From the Pulpit ................................................................Pages

Thanks be to God!

We should always be thankful to God for all that He does for us!

Owner/Publisher: Rob Wood

Philippians 4:4-7: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

I think this scripture really says it all. It talks about rejoicing in the Lord. A few things to Rejoice about are His Word, His birth, His miracles, His suffering, His resurrection, His Gospel, His forgiveness, His Spirit, His people, His vengeance and His glory. Gentleness means being reasonable, being not so concerned about the unimportant matters in life that a person fights over, the nonessentials. Believers that take their Anxiety to God in prayer discover the peace of God. They are also promised which is even better, the God of Peace Himself, His protection, presence, comfort and His encouragement. When you find yourself worrying, the answer is prayer, which gives proper thinking and proper responses. The opposite of peace is worry. The Greek word for anxious means to have "a mind divided" between good thoughts and destructive thoughts. There is the problem... destructive thoughts block the Word of God and it causes believers to not trust God. We must always trust God with all of our hearts, without doubt.

We must always be thankful as well, for all that He has done for us, not only this time of year in which we celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday with turkey and all the trimmings, but every day we need to live thankfully.

I know I'm very thankful for all the things that God has done for me, the things that He has put into my life and the people that He has put into my life.

This is a short story about gratitude.

A blind boy was sitting on the steps of a building. He had a hat down by his feet. He was holding up a sign which read, "I am blind, please help."

There was only a few coins in the boy's hat; it was spare change that was thrown into the hat from people that were in a hurry as they past by.

A man that was also walking down the street came up to the boy. He took a few coins from his pocket and put them into the boy's hat. Then he took the sign out of the boy's hand, turned it around and he wrote some words. He gave the sign back to the boy so that everyone who was walking by the boy would see the new words that he had wrote.

Not long after, his hat was filling up with coins and bills, as a lot of people were starting to give the boy money.

Later that afternoon, the man who had changed the sign had returned to see how things were going for the boy. The boy had heard the man's footsteps coming towards him and recognized the way he walked.

The boy said to the man, "Are you the man who changed my sign early this morning? What did

Thanks be to God!

you write on the sign?"

The man said to the boy, "I wrote the truth. I said what you had said to me, but I put in a different way."

I wrote, "Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it."

The man said to the boy, "Both signs spoke the truth, but your sign simply said that you were blind, while my sign said to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see."

How true is that; God is always there, He never, ever leaves our side. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, "And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you, He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed." It also shows us how grateful we should always be for our health, families, work, homes, vehicles, our lives in general. Even if we don't have our health, families, vehicles or jobs, we still should be thankful. We may not be thankful for being sick for example, but we should always be thankful for God who is with us always.

So are you thankful, no matter what? Take a look at a biblical story of thankfulness; Paul had every right to be very bitter, but he wasn't.

Paul knew the true meaning of being thankful, even while he was suffering through great adversity when he was in prison in Rome. Ephesians 5:19-20 says, "...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Always give thanks for everything, no matter what the circumstances are in your life! Being thankful for Paul was not a 'once a year' celebration; it was a daily reality that changed his life. It turned him into a joyful person in every situation.

Giving thanks to God for all of His blessings should be one of the important attitudes of a Christian in Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says, "For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe."

We must never allow the spirit of ingratitude enter our lives. This will only harden our hearts towards God. In the book of Timothy, he describes what people will be like in the last days; one of the characteristics will be ingratitude. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"

Living a life like this will, without a doubt, harden your heart from God, so watch and stay true to God.

Being ungrateful will turn us into bitter, selfish, dissatisfied people.

Likewise, there is nothing that will do more for us to restore contentment, the pure joy of our salvation and the love of God more than the true spirit of thankfulness.

Psalm 95:14 declares a call to worship and obedience: "Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God And the great

Thanks be to God!

King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also." During the biblical time, leprosy was a horrible disease. It terribly disfigured those who had the disease. People who had leprosy were permanently cut off from everyone and everything. This was without exception; every leper only wanted one thing, and that was to be healed. When Jesus was outside a village, ten lepers approached Him; they were loud and pleading for Him to heal them. In an instant, Jesus healed the ten lepers back to perfect health and form. Luke 17:1114 says, "Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, Have mercy on us!" So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed."

Now one of the men, when he saw that he was healed, returned to Jesus to thank Him for healing him. All the rest left without a word of thanks; their minds had become preoccupied only with themselves. They had become gripped in the spirit of ingratitude. Luke 17:15-19 says, "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith had made you well."

It's the same thing today as well, the ingratitude and thanklessness is too common, children not thanking their parents for all that they have done for them. Common courtesy is gone. People take for granted the ways other people help them. But above all, we fail to thank God for all of His blessings.

Let's be honest here and say it as it is, that ingratitude is a sin, just as much as lying, stealing, immorality or any other sin is in the Bible. One of the Bible's accusations against rebellious humanity is Romans 1:21 which says, "... because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." An ungrateful heart is a heart that has gone cold towards God and indifferent to His mercy and love. It is a heart that has forgotten all that God has done for us and how dependent we really are on God for everything.

When we read the Bible cover to cover, we see that we are commanded to be thankful. As a matter of fact, thankfulness is something that is natural and it overflows from the heart that is in sync with God. Psalm 147:7 says, "Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God." Paul also said in Colossians 3:15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." After all, a spirit of thanksgiving is one of the good fruits of a joyful Christian.

Thank God for the people in your life; let them know you appreciate them and are thankful for them, 1 Corinthians 1:4 says, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus."

Always say thanks to God for all of those who have touched your life one way or another.

Thanks be to God!

We should also be so thankful to God for His salvation in Jesus Christ. God gave us the greatest gift of all, His Son, who died on the cross for us all and rose again three days later so that we can have a personal relationship with Him and spend eternity in Heaven with Him. 2 Corinthians 9:15 says, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

We are separated from God because of sin. God is a Holy God, He cannot and will not look upon sin. When we sin, He will turn His back on us. That is when we feel like God has left us, but in reality, He has turned from us. As we heard Jesus cry out to God when He was nailed to the cross, God turned His back on Him, because Jesus became sin when He took all of our sin upon him, so God could no longer look upon Him at that time. Matthew 27:46 says, "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" All we have to do is ask God to forgive us, to repent of our sin and He will forgive us. God loves us; He loves you; He loves me; He also wants us to be a part of His family forever. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to die on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. All we really need to do to receive this is reach out in faith and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ? If not, you need to turn to Him now with a simple prayer of repentance and faith, and thank Him for what He has done for you. And if you do know Christ, how long has it been since you sat down and really thanked God for your salvation? We really should not let another day go by without thanking God for His mercy and His grace to us in Jesus Christ. For we are saved by Grace, not works. Ephesians 2:89 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

When we give our lives to Jesus and become Christians, it is not the end but the beginning of a whole new life and journey! He is with us, and He wants to help us follow Him and His Word.

We do not have the inner strength that we need to live the way God truly wants us to live. Now when we turn to His Word, we will discover what Philippians 2:13 says: "It is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose." In many countries, a special day is set aside each year for thanksgiving. But for us Christians, every day can and should be a day of thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:20 says, "...giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God." So let's be thankful every day.

WOOD Ministries

Publisher/Sales/Graphic Designer/Writer: Rob Wood

wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com Editor/Writer: Donna Wood

wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com Writer: Lynne Wood

wood.ministries.2020@gmail.com