quickly change. If the wrong man gets in, our hard earned taxes will be used to kill babies. Before you know it, abortion will become a convenient form of contraceptive. After all, it’s free. Think about it.
We’re hearing things like “Spread the wealth around.” Duh! That’s what we do in England, and France. It doesn’t work. It promotes laziness. After all, why work if the money from those who do work has to cover you? That’s what socialism—ooops, I mean “spread the wealth around”—means. Those who work hard pay for those who choose not to work. ‘And I’m not referring to people who cannot work, or who are poor because of extenuating circumstances.)
I believe in giving to the poor. I guess that’s obvious, since I’m the founder of Orphans First: www.orphansfirst.org). But there are two kinds of poverty. There’s poverty that’s the result of laziness (Prov.24:33,34). Scripture tells us, “If a man doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat.” Europe is filled with folk who are not motivated to work because, why should they? If they work, they’re highly taxed, and don’t gain any more benefits than if they don’t work. So they’d rather live off “the system” – off other people’s tax contributions. Now, that’s just not a smart way to organize society.
But of course there are those whose poverty is not a result of their choices. Life has dealt them a harsh deck of cards and they need our help. It is our duty to help them. The Bible encourages us to give to the poor and in so doing we’re ministering to Jesus. There’s no better investment of our time and our money than helping those who truly cannot help themselves (Prov.19:17; Prov. 28:27; Prov.28:27; Prov.31:9)). It’s like popping our assets right there in Heaven and letting them grow interest. Way better than down here where investing’s become a fluky business.
Consider and compare these verses on poverty: Prov.19:17; Prov. 28:27; Prov.28:27; Prov.31:9; Prov.21:5, 25 & 26; Prov.23:19-21, Prov.28:19, 22.
As for marriage, the concept is found in the Bible—between man and woman. Changing the definition amounts to the same thing as taking Christ out of the Christmas. You can’t. Well, you can, but you deform the very essence of the word’s meaning by doing so. Tampering with terminology to make something mean what it truly doesn’t mean invites confusion and obliterates criteria that protects our society. Ain’t good. Ain’t good at all. And what’s the point? Gay couples already hold legal rights anyway.
For the record, I’m not against gays. I love gays. God loves them. Jesus died for them just as much as He died for me. I have compassion on gays—especially those who’ve never known a real father. What I’m against is twisting semantics to accommodate an unhealthy lifestyle at the expense of confusing our children. (I’d be equally against the idea of someone taking the word rape and changing the definition to accommodate the rapist, or making murder mean something else to accommodate the murderer.)
One last thought: All this hype about “let’s bring change, change, change . . . “ Of course we want things to change. Some things at least. But not everything. And we certainly don’t want to lose more rights. We don’t want biblical values to be even more squelched to accommodate liberalism. We don’t want the kind of change that’s synonymous to eliminating safe, moral and spiritual barriers: “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set” (Prov. 22:28).
Consider this: “. . .Do not associate with those given to change, for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring?” (Prov.24:21).
In a few days, when Halloween costumes are discarded, I hope we will not still be celebrating the dead. My prayer—my earnest prayer—is that Americans will see through the masquerades, media, ads and slick speeches, and that they’d make their vote count for the Kingdom and choose life (Deut.20:19).
Janey L. DeMeo M.A.
Copyright © October 2008
www.JaneyDeMeo.com & www.orphansfirst.org
