By pastorbillwalden
Today my wife and I visited Monticello, the home of our 3rd U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson. It is located in Charlottesville, Virgina, and is a beautiful and unique home.
Jefferson was an incredibly intelligent man, a scientist of sorts, an inventor, a politician, and a lover of the arts. He hated slavery but owned slaves. He authored the Declaration of Independence, which changed our nation, and set the trajectory for independence for many other nations that followed our nation’s actions.
One thing that I found interesting, and, as a Christian, disheartening, was Jefferson’s take on Jesus Christ. Jefferson took it upon himself to cut and paste portions of the Gospels to re-create his interpretation of who Jesus was. His work became known as the Jefferson Bible. For all of his great accomplishments, which are very admirable, this was a horrible blunder, in my opinion.
To read some people’s thoughts on the Jefferson Bible, follow these links. 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
And, by the way, happy Thanksgiving
By pastorbillwalden
I pastor a church.
We survive as an entity by the financial offerings of those who attend.
We don’t have to tax them.
They give freely .
When the giving is down, we cut back on spending.
We don’t spend what we don’t have.
We don’t tax people, and then raise their taxes when we overspend.
We don’t even pass an offering plate.
We have an offering box in the back.
Sometimes, people have to ask about where to find it.
When the giving is up, we spend money on special needs or opportunities.
If there are no are no special needs or opportunities, we don’t spend the money.
We save it for a “rainy day”, because “rainy days” always come.
Always.
We don’t have to live off of credit, because we have saved money.
We have had a contingency fund for many years.
We have never been in debt in the 19 years of our existence.
We, like you, are a tax free entity.
We are thankful for that.
We, unlike you, are not in debt, over budget, or writing I.O.U.’s
It all seems pretty simple to me.
I hate to say it, but I have increasingly lost faith in you, my state and federal government.
But I do pray for you guys, both because I am told to (1 Timothy 2:1), and because it is a good idea.
People willingly give to the church because they have faith in God and believe in the cause behind the church.
It sure would be great to feel that same way about our government.
I hate to say all this, but it’s exactly how I feel.
I hope and pray that that will change some day.
Finally, we give credit to God for all of this.
We seek Him, and He provides for us. (Matthew 6:33)
That’s about it.
