When you have truly thanked God For every blessing sent But little time will then remain For murmur or lament

Truly Thankful

 

Ben had fallen into the habit of grumbling about this and that.  He complained about the weather; he found fault with his friends and with the members of his family.  He wanted to stop it, but somehow, as soon as anything would not go his way, he found himself grumbling again.  Then he came across this verse:

 

“When you have truly thanked God

For every blessing sent,

But little time will then remain

For murmur or lament.”

 

“I see now what the trouble has been,” he told himself.  “I've been grumbling so much that I've almost forgotten to be thankful for the things I have.  Every time I find myself starting to complain about something I don't have, I'm going to say 'Thank You' to God for something that He has given me.”

 

Ben found that the idea worked.  It was much easier to keep out the grouchy, grumbling thoughts when he filled his mind with thankful ones.  There simply was no room for the trouble makers, and after a bit they disappeared.

 

Ben was surprised, too, to see how many things a plain, everyday boy had for which to be thankful.  There are many things like the sunshine, the flowers, his friends, his home, which he had been taking for granted.  As he began thanking God for these things, he had a better appreciation of them.*

 

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17

 

“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

 

The greatest gift that God has given is His Son.  When we were lost due to our sins, God, because of His great love for us, gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins.

 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

 

Through Jesus, we can be saved from our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23).

 

God will save those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

 

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

– 2 Corinthians 9:15

 

Won’t YOU accept God’s gift on His terms today?

 

-- David A. Sargent

 

*Source: Junior Life, quoted in www.moreillustrations.com

The Bible is full of errors.

Is It A Contradiction?

Years ago I was talking to some fellows who asserted the Bible is full of errors. When I asked them for an example, they cited the four accounts of the inscription on Jesus cross. John’s account says it read, “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). The others give slight variations, yet no two are identical (Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38). Is that a contradiction?

Have you ever seen a sign that said, “Warning: shoplifters will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law”? If you asked multiple people who saw that sign what it said, you might get several technically different answers. One might cite it word-for-word, others might abbreviate it to varying extents, another might just paraphrase it.  Would you conclude that none had actually seen the sign or knew what it said? Of course not.  Then why treat the gospel writers that way?

The gospel writers are too often in a no-win situation with critics: if they say exactly the same thing they are accused of collusion, and if they differ they are charged with contradiction.

- by Frank Himmel

 

How many times are we like Sarah, or Eve?

Young miss Sarah, our great niece, has lovely hair that flows down over her shoulders. Her grandmother, my sister had a new hair brush, one of the round ones with fine teeth on it, about which she specifically told her granddaughters "do no use my hair brush". Of course as you can probably already guess, Sarah used her grandmother's hair brush. How do we know? Because while we were finishing a family supper, Sarah came down from upstairs with the hairbrush terribly tangled in her lovely long hair. Not just tangled, but knotted into a large mass on the side of her head.

Being a man I guess I could not imagine how you could ever get the hairbrush out of her hair without cutting her hair. But, three of our family's women worked on her hair for about an hour and got it out. Of course they had to get wire cutters and cut the bristles off of the brush one by one to do so.

When she saw her granddaughter's hair; what do you think was the first thing my sister said? How about, "Didn't I tell you not to touch my hairbrush?" Isn't it amazing that since the creation that type of question is probably the most repeated in history? In the very beginning God asked almost the same question of his very first children. In Genesis 3:3 after Satan whispered in her ear that she could get away with disobeying, the first woman, Eve, admitted: "God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it…"But of course you know how that that went… she touched it anyway. Later God asked, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Her life had become a tangled mess because she didn't obey a simple rule which was given by her father, God.

How many times are we like Sarah, or Eve? It's a simple thing, no one will know, it will just take a minute, one puff, one joint, one drink, one word; one time in a compromising situation, and after all, no one will know… How many lives have become tangled messes because of "just one time"?

My sister's response to her grand daughters predicament was and destroying her new hairbrush was: "Hairbrushes can be replaced, kids can't". The world if full of people who are suffering the consequences of "just one time". Thankfully we have a loving God who always accepts us back when our lives become tangled messes.

My favorite verses in the bible come from 1 John 1:7-10 that talks about our struggle in life and our far too often failures. John writes: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Now there is a little more to getting into contact with the Blood of Christ to begin with (Romans 6), but in understanding that there is always forgiveness when we get tangled up we find hope to overcome and go on with life.

May you life be without tangles, but if it's not, God can fix it.

--Russ Lawson