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Jump Start # 2478

Posted on November 29, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2478

2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

 

The thanksgiving holiday is over. The turkey is eaten. The football games have been played. Much of the company has returned home. It’s time for the world to move on to “Black Friday,” and Christmas. Thanksgiving will be shelved until next year, that is, except for the people of God. For us, everyday is thanksgiving. Every day is an opportunity to realize that we are a blessed people.

 

This week we have been focusing upon the four aspects of Thankfulness. SAY IT; PRAY IT; SING IT. There remains one final touch and that is to SHOW IT.

 

Throughout the Bible we are taught to be proper stewards of what God has given us. This is one of the best ways we show our thankfulness to God. We live lives that express joy for salvation and respect for who He is and what He has done. To say, I’m thankful to God, but I’m too busy to honor Him in worship, just doesn’t fly. Imagine giving someone a gift. They open that gift and say, “Thank you.” Then, they take that gift and put it in the trash. How insulted you would be. How upset you would be. Should it be any different with the Lord?

 

Here are ways that we show our thankfulness:

 

First, we take care of ourselves. Yes, right in the middle of the holidays, comes thoughts about taking care of ourselves. This is more than physical, this is always emotional and mental. Stress, worry and fear runs through too many hearts these days. That shouldn’t be. God has given you a wonderful mind. How are you using it? God has gifted you with amazing talent. Are you using any of that towards the kingdom? To say, “I am thankful for salvation,” ought to make one fight temptation a bit harder and worship a bit deeper.

 

Second, we take care of God’s word. We use it correctly. The Bible wasn’t given so we could thumb our neighbors and co-workers about the religious error that they believe. That’s not the purpose. It is to change our lives. Showing we are thankful means we will dive into the word of God. “I love the Bible,” comes from a heart that attends Bible classes. It comes from a heart that is diligently trying to live what is in the word of God.

 

Third, we take care of God’s church. We keep the church close to the Lord and instep with what the Bible teaches. Others are looking for fun and adventure, we are looking to the cross. Others want to fill the pews, we want to fill hearts. Others don’t mind ignoring and changing the Bible, we tremble at such thoughts. We want the church to be a reflection of Jesus. We want the church to be warm, friendly, kind, Biblical and loving. To reach that, we must be that way ourselves. The church is a reflection of us. We must move out of our comfort zone and become what God wants us to be.

 

Fourth, we take care of our families. God was the one who established the home. Marriage and parenting are God’s subjects. So, we must open the door for patience, grace, kindness and forgiveness in our homes. As Jesus was to the church, so husbands must be to their wives. And, as the church is to Jesus, so ought wives be to their husbands. The home is a mini example of both the church and Heaven. Our homes ought to be dear to us. “I’m thankful for my family,” yet all the family ever sees is my face glued to a cell phone. We eat and then everyone goes their own way to their bedrooms. Have a day when all the cell phones are put in a basket and everyone must talk. Have a day when you get out a board game and you play together. Have a family devotional.

 

To be thankful, is to show it. To be thankful is to take care of what God has given you. To be thankful is to recognize how blessed you are. Too many live like they are in hotels and driving rental cars. Hotels are not our homes, so people trash them. They jump on beds in hotels. You’d never do that at home. Rental cars are trashed. You wouldn’t throw cups and empty trash in the back seat of your own car. We can live life with a “Rental” mentality. We don’t care, we don’t take care, and we simply do what we want. As Christians we must remember that we belong to the Lord. We are His. We must live honorably and nobly with the right attitudes and heart. We reflect our thankfulness in the way we handle the things God has given us.

 

What does it mean to be thankful? It is to SAY IT; PRAY IT; SING IT; and, SHOW IT. And, for us, it’s not just the last Thursday in November. It’s all the time. It’s every day. It’s a way of life for us.

 

We are a blessed people. We are a thankful people.

 

Roger

 

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Posted on November 28, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2477

 

 

THANK YOU, LORD.

 

Roger

 

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Jump Start # 2476

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2476

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

 

This week we are focusing upon thankfulness. Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. There will be turkey, laughter, and lots of conversations. The little ones will show off. The big ones will look for a nap. But all around that day, and every day, for the child of God, is the spirit of thankfulness.

