1 Thessalonians 5:18
Ephesians 5:20
 
As I was preparing this I began to think about the situation that many families find themselves in.  There are so many families that still are displaced after hurricanes and storms. Even right now as I write this there are people that are planning to go to some soup kitchen or to some food bank or maybe have to go seek some type of aid to have a Thanksgiving dinner.
 
And then there are the emotional and spiritual storms. Many times at Thanksgiving there are families that are torn apart by the storms of life.  There are families right now that will gather around tables and give thanks for food, but there is strife.  There are things going on in families that make it difficult to come together and sit down to eat and fellowship.
 
But we can still be thankful.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 says “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”.   There are things we take for granted that other people would look at as a luxury.  A lot of times we take it for granted that we have a roof over our heads, three meals, and a warm bed to sleep in.  A lot of these things we take for granted and never think about it.  Most of us will sit down with our families and eat turkey, dressing, cakes, and pies, without having to stand in a line at a food bank.  Many of us will laugh and talk with our families and loved ones, while others can only wish that they could see their loved ones again. 
 
If we take the time, I am sure we will see things to be thankful for.  Maybe we don’t have a care in the world, and life is good or maybe things are not so good. Maybe the food was hard to come by, but at least we do have food.  Maybe the family situation is difficult, but at least we have family.  Maybe we feel like we’re at the end of our rope, but there is a rope, and even at the end, God will not leave you.  Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
 
Today, whatever your situation, I pray that you can see how God has blessed you and be thankful. As Paul said in Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
~ J. T.

Psalm 100:3-4
Ephesians 5:20
1 Thessalonians 5:18
 
We may not always think about being thankful.  Sometimes problems and situations may make us feel less than fortunate.  But for each one of us sitting here, there is something that we can look at or think back to and thank God for.
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As I stand here this morning I thank God for this moment and I thank God for you all that are sitting here.  I thank God for a job. I thank God for my family: my sons, my daughter, my grandsons, I thank God for all of them.  I thank God most of all for the shed blood of Jesus and that I’m saved.  I thank God for what He has done.  There is so much that we can thank God for.

Thanking God is what the scriptures tell us to do. Psalm 100 tells us that we are to come into God’s presence with thanksgiving and with praise – we must give God thanks and give God praise.  Not only that but we are to bless His name.  We bless the name of God by acknowledging Him for all He has done.
In Ephesians 5:20 we are told to give thanks always for all things. We need to give God thanks for the things that we have been taking for granted; things like a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, three meals a day and more.  

Sometimes you can be in a situation where you’re going through things.  It can be marital problems (some Christians have marital problems too).   You can have problems with your children (some of us have problems with our children too).  We can have financial problems (some of us can even have problems with our finances).  But regardless to what, we should thank God. In everything give thanks – this is what we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. We should thank God and praise God for all that He has done, even when we have problems. Don’t forget to take time out to thank God for what we do have, like our health; thank God for strength!  

There are so many people wishing for what we have. I mean you got people with millions of dollars, brothers, who wish they were able to get up like we got up this morning.  Yes, there are millionaires wishing for something.  Some wish they were able to dress themselves and wish they were able to go out.  Now, all of us can get in a car and drive if we need to go out and do something, but there are people that seem to have everything who are wishing they had the health that we have.  Maybe some of us might have some little health issues but there is somebody that wishes they had little health issues instead of major health problems.  We must, as the psalmist said, be thankful unto Him and bless His name.

We thank God that we live in a country where we can worship freely.   We thank God that we can all gather here in this place and say some things about giving thanks.  There are places in the world where we couldn’t do what we do here.

We should be thankful for those men and women that are in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world that won’t be able to come home this week and sit down to the table with their sons and daughters and eat Thanksgiving dinner. We should also remember that there is somebody who will be sitting at the table whose son or daughter lost their life - maybe in the Middle East, maybe in the street or wherever.  There will be an empty chair sitting there.  We need to pray for them.  We also need to pray for those brothers and sisters in war torn countries who are fighting on our behalf. Let’s consider them as we sit around our table and ask for God’s blessing.

We all have so many things that we can give thanks for. Take some time this Thanksgiving season to give thanks to God.  As you are sitting around the table consider asking your family members: “What would you like to thank God for?”

I thank God for many things, and I thank God for you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.  May God continue to bless you.  In all things, give God thanks.
~J.T.

Matthew 14:22-32
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Jesus says “Come”.
As I prepared this devotion I thought about my parents.  When you talk about somebody telling you to “Come”, I think about when I was a kid.  You all know this - your parents would say “Come here!” Sometimes we had messed up, sometimes we had got in trouble, and sometimes we had to pay for the trouble that we had got in.  My Dad would say “Boy, come here!” And when he said “Come!” I started moving!  

Dad spoke with authority, and I knew what he could do.  Well, today, the Master says “Come”.
 
