But Are You Thankful

Bible Reading: Proverbs 10:22-32

Key Verse: Verse 22 - “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”

Key Words: The blessing of the Lord, it maketh   rich 

Are you genuinely thankful for the blessings of God?  Dr. Robert Hill, author of over forty books, tells of visiting Bangkok, Thailand, where he was invited to a special celebration given by the king and queen.  His Thai guide, a young man named Joseph, asked several questions as he drove them to the Pavilion.  He knew a little English and was delighted to carry on a conversation. 

When he asked where the Hills lived, they told him Richmond, Virginia. 

“Oh, you are a rich man,” responded the boy. 

Bob laughed and told him, “No,” he wasn’t rich. 

“Then,” he asked, “do you own an automobile?”  He told him that they had two cars in their family.  His next question was about the house where they lived.  He told him that it was a simple home with ten rooms.  He was amazed at the size, especially when he related that he and his family lived in two small rooms.

When he again asked about their family, they told the guide that they had four healthy children, two of which were in college and two still at home.

Joseph was silent for a moment or so, then he replied, “You are a rich man.”  They laughed, but deep in their hearts, they knew he was right, though they had never thought of it in those terms. 

Mr. Hill reports, “We were rich, but were we thankful?”

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

            ✞ Ask yourself the question, “Am I thankful?”

            ✞ Have the family list all the reasons they have to be thankful.*

*This would be a great time to teach your children to be thankful for such things as:  Jesus, salvation, their church, pastor and staff, the Bible, etc.

I Forgot to Say Thank You

Bible Reading: Luke 23:32-43

Key Verse: Verse 34- – “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And  they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Key Words: Father, forgive them 

A few years back I preached a series of messages on the sayings of Jesus from the cross.  These sayings are as follows:

·          Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.  (Luke 23:34)

·          Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.  

            (Luke 23:43)

·          Woman, behold thy son!  Behold thy mother!  (John 19:26-27)

·          Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?  (Matthew 27:46)

·          I thirst.  (John 19:28)

·          It is finished.  (John 19:30)

·          Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.  (Luke 23:46)

Thinking of what Jesus did for me reminds me of the following story I read.

In her classic autobiography, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of the time she and her sister were forced to take off all their clothes during Nazi inspections at a death camp.  Miss Ten Boom stood in line feeling forsaken and defiled.  Suddenly, she remembered that Jesus hung naked on the cross.  Struck with wonder and worship during that seemingly forsaken moment, Ten Boom leaned forward and whispered to her sister, “Betsie, they took His clothes off, too.” 

Betsie gasped and said, “Oh, Corrie, and I never said thank you!”  Thanksgiving does not require bounty, just recognition of what Jesus has done and is doing for you.

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

            ✞ Write down a list of all Jesus has done for you and today, rather than ask for things, simply thank the Lord for all He has done for you.

Remember My Affliction

Bible Reading:  Lamentations 3:1-21

Key Verse: Verse 19 - “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.”

Key Words: Remembering mine affliction 

Have you ever felt as Jeremiah did?  Jeremiah said...

Ø  (verse 1) that he had experienced God’s wrath,

Ø  (verses 2, 6) that he was living in spiritually dark times,

Ø  (verse 3) that God was against him,

Ø  (verse 4) that he was growing old,

Ø  (verse 5) that he was in gall and bitterness, and

Ø  (verse 7) that he was trapped.

The list goes on and on, but Jeremiah did not end with gloom and doom.  Jeremiah finally changed his thinking in verse 21, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”  In the remaining verses we see Jeremiah’s hope.

Your attitude toward affliction will determine what you accomplish for God.  Affliction never leaves you the same; it makes you bitter or better.  It leaves you better when you have spiritual goals in mind and understand that affliction is a part of reaching that goal.  Remember, great goals require great affliction.  Small goals require little affliction.  But you have to have goals and know where you are going.

Thomas Henry Huxley was a devoted disciple of Darwin, famous biologist, teacher, and author, defender of the theory of evolution, bold, convincing, self-avowed humanist, and traveling lecturer.

Having finished another series of public assaults against several truths Christians held sacred, Huxley was in a hurry the following morning to catch his train to the next city.  He took one of Dublin’s famous horse-drawn taxis and settled back with his eyes closed to rest himself for a few minutes.  He assumed the driver had been told the destination by the hotel doorman, so all he had said as he got in was, “Hurry, I’m almost late.  Drive fast!”  The horses lurched forward and galloped across Dublin at a vigorous pace.  Before long Huxley glanced out the window and frowned as he realized they were going west, away from the sun, not toward it.

Leaning forward, the scholar shouted, “Do you know where you are going?”  Without looking back, the driver yelled a classic line, not meant to be humorous.  “No, your honor!  But I am driving very fast!”

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

            ✞Keep your focus on God.

Remember Me and Visit Me

Bible Reading:  Jeremiah 15:10-21

Key Verse: Verse 15 - “O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.”

 Key Words: remember me, and visit me 

 J. Vernon McGee says regarding Jeremiah, chapters 14 and 15: “Up to this point Jeremiah has been prophesying during the reign of Josiah.  Now we find him delivering a prophecy during the reign of Jehoiakim.  King Josiah during the last part of his reign did a very foolish thing.  He fought against Nechoh, a pharaoh of Egypt, and there at Megiddo Josiah was killed.  Jeremiah mourned for him; he had been his friend.  After the death of Josiah, the nation began to drop back into idolatry.”

