Ecclesiastes 3:1; 11 NASB  1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:  11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

When it comes to celebrating the Christmas season there are generally two groups of people. Some say you need to wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating, shopping or playing Christmas music, and others say Christmas can’t come soon enough! But even the second group waits until after Halloween…right?

Humans are designed to observe seasons. We develop habits and traditions that reinforce the seasons of the year and the seasons of life that God designed for us. But God also instilled in us a yearning for something more: for eternity! Amidst the routine, our souls are searching for meaning and purpose. I pray this Christmas season we can look past the traditions and share the deeper meaning of the Christmas story:

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Luke 2:10-11 NIV

-Kevi

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Colossians 3:15 NASB Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Parents try to teach their children from a young age to “say thank you!” I remember my mom saying things like “Next time you see ____ you need to tell them thank you for ___.” I remember being a senior and my mom making sure I wrote thank you notes for all the high school graduation gifts; it seemed like that chore would never end! Somewhere along the line the idea is that we will go from being taught to say thank you, to actually being thankful!

There are many times in Scripture that we are reminded to “be thankful.” It’s not just a “thank you” that God requires, it is an attitude of thanksgiving that he wants to teach us.  So we will be “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Ephesians 5:20 NASB

Thanks for reading!

-Kevi

Our next daily devotional email will be Monday, November 30th, have a happy Thanksgiving!

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Luke 17:12-19  NASB As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

One of my long-time friends sends the best thank you notes. When her children were very small and I would give them a gift, she would send me a picture of a sweet baby wearing a new hat or holding a new pillow. Then as they got older she would let them decorate the thank you note or envelope with stickers, and now that they are learning to write—they write the thank you notes themselves (they usually come with a translation). The thank you notes exude gratitude because there is obvious time and thought put into expressing that gratitude.

The Samaritan leper put the time and thought into expressing gratitude to Jesus for his healing. The other nine continued on to the priests, but he took the time to be thankful! Now it wasn’t his gratitude that saved him from leprosy; Jesus said it was his faith. The other nine had the same faith (they all turned to go to the priests and show they were healed even before they could see they were healed) but only one took the time for thanksgiving. It is by our faith in Christ that we are saved, but let’s be sure and take the time for thanksgiving!

-Kevi

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John 11:21;37  NASB 21 “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 37 “But some of them said, ‘Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?’”

We had some people working in our backyard today, so I had to keep our dog inside. All day long she would whine to go outside and investigate. When the workers came back after a lunch break and she heard them again, she couldn’t stand it! I felt like she was thinking: “Do you really not know they are out there? Or do you just not care what they are doing to my yard!” The poor thing could not fathom my indifference. Of course I was not indifferent; I had planned for them to be outside and for her to be inside.

When Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus became ill, they sent for Jesus because they had faith He could heal him. When he didn’t show up until after Lazarus died, I’m sure some wondered, did he really not know he was on the verge of death? Or did He just not care enough to come sooner! But Jesus was not indifferent, He just had a bigger plan, one that would show his power and cause many people to believe in Him. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead “many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.” John 11:45 NASB

God knows our sorrows; He knows our fears and our struggles. He is never indifferent towards his children, we just can’t always see His plan.

-Kevi

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Acts 26:30-32 NASB The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them, and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment.” And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
 

I remember reading this verse before and being sad for Paul. I thought if he had only known, maybe he wouldn’t have appealed to Caesar! But reading through Acts this time, I finally got it. Paul wanted to go to Rome to spread the Gospel: he was given that desire by the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:21). But instead of travelling directly to Rome, the Holy Spirit sent him to Jerusalem first, even though he was warned that it was a dangerous place for him. His imprisonment and trial, and finally his appeal to Caesar, was God’s plan to take Paul to Rome, where he was able to minister from prison. What if Paul hadn’t trusted God’s plan (Acts 23:11) and was set free by King Agrippa? Well there were many Jews lying in wait to kill him before we ever would have reached Rome (Acts 25:3).

