Connect to my NEWEST BLOG Here

 

In my Blog this week, I present: Texas History: Loafers Glory. Read on........

 

 

FREE Email Mailing List

If you would like to receive this blog each week, send your email address to us, and we will cheerfully send it to you! Click here

 

 

     Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

​

Consider the word ramifications. Ramifications mean “a development that complicates a situation.” If you suddenly stop your car in the middle of a fast moving freeway, you might suffer from the tragic ramifications of that poor choice. On the other hand, if you propose marriage to your girlfriend, there will be happy ramifications to that good choice. 

​

The Psalmist is making a choice when he says in Psalm 116:17 (NKJV), “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of the Lord.” Know this, when you choose to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, expect ramifications to occur. 

​

Question: Does God expect us to offer sacrifices today? And how will this impact our daily lives? In the Old Testament, sacrifices were expected to please God. Jesus continued this teaching when He sacrificed Himself. 

​

But Believers are called to sacrifice, too.

 

Romans 12:1 calls us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Hebrews 13:15 asks us to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Indeed, no Believer has advanced past the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. 
 
Being grateful and showing appreciation to our gracious God, is expected, loved, and blessed. God has been so good to us. If He never does anything else for us, we can spend eternity thanking Him for what He has already done. 

​

As a child, I was taught by my wise parents to say “please” and “thank you.” There were dire ramifications if I chose to grab and grunt at dinnertime. Discipline can hurt when you are greedy. Some people never say “thank you.” To them it is a sign of weakness, or it somehow dents their ego. But they are wrong. 

​

This Thanksgiving and into the Christmas Season, I challenge you to offer the sacrifice of Thanksgiving. It takes a little more time to show gratitude. Being thankful causes the brain to think nice thoughts. For some people being nice hurts. It is part of the ramifications of being thankful.

​

When you are really thankful, you tend to express thanksgiving in sacrificial acts. You may give more in the offering. Or you may take food to the hungry or visit the elderly for pleasant conversation. Oh, yes, there are ramifications for making sacrifices of thanksgiving. It may cost you more!

​

Love responds to love. When you really love someone, you want to do something for them. Love is the best motivator. In 2 Samuel 24:24, King David made a sacrificial choice. He was offered land for free to sacrifice to the Lord. But David refused to offer burnt offerings to the Lord that cost him nothing. David knew that true sacrifices will have ramifications in your life, and they will cost you something. But that is what makes them so valuable.

​

This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, let your thanksgiving and praise sparkle with the true value of sacrifice. God deserves our best!
 

​

Friday - December 3, 2021

​

Commit

​

SCRIPTURE

& PRAYER

Psalm 37:1-6 NLT - Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
Prayer: Dear Lord - All praise and glory to your majestic name. With delight I come into your sacred presence. The scripture today reminds me that you are more than enough to defeat that which causes worry in my life. As I take delight in you, and commit everything into your care, you will sustain me and your great name will be glorified. Help me to trust you. In the name of Jesus I pray. 

In the early Church, the teaching of the Resurrection of Christ was basic to all other teachings. This includes the teaching of the Second Coming of Jesus at the Rapture.

 

The Apostle Paul makes this known in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 KJV – “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

​

False teachers had infiltrated the Church and caused undue fear among immature Believers. They were worried about those Christians who had already died, and doubted that they would be saved when Jesus Returned. Paul assured them that just as Jesus was resurrected to new life, so those who had already died in Christ would be resurrected to new life, too. 

​

The body of the Christian Believer is in the grave, but their spirit resides in the presence of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:8). Zechariah 14:5 states, “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” That means the dead are already in Heaven and will return with Christ at the Rapture.

 

Further, Jude 1:14 says, “And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh, with thousand of his saints.”