Happy Thanksgiving
My heart is full this morning. I have so many reasons to thank God. As I sit here and list them in my mind, the tears just flow! I don't really understand why God would so graciously choose to save me, change me and allow me to be a part of anything He wants to do. Or, why God would leave heaven, come to earth, confine Himself to a body of flesh, live as a human and be tempted and faced with all it means to live in a body of flesh, die a horrible, painful and humiliating death in order to pay my sin debt. It's more than I can get my human mind around. Why Jesus - God in flesh - would do all that for me so that I could have forgiveness of my sins and so that I would never, ever be separated from God the Father is beyond my human comprehension. Then, He puts His Holy Spirit within me and opens the eyes of my heart so that I might understand His Word, learn great and mighty things about Him. Oh my...it's a wonder. And, He begins changing my heart and sharing His heart with me. As He does, the desires of my heart change and this absolutely blows me away.
Oh, I know this is a national holiday. And, I am very thankful to be living in the United States of America. God chose not to make me a Bedouin woman but an American woman. I have so many freedoms. I am absolutely FREE to fulfill my purpose as stated in 1 Peter 2:9-10. It says: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. As one who has received mercy, I have absolute freedom to proclaim His excellencies. At least for today. Our nation's thinking concerning God and His Word is very much different than it was on that first celebration of thanksgiving.
I am SO thankful for God's Word. The Bible contains the very words of God. Oh, this truth causes me to want to hug it and open it and breathe in the very essence of God Himself. He is the One that had them recorded and has preserved them through the ages. God created me and brought me into existence during a time when I can freely open His Word, read it in so many different translations, and have incredible study tools at my disposal that allow me to dig deep. The word "thankful" doesn't seem a big enough word to describe the emotion within me.
I am so thankful for all that God has done for me and given to me that I must stand with God and what He says in His Word. I must not only proclaim His excellencies, but I must proclaim His Word as absolute truth. If my thinking and my choices do not line up with His Word then that means my thinking and my choices line up with lies. Doesn't that makes me an enemy of God and a friend of the evil one who is the author of lies?
I am thrilled that I live in a time when it is has become possible for a black american to become President of the United States. But, I am deeply saddened that this man who identifies himself as a Christian stands and votes against absolute truth. I am further saddened that many Christians I know also stood against truth. I don't understand. What truths am I talking about? The truths that our President Elect and majority of Americans:
-Do not support the federal defense of marriage act (traditional marriage between one man and one woman).
-Support cloning
-Support cirriculum that promotes homosexuality
-Support abortion
-Do not support the protecting of lives of children when are born alive and survive a botched abortion
-Support laws enforcing businesses to favor homosexuality
-Support gay pride celebrations
-Support transporting minor girls across state lines for a secret abortion without parental knowledge
-Support partial birth abortions
-Do not support traditional marriage in states
Do you think God's heart breaks? Am I willing to allow God to break my heart with the things that break His heart? Your stand and my stand for absolute truth could be costly. But, we must remember that we are not our own - we have been bought with a price. That price cost Jesus His life and bought our freedom from the penalty of sin, the power of sin and some day from the presence of sin. Do you stand on the absolute truth of God's Word with me?
