Scrooge and Cowboy Safety

Yesterday we went to see Scrooge, the musical version of Christmas Carol, at the Candlelight Dinner Theatre in Johnstown Colorado where we have season tickets. It was a great performance.

What amazes me about this play is that so many Christians do not understand that the theme of Christmas Carol is the opposite of Christianity. Scrooge becomes aware of his sin and his future in hell then decides he can achieve salvation through good works. His deeds are so good that it is easy to see that this must be the best way. In the sequel to the play we might see Scrooge on Monday become the Chairman of the Board of Deacons after making his promised donation of a hundred guineas. Yet no amount of defense can show that Scrooge accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

God wants us to acknowledge our sin and get our soul fixed through the blood of Christ. After that we can change our act through His grace. Giving is certainly a Christian act. Born-again Christians would do well to model the acts of Scrooge.

The Bible says that "faith without works is dead." But faith does not come by works. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. "

David Sneed

A Genesis 21 Coincidence

Last night, my daughter Hannah and her family were over. I had my Bible out and was going to share with my son-in-law Matt some things out of Genesis 21. Cheri and I had read that chapter on Friday morning. Coincidence! Matt and Hannah had just the day before been listening to that chapter on tape.

Genesis 21 is a great chapter.

God's promise to Abraham had come true. Abraham, age 100, and Sarah his wife, age 90, became parents.

Two things we should note.

First the timing was set by God.

Second, the impossible happened. That is why we know it was of God.

God expects us to handle ordinary things on our own. These things are always in the realm of the possible. But God does not expect us to always dwell in the realm of the possible. That is why he gives us vision.

Abraham had disappointed God. Abraham had his thoughts that were very different from God's. Abraham had taken action on his own. In the second half of Genesis 21 we find that Abraham is trying to deal with the results of not trusting God to do what He had said He would do.

George Washington Carver was a poor black man, the son of slaves. Carver took God's promise in Jeremiah 33:3. The rest is history. With God's help Carver discovered many things about peanuts and their uses that modern science had not been able to do.

Oh that we would seek God's will and that we would wait on God's timing.

David Sneed