Having sent the multitude away after feeding the five thousand, we read in Matthew chapter 14 that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray, and the disciples went out to sea.
 
As it reads in verse 24: …..the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves (NLT).
 
At the fourth watch of the night Jesus came walking on the water to the disciples.  Now in their fishing career these men spent a lot of time out on the Sea of Galilee, but this particular time they see something they’ve never seen before.  They see Jesus coming, walking on the water, and they say “This is a spirit!”   They were terrified and afraid but Jesus let them know “Hey! This is me, be not afraid”.  Now we know that Peter was very outspoken so we see him saying “Lord, if it is you, bid me to come”.  The Lord says “Come”, Peter got out of the ship, and Peter walked on the water.
 
As Peter is walking on the water I can imagine that, about like us, he loses focus.  You know a lot of times when so much is happening around us, sometimes we lose focus.  We can be focused on teaching a message or preaching a message or just sharing something that’s very important, but with all that may be going on we can easily get distracted.
 
As Peter was walking to Jesus, with the waves hitting him and the wind blowing - Peter took his eyes off the Lord.  You know right now brothers there are people struggling.  Talking about Christians, there are people struggling with all kinds of things.  But I want to let you all know that if you’re struggling,  keep your eyes on Him.  Regardless as to how the wind may blow, regardless as to how the storm may rage - keep your eyes on Him.
 
So as Peter was walking on the water and he began to watch what was going on around him, he begins to sink.  As he was sinking he cried out “Lord save me!”  There is somebody right now, brothers, as we are sitting here there may be somebody crying out “Lord save me”.  They may not be on water, they may not even be in physical danger but they know that they need saving; they know they need a Savior.
 
When Peter cried out Jesus reached down and caught him by the hand and they walked back to the ship.  Peter once again is walking on water.  
 
Now looking at Peter, if we study the gospels closely we see Peter knew how to swim. You all remember when Jesus cooked the fish on the shore in the gospel of Matthew. He was cooking the fish and it said that the disciples had fished all night and the scriptures say that when they found out it was Jesus Peter took his coat off, dived in and swam to shore.  
 
Like I said, Peter is a fisherman; he has the swimming ability, so why did he cry out?  Because he was afraid.   Maybe there is somebody right now, this morning, that is afraid; maybe somebody is in a situation where they are terrified and they are crying out for help.  There is surely Somebody who will come to your rescue.
 
When Jesus told Peter “Come” He spoke with authority.  He’s speaking this morning.  Jesus is telling us “Come”.  With Jesus, you will find peace, you will find rest.  With the authority of Jesus’ command Peter walked on a stormy, restless sea. 
 
Are you ready to walk over the troubled waters of your life?  Jesus is ready to help you, to walk with you.  Jesus says: Come.
~J.T.

1 Peter 2:1-2
2 Peter 3:18
 
When I think about growing or increasing, I think about the many things that athletes do to grow, to increase their muscles and grow their physique.  Athletes will tell you if I do the right things, I’ll grow.  Some athletes do all kinds of things to grow; they use vitamins, enhancements, growth hormones, steroids and all kinds of stuff to get bigger.  When I did body building years ago I would work out, take vitamins, take supplements and go to the gym.  I’d train 2 – 2 ½ hours a day, 4 or 5 days a week and a lot of other stuff so my muscles would grow.  And you all are familiar with “Miracle Grow”; you get Miracle Grow plant food to get your vegetables, flowers, and other things to grow.  
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What about Christian growth? How do we grow, as Christians?  It’s not like an athlete; we don’t have to worry about going to the gym or running track or doing so many laps.  We don’t have to be concerned about physical diets to grow.  How do we grow? As Christians, we grow my friends by reading the bible. 
We grow by reading and studying the word of God the same way we fertilize and exercise and supplement in order to grow.

Certain things have to be done if we want to grow.  As Peter says in 1 Peter 2:1-2: Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,..”.  There are some things we’ve got to lay aside.  Somebody might say I need to cut back on this or I’ve got to cut back on that in order to get in shape.  There are things we as Christians have to put down, and things we have to pick up so that we can grow in God.

In Verse 2 of that passage Peter tells us we must be “as newborn babies desiring the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow…” He tells us first to lay aside some things.  Next he says we need to be like newborn babies.  We’ve all been around little babies.  Little babies will be hollering and crying - they want to be fed, they want some milk!  When you continue to feed that baby - to give him milk, breast milk, formula or whatever - that baby is going to grow. Here Peter is telling us that we must desire the sincere milk of the word the way newborn babies crave milk, so that we can grow. As I said, we grow by reading and studying the word of God. 

