Great Expectations

Isn't it that time?...the anticipation of Christmas, I mean every store has been decorated for Christmas since before Thanksgiving.  But the day after it is the full onslaught of everything Christmas!  I try not to decorate or listen to or watch Christmas until December 1st!

But it is in the air!

I know people who have been in full Christmas mode for weeks now!

What is it we anticipate? What are we getting excited for? gifts? Celebration?   

 The season just oozes joy, festive energy and anticipation.

For Christians around the world our expectations also bring the word Advent: The arrival of....the coming of, expectation of the coming...

In our lives, as believers, it means anticipation of the birth of Christ...or more apt, the celebration of the coming of the Christ child and the anticipation of His second coming.

But again, I ask, what is the anticipation for?

Gifts? Celebration? 

The greatest gift, the only gift that really matters, is the one God and His only Son in infinite love for humanity gave to save all of us from our own spiral of sin.

📖Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 1 Timothy 1:15

📖 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. Romans 6:10

 When we confess we are sinners in need of saving, believe that God gave us His only Son to die for those sins and defeat death by rising again and we accept Christ as our Lord, the gift we receive is eternal, it will not break, get old, or spoil. 

📖 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

📖 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

That love gives us more than Salvation from sin, if we accept what God's love has done for us we will have the gift of eternal life when we are done on this earth. 

If you leave a gift under the tree... we don't accept it as a gift, we don't open it. It sits there, it doesn't do anything for you.  You can say "oh i have a gift" but you haven't truly received it until you open it, accept it for what it is and take it into your heart, your life. 

Salvation is the GIFT to end all gifts. 

This is the gift that keeps on giving!

Once we accept the gift of salvation we receive so much more!

Hope  Peace  Joy love

Each of the next four weeks we will explore the bonus gifts we can receive this season, if we are willing to accept the one most important gift ever!

📖 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

🙏Dear God thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus and a way to salvation, eternal life and amazing things here on earth. I pray that we all are excited to open the Gift and utilize it to the fullest not just this season but the rest of our days.❤️

Not About THE Day

I decided to post later intentionally this week!

I have heard and even said several statements regarding Thanksgiving that have made me pause and think.

"How many Thanksgivings will you be celebrating?"

Meaning of course how many meals, or homes will you have the privilege to participate in the celebrstion this season?

But shouldn't it be a minimum of 365? For many of us it should be 1,095!  Three meals a day every day for the year! Because every opportunity we have to have a meal is a time.to be thankful! Especially if we are sharing that meal with someone.

📖 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians  5:20

The other is, "What day are we doing Thanksgiving?"

Again...we should be "doing" Thankful every day! It isn't about the day, it is about the heart and the attitude.  We aren't celebrating THE day, we are celebrating each and every day and the blessings God puts in it. 

📖 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

Now, I am not against Thanksgiving....just the opposite...I love it because it turns (or should turn) our attentions towards those things which we should be grateful for...and not just the big things but all the simple, small things that fill our lives!

It is what inspired this poem I wrote 13 years ago!

Thanksgiving Day

                   Tracey Thompson       ©TJT 2010

Thanksgiving is a time to gather those we love close by

We laugh and eat and celebrate and even enjoy some pie

We eat until our bellies are full, we work, and rest and play

But do we stop and give pause on Thanksgiving day?

To reflect on all the blessings that are showered from above

Gifts from our Lord and Savior, who lavishes us with love

Will we stop to think as we dress ourselves that morn,

 that we have choices of what to wear, what color or how warm?

As we bathe and shower and brush our teeth so clean

Should we pause and be grateful for the gift of simple hygiene?

As we prepare the food, with extra portions to spare

Will we take the time and thank the Lord that we have enough to share?

 As we smile across the table from family and loved ones so dear

Should we stop and say ”Thank you, Lord,  for all those gathered here”?

 As stories and memories are shared, even some with tears

Will we give thanks for those who touched our lives over the passing years?

 God has blessed us so with much, our cups to overflowing,

 if we only take the time and find what is most important in knowing

 that God’s love, and grace and mercy is there for us each day

 and we must share it with others we meet along the way.

Thank you God and Father

For loving us so

That you sent your Son

So Salvation we could know

🙏 Dear Lord, I Thank you for all the blessings my life is filled with. I pray that all those who gather in any form, with many different groups, with all manner of celebrating, on what ever day...have a common thread of Thankfulness to You, the giver of all good things! Amen ❤️

A Significant Insignificance

Samaritans Purse, a large Christian based organization that has a global impact, has as one of their ministries Operation Christmas Child, that has a global impact in its own right.

If you read about "over a million shoeboxes distributed world wide", with tens of thousands of participants from all countries you can feel rather insignificant in the cause.

