IN ALL THINGS GIVE THANKS

Historically, Thanksgiving was a celebration of the hard work and dedication put into reaping a good harvest. It was a community event that typically occurred at the end of harvesting season. Today, Thanksgiving is a nationally recognized holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November; it is a time when people gather to eat good food, fellowship with loved ones and to watch football. Tradition suggests that those celebrating will reflect on all the things that they should be thankful for. But why wait? As followers of Christ, we should always have praise and thanksgiving on our lips for a loving and merciful Savior.

We should give God thanks for all that He does for us. We should give thanks that He offered His only Son as a sacrificial lamb, that we may be saved from eternal damnation. We should give thanks that His mercy is renewed every day. We should give thanks for His never ending grace. We should give thanks for His forgiveness and His unconditional love. We should give thanks that He wants to give us such blessings. God is good and He is worthy of all or our praises and thanksgiving.

To show God just how thankful we are for all He is and all He does, we should follow His example and His advice.  Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Each of us should take some time to bless someone not just during this Thanksgiving celebration, but because it is pleasing to God. We can offer up praises and thanksgiving to God by stepping outside of ourselves and uplifting another. We will find favor and joy in our giving, along with the blessing of eternal life (see Matthew 25:34).

So as we celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday, please remember those that are less fortunate. 

• Visit someone that is sick or shut-in. 
• Feed the hungry and not just the ones gathered around the dinner table @ 3pm. 
• Offer a spare room to someone who needs it. 
• Spend some time with an elderly person who is lonely.
• Introduce a child to the meaning of giving thanks. 

Whatever we decide to do, we must do unto the glory of God! Let it be our offering of thanks for what He gives us eternally!

Prayer: Father God, thank you for your grace and mercy! We praise and thank you for another day to celebrate the sacrifice that you made on Calvary. We realize that no matter what we do, we cannot compare our giving to what you continue to give to us. Your blessings are without limit. Please be with us as we go about our day, and lead us to bless others as you have been a blessing to us. Let the Holy Spirit fill us with purpose during this holiday season, so that we can go forth and do your will and be the blessing. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray, Amen!

Read Matthew 25:31-46 to see how treatment of God’s people will be judged.

PREPARE FOR WAR

A battle rages underneath the surface of the chaos we experience in the world today; it is an age-old battle of good against evil. This is not a toe-to-toe, round for round title fight; we have to do battle on another level. This is spiritual warfare and we battle against forces that defy our mortal understanding (see Ephesians 6:12).
Many people are upset about the selective media broadcasts of terrorist activities around the globe, but fail to realize that terrorism is the systematic use of violence and intimidation as a means of coercion and it exists all around us on a daily basis. We are not safe anywhere, a terrorist may emerge in a theater, at church, in schools, at work, next door, across the street, around the corner, and even in bed right next to you. We want to label terrorism as having a particular background, a certain look or religious belief but evil is evil no matter how it is packaged.
Wake up folks, we are at war!!! We are battling an elusive enemy that does not play by rules. The enemy is rising up in our homes, on our streets, in our communities, all over this country and abroad. 
The enemy of God is real and is destructive, hateful, manipulative and mean spirited. The enemy of righteousness and order will scheme, lie and deceive people into doing his will. He knows that he is ultimately defeated in the spiritual realm but he refuses to go down alone. He is willing to take as many souls with him if allowed to have his way. Do not give in, be steadfast, immovable and refuse to live in the fear that his presence creates. 
God assures us that victory is ours (see John 16:33). But we must put on the full armor of God if we are to fight this increasingly brutal battle (see Ephesians 6:13-17). 
Pray that your faith will not fail you, Jesus does it (see Luke 22:31-32).

Prayer: Father God please watch over us as we stand and fight in Your name. Protect us as we speak out against hatred and injustices in our homes, communities, and governments. Go with us as we spread Your word of love to people without any. Let Your hand be upon each of us as we do Your will in our lives and that what we do is a reflection of Your true nature. In Jesus’ name we pray! Amen!

Read Ephesians 6 for a better understanding of the battle we face. 