 

There are four steps to thankfulness. So far we’ve seen: SAY IT (express your thankfulness); PRAY IT (tell the Lord). The next step comes straight out of our verse today. It is to SING IT. The thankful heart is a joyful heart. A thankful heart is upbeat, positive and optimistic. The thankful heart sings. We tend to sing when we are in a good mood. And, here in our verse, we are told to sing with thankfulness to God. Thankfulness in our hearts. Sometimes we try to sing in pitch. We try to sing in tune. But those things are secondary to singing with thankfulness in your heart to the Lord.

 

We think of the example of Paul, late at night, sitting in a Philippian jail, hurting because he had been beaten. And, there he is singing praises to God. That example from Acts 16 humbles and shames most of us. Singing out loud, so loud that others can hear me, is not on the list of things that I think I would be doing. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that I would be complaining and mad because of what had happened. But the apostle is singing. In the dark he is singing. Hurting he is singing.

 

Singing with thankfulness has a way of just turning your mood around. If we are not careful, we pick up on the way others act and feel. It’s easy to jump on the complaining bandwagon. It’s easy to see everything that is wrong. But to sing with thankfulness, what a bring ray of sunlight that is. It has a way of changing our perspective and opening our eyes to things that we failed to see.

 

We have a lot of songs that surround thanking the Lord. We ought to. That’s an important aspect of our relationship with Him and our walk together with one another. It seems that ancient Israel forgot that. We can do the same. For Israel, rather than thanking, they complained. And, that complaining got old very quickly and it irritated God. Their hearts did not show an attitude of gratitude. They were demanding more. They were wanting other things. Unhappy. Not content. Selfish. Put those three things in a pot, and stir them around two times and you get a heart that sees nothing to be thankful about.

 

Have you noticed how often children like to sing? They learn the alphabet, the books of the Bible and other things through songs. They often sing in their Bible classes. We adults, are much better than that, or, we think we are. So we don’t sing as much as children do. And, it could be that is why we often struggle with being thankful. It’s hard to sing a happy song without smiling.

 

Just think about some of our hymns that focus upon being thankful:

Thank You, Lord

Sing and be happy

Count your many blessings, name them one by one

Joyful, joyful, we adore You

This is my Father’s world

Great songs. Great reminders. Maybe as you gather with the family tomorrow, you can find a moment for everyone to sing. Sing a song of praise and thankfulness to God. Sing from your heart. Sing, realizing how wonderful God has been to you.

 

We have hope, life, direction, purpose, salvation and love through the Lord. It is because of Jesus that we stand and fight another day. It is because of Jesus, that we know the worst is really not all that bad. It is because of Jesus, that we know things will only get better. It is because of Jesus that there will never be a “The End” to our story.

 

Singing with thankfulness in your heart to the Lord. SING IT. SING OUT.

 

Roger

 

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Posted on November 26, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2475

Ephesians 1:16 “Do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”

We are heading toward Thanksgiving Day and with our Jump Starts this week we are looking at the topic of thankfulness. In our post yesterday, we mentioned that there are four steps of thankfulness. The first is to say it. I suppose we ought to mention that before you can say it, one must think it and feel it. Otherwise, we are like the child who opens a present and runs off to play with it. The mom says, “Tell grandma, ‘thank you.’” The child, while running the other way, shouts, “thanks.” Was the child really thankful or merely doing what mom said to do?

The second aspect of thankfulness is to pray. It is amazing how many times Paul prayed to God about brethren and in most of those prayers he was thankful. Our verse today is one example. Paul named the Ephesians in his prayer to God. He was thankful for the Ephesians and he took that thankfulness to Heaven.

Just as it is important to tell each other ‘thank you’ and to express it to each other, we need to pray that thankfulness to God. Now, one might ask, ‘If Paul was thankful for the Ephesians, why would he thank God? Shouldn’t he just thank the Ephesians?’ Who was it that brought Paul and the Ephesians together? It was God. What was Paul thankful for? Their faith. That’s God. Their walk with Jesus. That’s God. Their love for the truth. That’s God. Without God, there wouldn’t be much to be thankful here.

