Corner of Grace and Faith

    At this Thanksgiving Holiday time we will see many Television Programs, Newspapers and even on the Internet, articles encouraging us to be thankful. Some are from a purely financial motive such as advertisements that combine being thankful at Thanksgiving time and buying their products. The aforementioned seems to work. The day after Thanksgiving is supposedly the biggest shopping day of the season. Some people stay up all night, standing in line, to be one of the first allowed into a store so they can spend their money. Me, I am thankful I don't have to.

    Others are truly thankful and their thankfulness stems from something they have been blessed with or they have overcome. This series of Corner of Grace and Faith Articles began being written to a friend of mine who a few years ago became a Christian. His understanding of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, salvation and growing in grace were minimal. A year ago he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. After heavy doses of radiation, chemo and especially prayer his cancer is gone. Just recently his doctor told him his next cancer check up will be in 2016. My friend is genuinely, extremely, and joyfully thankful for the miracle of healing God gave him. He lives in another state. When we visit on the phone tears are shed on both ends of the line, all due to being thankful for God's blessings, pure joy.

    In His Word the Lord God tells us to be thankful and even how to do it. And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. Leviticus 22:29 The Lord Jesus does not desire your thankfulness to be commanded or forced upon you. He wants it to come from your heart, being genuinely thankful.

    You may not have been healed from cancer, but if you examine your life closely you too have much to be thankful for. Your family, friends, job, opportunities; and your home, are just a few.

    If you are a Christian you have the most important blessing of all to be thankful for, a loving Savior. One of the things my friend and I talked about during his treatments was being thankful during the storm. If we only give thanks to God Almighty during the good times then in reality we are expecting our Heavenly Father to be a “sugar daddy.” Those with a sugar daddy view of God are stating “fix me and I will be grateful, giving you thanks.”

   One of the hardest lessons for any person to learn is actually an on going lesson. When Satan had taken all Job had, his belongings, children, health, and home, Job sat in the ashes and scraped the boils

on his body with a broken piece of pottery. His wife stated: Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. Job 2: 9 Job had even lost the support of his wife. If the Christian truly desires to know God and experience His blessings, the next verse is of great importance. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2: 10 It took time before I had some understanding of that verse and: What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's 1Corinthians 6:19-20

Today, when trouble comes, knowing that Satan does his best to destroy the followers of Jesus Christ because he does not like Christians worshiping and giving thanks to God; I know I am on the right track. Satan is the author of confusion, destruction, diseases, misery and all kinds of trouble. It is Jesus Christ who gives life and the victory, reasons to be thankful.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1: 2-3 and,  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for, when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James. 1: 12 Talk about something to be thankful for: Jesus Christ giving you the “crown of life” calls for a Thanksgiving Day, no matter what day it is.

At this Thanksgiving Day time, for those who find themselves alone, in a battle for their physical life, dire financial problems or any other devastating problem, look up. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is truly the answer. You genuinely have something very special to be thankful for. Just start praising Him, thanking Him, committing your life to become more like Him, watch how things change. They will probably be different and better than expected. Remember: “when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians 3: 6-7 Read Job 42: 10 - 17

Praying God's blessings on the saints.

Red Dirt Bible Pastor Boyd Mins

Corner of Grace & Faith

Questions or comments, email: boydmins@gmail.com Series R # Christmas 14

Christmas time is full of people giving and receiving special gifts. Where you fit on the other's-centered scale determines whether you are more thrilled from giving or receiving. Most parents are more thrilled to give their children gifts than they are to receive.

It is the same with our Heavenly Father, He wants to give gifts. The most important gift from our Heavenly Father is His Son. At Christmas we celebrate His birth or “His coming to earth.” His earthly father, Joseph, was told that His virgin bride to be would give birth:  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife; And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. Matthew 1:21-25

Ever since man sinned and broke communion with God in the Garden of Eden, God has been making a way for mankind to be redeemed. Before Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem mankind, mankind had to obey the whole law of Moses. People cannot achieve this. Therefore: year after year people had to offer sacrifices in order to be made righteous. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.  Hebrews 10:3&4 Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can take away our sins to redeem us. Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem or make righteous all of mankind. To be redeemed, we, individually, must accept His gift of being sacrificed. Now that is a Christmas gift! The very words which identify receiving His atoning sacrifice, tell us it is a gift. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.  Ephesians 2:8 Grace means (unearned) {a gift} favor of God. Our part of salvation is the faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we acquire that faith as a gift from God. If you do not have that faith; ask God He will give it. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. Luke 17:5&6 Faith means: Taking God at His Word.

   If God were to ask: “What shall I give thee?” What would you say? God did ask Solomon that question (2Chronicles 1:7). Solomon's answer was: Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great? 2Chronicles 1:11  His request was granted because it was to rule God's people righteously.

We are told to ask of God, knowing and accepting His qualifier.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give unto you. John 16:23 The longer I abide in Him and His words abide in me, the more what I ask for changes. What I wanted in years gone by does not compare to what I want now. Today I want my heavenly mansion: In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2&3

A gift that all Christians have been gifted with is the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. John 16:7 The fact that Christians have been gifted with the Holy Spirit is truly a blessing. The Holy Spirit is so special that our Lord calls Him the Comforter, and that He is.

The Apostle Paul teaches that it is the Holy Spirit that helps Christians overcome the O'l man, “our sin nature.” Writing to Christians, Paul states:  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13 The aforementioned verse (and others like it including, 1John 1:8&9; Heb. 6:1-12) are the only way Christians are going to overcome their sin nature: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be His God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7

The gift of God is His Son. What gift can we give Him except ourselves? Your family, your nation will be blessed by giving God your gift.

If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2Chronicles 7:14 Merry Christmas

Praying God's blessings on the saints.

Red Dirt Bible Pastor Boyd Mins