SAVE THE CHILDREN, TAKE BACK YOUR HOME

Thanks to the internet and the ever-evolving miracle of technology, exposure to sex, violence and all sorts of crazy is prevalent in our homes, schools and workplaces.  What saddens me is how this exposure is affecting the children. Children have little to no home training these days and it shows in how they respond to rules and authority. Many of today’s youth are misguided and lack reverence for the simplest of rules. They revel in their ignorance by cheering on their misdeeds through various forms of social media and gaining conformation through the bad behaviors of others.  It is no fault of their own; parents are to blame for failing to train their children on how to behave and failing to filter their children’s exposure to outside influence.
Education starts at home and if the love and discipline is not there, then children do not understand what boundaries are. Without sound instruction, parents lead children to believe that they can do and say anything without consequence. They do not respect their parents, so they will not respect any other authority figure outside of the home. Parents are to blame for their children’s lack of home training and at some point it is too late to do much about it.  Consider all of the children that are committing crimes, challenging authority and out here like “child gone wild,” aren’t they lacking something?
Lack of home training is the problem for many of our wayward youth. Looking from a Biblical perspective, many suffer because they have not been personally introduced to Christ and His healing power. But unfortunately, the Bible no longer holds the weight it once did in parenting. Some parents are more interested in being their child’s friend instead of a loving disciplinarian.
Scripture says, “Train a child the way that he should go and he will not stray from that path…,” (see Proverbs 22:6). This scripture holds true for the good and the bad. Children exposed to brutal environments and poor upbringing will lack proper training and will lack the substance that makes for sound and successful people. When they lack discipline, love and support from the earliest stages of their lives, they become prone to recklessness, and things that they are exposed to can make them twisted, ill-prepared and vulnerable.
It is time for us to take back our children; they are dying in the streets because of random evil. We must teach them right from wrong, instill in them self worth and love for others. We cannot leave the job to outside sources; instruction must begin at home. If we just get back to the basics of love and discipline then our children have a fighting chance of surviving unscathed in this treacherous world that we live in.
We cannot do it alone, if you know a parent is struggling raising children, offer a helping hand, a listening ear, and a compassionate heart. We must be of service to each other in order to be the best examples for our children. And we must pray!
Prayer: Let us pray for the safety of our children, pray for the families that have lost their way, pray for the healing of those that have gone astray, pray for the lost and sick souls that seek madness and murder and pray that parents will take control of their homes again.. Just pray that God will cover and protect our children from all hurt, harm or danger and that we are covered in the blood of Jesus from this moment forward, in Jesus name, AMEN!

Consider this as you pray for our children: 1 John 2:15-16

RIGHTS VS RIGHTEOUS Law vs. Love

It is not new that religion and oppression go hand in hand. Throughout history, man has used religion to further his agenda and oppress others in the name of whichever God he claims to worship. For too many of us, God is just an idea and not a governing spirit of our salvation or an example of love for one another. Right here in America, many people place the founding fathers on a pedestal of having the moral high ground, using the Bible to shape the ideas of American law; they fail to remember or even talk about how those same founding fathers and many thereafter used the Bible to oppress their fellow man. Instead of embracing the fruit of the spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23), some chose the deadliest of sins (see Proverbs 6:16-19) and did so in the name of God and country. 
In America, there has been a propensity for the law and rights granted to us by the constitution, but the laws have never fully sustained all of its citizens. Historically, Americans revel in patriotism screaming “God Bless America,” while systematically excluding an entire race in that same spirit of patriotism, and establishing oppressive legislation in the name of said God.  The superiority complex that permeates some Americans helped to create a system of oppression that supported slavery and continues to affect the landscape of the country today. People did not just support slavery; they invoked scripture in attempts to keep others in bondage. They traced their theology back to Noah and his son Ham, who was condemned to servitude for mocking his father (see Genesis 9:20-27). Quoting Colossians 3:22 was also popular because it speaks of a slave’s responsibility to his master. Between misuse of the Bible and oppressive legislation, an entire race in America had no chance of embracing their civil liberties. 
Although founding father George Mason said, “The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth,” it did not prevent the infringement of unalienable rights to people of color. The creation of several constitutional laws and supremacist ideas further oppressed an entire race of people: 

• In 1787, legislation reduced the black population to less than human by the 3/5th Compromise. The compromise allowed a state to count three fifths of each Black person in determining political representation in the House of Representative, counting slaves fairly in both the North and South delegations. 
• In 1831, North Carolina passed legislation making it illegal to teach slaves to read or write. 
• As early as 1867, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld segregated railway cars because “the natural law which forbids racial intermarriage and that social amalgamation, which leads to a corruption of races, is as clearly divine as that which imparted to the races different natures.” State supreme courts in Alabama, Indiana and Virginia used this same rationale to justify bans on interracial marriage.
• In 1901, Georgia Gov. Allen Candler defended unequal public schooling for Blacks because “God made them Negroes and we cannot by education make them white folks.” 
• Ross Barnett won Mississippi’s governorship in a landslide in 1960 after claiming, “The good Lord was the original segregationist.” 

There were countless laws created to oppress people of color, commonly known as Jim Crow laws or the Black Code. So-called Christians would continue to embrace and teach this underlying system of government-sanctioned oppression and segregation in this country. 
With all the oppressive acts committed in America, in the name of God, where is the love? Where are the true principles that Jesus taught and embraced? How different would this country be if the men who formed it actually embraced Godly principles and were true Disciples of Christ? One can only imagine. 
But in the here and now, many Americans continue to hold onto the hypocrisy of standards created by our forefathers and would like to see this nation as it was centuries ago. Many laws were ratified to include all American citizens, but attitudes will not change without God.  When we approach each other with the spirit of love, forgiveness, unity, respect, and peace, we can begin to better the relationships among us. 
Just know that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and salvation…pride, racism, homosexuality, drunkenness, thievery, dishonesty, fornication or whatever sin we each struggle with are ALL considered spiritual death by God. We may not like what others do or who they are, but God loves all of us equally. He extends each of us the opportunity to rectify our souls (see John 3:16). 
This country needs supernatural healing; the kind that only comes from a loving and just God. When we realize that we are nothing without love then we can began to heal the rift that centuries of hatred and oppression created. 
Prayer: Thank you Father God for your word! It is truly a blessing to find everything that we need within you and your word. Please Lord, help each of us embrace the love you place within us & continue to lead and guide us in the ways of righteousness. Fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we have a clear understanding of what we find in your word. Help us to be more than just readers, help us to be doers of your word as well. We praise you for your sacrificial love and all that you are and all that you have given us to draw us nearer to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Love is key, read more...here