1Peter 2:23-25 describes how our Thanksgiving to God for what Christ has done for us and provided for us should change our lives-> ”He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”. Sin is the terminal disease of all diseases, because it is the only disease with an Ultimate Eternal Terminal Prognosis of Eternal Separation from God and eternal banishment from The Place that Jesus said he has “gone to prepare a place for us”! The Eternal Terminal Prognosis/Place for those that do NOT wholeheartedly celebrate Thanksgiving of God’s Awesome Gifts offered through Christ is Hell. The Eternal Prognosis for those that DO wholeheartedly celebrate Thanksgiving of God’s Awesome Gifts offered through Christ is The Place Jesus has “gone to prepare” for those that wholeheartedly receive His Gifts is Heaven and ultimately the New Earth that God prepares for our lives when Jesus’ final reign is established forever and all eternity(John14:1-7”John14:1-7”Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God; trust also in me.My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.You know the way to the place where I am going.”Thomas said to him, "LORD, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.If you REALLY know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."). Our dying to sins means that because of what Jesus did on the Cross on our behalf, we can have the ultimate cure for the “virusness” of sin and it’s ravenous destructive eating away at our lives. Jesus’ birth/life/sufferings/death/resurrection/ascension make it miraculously possible for us to be eternally cured of the terminal prognosis of sin...meaning that n reality sin has lost it’s eternally viral grip on our lives. We can still succumb to it’s temptations that can do great harm when we give in to them. But when those that have truly trusted Christ give in to sin, His Holy Spirit will in some loving caring and make us aware of the sin so we can turn back to Jesus’ healing before sin can have greater opportunities to fool us into the old ways of a terminally sick life. God ALONE has the Power & Authority to offer Eternal Healing which is ours for the RECEIVING through Christ ALONE! And THIS is the what’s & why’s for our reasons to Celebrate Thanksgiving everyday! Dear Lord, I do not have a mind/heart/life that lives in the state of Celebrating THIS Thanksgiving in my days as I should...I pray for Your Word and Your Spirit to ignite in me a Wholehearted Celebration of THIS Thanksgiving in how I think;how I treat those I love;how I treat strangers;how I work;how I play;how I plan;how I live;.....!

1Peter2:4-12 calls us out of “the crowd” to be different and live different from “the crowd” because we are “chosen and precious...being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him(Jesus) who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light .Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy....I urge you, as aliens & strangers in the world, to abstain from the passions of the flesh(passions of the world) which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day he visits us.” I have read this many times, & even memorized it...but during my days the TRUTHS of this passage seem to pass in and out of my ears without becoming an integral part of how I act, talk, love, live, respond, etc.! Letting this just pass in and out of my ears and not doing much with it in my life on a daily regular basis stifles my “becoming” what I am called to be as a part of a holy priesthood/ambassador for Christ(2Corinthians5:20,”Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ,God making His appeal through us...”). When our lives act,talk,love,live,respond, like the world...we are definitely NOT becoming what we have been called out & chosen to be. We may “do” a lot of Christian “stuff” and participate in Bible Studies,& Church Programs, but unless we are becoming what James1:22-25 says(“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror,and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”),we are really not changing much from the way we were before coming to Christ. If we participate in a lot of “GOOD STUFF” that is TRUE and RIGHT, & do not weave this “GOOD STUFF” into our life as an integral part of who and what we are becoming...then we are really no different from the world, & we miss having the ETERNAL BLESSINGS in our life that God has called us out of the world to have...what we do on Sundays and some of the meetings we go to and what we read regularly may be different...,but we will NOT be RIGHT&TRUE effective ambassadors for Christ...and our lives will be littered with many of the same sins and repercussions of sins  that are in the world if we just “do our good thing” on Sundays, during Bible Studies, or times that we volunteer or donate, etc. And instead of us having lives that those around us see something so contrasting with the passions of the world, they will see religious people that go to a different Church on Sunday’s and do different things once in a while, and may even quote scriptures once in a while, but have no evidences of a Miraculous God’s life changing Grace & Mercy in our lives. Our lives will pretty much stay the same as lives living smack dab in the middle of all the passions of the world that once in a while do and say different things, but with no life evidences of being Called by God to be “chosen and precious...to be a royal priesthood, that our lives “may declare “him(Jesus) who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”! Dear Holy Spirit, thank You for mercifully speaking to me through Your Word...the TRUTHS of these verses...as reminders of what I need to do in my life so I may “becoming” more and more a doer of Your Word so the way I act,talk,love,live,& respond,may become ways that “declare the praises of him(Jesus) who called “me” out of the darkness into his wonderful light” that You have chosen me to be with Your Help!