We’ve got to know the word. Just like you ladies and you guys deal with the various plants and tools and equipment and things, you know them.  You learn how to use these things and sometimes we get to the point where we can just about perfect how we handle them.  In the same way we need to increase in wisdom and perfect our knowledge of the word of God.  We don’t need to be babes the rest of our lives. As we travel on this journey we need to mature. We need to get to the point where we can help somebody else.

When I get to heaven I don’t want the Lord to ask me: Where is your fruit? I want to be able to look around and see some brothers or sisters that I’ve encouraged in the faith; somebody that I’ve told about the Lord.  I don’t want to go to heaven by myself, I want to take somebody with me.   I want all of ya’ll to be there too!

Let us grow together.

Prayer: Father I thank you for these brothers and these sisters.
We ask your blessing upon them.  Bless us God.  Give us a desire, a thirst, and a hunger to study your word, God, because we want more knowledge.  We want to grow and we want to know more about you. We want to be able to share your word to encourage others in the faith.  We thank you God for your Word. Amen.
~J. T.

Are You Plugged In?
Luke 9:1-2
Colossians 1:9-13
 
Electrical devices need electrical power to work; they need to be plugged in.  If we were to plug the hair dryer or electric razor that we used this morning into an outlet in some foreign countries we would run the risk of it burning up. I know from personal experience.  In some places you have to have an adapter or converter.  When I traveled to Germany a couple of years or so ago I didn’t know that. I plugged my shaver in and I went to shaving with it and the thing started getting hot.  I realized that the thing was about to melt, it was really hot! I found out I needed a converter in order to be plugged in.
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In our passage from the book of Luke we read that Jesus called the twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.

In order for those disciples to be able to go out, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick, they had to be plugged in.  So He called his disciples together and He gave them the power; the disciples were plugged into the power source.  Even today, in order for acts of healing and deliverance to happen for us we have to be plugged in.

Here Jesus is equipping these disciples.  Jesus is giving these disciples power and authority and He sent them out to preach the kingdom. 

As we see in Colossians Chapter 1 Paul is hooked up.  He says to the Colossians: I’m praying for you all; I’m praying that you’ll be “strengthened in all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”

If you’re hooked up you can suffer long. You can endure some things if you are plugged up.  Sometimes if we’re not plugged up the least little thing that someone says to us we will go off - we’ll lose it.  But if we’re plugged up we will try to diffuse the situation if there is something about to occur.  It’s because we have something greater within us than what’s in the world.  We have the Holy Spirit in us.  That’s what calms us, that’s what keeps us, that’s what sustains us - being plugged up into the power source.

You know if a person is not in Christ - if he is out of the will of Christ the question becomes who governs him? Who leads him?  Who guides him?   Talking about myself for a moment - at one time I wasn’t hooked up. I wasn’t hooked up to the power source.  There was a time that as it says here I needed to be delivered … from the power of darkness”.  In other words I was trapped; I was trapped by the power of darkness.  But thank God I was delivered by the converting power of Jesus Christ.

We can take those little adapters and go to Germany, France, Scotland or wherever and use them to plug up our hairdryers and our razors.  Spiritually, Christ is our converter; He’s our adapter. He’s the one that makes us, that shapes us, and molds us so that we are able to go into the kingdom of God.

Are you plugged in?  If you’re not, you can be.  You can be plugged in to the source, Jesus Christ.  All we have to do is surrender and give Him our hearts; give Him our life and then just watch what He does for us.
~J.T.

Psalm 51:1-10

The Psalmist David had a fall from grace.  We know the story of how David committed sin with Bathsheba.  When he was faced with his sin, he was devastated.  Sure, he was still king, but would David ever be great in God’s eyes again?  He had been called “a man after God’s own heart”, but what about now?

We see in Psalm 51 he asks God:  “Create within me a clean heart…..” and later he says “restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” 

David repents and asks to be restored; that’s what the Lord wants to do- He wants to restore us.  He wants to give us back that joy.  There are a lot of people right now - millions of people - living in misery right now.  They are in misery because of things that have been haunting them for years, even though God has restored them. God has forgiven them but they are allowing these things to continue to haunt them and to weigh them down. God is saying wait a minute - you’ve been cleansed and you’ve been washed in the blood!  You’ve been delivered, you’ve been restored, and you’ve been put back in position.  You need to get that monkey off your back.  But still many people are haunted by things in their past. 

In these verses of Psalm 51, we see that David had been through some things, David had done some things.  But we also see him crying out.   David wanted God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation.  We know about David and Bathsheba - he had fallen into great sin but we see him here going to God.  David says God I need restoration; God I need to be restored.  And God stands willing to do just that. He’s standing with His hands out, saying I want to restore you - I want to put you back.  God’s power can restore anyone.

I just thank God that He’s a restorer.  He’s restoring families right now. He’s restoring relationships. He’s restoring those that have slipped, and those who have fallen.