But....there is something different....in the way this is done...it is one on one.

One shoebox is personal, is significant in this huge global ministry. 

You may think you are insignificant,  but the one box YOU pack goes to ONE child. They open it, spend time with it, keep and save things, love every item and in so many cases, God has proven over and over, that children get the box that was meant for them. Items that seem specific to that child when it was packed weeks, months before, by an individual who does not know where the box is going, let alone who is getting it!

📖 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38

Each box you pack is an individual endeavor and that exact box is placed into a single child's hands.  

When bringing shoeboxes into our church (we are a collection center for our area), you get a peek at the personal touches people add to their boxes.

Our church makes sure every lid of the 504 boxes we pack has a traced hand print and a sticker with a short poem:

Put your hand on mine, I am praying for you. Will you pray with me? God's love is all around, just take a look and see!

Each lid  of the 504 shoeboxes we pack at our church is touched by one of our children and then will be given to a child.

The other significance of each shoebox is that with each box a child receives "The Greatest Journey " a 12 lesson discipleship program in their own language is given to them and once they complete the program they have a graduation ceremony for the children! 

Personal, significant, eternal.

Impacting the world for Christ one shoebox at a time!

📖 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.  Matthew 18:12-14

🙏 I pray you find significance in the insignificant while in service for Him.❤️

🎞 A Shoebox Prayer

THE Feast

 A comment during Sundays message, which 

was excellent if you want to watch

🔗 Sunday November 5th

When Bill said that scripture, God's word, "is a feast" given to us..my brain immediately went to imagery.

A banquet before us,

📖 You prepare a feast for me

    in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

    My cup overflows with blessings.  Psalm 23:6 (NLT)

But we must sit and eat.

📖 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

It is best for our digestion if we chew and eat slowly

📖 Oh, how I love your law!

    I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
    and make me wiser than my enemies. Psalm 119:97-98

We need to read, and reread and ingest God's word.

.📖 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9

Bill mentioned some parts of scripture might seem slow (boring) dry..I thought immediately "it is the lettuce or celery of our feast!" But ALL is part of the banquet. 

There are foods with the nutrients we need to sustain and thrive.

📖 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:18

If I just ate the lettuce I wouldn't feel very satisfied,  

📖 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:13-14

If I just ate the potatoes I would feel full, but not get  all the nutrition I need.

Eating all that is offered will supply all we need

📖 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

📖  “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Matthew 5:13

There are comfort foods, like potatoes, pasta, sweets

📖 Remember your word to your servant,

    for you have given me hope.
50 My comfort in my suffering is this:
    Your promise preserves my life. Psalm 119:49-50

God's word is like the banquet,  we don't have to consume it in one sitting,  but we need it everyday to sustain, to grow, to lack nothing

📖 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

God's word, in its entirety, is a new and fresh feast every day, if we choose to partake. 

He has something for us...there is simple fare, and delicacies, there is meaty, denser stuff, and there is the bland less tasty portions. There is even things that are hard to swallow, but remember the feast is intended to be consumed in its entirety over time.

📖 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

My prayer🙏

📖 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:16❤️

November 1st

November 1st...a Wednesday and my brain is still wandering and searching for what the blog will be this week.

1st of November WOW where did the year go!  only 61 days until 2024!!

And SNOW!  I wasn't sure I was ready for November and December, but I definitely didn't feel ready for snow and cold...low 30 temperatures!  

November; the month we celebrated my sister's birthday...sweet memories from the past.

Our church mission project Operation Christmas Child culminates with a packing party where we pack 504 shoe boxes and a week of collection of area shoeboxes and then all are taken to large Collection Centers and then distributed around the world to children in need, not just of gifts,  but in need of the Gospel. 

It is the month we, in America, set aside a day to give thanks to God for His provision, blessings, and the fact that we live in the country we do.

It begins the celebrations of grandchildren birthdays (one in November, one in December, two in January, one in February and last one in May)

And from November we roll right into the Advent of Christmas.

We span from remembering those who aren't with us, to giving hope, and being grateful to celebrating lives and the future!

November...1st..should be the advent of being thankful.  Instead of one day, it should be a month of thankful!

📖 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

Thankful for my sister, and for all those who have been a part of my life and made an impact but aren't with us anymore.

📖 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers Ephesians 1:16

Thankful that in a huge global world our part in the Operation Christmas Child ministry can have significance and an eternal impact.

📖 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15

That for the last ten months of this year God has been with me and has been moving and blessing.

I have much to be thankful and grateful for.

📖 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
    make music to our God on the harp. Psalm 147:7

🙏Lord God, I pray that each one of us has a month of Thankful, that maybe becomes two, and then just maybe a life of Thankful!  I pray that we are reminded each day of all that You have done and have given because You love us. ❤️