God’s plan may not take us directly from Point A to Point B. Sometimes we go all the way to Point Z before we get to Point B! I know I’ve questioned His path for me, but I’ve got to have faith in His plan: after all, He is the only one who knows where the story ends!

-Kevi

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Job 1:21 NASB “He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.’”

My son is definitely a toddler now, no longer a baby. You know how I know? Because he can now throw fits. If I do something to make him mad, such as, take away something he wants, or close the door of a room he wants to go into, then he will wring his hands and cry, or perhaps he will put his head on the floor and really cry. But the interesting thing about him throwing a fit is that after I’ve done something to make him cry he will still come to me with his arms up, wanting to be held and comforted.

My husband and I marvel at this: shouldn’t he be mad at us? But from my son’s perspective, all the good things still come from his parents! By reading the book of Job, we know that Job didn’t think God was punishing him; he didn’t lash out at God or blame him for everything that went wrong. Because the God that allowed all the calamities to happen in Job’s life was still the God that lavished all the blessings on Him.

If you are going through disappointments, unimaginable loss or sorrows, it’s ok to wring your hands and cry! Just remember to look up to God for your comfort, He is still the giver of all things good (James 1:17).

-Kevi

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My pastor, Brother Connie Cariker, just had his 80th birthday party!

The Perfect Pastor

The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes.
He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone’s feelings.
He works from 8am until midnight and is also the church janitor.
The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church.
He is 29 years old and has 40 years of experience.
Above all, he is handsome.
The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens.
He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church.
He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.
The perfect pastor always has time for church council and all of its committees.
He never misses the meeting of any church organization and is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.
The perfect pastor is always in the church down the street!
-From sermonillustrations.com

Dear Jesus, this is Dennis, thank you for giving me my Pastor, Bro. Connie, and Glo too, she rocks!

-Dennis

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Matthew 25:1; 6-13 NLT “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ⁶At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’ All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’ So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return. “

I just received a “Save the Date” card in the mail from my cousin, letting me know he is getting married in April. Save the Date cards allow family and friends to make the upcoming wedding a priority. We can plan ahead and make sure we don’t miss out on the special day!

We might not know the date of Christ’s return, but we can still make it a priority and take the appropriate steps to ensure we don’t miss out. It’s important to note that the bridesmaids that missed out on the marriage feast in Matthew 25 were invited guests, not strangers. Christ has extended to each of us an invitation to Heaven. It is up to us to accept the invitation and “save the date.”

-Kevi

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Matthew 26:39 NASB And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

“A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount up to and including their life.” -Unknown

I read the above quote about veterans yesterday and it really moved me. The brave men and women in our armed forces don’t know what the outcome of their service will be, but they sign up to serve anyway. Their bravery is commendable and I want to say thank you to each of them today!

When Christ prayed “not as I will, but as You will” in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was signing a blank check, too. The difference is that He knew what the ultimate outcome would be, and he still signed it! He knew God’s ultimate plan was that He would serve as the sacrifice for our sins. When they came to arrest Him, He did not resist, He had already signed up to serve.

-Kevi

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Deuteronomy 7:6 NIV “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”

Because tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, I was thinking about my late Granny’s prized possession. She had a portrait hanging on her wall of her father, Papa Pete, as a soldier in World War I. It’s a unique portrait in an oval frame, with the American flag painted around the portrait. She told me that she loved it so much she made her mother promise that she could have it when her mother passed, and she made sure her sisters knew it was hers! When she passed away and it was given to my dad, we noticed that on the back of the frame she had actually written her name and something to the same effect, so there would be no doubt. It was definitely her treasured possession, and I think of her every time I see it hanging in my parents’ house.

The verse in Deuteronomy spoke of the Israelites as God’s treasured possession, but I believe that applies to us now. God has inscribed us with His name; we are called Christians so we can be recognized as Christ’s followers. God has chosen to claim us as His own and He wants everyone to know we are His!

“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” James 1:18 NIV

-Kevi

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