In Everything Give Thanks – Part 2

 "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

      Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

If you recall the last time we looked at
 1. Thank God For Salvation.

Today we look at:

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness! 

"All my fresh springs shall be in You." Psalm 87:7

     "Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues; He remakes the whole man on the inside. ... The life God plants in us develop its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus.

     "Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience! The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues.

      "It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that are characteristic of the Lord Jesus."

Next Time we will look at:

3. Thank God for difficulties!

In Everything Give Thanks

"Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

        

Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

1. Thank God for our Salvation

"By the grace of God I am what I am His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15: 10

      "The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. ... Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.’ Say that before God; and it means—‘No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.’ That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.

      "Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say—‘Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified,’ is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all."

Next Time we will look at:

2. Thanking God for His Strength in our Weakness!

On The National Front

National Debt – We have all been lied to.  For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control. 

As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again.  Well you know what?  It is all a giant sham.  The United States has gotten into so much debt that I believe there will be no coming back from this.  The current system is irretrievably broken.

30 years ago the U.S. debt was a horrific crisis that was completely and totally out of control.  If we would have dealt with it back then maybe we could have done something about it.  But now it is 15 times larger, and we are adding more than a trillion dollars to the debt every single year

 It wasn't good enough just to squander all of our own money.  We had to squander the money of our children and our grandchildren as well. We have stolen the future of America, and the majority of people in America have their heads buried in the sand. All of this so-called prosperity that we see all around us is just an illusion.  It is a false prosperity that has been purchased by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

If you added up all forms of debt in the United States and divided it up equally then every single family in the country would owe more than $683,000? Well we should all just write a check and sent it to Uncle Sam to pay off our debt!!!

The U.S. debt crisis threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers built. What would happen if the federal government suddenly adopted a balanced budget? Well 1.3 trillion dollars a year would be sucked right out of the economy and we would be looking at an "economic readjustment" that would be mind blowing.

Enjoy this false prosperity while you can, because it is not going to last.