I thank God because we don’t have to wonder if He will restore us.  We can ask David.  We can ask Peter.  We can ask the prodigal son. We can ask all these guys and others.  If we were standing in their presence and asked them - Will He restore you?  They would all say yes!  And we ourselves can stand and say the same thing.  We know our past experience; we know where God has brought us from.  If we cry out to Him like David, we can say like David, Peter, and many others, Yes, He will restore you.

In fact, you can ask me.  I know for a fact my brothers that I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Him. I would not be here if it wasn’t for God.  He has restored me.  And He will do the same for you.

Did you fall from grace?  Don’t worry.  God is a restorer.
~J.T.

Psalms 23:3
Psalms 51:10
Isaiah 65:17
 
Restoration is the act of putting someone or something back into a prior position, place, or condition.  It’s just like you see on TV or even around this city – you see people restoring or renovating a house or renovating a building.   Some people restore old furniture and old cars; there are different things that people do as far as renovation or restoration.
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When I think about restoration or restoring I think about myself.  As you all have heard me say, there were times in the past when I went through life as a backsliding Christian.  I was caught up in the world and didn’t even think about God.  I would get up on a day like today without a thought about God.  I was so caught up in the world and the things of this world, but I thank God that He is a restorer.  I truly thank God that He is a restorer.

In Psalm 23 the psalmist says: He restores my soul.  I once heard a sermon preached entitled “Slipped Off the Foundation”.  We have a tendency sometimes to slip off our foundation, to stray away from the things we know are right.  But God wants to restore us and lead us onto the path of righteousness.  David the psalmist is letting us know that God is a restorer. 

The bible does not promise us, even as believers, that we will be spared from difficulties.  There is no such thing!   We will suffer things, and we will go through things but we have a promise that God will restore us.   Sometimes God might want us to endure some things and those things will help define who we are; those things may well define our walk with God.  

It makes me think about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - look what He went through, but at the end, He was restored, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  I’m here to tell you restoration truly has come through Jesus Christ.

Maybe you slipped and fell; maybe you’re all out of position.  Thank God, He is a restorer.  If you give your heart to the Good Shepherd, He will restore your soul.
~J. T.

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Matthew 6:25-34
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We spend a lot of time worrying about things.  You’ve got people that are worrying about food, they’re worried about shelter; you got people that are worrying about jobs, about their relationships, and many other things.  All these things are important, but we shouldn’t let those things keep us or pull us away from looking to God.  We need to be looking to the Kingdom – we need to seek the kingdom first.

One thing we know is that if there is a Kingdom, there has to be a King.  The bible teaches us that Jesus is the King of Kings.  He is the King of Israel, the King of Righteousness, the King of Peace, the King of Saints, and on and on.  He truly is the King of Kings!

Jesus is our soon coming King; right now he is not reigning on this earth, but one day he will reign as supreme King over everything and everybody.

As I stated before, there are many people worried about many things.  Even some saints have been shaken because of this economy, because of job loss or because they don’t see how they are going to make the next mortgage payment.  Right now they don’t see how they can afford to buy the things that their kids need for school.  But as Jesus says in verse 32, He knows you need these things.  He knows what your need is; He knows what your life is like, and He tells us in verse 33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of heaven…”

That’s what we have to do.  Food, clothing, shelter -  all these things will be added.  If we do what? If we “seek first the kingdom”.  A lot of times we want to leave the kingdom in the background; we want to leave the Lord behind.  But we must put Him first.  We must look to God first. We must be concerned about the things of God first.  There is no need to worry. God will give us everything we need.

Jesus is teaching the disciples, and He is teaching us about the kingdom.  He is preparing us for the kingdom to come.  In this passage and many others He refers to the kingdom.  Even in teaching us to pray Jesus said “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come..” Jesus talks about the kingdom so much because He is trying to prepare us for the Kingdom to come.

As saints of God that is what we are preparing for when we go to church.  We hear the Word, we read the Word, we hear the preacher, and we hear the teaching.   This is preparing us for the kingdom to come.  

When Jesus talks about a kingdom He’s not talking about a physical or material kingdom.  Jesus is talking on a spiritual level.  In His kingdom, the spiritual things come first.  So we seek to build God’s kingdom through worship and praise.  And in the process we see that God provides us with whatever we need.  We have no need to worry.

We are kingdom people and we must be about building the kingdom and advancing the kingdom – that’s what it’s all about.  When I stand here and share with you brothers on Wednesdays that’s what it’s all about – to encourage you in the faith.

We thank God for the kingdom. We thank God for you all – I truly thank God for you.

Prayer:
Father, I thank you in the name of Jesus that we can come before you. We acknowledge you, O God, and we know that your kingdom shall come.  We pray that you will continue to prepare us for the kingdom to come.  Help us to continue to encourage other brothers and sisters in the faith, God, as we all continue to look to you.  O God, I bless you and we praise you this morning.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.
~J. T.