Morning thoughts from Pastor Tim

Last week’s Black Friday became a sad day for a family and a Wal-mart store in Long Island, New York.
Shoppers had gathered outside the store anxiously waiting for the doors to open so they could rush in and grab a deal before it was gone.

As one man went to unlock and open the doors, the impatient crowd rushed in, unhinging the sliding glass doors and trampling the man to death.
What a terrible tragedy for the sake of getting a Wii, a plasma TV, clothing, or a computer.
Where was the kindness, the charity, the goodwill toward men?
It reminds me of a film I once watched about sheep and how, when left on their own, don’t do very well.
These animals will follow each other off a cliff or jump an imaginary fence; if one does it, others will follow.
The Bible is right, All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; Isa 53:6
They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; They are in trouble because there is no shepherd. Zech 10:2
The imagined urgency of getting into the store didn’t help either.
We are just in too big of a hurry to get here or there; to get it done and over with, never savoring life and all it has to offer.
Our Christianity can be the same way.
How often are you in a hurry to leave church before it even begins?
Are you ever in a hurry to get somewhere though you feel the Holy Spirit urging you to talk or pray for the person right in front of you?
The Bible encourages us to slow down; So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; James 1:19
Slow down and listen!
Slow down and look!
Slow down and enjoy what God is trying to do through you!
Slow down and enjoy the season of Christmas!