So Jeremiah who had stood firm in his convictions for God and the things of God requested that God remember him and visit him.  Jeremiah knew that there was peace and safety in the presence of God.

Dr. Tony Compolo says that when he was a boy growing up in a congested and bustling city, his mother arranged for a teenage girl who lived nearby to walk home with him at the end of the day.  For this, she was paid a nickel a day.  But Tony rebelled in the second grade and told his mother, “I’ll walk myself to school, and, if you give me a nickel a week, I will be extra careful.  You can keep the other twenty cents and we’ll all be better off.”

After a period of pleading and begging, little Tony finally got his way.  For the next two years he walked by himself back and forth to school.  It was an eight-block walk with many streets to cross, but he was careful and didn’t talk to strangers or get distracted along the way.

Years later at a family party, he bragged about his independence and reminded his family of how he had taken care of himself as a boy.  His mother laughed and added the rest of the story.  “Did you really think you were alone?” she said.  “Every morning when you left for school, I left with you.  I walked behind you all the way.  When you got out of school at 3:30 in the afternoon, I was there.  I always kept myself hidden, but I was there, and I followed you all the way home.  I just wanted to be there for you in case you needed me.”

Hebrews 13:5b, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse  

What to do:

      ✞Know that you are in a place of peace and safety  with God.

 

Remember Not The Sins of My Youth

Bible Reading:  Psalm 25:1-11

Key Verse: Verse 7 - “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O  LORD.”

Key Words: Remember not the sins of my youth 

We do some foolish things in our youth!!!  Don’t deny it, it’s true.  Every one of us should thank God daily for His mercy (God not giving us what we deserve).  If we got what we deserved, we’d all be in hell.

I’ve been a pastor for over 40 years, so I’ve watched a lot of our kids grow up.  If I stood in the pulpit and told all I knew about you, you would never forgive me, and you could never show your face in public again.  I repeat, thank God for His mercy!

There’s a great example of mercy in the actions of former President Calvin Coolidge.  Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light.  In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets.  Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep.  Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus.  Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet – which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back! – declared it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come as to avoid the Secret Service!  (Yes, the loan was paid back.)

Mercy we need, and we should all give it.

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

      ✞Ask God to “remember not the sins of [your] youth”...and adult life as well, I might add.

Remember Your GIft

Bible Reading: II Timothy 1:1-17      

Key Verse: Verse 6 - “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”       

 Key Words: remembrance...the gift 

Every one of us has at least one spiritual gift we can use for God’s glory.  The question is: Are we continually stirring up the gift to make it fit and useful in God’s service?

Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world.  So they organized a school.  They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying.  To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.  The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, better than his instructor.  But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running.  Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running.  This caused his web feet to be badly worn, so that he was only average in swimming.  But average was quite acceptable, so nobody worried about that – except the duck.  The rabbit started at the top of his class in running but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because of so much make-up work in swimming.  The squirrel was excellent at climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.  He developed “Charlie horses” from overexertion, and so only got a C in climbing and a D in running.  The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist.  In climbing classes he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.

The obvious moral of that story is a simple one – each creature has its own set of capabilities in which it will naturally excel – unless it is expected or forced to fill a mold that doesn’t fit.  When that happens, frustration, discouragement, and even guilt brings overall mediocrity or complete defeat.  A duck is a duck – and only a duck.  It is built to swim, not to run or fly and certainly not to climb.  A squirrel is a squirrel – and only that.  To move it out of its forte, climbing, and then expect it to swim or fly will drive a squirrel nuts.  Eagles are beautiful creatures in the air but not in a foot race.  The rabbit will win every time unless, of course, the eagle gets hungry.  What is true of creatures in the forest is true of Christians in the family, both the family of believers and the family under your roof.  God has not made us all the same.  He never intended to.  It was He who planned and designed the differences, unique capabilities, and variations in the Body.

Remember, use your gift and remember, not everyone has the same gift.

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

      ✞Stir up the gift that is in you.

Remember Judgement is Coming

Bible Reading: Luke 16:19-31

Key Verse: Verse 25 - “But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”

 Key Words: remember that thou 

You are more than likely familiar with the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  Both are heading for judgment.

The rich man is headed for the Great White Throne judgment.  His life on earth has been blessed, but he had rejected Jesus as Savior.  Lazarus, though, was headed for heaven.

Harry Ironside used to share the following story.

“One of the first gospel illustrations that ever made a real impression upon my young heart was a simple story which I heard a preacher tell when I was less than nine years old.

“It was of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states to a distant place that had been opened up for homesteading.  They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was necessarily slow.  One day they were horrified to notice a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward them rapidly.  They had crossed a river the day before, but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them.  One man only seemed to have understood as to what could be done.  He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them.  Then when a space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon it.

“As the flames roared on toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, ‘Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?’  The leader replied, ‘My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!’

“What a picture of the believer, who is safe in Christ!

On Him Almighty vengeance fell,

Which would have sunk a world to hell.

He bore it for a chosen race,

And thus become our Hiding Place.”

“The fires of God’s judgment burned themselves out on Him, and all who are in Christ are safe forever, for they are now standing where the fire has been.”

                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

      ✞Remember, judgment’s coming.  Are you ready?