3/12/2018

This is the day that the Lord created for us to praise His name and give thanks for all the blessings He sent our way:

The right to have an opinion on every subject; even if we know nothing about it and the right to disagree with others. In addition, the right to hang up, change web sites, walk away or just not pay attention to the opinions of those who do not agree with us. The right to choose if we want to go to Heaven or Hell

Today I choose to praise God for all the blessings he has given me. I choose to do the best I can to following Jesus so that I might make Heaven my Eternal Home. I choose not to be quiet about the love of Jesus who chose to die on a cross so that we might live with him and his Father.

I choose not to argue with those around me but to show them the love of God through my actions.

I choose to follow God the Father, Jesus his Son and the Holy Ghost while ignoring the Devil.

Isn't God good and wise for not making everyone to think and act just like me?

Thank you Lord, for this day even if it brings heartache and pain. Thank you for all my friends, acquaintances, family both earthly and spiritually. Amen

C.I. Wilson

3/11/2018

We each have a role to play and we cannot play the parts of “A certain man, A vineyard,” or “The beloved son.” These roles are already taken, however we can take the part of “The others” no matter what lineage we have, Jew or Gentile. The question we should be asking ourselves is do I want the part of the “The husbandmen” to be destroyed or the part of “The others?”

We each choose our destination, no one else can, and we only have two choices to choose from: Heaven or Hell. Which do you choose?

C.I. Wilson

3/10/2018

Plan? Plan for what? To make Heaven your eternal home.

There are some people who drift through life not really planning on anything. Then there are the people that have their life planned down to the smallest detail. Moreover, in between are the majority of people with varying levels of plans.

The Bible gives us an example of the type of person that everybody should emulate. Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), was a man that knew what he wanted and went after it. He wanted to see Jesus and according to verse 3, he was too short to see over the crowd. However, Zacchaeus had a plan; he ran ahead of Jesus, said good-by to his pride, and climbed a tree. Now Zacchaeus a high official and he was rich, two things that implied that he had servants that could have cleared the way for him to see Jesus, however Zacchaeus felt the need to do it on his own. We find in verse 5 that his plan worked because Jesus saw him and invited himself for a meal.

The thing we have to be concerned about now is do we have a plan in place to assure us of having a meal with Jesus? Are you making sure that you stick to your plan to make Heaven your eternal home? If not, what can you do now and in the future to make sure that you and those you love will make Heaven the eternal resting place for your souls.

My plan is to hear my God, Jehovah, his son, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost welcome me home with the words, “Well done;” how about you?

C. I. Wilson

3/9/2018

The author is unknown for this article, all I know of the origins is that I received it in an email back in 2003. May it speak to your soul.

 

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week, she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that was not enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose annual holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come.

“Thanksgiving? Thankful, for what?” she wondered aloud. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child?

”Good afternoon, can I help you? The shop clerk’s approach startled her.

“I . . . I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra. “For Thanksgiving?”

“Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving Special?” asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something that conveys “gratitude” this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly?” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.” Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”

Then the door’s small bell rang, and the ship clerk said, “Hi Barbara . . let me get your order.” She politely excused herself and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped . . . there were no flowers. “Want this in a box?” asked the clerk.

Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers? She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed. “Yes, please,” Barbara, replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again.” She said as she gently tapped her chest.

“Uhh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uhh… she just left with no flowers!”

“Right… I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special… I call it the Thanksgiving thorns Bouquet.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that?” exclaimed Sandra.

“Barbara came into the ship three years ago feeling very much like you feel today,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.”

“That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.”

“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.

“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for the good things in life and never thought to ask Him who those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the flowers’ of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”

Just then, someone else walked in the ship. “Hey Phil!” shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man.

“My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement . . . twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that?”

“No. . . I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from “thorny” times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks to Him for what that problem taught us.” As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”

“I don’t kow if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life.” Sandra said to the clerk. “It’s all too . . . fresh.”

Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please," she managed to choke out.

"I hoped you would," said the clerk gently. "I'll have them ready in a minute."

"Thank you. What do I owe you?" asked Sandra.

"Nothing." said the clerk. "Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year's arrangement is always on me." the clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. "I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you'd like to read it first."

It read: "Dear God, I have never thanked you for my thorns. I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to you along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of your rainbow look much more brilliant."

 

"Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you which is your glory." Ephesians 3:13 KJV

3/8/2018

We can go back to the Bible and see how on many occasions that the Hebrew Children forgot. Just plain and simple, forgot and then complained. If you read in Deuteronomy 8 you will see just one example of this. It starts out that Moses is telling them to remember all that God has done for them; led them out of slavery, through the wilderness for forty years, fed them and kept their clothes from wearing out. In verse 5-6 it states “⁵ Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. ⁶ Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him..” God so loves us that when we pray He will answer. Remember he answered the Hebrew Children’s prayer while they were in slavery. However, we also need to remember that just as you correct your children when they do wrong, so God will correct us.

He has taken us through hard times and led us through times of plenty just as easily. In fact God would rather lead us through the good times and times of plenty then through the hard times. 3 John 1:2 states: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” However, God knows we learn during the hard times.

We have a tendency that when thigs are going good we forget where we have been and where we could be today if it wasn’t for the hand of God. The church of God has grown rapidly only when there have been persecutions against it. Remember how after Jesus died that the Disciples faced much persecution and during this time, the church grew. The people that accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour went through some tough times.

Because they went through these times, people around them could see Christ in their lives and it made a big impression on them. Down through history every time their peers, the sinners, accepted the Christians the church had a falling away. Our mighty men were made by the times they lived and how they lived, which was not easy. When people have it easy they have a tendency to forget how much they need God. This is partly why there is a saying that a rich man will not make it into Heaven, which is true with most rich men. Only the man whose soul prospers in the Lord and is rich will make it to Heaven.

It is aptly put in Deuteronomy 8:18-20 “¹⁸ But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.”

We are to remember we are where we are because of how obedient we are unto God’s voice. The closer we are to God, the more we follow his leading, the more we diligently pray for God’s will; the more we will accomplish God’s will in all areas of our lives and the more blessings we will remember.

C.I. Wilson