Now, this passage makes us wonder how often do we pray to God for the congregation that we belong to? We often fuss about each other. There are problems that we see. Sometimes that’s all we see. Things could be better. The attendance could be better. The giving could be better. Need some fixing up here and there. The elders could do a better job. We could have better material for our classes. It’s like looking at our home. We see things that needs to be done. We see updating, painting, fixing up everywhere we look. We look at a wall and we see a mark on it. No one else sees it, but we do. We look at the floor and we see a scratch. No one else sees it but we do. We had someone over a while back. Before he left, he was taking pictures of some of our decorations and shelves. It’s nice, but I’m not sure I’d be taking a picture of it. He saw something that I failed to see or had taken for granted.

The same can happen with us towards our congregation. Be thankful? For those people? Well, they need to do better. They need to step it up. And, I’d expect if Paul was around, he’d be taking pictures of us. More than that, he’d likely drop to his knees and thank the Lord for us.

It’s one thing to pat each other on the back and to compliment one another. That’s important and that needs to be done. But we also must remember to express our thankfulness to God in a prayer.

Here’s some simple reminders:

Thank God for the whole congregation. Everyone. The big ones and the little ones. Can you imagine worshipping in your house with just your family and no one else. That’s hard. That gets old pretty quickly. Smiling faces. Hugs. Handshakes. Voices. Singing. Praying. Visits to the hospital. Cards received in the mail. Our spiritual family. All families, spiritual and physical, tend to bump each other from time to time. There are days when no house seems large enough, because of noise and so forth. But, in the end, we sure love our family. And, we sure love our church family. Have you told God that? Most importantly, they accept you and allow you to be a part of them.

2. Thank God for godly shepherds who lead you. Most elders I know do the work out of love. It’s a volunteer service and they often take a lot of heat from us, but what a wonderful job that they do. There are so many things going on behind the scenes that we never know about. They put out fires, and deal with skirmishes and keep things together. Everyone has opinions and much too often we each want our opinion to be the way things are. From arranging classes, topics, guest speakers, chasing after us when we wander off, these great heroes among us help us be who we are. Have you thanked the Lord for them?

3. Thank God for your preacher. What your preacher does on Sunday morning looks so easy. He’s good at what he does. What a wonderful gift God has given him to teach, write, instruct and encourage us. The hours your preacher pours into his work is unbelievable. He’s like a machine. He never turns off what he is doing. He is always thinking, planning, helping, sharing. It’s in his blood. We know so much because of what he has taught us. Have you thanked the Lord for your preacher?

4. Thank God for the many faithful men and women who serve the Lord. Many have been Christians for decades. Some are old and feeble now, but they love the Lord. Others, are young and it seems the whole world is in front of them. Happy. Busy. Serving. They teach Bible classes. They help us in our worship on Sunday. They lead singing. They pass the communion. They make sure the lights are on and the building is clean and comfortable. So many people behind the scenes. They put lessons on Facebook so we can listen to them again and again. They make sure the snow is plowed in the winter and the grass is cut in the summer. They pay the bills and send checks to preachers in foreign lands. There are so many hands involved in making a congregation run efficiently and smoothly. Little is ever said about them, but we notice the work of their hands. We benefit from what they do. Things would be so different if it wasn’t for them. Have you thanked God for them?

Thanking God for you. That’s what Paul did. That’s an important step in our thankfulness. And, who knows whether God has allowed our lives to intersect on purpose. Maybe the Lord knew that I needed you or you needed me—and here we are.

Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful brethren in my life. They have made a difference and they have made me better. Thank you!

Roger

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Jump Start # 2474

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2474

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

 

This is Thanksgiving Week. It’s a busy time for many families. Some will be traveling and others will be hosting. Great food. Good times. Little ones being with big ones. Games. Football. Movies. And, sprinkled through all of this is the spirit of being Thankful.

 

This week, we want to focus our Jump Starts upon the wonderful concept of being thankful. We hope that these thoughts will help you in being thankful to others and especially to the Lord. It may be just me, but it sure seems this year that Thanksgiving is being squeezed out by Christmas. I understand from a retailers standpoint that Christmas is the make-it or break-it point for many stores. But let’s not push Thanksgiving completely out of the picture. And, for disciples of Jesus, being thankful doesn’t surround a Thursday in November, but it’s an expression of the heart every day.

