You just never know what’s over the next hill.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Texas War Lord)

    “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
              –Colossians 2:7 (NLT)
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The little church where we attend has an unofficial theme song.  It is sung at every other Sunday.  It’s a good song, and because we sing it so often the words often come to me during the week.  

         “I woke up this morning feeling fine
          I woke up with heaven on my mind,
          I woke up with joy in my soul
          Cause I knew my Lord had control…”
                 -Mosie Lister

What a reason to be thankful!  The Lord has everything under control!  Don’t fret, don’t worry, don’t sweat the small stuff, in fact don’t even sweat the large stuff.  The Lord is guiding my life, ordering my footsteps, and giving me calm assurance that He is not threatened, worried, or anxious about things here on earth.  Be thankful!
    God often told the Israelites to remember what He had done in the past.  It would give them faith, and it would help assure them that He would do the same in the present.  Take a little time for memories this Thanksgiving.  Remember how blest you have been because of the Lord and how He had taken care of you in the past.  I mentioned to Annie regarding our first Thanksgiving together fifty years ago.  I took her to visit my family in Colorado.  We lived in an old two-story brick house.  Now back in the 1960s, Boulder was known as a windy city, my wife to be stayed in the room with my Aunt Bern, notorious for her snoring.  I thought I lost my wife-to-be as one of those wind storms came up, and my Aunt tried to outdo it with her snoring.  Ah, but now, it brings a smile.  Memories, lessons, the leading of the hand of the Lord–be thankful!
    God is still working, He is still involved with us today; right now!  Despite a virus run rampant, despite serious storms, fires, and other natural calamities, God is working.  His keeping-power is with us.  Perhaps He is trying to wake some of us up, telling us to get ready.  Don’t be afraid of the day.  Don’t let the devil, or circumstance steal your joy, trust in the Lord for He has control.  Be thankful for this day!
   The future?  Who knows what will happen?  The crazy liberal left will take charge of the government.  Do you think that God is worried?  Do you think He is scared of liberals, and that He might run and hide and not protect His children?  Bah, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Look to the future with assurance that He will lay out a path for you to follow.  If we go by the grave, or if we are caught up with Him when He comes, we can always trust Him and recognize that He is in control.  Be thankful for His unfailing grace in the days ahead.
    So enjoy Thanksgiving, your family and friends, your turkey, dressing, and all the other fixin’s, plus plenty of pie.  Enjoy, but also be giving thanks.  Make it a day of truly being thankful.  The Scripture admonishes us to be thankful in all things, then you can:

         “…There’s a light that always shines
          Down inside this heart of mine,
          I’ve got heaven on my mind,
          And now I’m feeling mighty fine.”

Good people, caught up in bad times.  I’m afraid that’s been the way of the world since the first days.  We won’t see the end of it in our short span upon the earth.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (The Buckskin Line)

    “But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
              –Jonah 2:9 (NKJV)
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    “You are the man!”  How would you like for a prophet to stick his bony finger in your face and make that declaration?  How would you react?  Would anger seethe within you?  Would you strike out in anger?  Or would you break down and acknowledge the fact that before God you are a sinner?  Look are David’s response in Psalm 51.

    1 – Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love; according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.
    2 – Wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.
    3 – For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.
    4 – Against You—You alone—I have sinned and done this evil in Your sight.  So You are right when You pass sentence;
You are blameless when You judge.
    5 – Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
    6 – Surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within.
    7 – Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
    8 – Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
    9 – Turn Your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.
   10 – God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
   11 – Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
   12 – Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit.  (HCSB)

David realized that the only hope he has is in God.  Right from the start, he makes three requests of the Lord.  He recognizes the need for the Lord’s mercy, or as the HCSB “faithful love.”  He then asks for the Lord to “blot” out his sin.  Then he pleads for God to cleanse him.  There is stain left when we sin, we long to be clean and only God can bring the cleansing that we need.
    David knows he must repent.  “Repentance leads us away from our failures into God’s plan for our tomorrows.” (Wood)  There are several things that we see in this Psalm that happens when we repent.

         1)  A pure heart (vs 10)  Only God can give this:  the work of personal repair lies outside any human effort.  The old heart is too clogged with sin to ever function well.
         2)  A renewed spirit (vs 10) When my conscience is clean, I can live energetically in the face of constant pressures–God gives a steadfast spirit.
         3)  Presence with the Lord (vs 11)  David knew the sting of banishment from Saul’s court.  He wants no exile from God.
         4)  Infilling of God’s spirit (vs 11)  The Spirit struggles with us while we are in sin.  He did not cease His faithfulness in convicting us of sin; now, He comes to indwell and empower us for service.
         5)  Restoration of joy (vs 12)  Joy in God vanishes during our season of sin.  When we repent, God puts the lift back into our hearts.
         6)  Readiness to please God (vs 12)  The forgiven person needs no external compulsion to do good, but desires a willing spirit to serve God.  (George O. Wood)

    Many might say that they are too sinful to go before God, and they are correct if they do not get the sin taken care of.  It is at a time such as this that we must go to God in repentance.  We fall before Him realizing that we cannot do it within ourselves, we must have God.  “This kind of prayer requires a certain kind of God.  No man will go to God just because he knows how poor he is in sin, unless he knows how rich God is in mercy.” (David Redding)  God is full of grace and mercy; He is longsuffering and kind; He is faithful to us and loves us despite our failings.  Yet it is up to us to call upon Him.
    There is one more thing I see in verse 12.  I have to think that David was a “New Testament” man.  Notice his cry, “Restore the joy of my salvation”.  He doesn’t say, “save me again,” but he realizes that the joy is gone.  He is down and out.  Then he asks for a willing spirit to obey.  Obedience to the will of the Lord brings joy.  Repentance restores joy.

