"Where Love Reigns!"
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From Pastor Sheli's Weekly 'Prayer & Praise' email
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8/17…Mishler Family Visit!
8/24…Round Up Sunday!
Registration OPEN for Octobers Women’s Conference
Backpack (school spplies) Blessing COMPLETE! Thank You RC!
July/Aug Giving Opprtunity- F.I.N. (Families In Need) Christmas
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Good Morning Church Family, God is able and faithful! I am so thankful for the presence of the Lord in my daily life. No matter what we are going through, He is alway right there with us. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is the rod and staff to gently lead and guide us to where we need to be. He is the still small voice that speaks to us encouragement and truth about our situation. He is our defender and our Father, making sure that we are protected and taken care of. And he is our friend and counselor, there to listen and to help us to work things through. He truly is everything that we need Him to be in our lives. I just feel so blessed today to know that I can call on Him and He will answer. So many people have gods that don't answer or they don't have a god at all. We have so much to be grateful for in our relationship with the Lord. I guess that's why today I feel like we need to stop and take the time to thank the Lord for who He is in our lives. Have you ever done something for someone and they never thanked you? Or been a work and you did something extra but no one even noticed? How about your family? Have you gone out of your way to be a blessing but no one even acknowledged what you did? It can make you feel so unappreciated right? I wonder how often we make the Lord feel that way when we don't take the time to stop and thank Him for what He has done in our lives. I don't want Him to ever feel that way about me and that means daily being thankful. Thankfulness shouldn't just be an action we do once in a while. Thankfulness should be a lifestyle of how we live. If we let Him, the Lord truly does want to be a part of everything in our daily life. If He's a part of our daily lives, then we should be daily thanking Him for the things He does. What should a life of daily thanksgiving look like? When you wake up in the morning and get out of bed, you thank Him for another day to live to serve Him. When you are getting ready of the day, you are thanking Him for the provisions He has made in your life to do the things you need to do. When you eat breakfast, you thank Him for the food you eat. When you go to work, you are thanking Him for the transportation to work, the job He has given you to make money and the ability He has given you to do that job. Are you seeing how this works? A lifestyle isn't something you really think about, it's just something that you do naturally. I even thank the Lord when I get a parking place close to the building or a sale on something that I needed. I thank Him for the laundry I have to do each day because that means I have a family! Our heavenly Father, loves... LOVES it when His kids are thankful. When we have hearts of thanksgiving for what He has done and who He is it just makes Him want to pour out His love in our lives. How do I know that? Because we are created in His image. When people are thankful and grateful in our lives it makes us want to do more for them! When my kids were growing up and even now as young adults, when they come and thank me for doings something for them it blesses me! It makes me want to do even more. I bake cookies every week for my family. It's just something that I love to do for them. Why? Because every week they come in while I'm baking them and they thank me for doing that. They steal warm cookies off the cooling rack and I scold them for taking them too soon but they compliment me and tell me if I didn't make them so good they wouldn't want them. They give hugs and thanks throughout the week when they are eating a cookie. Sometimes they even text me thanks! With all of the thanks they give, I WANT to bake more for them! I'm an earthly mom... how much more does our heavenly Father wants to bless His kids when we are thankful!
The thing I notice about living a life of thankfulness is that there is not a lot of time for negativity, depression and sadness. When you make thankfulness a lifestyle, you start seeing life through thankfulness. You find the reasons to be thankful in every situation. When we choose to live our lives as thankful people, we bring ourselves into a dimension of heaven! What are angles doing in heaven? Giving God worshipping and giving praise around the clock! Thankfulness by definition is "a deep appreciation and recognition of God's blessings, goodness and provision in all circumstances! It is a way to worship God!" When we choose to be thankful people we are choosing to live a life of worship to God! When you are worshipping God all the time by being thankful, when do you have time for negativity? Depression? Sadness? The answer, you don't! When I talk with someone who is dealing with negativity or depression, I listen for any type of thankfulness in their conversation. You know what I find... there isn't any. When someone is in that state of mind, they are there because they can only see the negative. Can I tell you something? Being negative, depressed and sad is really hard on your body, your mind and your emotions. I have yet to find one benefit from any of these emotions and in fact, they most often lead to death. The Bible says, "Today is set before you life and death, choose life"! God tells us that there is a choice that you can choose that leads to death. We have a choice to the path of how we see life. God even gives us the correct answer to His question... choose life!! Everyone has things that happen as we go through life. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. BUT how we handle and choose to see things as we go through our lives will determine which path we take. I would like to encourage everyone to choose the answer that the Lord gave us and choose life! That means we all need to be looking daily for things to be grateful for. As we make thankfulness a lifestyle, we will live in the atmosphere of praise which is what brings us into the Lord's presence. See how they are all connected? It is so simple... when we have an opportunity to give thanks or grumble... be thankful! When you have something good happen in your day, stop and give the Lord thanks! Choose to not let negativity and depression and sadness have any place in your life. In the words of a Veggie Tales kids song, "Because a thankful heart is a happy heart... that's why I say thanks everyday!" God wants His children to be the happiest people no matter their circumstances or situations because when we are that is what will make us different than the world. It will make us stand out because when everyone else is down, we will be up! People will take notice and want to know how you can have such happiness even in the darkest of times. Then you can share with them that you walk daily with the Lord! And He cares about everything in your life and He can make beauty even from the ashes. So if He can, we choose to look for the beauty instead of dwelling on the ashes! Your lifestyle of thankfulness will become a light to those around you. So, let's chose to live lifestyles of thankfulness for ourselves and for those who need to see His light in us! Have a blessed rest of your week, Church Family and let's chose to be thankful kids to our Heavenly Father!! Blessings, Pastors Sheli and Steve
'What's Up at Your RC??'