 

In our verse today, the expression, “in everything give thanks,” seems hard to do. Oh, it’s easy to be thankful in the sunshine days. It’s easy when things are going your way. Food in your belly, money in your wallet, things good at home, at work and the church, sure is easy to be thankful. But the “in everything,” means simply that, “in everything.” When the sun isn’t shinning. When things are tough. When storms are gathering on the horizon. When there are tears in your eyes. When others have hurt you. When you are discouraged. When you are not sure what the next step ought to be. Boy, it’s really hard to be thankful then. But, God is there. He always is. God is already into tomorrow. God is still there after the storm passes. God is there after we get back up on our feet. God has been good to us.

 

There are four aspects of Thankfulness that I want to share with you, one each day.

 

First, Thankfulness is something we express. You say it. “Thank you.” Two simple words that show that you appreciate what was done, you recognize the giver of the blessing and it has made you glad. Thank you. Sometimes the words just do not seem enough, but there are times when that is all that we can do.

 

Being thankful means you say it. You send a card expressing it. You, with a smile on your face and an embrace of your arms, let the other person know that you love them and appreciate them. Thank you. Great words. Important words. Necessary words. Without saying them, a person wonders if you liked what was done. Without saying those two words, we tend to take things for granted.

 

Looking back, I think of all those meals my dear mother made for us when I was young. I know I complained when I didn’t like something, but I don’t remember thanking her very much. It’s easy to assume that a person knows, but you need to say it. It’s easy to think, “Well, that’s their job, they are supposed to do that.” But still, it’s nice just to say those two little words, “Thank you.”

 

I have found that it’s easier to thank up than it is to thank down. Someone in a higher position, someone wealthier than me, gives me a gift, I’ll be thankful. I’ll say it. But what about being thankful to the person who might be below me. It’s Monday. It’s our trash day. The trucks roll through the neighborhood bright and early every Monday. I don’t think I’ve ever thanked the Lord for the trash men. If they don’t empty the can completely, I might grumble, but thank them, can’t say I ever have. I don’t even know their names. But today, I said a prayer for my trash guys. I prayed that they would be safe as they worked and I thanked the Lord for the work that they do. I don’t think I’d last long doing their job. And, yes, I pay for this service, but still, it would be a mess if I had to deal with all the trash myself.

 

Then I thought about the kids at church. Sometimes they can be real loud, especially when I’m trying to preach. I can get annoyed some days. But those little voices may someday be leading singing here. I must go out of my way and talk to the little ones. Years from now, when I’m on the other side, one of them might say to a friend, “the very first preacher I remember is a guy named Roger.” Boy, I want to leave a good impression on those little hearts. I’m thankful that moms and dads bring them. Somedays, it looks like the parents are preparing a journey across the planet, with all the backpacks, book bags and stuff that they bring. But they come. They are making a difference. I am thankful for that. Thank You.

 

To be thankful is to express it. Say it. Say it to your family. Moms and dads, sometimes we are on our kids about how sloppy their rooms are, how late they always are, how absent minded they seem to be, but where would we be without our wonderful children. Say it, Thank You.

 

To be thankful is to express it. Say it. Think about the meals you eat at home. Think about all the bills that are paid on time every month. Think about how the house is taken care of, both on the inside and the outside. The cars are working, the clothes are clean, the dishes are washed, the floors are swept—someone is doing all of these things. It looks great. We are glad it’s this way. Have we said the two special words, thank you?

 

To be thankful is to express it. Say it. Now, we come to God. Life. Hope. Salvation. Jesus. The Bible. His kingdom. Friends. Health. Joy. Peace. He is always there for you. He blesses you. He forgives you. He trusts you. He loves you. Have you told Him those two simple words, ‘Thank You.’ Where would you be today, without Jesus? What messes might you be in if it were not for Jesus? Think about all the wonderful people you know because of Jesus. Had it not been for Jesus, you’d never met these people.

 

Thank you, just doesn’t seem strong enough. Actually, it’s not. It’s the first of four steps that ties all of this together.

 

Thank You…

 

Roger