THANKS GIVING 2019: IN EVERY SEASON

Good Evening Friends!

I pray all is well with you

I must say I am thoroughly enjoying this series of focusing on GIVING THANKS

I keep thinking about the instruction given in I Thessalonians 5:18

It is not a suggestion, not a recommendation but an actual directive:

‘Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’

HOW POWERFUL IS THAT!

I know so many who spend their whole lives trying to find out God’s will for their lives

I know I have done it

YET – It could not be any clearer

‘GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES’

In every situation, in every instance, IN EVERY SEASON – GIVE THANKS

NOW – this time of year, thoughts go toward autumn leaves and gatherings with family and friends

HOWEVER – tonight, here in Virginia Beach, it is feeling more like a wintry mix – SO COLD!

YET – THERE ARE STILL REASONS TO BE THANKFUL

Thankful for shelter

    There is no place like home

Thankful for eyes to see and a body to feel –

    Even if it is seeing the rain and feeling the cold

Thankful for friends and family

     I know I am thankful for my sons and my good friends

Thankful for employment

     Even when it is challenging

Thankful for peace-filled moment

   SO THANKFUL FOR PEACE!!!

The list could continue and continue ...

BUT – enough about what I am thankful for

Why don’t you take some time to count all things you are thankful for?

SO MANY REASONS TO GIVE THANKS

                IN EVERY SEASON GIVE THANKS

I am thankful for you & praying you have blessed, restful and WARM evening

God Bless!

LINE DRAWN ...

 Good Afternoon!

I pray you have had a blessed day so far. This morning at church was a great time. We had a guest speaker who preached out of the text regarding Esau and Jacob and the transfer of birthright (Genesis 25:31-34)

It is a fascinating tale which – if you have the opportunity – you should take time to read in its entirety. The pastor was talking about Generosity and specifically Producers and Consumers.

However, after church – as I drove home from spending time with my mom,

The passage of scripture [and the message] took my thoughts in a different [but related] direction.

It got me focused on the divine moment which is occurring, the shift which is unfolding –

THE LINE DRAWN

As I considered and evaluated my mom’s current situation, I will be honest and state that I began to become irritated all over again. She deserves so much better than what she is currently experiencing. And hers was not from a lack of adequate planning – but from scoundrels who would rob an old woman and leave her at the mercies of situations and circumstances.

It got me reflecting on how my mom’s own inheritance was stolen out from underneath her years ago;

How part of my inheritance was stolen in that same transaction;

YET – my mom made a decision that she was going to do something different

One of her favorite verses is out of the book of

‘A good [wise] man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children’ Proverbs 13:22

She had it all planned – a way to redeem some of what had been lost

A way to provide her thirteen grandchildren with a springboard for life.

She formulated a strategy to help catapult them toward their individual destinies

SHE WORKED DILIGENTLY – FOR DECADES – SO THAT IT COULD UNFOLD

She had a hope that the generational curse of stolen and swindled inheritances would finally end

BUT ALAS – It Occurred AGAIN!

You see, with that most recent conniving manipulation and thievery from my mom, went the inheritance which she had set aside for her grandchildren. A birthright wrangled out of the hands of the rightful owner – once again.

It took me back to today’s text:

And, although what Jacob did was highly unethical and abhorrent, it was not illegal

Understand, there are family members and any number of random general individuals [these are the CONSUMERS] who will always attempt to manipulate and strategize ways to wrestle from you what is in your hands so that they may line their pockets

It is an unfortunate by-product of living in a fallen world.

Scripture tells us, ‘We are not ignorant of the devices of the enemy’ II Cor. 2:11

Yet, so often, so many of us are just that – ignorant of the ways he is working and the people he is using

EVEN SO

TODAY – A LINE HAS BEEN DRAWN FOR MY FAMILY

Every generational curse is broken

The enemy has been commanded to restore that which was stolen

The LORD Himself has raised up a standard against those who would rob, and con and pillage

THIS DAY – A MANDATE HAS BEEN DECREED AND DECLARED

GENERATIONAL BLESSING HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AND ENACTED

I keep feeling the LORD speaking to me as He did King David so many years ago:

“Arise! Pursue! For you shall surely overtake them and recover all!” I Samuel 30:8

I speak to your situation – even as I make declarations over my own:

I command every curse be broken

That ill-effects be cancelled out

That what has been stolen, be restored

That goodness and mercy follow you –

And, that the blessing of the LORD overtake every area of your life

I have a very important meeting with a publisher on Tuesday and another publisher reviewing the same manuscript. Please be praying for me, and know I am doing the same for you.

