Worldliness

         

Abram V Leonardson

Of all the books in my bookcases, one has a treasured place in my heart. It is called Bible Biographies, edited by Robert Sears and published in 1848. It belonged to Rev. Abraham V Leonardson, my grandmother’s grandfather on my mother’s side. He received it as a gift of appreciation in 1880. Abram Leonardson, as he called himself, was a Methodist circuit-riding pastor between the Civil War and World War 1. I have a couple of his Bibles, a small number of scrapbooks and this volume on the lives of the people of the Bible that is illustrated with hundreds of engravings. He and I are living about 100 years apart. He was licensed to the Gospel ministry in 1867 and I was licensed in 1966.                   

             My great-great grandfather served churches in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. He would pastor as many as four churches at a time, preaching one Sunday a month at each, taking his wagon, later his buggy, to the next church. He is remembered fondly in some of the local church histories. He was also a writer and turned many of his thoughts into newspaper articles, which he kept in his scrapbooks. Many of the scrapbooks were lost to time but of the few that I possess I can say he focused his articles on holy living, temperance, and prayer. His Bibles are filled with sermon notes and outlines, and even the occasional illustration.

            In many of his sermons he cried out against worldliness. He longed for people to find holiness. To him worldliness was another word for materialism. For our day materialism has been dressed up and passed off as consumerism. Move out of the way  Thanksgiving, the world of Black Friday, Cyber Monday   and consumer greed is heading for Christmas. Same old sin, just way more costly than ever.

            Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Seek holiness this holiday season. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Black Friday starts on Thursday

Black Friday starts on Thursday this year. The signal bell will ring Thanksgiving evening, two hours earlier than last year for some of the national chain stores. Some people are protesting this, especially the already hard-pressed employees. But let’s be realistic about this – would you rather “shop ’til you drop” starting at 10 p.m. or 4 a.m.? Next year, of course, starting time will be 8 Thanksgiving night.

According to the Universal Book of Common Knowledge (Wikipedia), the title “Black Friday” first shows up as a term used by the police to describe the traffic and shopping nightmares created on the sale day after Thanksgiving. In the 1980s the term, which had been associated with things like Friday the 13th and stock market crashes, was massaged to infer that it was the day retail businesses moved from red-ink losses to black-ink profits for the year. In 2005 shop.org first advertised “Cyber Monday” as the day to go online and order over-stocked/out-of-stock items from the internet. I have a suspicion, though, that some of the frantic Black Friday buying is not for gift-giving at all.

I would like to make a suggestion. Instead of rushing out to buy the latest, cheapest gadgets/toys/clothes ever made in the history of the world, why not buy some local goods/services/products to bless others? If the holiday season is the time when most businesses begin to show a profit, then local shops need our business even more. Other gift suggestions might include three months of lawn care, four oil changes and car washes, a manicure or pedicure, gift certificates to local restaurants, a computer tune-up, you understand. This is a season for giving to others.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Give local. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.