         “Lord Jesus, you see that I patiently wait;
          Come now, and within me a new heart create;
          To those who have sought you, you never said, ‘No.’
          Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
                  –James Nicholson

Sometimes it takes the tough times to remember the important things.”
              –Stephen Bly  (Shadow of Legends)

    “For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the Lord; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.”
              –Isaiah 51:3 (NKJV)
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I am concerned that people are not going to focus properly on the coming week.  Thanksgiving is next Thursday; a day that was set aside specifically for Americans to enjoy family and be thankful for their blessings.  It is a time to contemplate all the bounty that we have and be thankful for it.  We are to remember God and how He cares for us.
    Perhaps it is a time that we need to put aside our worries and fears (they’re not good to carry with you anyway) and bring our eyes back to a proper perspective, a view of the Almighty and His great love for us.  There have been warnings issued against having too many people at your Thanksgiving dinner.  That is a slap in the face of the history of this nation.  Do not let fear ruin the wonderful blessings that Thanksgiving brings.
    Three Scriptures come immediately to my mind as Thanksgiving approaches, two of which are found in Philippians.

         “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” (1:3, NKJV)

         “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”  (4:6, NKJV)

Often that first verse comes to me.  I think of friends and family, those of the past and those who are current.  I am thankful for them in how they touched my life and how they blest me just by being there and becoming part of my life.  Sometimes they bring a smile to my face whether in memory or in some present deed that they have done.
    The next verse should speak to all of us.  Do not be anxious for there will be enough toilet paper to go around.  I’ve heard that there is already a shortage and hoarding in the East.  Crazy for sure, but don’t get anxious over it.  Begin to be thankful.  Far too often we pray without thanksgiving, yet that is to be an integral part of our prayers.  God has not changed, if nothing else, be thankful for His unchanging love, His unchanging grace and mercy.

         “O God! our help in ages past,
            Our hope for years to come,
          Our shelter from the stormy blast,
            And our eternal home!”
                  –Isaac Watts

    That brings me to the third verse:

         “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
                  –Lamentation 3:22-23 (KJV)

Though we may fail to be faithful, He is always faithful.  That is then a great reason for us to be thankful–thankful for His faithfulness to us.  God is indeed our help, in ages past, in our present situation, and in the future.  He cares for His own for great is His faithfulness.

Anger and hate are strong forces, but they can also cause failures in judgment.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Rubio II:  The Man)

    “Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.”  
              –Psalm 109:5 (NKJV)
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Is it a sinister ploy, or is it because the world is insane?  “Christmas is probably not gonna be possible” this year.  Some crazy journalist made this statement.  Add that to Cuomo saying that no more than ten can gather for Thanksgiving and the governor of Oregon saying no more than seven and that she’ll send police officers to homes to make sure.  Friends, is there something wrong with this junk?
    I was filling my jeep up with gas last week and talking with a fellow doing the same.  He said he was going to bury a good friend that afternoon; the dead man was 54.  The person pumping gas next to me then continued, “I am not going to allow nonsense to keep me from seeing my family and living my life.  I’m not promised tomorrow, so I’m not going to let a virus hinder me from the important things in life.”  I told him that would preach, and that he was correct.
    As a historian I have studied the horrendous and atrocious acts in times past.  There have been some gruesome times; the horror of man upon man is clearly shown in the history of mankind.  However, it is clear to see that this generation is the most violent in history.  Hatred abounds!  Men hate men, and they may deny it but the reason is that they have turned their backs on God.  A person that I know recently wrote, “I am pro-gun, pro-gay, pro-choice, and a Christian.”  Then she proceeded to say, “Don’t judge me.”  I was grieved, and all I could do was shake my head.  Talk about a delusion.  Of course, in the last days, there will be a great delusion sent upon the earth.  Men will wax worse and worse, there will be a sharper dividing line between Bible-believing Christians and pseudo-Christians who have joined with the world.
    We have the worst form of savagery in abortion.  The innocents are slaughtered, torn apart and ripped to shreds, and yet people, people who say they are Christians, vote in favor of it.  We have a lifestyle that God calls an abomination, and yet people, people who say they are Christians, vote in favor of it.  Perhaps it is that they only read the verses they want and not the whole Bible.  Perhaps they read the Word of God with a postmodern mindset which makes the Word relative to their opinion.
    Folks, perilous times are coming, I would say in some places they are already upon us.  Why the hatred, why the bitterness, why the disregard to the Word of God?  Look at the rioters, those who claim they are pushing a righteous agenda but in reality they are anarchists.  Are they not grateful that they live in this great nation?  Seemingly not for they are full of poison that is now beginning to ooze out.  Rick Renner wrote, “When people stop expressing a heart of gratitude toward God, unholy attitudes begin to materialize, then followed by unholy behavior.”  
    The holiday (holy day) season is upon us and now there are those telling us that it should not/cannot be celebrated.  Are we seeing the behavior of the heart?  Do we wonder why there is so much turmoil, grief, and terror?  It is because a nation, once so blessed by God, and I would add, still is, has turned away from being thankful to Him.  Lack of thanksgiving begets unholy behavior.  For one, I will enjoy and continue to have Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I will for me, be grateful for family, friends, memories, life, and most of all, my Savior Jesus Christ.