A Month of Thankfulness: Day 6

Day Six: I'm thankful for the freedom to worship! Today I can get in my car, drive to church, and worship God with other Christians. Maybe you say "So what?" to that. Then read this quote from a source that knows how easy we have it here in America: "You may be accustomed to going to church, openly worshiping the Lord, and reading your own copy of the Bible. What if even gathering even a few Christians together was illegal in your city, and there was only perhaps one copy of the Bible in your entire town? For people in Colombia, living like this is reality." This was taken from the Voice of the Martyrs website. Please go there to learn more about the Persecuted Church and to find out how to pray for them better.

Matthew 5:10-12 says: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

Exercise your privilege to meet together and worship today with other believers! There may come a day when you can not. Pray that it doesn't !!

God bless you!

Marilyn

A Month of Thankfulness: Day 5

Day Five: I'm thankful for my home! I've never had a new house in my life. The little house we've called Home for the past thirty-five years is probably 75 years old or more. We just last year replace the original tin roof which had begun to leak like a seive! ha By the world's standards we don't live in a modern or expensive house. But it's served us well and I am very cozy and comfortablely snug between its four walls.

A friend of mine who does mission work in India sent me a picture of a "tent city" that is in the very large city where they live. It's a sea of blue tarps stretched over ropes stretched out like a clothes line. Entire families live together in a small little homemade tent without running water or a toilet. They cook outside over an open fire and have to walk long distances sometimes to find a place to get water. The sewage runs in the street. Not a place you'd want to visit much less live in. And yet millions do!

Why did God allow me to be born in America? Why does he let me have a home that, although small by American standards, could house several families in any third-world country? I don't have the answer. I just know that I am deeply thankful and grateful for the security and shelter I have in our home!

But as much as I love my home out here in the woods, I am looking forward to one day going to my permanent home in heaven where God is preparing a mansion for me and every other person who has trusted the eternal finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 5:1

Would you like to share what you're thankful for today?

Marilyn

A Month of Thankfulness: Day 4

Living Thankful: Day 4.....I'm thankful for the Bible....the written Holy Word of God. If it wasn't written down there's no telling what it would have turned into by now! So glad God can and does preserve His Word.

For 20-plus years, I taught Sunday school classes to small children. Often when I wanted to emphasize the importance of the written Word of God, we would play a game called "Gossip". You probably know the one I mean. I would have all the children line up and then I would whisper a sentence about some silly something to the first child. He was supposed to then turn and whisper the exact same thing to the next person in line and this was to go on down the line until it reaches the person on the end. At that point, I would ask that last person what it was he heard. It was NEVER...and I repeat NEVER...the same sentence as I had whispered to the first child! They always got a kick out of playing that and it proved the point very well. If something is repeated by mouth the chances of it getting twisted along the way are very great. On the other hand if we have something written down we can always go back to it and see for sure what it says.

"Thy WORD have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119:11

What are you thankful for today?

Marilyn

A Month of Thankfulness: Day 3

Day Three: I'm thankful for my health! And for that of my family. God has blessed us so much in this area and I never want to take it for granted!

I often think about people who are blind, or deaf, or whose heart, lungs, kidneys or other organs have stopped functioning, or those who can not walk or get out of bed without help...or perhaps not at all. So many people in the world don't have good health. And yet a lot of them have better attitudes about their life than I sometimes do about mine!

Good health is a wonderful thing. But it's not the best thing in and of itself. A healthy mind is even better than a healthy body. And a healthy heart (spiritually speaking) is better yet!

I believe Psalm 43:5 says well what I feel: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

Join me today in praising God for health...whether it be physical, mental, spiritual or all three!

God bless you!

Marilyn

A Month of Thankfulness: Day 2

Day Two: I'm thankful for my family! I'm grateful every day that God has put me smack-dab in the middle of a wonderful family! Each one of them...from the oldest (that would be husband Benny) down to the youngest (grandson Miles)... holds a special part of my heart! I've often told people that it just "lights up the room" for me when one of my kids or grandkids walk through the door. I love all of them so much.

For many many years now one of my favorite verses has been III John verse 4..."I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." It makes me smile just to read it now!

I'm also thankful for my extended family. And my church family.

God bless you!

Marilyn

A Month of Thankfulness: Day One

Inspired by my friend Leah over at The Point Ministries today, I also want to make the month of November one of thankfulness. I don't want to wait until November 24, Thanksgiving Day, to start being thankful. I have tried to be more aware of my blessings and therefore giving thanks more often in the past year or so. But to do a whole month of daily thanks...with a purposeful heart...seemed like a challenge I'd like to take. I could never list in thirty days all that I'm thankful for but hopefully it will help me keep thankfulness constantly on my mind!

Day One: I'm thankful for salvation. I'm so thankful that God made a way for me to live forever in His presence. I would never make it if I had to earn my way to heaven. The Bible tells us that the law was given as a "school master" to show us that there's no one who can actually keep all the law. No one that is except for Jesus Christ. He came and lived a sinless life so that He could pay for my sins. Wow! What a gift! "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

But as Leah also said, it's not just that we get to go to heaven because of salvation but we get to have the Holy Spirit living inside us right now! He will lead and guide and show us how we should live if we will listen.

Marilyn

The Battle Is the Lord's

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Ephesians 6:11

I'm doing a ten week Bible study with some of the other ladies who work at the crisis pregnancy center where I volunteer one day a week. It's written by Beth Moore and is titled "David: Seeking a Heart Like His". Last week some of our homework involved reading about battles being fought between Saul's army and David's army. I couldn't help but think back to David's early life when he fought the giant Goliath FOR Saul's army. Even at that young age, David knew where his strength and abilities came from. We know that because of what he said to Goliath just before slinging that smooth stone from the brook into the giant's forehead! David said: "And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands." And we know that is exactly what happened.

In our homework last week David and Saul had come to be enemies. David has been promised the kingdom and the crown of Israel but it's a long time coming it seems. There are battles to be fought and heartaches to be endured. Beth Moore made the statement that "Old regimes rarely crumble without bloodshed." I know she was talking about actual "regimes" but I could not help but think about how it's also true for bad habits or addictions that have become strongholds in our lives. These rarely are overcome either without a fight. Satan would love for us to be stuck in the murk and mire of sin continually and never feel the freedom and thrill of victory through Christ! There is a constant battle going on in the life of every Christian. Ephesians 6:12 tells us who our enemy is: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Beth's statement that "Old regimes rarely crumble without bloodshed" can be taken to new levels when I think about how my old life of pleasing the flesh before I became a Christian could only be changed through bloodshed....the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross by Jesus Christ.

So now as a saved person, may I expect to live a battle free life? No, because the Bible declares that Satan will always be fighting against us as long as we draw a breath here on earth. But God doesn't leave us defenseless. He tells us that we can be prepared for war by these means: " Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"

Like David, we as Christians have been promised a kingdom and a crown...but not of this world...and it,too, sometimes seems like a long time in coming. Just stay in the fight for the right. Put on your Spiritual Armour but always remember that in the end, the battle is the Lord's ! Trust in Him!

God bless you.

Marilyn