Devotional Blog

Thanksgiving

11/27/2019

Two words can wonderfully and powerfully change your life. Two words can change your perspective and touch lives around you with love and joy. What are those two words? -- Thank you! Learning to thank God and others is one of the great keys to a happy life and a hallmark of a life of greatness. There is no better time of the year to make a change in your outlook on life or renew your focus on gratitude. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday to be with family and friends, to enjoy a great meal and spend quality time together, but it is also a time to renew a spirit of thankfulness. Thanksgiving reminds us that one of the great secrets in life is living with an attitude of gratitude. Early pilgrims faced a grueling winter their first year in America enduring a harsh New England winter and the loss of many family and friends, yet chose to continue to have a deep faith in God and an attitude of gratitude. In the spring their new Native American friends showed them how to plant corn with a more plentiful harvest. That first harvest they reached out with an attitude of thankfulness and invited these new friends to a wonderful feast of thanksgiving celebrating God’s goodness and provision. Living with an attitude of gratitude is more than a once a year thing, it is learning to focus on the things for which we have to be thankful each and every day, and allowing that attitude of gratitude to touch the heart and lives of those around us. We all have so much to be thankful for: gifts and talents, friends and family, seasons of the year and seasons of life…Take a moment to say two words that can rekindle your joy for living and brighten someone’s day--thank you!…And take a moment to say thank you to God. . . Whatever your circumstances know that God loves you and God is there to see you through. Take a moment each day to say thank you to God. You will discover a deeper power and greater joy in your life! Surrounded by the cold, dark walls of an ancient Roman prison, the Apostle Paul writes these surprising words of encouragement to people undergoing adversity and persecution:

(Verse of the week)
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus. (1Thessalonians 5.18)

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!
--Pastor TJ

(Prayer of the week)
Gracious and loving God, thank you for the many blessings with which you have touched my life. Thank you for the challenges of life that shape and strengthen me. Give me faith to trust in your plan and your strength. Mold me and make me that others may see your true reflection in me. Most of all may I experience your great love anew every day. May I be joyful in all things, and may I treat others with love that they may see the light of your love in me. Amen.

(quote of the week)
Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulty. Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within.—Helen Keller

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Faith

11/23/2019

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The Apostle Paul wrote a simple and profound truth:
"the righteousness that comes from God is by faith." (Phil.3.9)

It's a simple but profound truth. So often we wish to earn God's love.
But God loves us--that's a fact. And God showed us that love in Christ.
We respond to God's love in faith--by learning to trust, love, and share our
deepest self with God. It starts in a simple moment of prayer, but it’s a
journey that lasts a lifetime.

(prayer of the week)
Lord, help me to trust in your grace and love in Christ who offers forgiveness and new life. Thank you that Christ has paid the price for forgiveness and reconciliation, and help me to extend your love and forgiveness to others, in Christ’s name, amen.

Have a great week!—Pastor TJ

(quote of the week)
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times –Martin Luther

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us/

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Autumn Blessings

11/14/2019

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As a person that loves warmer temperatures, the bright sun, and all the grandeur of summer, I tend to hold on tenaciously to summer. But there’s a time when the brisk evening breeze, smell of wood burning in the fireplace, and colors of the autumn leaves, invariably win me over. I have a cup of hot cider or pumpkin spiced latte, sit back and think to myself, autumn is here, it’s time to enjoy the beauty of the season before the colors fade to winter. And then I do just that. I enjoy the fall festivals and the roadside crafts, and my favorite, a relaxing drive down a country road that winds through fields with famers harvesting crops and forests with trees bundled in fall colors.
It reminds me that each season of the year has its special beauty and its own unique blessings. It also reminds me that each season of life has its special blessings to be enjoyed. More often than not we tend to look to the past or press toward the future and forget to simply be present in the moment and enjoy God’s many blessings. I invite you to lean into the moment and enjoy the beauty of creation, the warmth of family, and the blessings of hearth and home. Make every day a special day and give thanks to God for His manifold blessings. God is good. All the time.
Blessings –Pastor TJ

(scripture of the week)
This is the day the Lord has made,
Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).

(prayer of the week)
Lord, thank you for the beauty of the season and the bounty and blessings we enjoy each day. Help me to keep a thankful heart and slow down and enjoy the blessings of the day, Amen.

(quote of the week)
We find everywhere in this world the traces of a revealed God and a hidden God; revealed enough to strengthen our faith, concealed enough to try our faith-- Philip Schaff

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us

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Halloween Hospitality

11/7/2019

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Halloween has often been at the center of tensions in faith. One the one hand, there are people who think it has a tendency to celebrate evil or at least the darker side. It is after all a holiday we sometimes seem to celebrate scary ghouls and goblins. On the other hand, there are those like myself who simply view as a fun night for kids to dress up with a great deal of imagination. In our home, my daughter has typically been a princess, movie star, or some fluffy animal. But what if Halloween really has a sacred side? What if it was a night of radical hospitality? Someone once said, “One sunrise is all that separates a trick-or-treater from a beggar.” Think of it. A complete stranger dressed in very strange clothes comes to your house and you give them a gift--If that happened on any other night, you‘d call the police! And certainly, no gift or treat. Perhaps it is more holy than we would ever realize. For our doors are more open on Halloween than on any other night as we open our homes to complete strangers.
On Halloween evening our church had a wonderful Trunk-or-Treat with people hosting cars with decorated trunks full of treats, games and snacks and even more treats in our fellowship hall. The guests ranged from the scariest of monsters to the cutest of princesses, young and old and everywhere in between. None of us were scared. Well maybe for a moment--There were a few pretty scary ghouls. But then we laughed and welcomed them with open arms. It was a night of wonderful warmth and cheer. The truth was in the end not only were the strangers we welcomed blessed, we also were blessed in return. As I served hot cider, I invited many personally to return on Sunday and wondered aloud how truly wonderful it would be if they did.
I was reminded of Abraham and Sarah who welcomed three strangers into their home and then after sharing a meal with them received the blessing of a confirmation of God’s promise of a son and a people from whom all nations would be blessed.
Where might we open our doors anew to a stranger and feel God’s blessing as individuals and a family of faith? For in so doing we might not only bless a stranger that may well become a friend, we may also discover a hidden blessing of God in the starry night.

(verse of the week)
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

(prayer of the week)
Lord, I am reminded in John’s Gospel that you came into this world which you created and still were often regarded as a stranger, yet those who did welcome you felt touched and transformed by the Light of the World. Help me to be open to the strangers along life’s way that I may share your love and discover new friends and new blessings along life’s way. Amen.

Blessings in Christ—Pastor TJ

(quote of the week)
There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met--William Butler Yeats

Listen to recent sermons by Dr. TJ Jenney at http://inspiresundaymessages.blogspot.com/
Check the latest leadership blog by Dr. TJ http://www.drtj.us/

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