How Thankful Are We?

Psa 50:14  Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 

15  And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 

How thankful have we been? We, by habit, are a complaining people. How many are complaining about shelter-in-place. We could complain and howl but give some thought to what is happening. Families are reconnecting that have been disconnected for so long because of too many activities that separated families. I prefer assembling as a church but thanks to shelter-in-place, my message of Jesus on Wednesday and Sunday have reached New York, New Jersey and six other states and almost 200 people. I am so thankful for this opportunity. Have we been offering thanks and paying our vows to the most High?

Notice this qualification: immediately after this statement, God offers for us to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Recently my calling upon God in the day of trouble has been prayers for our nation. Prayers by myself and church members and many others have been offered for other church members, a missionary who has contracted the corona virus and is in the hospital and his family that also have corona virus. We are praying for a baby in the hospital that had open heart surgery and will undergo at least one more surgery. Prayers have been offered up for a friend, mother, and wife that was rushed to the hospital with a possible stroke. Days of trouble are answered by the Lord and His deliverance is available which will glorify God when offer thanksgiving unto the Lord and pay our vows. Vows here means promises. Lord if you will heal our nation and those suffering from health issues, I promise to learn more about you. This is a vow, a promise to God. Let us be a thankful, promise fulfilling people and thereby glorify God.

I WALKED A MILE

I walked a mile with pleasure,

She chatted all the way

But left me none the wiser for all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow

and not a word said she,

But of the things I learned from sorrow when sorrow

walked with me.

William Barclay

40 – February 09 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

 

The Transforming cup of sorrow

1898 – A BAPTIST PREACHERS LIFE IS TRANSFORMED AND A CHURCH HAS GREAT GROWTH BECAUSE OF THE CRUCIBLE OF SORROW IN 1898 – February 9, 1898 was the lowest day in the life of George W. Truett the pastor of the renowned First BC of Dallas, Texas. It was the day that Rev. George W. Baines, Pastor of the First BC of Cleburne, TX preached the funeral of Captain J.C. Arnold, Chief of the Dallas Police Department from the pulpit of the Dallas church. On the 4th of February, Arnold, his 30 year old pastor, Truett and Baines, had gone quail hunting East of Cleburne. As they prepared to return to Baines home, Dr. Truett shifted his hammerless shotgun to the other arm and it accidentally discharged into the Captains right leg. Though he was rushed to Dallas for treatment he died the next evening Feb. 5. When they found that it was a blood clot to his heart that caused his death, Truett could not be consoled and continued to pace the floor filled with agony and self-condemnation telling his wife that he would never preach again. Her attempts to console him were futile. He continued to say as he paced, “My times are in thy hands.” That night his ministry was transformed and he reluctantly allowed the details to be told. He had a vivid three-fold dream. He saw our Lord Jesus Christ standing by his bedside and said, “Be not afraid. You are my man from now on.”  He entered the pulpit the next Sunday with drawn face and sad eyes. Things were different, the results cannot be disputed. During his 47 years as pastor he saw more than 20,000 members added to the church. By the time of his death in 1944 perhaps no other preacher was better known.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 54..

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Christ’s Sacrifice Prophesied

 

Isaiah 53:3-12

 

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:6.

 

 

Description of the sacrifice (Isa. 53): despised, rejected, sorrows, grief, esteemed not. Does this sound like a sacrifice that would please a holy, perfect God?

 

He carried our griefs and sorrows. Did we appreciate it? No, we turned our backs on Him. He came unto His own and His own rejected Him. Did that deter Him? It did not. He opened His arms of mercy and called us from the cliffs of hell. We turned our backs on Him and ran off like spoiled, rebellious children. He called us friend, and we kissed the holy cheek of God’s Lamb of sacrifice and turned Him over to the enemy for a handful of coins. We beat the thorns of our sins down upon His head, and He offered us a crown of life. He laid down on our tree of death, and we drove the nails through His hands that held Him there, and He prayed for us. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. That is love that man’s finite mind cannot begin to fathom.

 

Think about it. Oh, how He loved Him, “My beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17). Oh, how He loved us, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow” (Isa. 1:18). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor.  5:21). “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7).

 

 

Just Saying

 

God said it six thousand years ago; God did it two thousand years ago. The proof is in the pudding “that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:3).

 

 

Robert Brock

 

 

EVENING THOUGHT

The light is fading, the sun is gone
and I pause for a rest, with a sigh,
now is the time to meditate
on the hours that have drifted by;
this may not have been the happiest day
but no sorrow did I have to bear,
so for that I want to thank You, Lord,
thank You, just for being there.

Virginia Luers

THE MEANING OF PRAYER

A breath of prayer in the morning
Means a day of blessing sure;
A breath of prayer in the evening
Means a night of rest secure;

A breath of prayer in our weakness
Means a clasp of a mighty hand;
A breath of prayer when we’re lonely
Means Someone to understand;

A breath of prayer in our sorrows
Means comfort and peace and rest;
A breath of prayer in our doubtings
Assures us the Lord knows best;

A breath of prayer in rejoicing
Gives joy and added delight,
For they that remember God’s goodness
Go singing far into the night.

There’s never a year nor a season
That prayer may not bless every hour,
And never a soul need be helpess
When linked with God’s infinite power.

Frances McKinnon Morton
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