THANKSGIVING MESSAGE 2013

     Thanksgiving is the time to feel gratitude to God for all the good things in life. It is a time to acknowledge the good deeds of fellowmen and be thankful. Thanksgiving thoughts of people give us an insight as to what people feel about it.

• Life can be very trying. When your child is hungry, your body wracked with pain, or you have no idea where you and your family will find a place to sleep, it's hard to find something for which you can be thankful. So, for just a few minutes on Thanksgiving Day, step outside your situation and just "be". Find something, no matter how small, to be thankful for because in giving thanks, you will be lightening your load, even if for only a moment,
• Thanksgiving thoughts are the kind of thoughts that we should have all year long. It is the folks with thankful hearts whose lives are filled with song. We should take time for kindness to those we hold most dear, and just extend a helping hand to others through the year. Let's set aside some quiet time and share it with a friend. For friendships brings a special joy and pleasure without end. So may the blessings of this day that I would ask for you, now fill you with Thanksgiving Peace that lasts the whole year through!

Giving Thanks When You Can’t

     Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good (note – but only if certain conditions are met) to them who love God (note – the first condition), to them who are the called according to His purpose” (note – this means it’s “His Purpose, and not ours,” which is the second condition; otherwise, all things will not work together for our good).

     With the understanding of conditions laid out in the above verse, look at the startling command of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which bewilders even committed believers at times: “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s Will for you in Christ Jesus.”

     How do we give thanks in times of catastrophe? For what are we grateful when disaster strikes?

     As foreign as it may seem, we give thanks to God in all things because His sovereign, loving power is able to weave our grief, sorrow, and pain into the fabric of His eternal plan for our lives. God does not cause evil, and neither is He conquered by it. You may ask HOW? Because of what Jesus did on the cross for mankind.

     Listen: God’s purposes for us cannot be thwarted by our problems. For that, we can give thanks in the midst of our adversity. In 2 Cor. 12: 9-10 And He said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for you (speaks of enabling Grace, which is really the Goodness of God carried out by the Holy Spirit): for My Strength is made perfect in weakness. (All Believers are weak, but the Lord tends to make us weaker, with the intention being that we then depend solely upon Him, thereby, obtaining His Strength.) Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities (because of the end result), that the Power of Christ may rest upon me. (If Paul needed so humbling and painful an experience of what the carnal nature is, it is evident that all Christians need it. Whatever weakens, belittles, and humiliates that proud and willful nature should be regarded by the Believer as most worthwhile.) 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong (then the strength of Christ can be exhibited through me, but only when I know I am weak).

     Someone once wrote – “The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are not accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God.”

     All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch His children unless He permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of every member of His redeemed family. The question is “Do you know Him’? You can! Take a look at the beginning of our blog for details then pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart and forgive your sins. HE WILL! Amen.

     Some of you may presently be experiencing some difficulties in your life - This devotion is worth a look. With God at the helm you will find The Anchor Holds - Despite the Storm.  Be Blessed!

Sugar Coated Preaching

     The Word has become adulterated with worldly antidotes. You see, I rarely hear a preacher preach on the “blood of Jesus” anymore. Instead, we talk about His love, His grace and His forgiveness. This is all good, but how can we experience His love, grace and forgiveness without first experiencing the “blood” that covers our sin. We’ve cleaned our churches up a little too much – don’t you think!

     The sugar coated gospel is designed to cause the unsuspected believer to become dependent on music, nice short preaching and wonderful philosophy etc., to experience a “quick fix” or good feeling inside. They also become church junkies, thus not knowing how to worship or study the scripture outside of the church.

        Scripture says: 2 Tim. 4:3-4 – “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” “And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

     These are ears always pricking with an uneasy desire for what would gratify the taste of a carnal, self-willed heart. Does this sound like you? Then there is a remedy.

     The question is; Do you Know Jesus as your personal savior? If not don’t wait! “…Behold now is the day of Salvation” 2 Cor. 6:2. Call upon His Name. 

A Bondservant of Jesus

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me …” (Galatians 2:20).

     These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “… for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

     Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is—will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable—“I have been crucified with Christ … .”

     The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.