Thanksgiving

Of all the things I'm thankful for the best
Are these right here:
I am thankful for God giving me rest,
And friends throughout this year.

I am thankful for time with family,
And with Jesus too.
I am thanful for laughing merrily,
And for times that were blue.

I am thankful for the sad rejections,
And for acceptance.
And things unplanned for, things--interjections--
That I must give to chance.

I am thankful for the sun's beaten course,
That lights up each day.
Thankful, for the Source of all things around;
Of stars that shine and play.
(Oh, that we would for Him be stars that shine and play!)

I am thankful for the depths of this Love,
which we try to share.
And though it is a road sent from above,
And we, as we stumble, should not give to despair.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, everybody. Sometimes it is very easy to be thankful.

Sometimes it is very difficult to be thankful,

especially in the case of:

adversity, rejection, despair, grief, sadness, brokenness, loneliness, in the midst of need...

For us, whether we are blessed with many material things are not, as followers of Jesus, we should recognize the extent of how fully dependent we are on Him.

We sing hymns about how He is all we need. Are we making this a reality? Are we bringing heaven to earth? Are we living in such a way that we know and show others that God will never leave us or forsake us? Are showing love to those in need by giving our time and our attention? Are we allowing Jesus the authority to pull us out of the pits we find ourselves in?

We should always have a spirit of thansgiving. Trying to live simpler lives, more in tune with the Spirit of God.

So here's the challenge: Over this Thanksgiving weekend, let us take time to examine ourselves. When we are with family, with friends....stuck in store checkout lines....

1.) Am I living a life that is thankful for God's blessings, and as a show of thankfulness, obedient and in tune with what God wants for me?

2.) In living with a spirit of thanksgiving, am I actually focused on giving back, or am I more focused on taking more? Do I really need more...STUFF? (and for some of us the question might need to be "Do I really need to eat more STUFFING?" ;-P )

3.) What can I do to give back? How can I lift others up and humble myself? How can I make this world more like God intended it to be?


You CAN make a DIFFERENCE.


Have a great time with your families, your friends, and with God over this holiday weekend!

Peace Be With You.

Blowing Some Dust Off this Blog Site....

AGH!

That's a one liner. Anyway, yeah, it has been a while since I have written on this blog, and since I am feeling englishy today (which is the sense and/or impression of one's ability to be quite prolific with words and creative with speech) I will begin with a blog post full of...

Here we go:

Has it ever felt sometimes like God wasn't THERE. I've had people tell me before that "I haven't been hearing from God" or " I haven't felt God" or the most frequent "Umm, God...WHY?"

Now I don't have any specific Scripture references to quote to you today. WWJD? Say "Just trust me on this one."

I believe the overwhelming majority of the time where we are NOT connecting with God is when we are too connected with SOMEONE or SOMETHING else. And believe it or not, that can even mean being too involved in your work (I say this to those of us in ministry who tend to get too "bogged down"). I can't count the times that I've been so busy with

the task at hand,

or the school-work,

or the relationship problem,

to really step back and seek God's heart for the situation. And often times we don't realize that we have been disconnected from God until we are so far down our own path in the woods that we forget the 4-lane highway to our right. (If you've seen The Village you might remember something like this.)

And then we ask the question of "God, where are you?"

And God's response is "I've been here the whole time. Where were you?"

Ouch. Zinger!

What do you have to do today to find your way out of the isolated path in the woods, and onto the obvious road that God has planned for you? What do you have to do TO RETURN? What is it TODAY that you need to let go of in order to live life, not just to exist, but to live life to the full?

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and (realionship with) God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6 (italicized translation inserted)