April 1st - The Overlooked Holiday

Most people are just content with using the first day of April to play practical jokes on each other to gain a chuckle or hearty laugh. If one could just pull off the grand-daddy of all pranks, then they are satisfied with fulfilling the revelry of "April Fool's Day." Unbeknownst to them, there lies within this 24-hour period a long forgotten, or should I say "overlooked," holiday. Yes, April 1st, of each year is, for the most part, a holiday. Although not recognized by the government as an official holiday (sorry, you can't have the day off), it could be recognized in Scripture. In the Old Testament book of Psalms in chapter 53, we find an intriguing comment that says in verse 1, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Nothing could be more foolish than to come to a conclusion that there cannot be a God...a Higher Power, Creator and Sustainer of our life, this world, planets, sun, stars, universe and galaxies all discovered to date. So, my conclusion would be to say that those who claim there cannot be a God (whether they refer to themselves as Atheists, Agnostic, etc) should ban together on the first day of April (every year) and celebrate their holiday...the day for fools.

What Does Your Name Mean?

Our name not only gives us identity, but a sense of belonging. Names mean something. Names have meaning. As written in Matthew 1:21, "She shall give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins." Philippians 2:9, also emphasises the meaning and power behind the identity of one's name. It says, "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name [Jesus] which is above every name...." The name given to Jesus wasn't haphazardly picked or randomly thought up off the cuff because "it sounded nice" since "Jesus" or "Yeshua" in Hebrew was a very popular boys name at that time. No, it was given to him for what the name means. Jesus means "the Lord saves." That is pretty specific when the whole point behind Jesus's coming to earth was to save us. God loved us so much that he sent his only Son to die on the cross to save us from our sin. The Bible tells us that there is no other name that we can cry out to that can save us. So, what does your name signify? What does it mean? Do you even know what your name means? If your name is John it means "God's gracious gift." How about Daniel or Danielle? Your name means "God is my judge." How about Michael or Michaela? This is a great name that means "one who is like God." My name is Charles. In German it means "Free Man" which is pretty cool since I am a Chaplain endorsed by the Free Methodist Church!! Learn the meaning of your name and your name will have new meaning. Identify who you are by discovering what your name means.