Matthew

I love the diversity in in our congregation. We have a young man that always greets me and hugs me and tells me that he loves me. Matthew is a special person. He loves God with all his heart. He is a huge lover of all people. While his mind is challenged for his age, he more than makes up for it in enthusiasm.

Today he sat behind me during worship. He is a step off from the rest when he sings and claps. When the congreagation reads a scripture from the screen, he lags 2 words behind the rest. Some would be annoyed worshipping next to Matthew.

The mind of the simple is a gift from God. No pretense, just pure honesty. No show, just pure motives. Matthew worships just that way. And God loves what He receives from Matthew.

Praise the Lord

“Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:15

Father, I look forward to the day when the whole world of mankind will praise You for Your goodness. Satan has blinded so many eyes to Your presence. I long for the day when they will all see You clearly. What rejoicing there will be, when with one voice, all of humanity will sing of Your glory! Come quickly, Lord Jesus, so that day may come soon! Amen 

One Wish

Now that Thanksgiving day has past, thoughts turn to Christmas. Lists are being prepared so that no wish is left out. If you had ONE wish, one desire, what would it be?

“I only ask one thing from the LORD. This is what I want: let me live in the LORD’s house all my life.” Psalm 27:4

There is no request that the God of the Universe would rather grant than this one. His desire is for us to live with Him, to dwell with Him. There is no question that He will allow us to live with Him all our days. The real question is will we do so? The choice is ours to make. Will we abide with the Father who has opened His home to us? Or will we choose to live on our own, struggling to make those spiritual ends meet and never really succeeding? There really is no choice when it’s put that way! Why would we wish to struggle and fail over and over just so that we could be independent of our Father? He has made a home for us, he longs for us to dwell with Him, His desire is to provide for us. He wishes us to thrive spiritually and He knows just how to accomplish that task in our lives, but first we must come to live with Him, making our home with Him. When we live in His presence daily, hourly, we will have all the guidance that we will need to see us through this life. We will have at our fingertips the advice of the Counselor and the love of the Father. When we dwell in His house we will have it all; there will be nothing lacking from our lives. Let us, with the psalmist, pray this prayer and then remain faithful in that desire, never allowing the cares of this world to take His place in our heart, that we may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Church Preference

Light in the Soul

One of the favorite books that we read to Daniel when he was young, and now to Jincy and Reed is ” If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”. Cause and Effect explained in childrens terms. I like this proverb for the same reason.

If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world. Chinese Proverb

Gobble Gobble

The Eagle, Ben Franklin, and the Turkey

The Eagle, Ben Franklin, and the Turkey

Franklin’s Letter to His Daughter (excerpt)

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

“With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .

“I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Thanksgiving Dinner

Erma Bombeck, No One Diets on Thanksgiving
What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

Johnny Carson
Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.

Anonymous
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

 

 

 

 

Prentice Meador, another thanksgiving

This morning Prentice Meador went home to his Father in heaven. Whenever someone makes this trek home there should always be a thanksgiving. You may leave a message to the family here.

I only heard Prentice speak a few times and was touched each time. More important to me was his representation of the church’s of Christ on the television program called “America’s Town Hall”. It was a unique mixture of many different faiths represented discussing current affairs of the day. I always was proud of the way Prentice was thoughtful, loving and accurate.

What a true champion in Kingdom!

A Thanksgiving Proclaimation by Abraham Lincoln

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing toward its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preseved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our Beneficient Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln