1. It's all those carbs you eat, not the tryptophan in turkey, that makes you sleepy after the Big Gorge.

2. I hope we can all take a moment to remember and pray for the U.S. troops who are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.  A guy from my home church just went back to Iraq for a 2nd tour... he has a wife, a 1.5 year old daughter, and an unborn child on the way.

3. Well if you like politics, you gotta love the ever-intriguing, always-changing nomination races that are underway. To me, this looks like the most fascinating presidential race in recent memory.  I am predicting an Obama-? ticket going up against a Romney-Huckabee ticket, with Romney-Huckabee prevailing.

4. Always thankful for the bambino, and the joy and fascination and sheer love that he has brought to us.

5.  Thankful for my mother, who is seriously ill, and in need of prayer and support.

6. For many, Thanksgiving is one month into a serious rut of over-eating that starts around Halloween and rolls right thru to the Super Bowl.  The average American puts on 7-10 lbs during this stretch.  7-10 !!!

7. Grateful to live in a free nation.  I suspect that too many of us take this for granted.  Year after year, decade after decade, each of us moves and lives in freedom - a freedom that allows us to worship anywhere in almost any way we seet fit, that allows us to pursue our own educational and career interests, that even frees us - somewhat - from cultural norms and expectations, that allows us to pursue wholly after God and/or wholly after whatever we want to.  My prayer is that each of us makes the right choices, regarding what we do with this freedom and what we end up pursuing.

8.  Count your blessings, name them one by one.
     Count your blessings, see what God has done.
     Count your blessings, name them one by one.
     And it will surprise you what the Lord has done!

9.   It's been a beautiful autumn, in more ways than one.  It seems like the fall foliage has lingered a bit longer than usual, and that winter's onset is a little delayed (though we are expecting snowfall sometime today).  One of the small things that I look forward to is raking some of the backyard leaves into a big pile, and then tossing the bambino in headfirst, and watching him laugh and play. 

My mom's illness has reminded me of the frailty and precious-ness of life.  And how each day truly is a gift, whether or not we are cognizant or mature enough to realize it.  And that, in the end, our relationship with God and relationships with one another are truly the things that matter in this life.  Everything else - goals, cars, houses, $, etc - are all distant distant 2nd and 3rd and 4th places. 

10. Been blessed by this song recently: " How great is our God,

sing with me
How great is our God,
and all will sing
How great, How great
Is our God!"

"Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn't look like one."  -John Piper.

Wiki Article on legalism.  (btw, here is a word that describes the polar opposite of legalism:  antinomianism.).

Legalism is a pitfall that can be shadowy and even hard-to-spot, at times.  Yet it can have rippling and devastating effects. 

I have been doing some reading on "christian liberty" and this subject of legalism.  I am still learning, of course, and this post is nothing more than an opening salvo.  So if any of you have comments or rebuttals, please share them.

One possible way to describe legalism is this:
1. holding strongly to convictions and preferences that are not truly rooted in Scripture, and then
2. expecting others to hold to those same non-Scriptural convictions and preferences. 

Wikipedia defines it as "an improper fixation on law or codes of conduct".

I am - of course - willing to believe that God could call an individual to obey a certain conviction (which makes part 1 of the above definition an acceptable thing), and that others may have freedom to not abide by that conviction.  But that individual should not then expect everyone else to abide by that same conviction (part 2 of the above definition.  This is where the true problem really comes in, and is usually what people mean when they refer to "legalism"). 

Example: Before committing to Christ, John Doe spent a lot of time and $ on video games.  He was probably addicted to them.  After committing to Christ, John realized how foolish it was to waste so much time and money on video games.  He prays and considers the matter, and believes that God is calling him to completely give up video games.  Fine.  John should do that, provided he really senses God's leading in it.  But he should not compel his other Christian friends to give up their video games.  Nor should he look down on them, if they continue playing their games.  Likewise, they should not look down on him for giving those games up.

There are other examples.  Below are some chapters (from 3 separate books) that deal with this overall subject.  It's telling that the Apostle Paul wrote about this topic to at least 3 different groups of people in the New Testament - it shows what a wide-spread problem it was way back then. 

Colossians 2
Romans 14
I Corinthians 8

John Piper, as usual, is helpful on this subject.  This was an address he gave some 20+ years ago when the church he pastors was considering a re-write of parts of their church membership agreement.

"The second meaning of legalism is this: the erecting of specific requirements of conduct beyond the teaching of Scripture and making adherence to them the means by which a person is qualified for full participation in the local family of God, the church. This is where unbiblical exclusivism arises. There is no getting around the fact that the church does not include everyone. We do exclude people from membership because we believe worship should imply commitment to the lordship of Christ, the head of the church. But exclusion of people from the church should never be taken lightly. It is a very serious matter. Schools and clubs and societies can set up any human regulations they wish in order to keep certain people out and preserve by rule a particular atmosphere. But the church is not man's institution. It belongs to Christ. He is the head of the body, and he alone should set the entrance requirements. That is very important!

As the church covenant presently stands, we are compelled in principle to say (and I am concerned precisely with the principle): "Brother (or sister), even though you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and aim with all your heart to live under his lordship and have been duly baptized according to his ordinance and give hearty assent to our affirmation of faith, nevertheless, you can't be a full participant in the family of God here because your use of wine doesn't square with ours." I am persuaded in my mind and in my heart that such a regulation falls into the category of legalism and falls under the judgment of the apostolic word in Scripture..."