A Thanksgiving Prayer- Matthew 26:11

“For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.” - Matthew 26:11

Our sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ had long ago declared that we will have the poor with us forever. No charitable man-contrived effort will ever undo the will of God Almighty. (For more on how man-contrived efforts work out against the will of God see Genesis 11:1-8) Speaking of the Old Testament we see that here too God has informed us that we will indeed have the poor with us always. “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’” - Deuteronomy 15:11. So the poor are with us forever. And therein lies the Christian’s commission to the needy: we are to open our hands to them!
It is easy to rest beside the security and fat of our own hearths on Thanksgiving Day but are we fulfilling our duty to the needy from the comfort of our tables? What have we done for them?
 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” - Matthew 25:40. Have we indeed said to ourselves, “I will do whatever I can for these people during the rest of the year but on this day . . . I will not?” Shall we now say, “On any other day but this one?”
Honoring our God and risen Savior is paramount in the life of a Christian and we honor Him when we follow His simple but often times perplexing command, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” - 1 John 4:11.
Today, as we celebrate the provisions of common grace that God has granted all of us, let us also share our abundance with those less fortunate. Write a check; send a bag of groceries; open your doors; set another plate at your table; volunteer at a food bank or local church serving the homeless, but most of all - open your hearts to those in need. Yes, we will have the poor with us forever but they need not go without a gesture of true Christian kindness on a day that we will be giving thanks to God.

The Prayer Life - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 
 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We do many things in the course of a day that we must do. We do many that we want to do. We do many that we need to do, but how often do we do the things we should do? As I thought about my prayer life a while ago I sat down in a quiet place away from all the usual daily distractions and pondered the question: Do I pray as often as I should? In the Book of Daniel we are told, “ . . . he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” - Daniel 6:10. Psalm 55:17 states, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” Is three times a day truly the standard by which we should be judging the fervency of our prayer life?
In our title verse Paul seems to put forth a greater standard for prayer, one that certainly trumps the Old Testament standard. Paul’s submission is that we continually keep the name of God on our lips. I believer the apostle had good reason for his stand on prayer.
When coming to God with our words we must do so in a reverent and proper manner. “I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word.” - Psalm 119:58. God Himself commands us to come to Him in this most holy way. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13.
But how often? Again, Paul answers us in the most exacting way - “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God . . .” - Philippians 4:6. Paul tells us that we are to rejoice and pray to God in everything . . . and with thanksgiving! Each and every day we must come to our heavenly Father with our concerns, our needs, our hopes, our joys and our gratitude. We must be prayerful all day and everyday. There is the standard by which our prayer life can be judged. May we constantly come to God in prayer as desert sojourners come to the well which brims with eternal life and let us ever be thankful to the God who gives and sustains our lives.

Anathema Maranatha - 1 Corinthians 16:22

 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
 - 1 Corinthians 16:22

Those of you who regularly read my posts will notice that the tone of this missive has changed. I have had to approach the meat of this letter in its raw state simply because the message of God’s grace is all too often rejected by those with whom we would share the good news of Jesus Christ. We are without doubt facing the greatest threat and practice of persecution Christians in America have ever had to stand up to. Our prayers are being squelched in the public sector. Our worship is being questioned by the secular powers as to its legality according to “political correctness.” Our symbols of faith are being torn down, removed, and desecrated by those who would see Christianity become a relic of history. How long will it be before crosses are ripped from the ground and forbidden in National Cemeteries? And their barbarous atheist behavior is protected by the “separation of church and state clause.” Yes, that which once protected worship in God is now being used to accuse and condemn us! We, who believe in the one triune God are now cast as villains. Yes, we are being vilified by our own governing authorities! Just to be a Christian has now become “anathema” to the world. In an article from “The Atlantic” (August 22, 2015) Hillary Clinton is quoted, “I don’t believe you change hearts,” Clinton told Julius Jones in an candid moment backstage after a campaign event. “I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You’re not going to change every heart. You’re not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts, and change some systems, and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them.”  They get it; all of them get it: no one, not anyone, is going to change the Christian heart! It is not merely our “evangelical exercises among the unsaved” that are coming under fire; our Christian hearts have now become the bull’s eye and center of fire for the secular world’s hatred.
As Christians we have always been told that we will face both hatred and persecution. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”  John 15:18-20.
 But no where in the Bible are we commanded to become victims of our faith! We may become victims “for” our faith and because of it. But no where in the Bible are we commanded to lay our heads on the chopping blocks! No where are we called to martyrdom! If we must give our lives for our faith in Jesus Christ, then so be it. We will be in Paradise with Him on that day. But within the holy scriptures we have been told that we do indeed have not only the right to life and liberty but the duty to protect and sustain that right!  “Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.” - Luke 22:36   Jesus Christ Himself said to us that we may indeed need the sword! Never to be used in aggression, but to defend life . . . defend life!
Our heavenly award awaits us but in the mean time we must continue to preach the word of God to all. We must continue to recognize and worship Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior! And IF IT IS WITHIN OUR POWER, we are not to allow those who would persecute us to have their day. We will not be like sheep being led to the slaughter no matter what our persecutors say. As Christ’s sheep we are to spread His holy word. And we are to be wise in doing so.  “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” - Matthew 10:16. We believe in the word of Christ Jesus. It will enliven us. It will quicken us. And it will sustain us through the persecution awaiting us. And should we survive the day, then all praise and glory be to God Almighty for it is He who brings us through the Valley of Death, and He alone! And to the one who by his hostility and hatred of God would choose the prince of the world over the Prince of Peace, let them be accursed. Lord come quickly!