Do You Have a Thankful Heart?

2 Corinthians 9:15, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

#4 - I'm thankful for God's provision.

#5 - I'm thankful for the simple joys of life.

#6 - I'm thankful for the power of prayer.

#7 - I'm thankful for the gift of song.

O.K. I'm going to stop with number seven. I could keep going but I don't want you to leave just yet.

Listen to what Paul told the Corinthian church just before verse 15: "Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you." [10-14]

Paul is thanking the Corinthian believers for their love gift to the church of Jerusalem. What an awesome thought: Because of their obedience there was much thanksgiving going up to God on their behalf!!!

If you are truly thankful this holiday season - share it with others. They in turn with give thanksgiving as well!

May the Lord bless you all. May you be able to recount with your family and friends all the great things that God has done for you. May your thanksgiving turn hearts to Him!

**Join us tonight for a special Thanksgiving Eve service here at PBC > 7:00pm.

Thanksgiving Week

The week of Thanksgiving is upon us. Just a few more days and the majority of us will be spending time with family, eating turkey, hunting, and watching a little football.

Don't forget to take time to be thankful.

The Bible teaches us to give thanks in all things. This week I'm simply going to post things for which I am thankful. I hope this will serve as a lead up to this wonderful holiday.

#1 - I'm thankful for my salvation. On Dec. 18, 1991 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Thank you Lord for saving me!

#2 - I'm thankful for my family. Jennifer and I have been married for 14 years and have two wonderful children. My whole family knows Jesus!

#3 - I'm thankful for PBC. This church has blessed my life in so many ways. To God be the glory for the great things He has done.

Tomorrow I will post a few more things that I'm thankful for. No post on Thanksgiving Day - I'm sure that you understand.

May the Lord bless you all on this Thanksgiving Holiday.

PBC will be having a Thanksgiving Eve service on Wed. night @ 7:00pm. Come and be thankful with us & share in communion.

He Forgot

Today's reading comes from "God Came Near" by Max Lucado.

"I was thanking the Father today for His mercy. I began listing the sins He'd forgiven. One by one I thanked God for forgiving my stumbles and tumbles. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It was when I used the word 'remember' that it hit me.

"'Remember the time I...' I was about to thank God for another act of mercy. But I stopped. Something was wrong. The word 'remember' seemed displaced. It was an off-key note in a sonata, a misspelled word in a poem. It was a baseball game in December. It didn't fit. 'Does He remember?'

"Then I remembered. I remembered His words. 'And I will remember their sins no more.'

"Wow! Now, that is a promise.

"God doesn't just forgive, He forgets. He erases the board. He destroys the evidence. He burns the microfilm. He clears the computer.

"He doesn't remember my mistakes. For all the things He does do, this is one thing He refuses to do. He refuses to keep a list of my wrongs. When I ask for forgiveness He doesn't pull out the clipboard and say, 'But I have already forgiven him for that five hundred and sixteen times.'

"He doesn't remember.

"'As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.'

"'I will be merciful toward their iniquities.'

"'Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool.'

"No, he doesn't remember. But I do, you do. You still remember. You're like me. You still remember what you did before you changed. In the cellar of your heart lurk the ghosts of yesterday's sins. Sins you've confessed; errors of which you've repented; damage you've done your best to repair...

"...Do yourself a favor. Purge your cellar. Exorcise your basement. Take the Roman nails of Calvary and board up the door.

"And remember...He forgot."

pp. 101-105 (Scripture References: Heb. 8:12, Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 1:18)

Winning Into Freedom

From "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers - November 18th entry.

"If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." (John 8:36)

"If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, 'I can't surrender,' or 'I can't be free.' But the spiritual part of our being never says 'I can't'; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin - we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.

"God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, 'I can't do that.' God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our 'arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ' (2 Cor. 10:5) - we have to do it. Don't say, 'Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.' Don't suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.

"'If the Son makes you free...' Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, 'I have been crucified with Christ...' His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. '...you shall be free indeed' - free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus."

*Let the Son set you free today!

The Show Must Go On

I woke up this morning with my internal jukebox playing full blast. The song? "The Show Must Go On" by Queen.

Allow me to post a couple of lines with the chorus and then you can ask yourself if you ever feel this way:

"I guess I'm learning
I must be warmer now..
I'll soon be turning round the corner now.
Outside the dawn is breaking,
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free!

The Show must go on!
The Show must go on! Yeah!
Ooh! Inside my heart is breaking!
My make-up may be flaking!
But my smile, still, stays on!"

It seems to me that more people feel this way than we may let on. Regardless of how we feel - there are kids to raise, a job to do, a spouse to care for, a ministry to perform. The list goes on and on. The sad part in all of this is that there is a great number of church goers who are aching to be free from something.

This past Sunday I asked our church if we would rather run a showboat or a lifeboat. We can concern ourselves with how this thing called church comes off or we can spend our time, energy, and resources to rescue people. I want to command the lifeboat!

A word of encouragement for those who feel compelled to keep the smile going. If you continue to mask your pain, your problems, your sin - You Will Lose. However, the moment that you decide you aren't going to allow yourself to live in this game - YOU CAN BE SET FREE. I know that it may get messy but you cannot continue to live this way. 1 John 1:9 tells us: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If the show MUST go on you don't have to fake it! Why not allow God to set you free?

One of the great things about PBC is that we have found a place where we can be real. There isn't a perfect person in the whole lot. This doesn't mean that we aren't willing to live disciplined lives but it also doesn't mean that we are going to cover up our junk. We are real with God and we are real with each other. There is no other way to live.

I hope that you have found a fellowship of believers where you can do the same. I hope that you have entered into relationships that allow you to be free. If you haven't then the lyrics I posted earlier will be your reality. I know there are times that we have to pick ourselves up and take care of responsibilities but it cannot become a way of life. Jesus longs to set you free.