Have a Blessed Evening & an Amazing Week!

Zenobia

exceedingly, abundantly

Back on the fifteenth of December,

I spoke of my fascination with snowflakes.

I love their uniqueness

and

the accumulated snow just makes everything beautiful!

I noted in that post,

‘We’re expecting snow …

nothing like what we would get in Boston, MA where I grew up.’

Well, we got snow that week –

And we got a ton of snow this past weekend –

I have been forced to eat those words which I spoke not too long ago.

Thirteen inches of snow!

It immobilized our city – and not just our city

All along the east coast, and even into the deep-south,

there are reports of the havoc the snow has wrought.

Exceedingly, abundantly

above all we could ask or think!

SNOW!               SNOW!               SNOW!               SNOW!

I know it has been a traveling nightmare for many.

It has also caused significant power outages –

the weight of the snow has burdened tree limbs

causing them to snap and fall on already compromised power lines

It is not a great situation and I would not wish it on anyone.

However, I cannot get fully disappointed by all this snow

It has actually been termed a ‘blizzard’

a long severe snowstorm;

an intensely strong cold wind filled with fine snow;

an overwhelming rush or deluge

An overwhelming rush or deluge –

That is my favorite definition and why I am excited and energized by all of this snow.

This has been a somewhat unnatural natural occurrence –

both the volume and regions affected.

Millions of unique snowflakes have made up this winter storm

and caused accumulations unlike anything many of these states have seen in some time.

The snow totals here in Virginia were third greatest since the 1800’s!

It truly is more than we ever would have anticipated.

Eventually, it will melt as all snow does –

But today, while my yard is still filled fluffy white goodness,

I grab hold of this takeaway:

Behold, the former things are come to pass,

and new things do I declare;

before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Isaiah 42:9

God thunders with His voice wondrously,

Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.

For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,'

And to the downpour and the rain, 'Be strong.'

Job 37:5-6 NASB

He orders the snow, 'Blanket the earth!'

and the rain, 'Soak the whole countryside!'

No one can escape the weather—it's there.

And no one can escape from God.

Wild animals take shelter, crawling into their dens,

When blizzards roar out of the north and freezing rain crusts the land.

It's God's breath that forms the ice,

It's God's breath that turns lakes and rivers solid.

Job 37:5-6 MSG

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.

“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens

and stay on the ground to water the earth.

They cause the grain to grow,

producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.

It is the same with my word.

I send it out, and it always produces fruit.

It will accomplish all I want it to,

and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT

AND WHAT HAS THE LORD SAID?

Look at the new thing I am going to do.

It is already happening!

Don’t you see it?

I will make a road in the desert

And rivers in the dry land.

Isaiah 43:19 NCV

However that which is spiritual was not first,

but that which is natural,

and afterward that which is spiritual.

I Corinthians 15:46 NKJV

I feel another blizzard on the horizon –

I have been feeling it for quite some time now – long before the snow fell

This natural snowfall, this blizzard, this overwhelming rush or deluge –

It speaks to me of something significant that is occurring in the spiritual. 

Proverbs 31:21

When speaking of the virtuous woman notes,

'She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

for all her household are clothed with scarlet.’

Like her, I do not fear for my family – naturally or spiritually

For we are clothed in scarlet – covered by the blood of the Lamb

Door have been opened that no man can shut

(Rev. 3:8)

God is indeed working all things together for the good

(Rom. 8:28)

He is supplying every need according to His riches, which are unlimited (Phil. 4:19)

He is revealing long hidden mysteries through dream and visions

(Joel 2:28-29)

He is doing exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think

(Eph. 3:20)

So I say –

Let it snow!     Let it snow!     Let it snow!