I read something this morning that made me think about a lot of things, and helped me realize the significance of a few things that must be RIGHT in order for my mind/heart/life to TRULY know the TRUTH PRINCIPLES of what I read. This is what I read->”When you pray, God Listens. When you listen, God Talks. When you believe, God Works.” The world turns this upside down by describing a god that is a man made god and/or fits UN-Biblical versions of The One True God of The Bible...and then applies what I read this morning to this man made false god created by man’s thinking. Satan is all over this, & will do whatever he can to give us a false sense of security in a worship of these false gods, along with their temporal pleasures & temporal successes! These never truly satisfy for long, and never provide eternally satisfying solutions for our problems and challenges. So how do we turn this right side up!? We go to God’s Word to learn how the men and women in The Bible prayed, and especially how Jesus PRAYED; We go to God’s Word to learn how the men and women in the Bible knew God’s Voice from all others; And we go to The Bible to learn how God Spoke to these men and women who prayed to Him, & about the Character of God and His Ways...so we will have the wisdom&discernment needed for us to know God’s True Voice and His True Intervention in our lives and the PURPOSES of His Sovereign Voice&Intervention in our lives. If I am NOT going to God’s Word for the PURPOSE of learning these things, then I will fall far short of having the True Peace of knowing God is hearing my prayers and the True Peace&Joy of knowing His Voice in my life, and having a growing True Faith by seeing how God Desires to Work in and around my life. And even more significant, I will be going off in all sorts of wrong directions and making all sorts of wrong judgements & decisions that even though they may temporarily please & satisfy, they will all be “dead ends”! Dear Lord, I have many “dead ends” in my life...I praise You for the Sovereign Promise of Romans 8:28 that when I turn my mind/heart/life right side up by turning to You and loving You and seeking Your Purposes for my life that You have plans for all things to be turned around for my good(Romans8:28,”And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose.”). Dear Lord, I pray for Your Help in learning more about having one on one conversations/prayer with You, & to know more about Your Voice & how You Speak to Your people, & to learn more about Your Ways so I will be able to know Your True Intervention in my life and through my life....and FOLLOW You Truly!

If we have made 1Peter1:3 our own and have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefined, & unfading, kept in Heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation..”, if this is true in our lives then the “Therefore” in 1Peter:13-16 is for us!->”Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace...As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Peter strategically states, “prepare your minds for action...and change our passions...” God knows that this new life when we are born again is going against the grain of our old life...the life we have been “born out of”, and this is why we must begin every day by preparing our minds and being sober minded! The basis of rightly preparing our mind is that we must be sober minded-> The Worldly definition of sober-minded is someone who is serious and sensible. The Bible would further describe this person as one who is studious and seeks absolute truth as basis of true knowledge&wisdom (Proverbs1:7”The fear of(reverence of)the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;fools despise wisdom & knowledge). For born again believers, being sober minded also means being aware of God’s higher calling for our lives & being aware of the sins and temptations that threaten that call! So,we must prepare our minds for action, & not be oblivious to the battle for our minds that the enemy will wage with temptation and sin. We must prepare our minds with God’s Expressions of Love and Loving/Caring instructions for our own good...that HE freely gives through our studious pursuit of absolute Truth in God’s Word and Prayer as Proverbs 1:7 tells us to start every day...every moment-> being aware of God’s higher calling for our lives & being aware of the sins and temptations that threaten that call! This is a daily preparation and action that must take place in our lives, as 1Peter5:8 warns us,”Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We must therefore take 1Peter’s “therefore” personally and let our actions be directed by this right preparation.If not, then my spiritual obliviousness will expose my heart/mind/life to the prowling of the devil. Dear Lord Jesus, may I be so sensitive to Your Spirit’s presence in my life that I hear this “therefore” throughout every day...and respond to Your Awesome Loving Wisdom for every aspect of my life...may my mind be prepared by Your Word&Spirit and may all of me follow through with the actions You prepare me for today, by YOUR GRACE!

One of the messages of James is that we tend to seek comfort instead of character, & success instead of honor&integrity. We tend to prioritize ourselves and our personal feelings over the needs and feelings of many around us! Our selfish feelings & choices tend to make us hard hearted and many times oblivious to the deepest needs of the people around us...even those closest to us! This is one of the messages James speaks of in James5:1-12,”Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” Today, these verses are telling me that I allow my personal comfort to create an arrogance in me that “lifts me above” the sincere concerns in the lives of those around me, which very well may be the places that God’s Heart desires me to know HIS Heart in my day to day...and I instead end up becoming much like the 3 friends of Job that instead of encouraging him they discouraged him with their own self serving piety! Another thing this arrogance does is to build a sense of security that is in my own “control” and not that of a humble dependence on God’s Sovereign Grace&Mercy...Like the farmer in verse 7-8, that his/her patience leads to trusted/faithful waiting on The Lord for HIS provision. This farmer is UNlike the one in Luke12:15-21 that covets his abundance leading to a false sense of security based on abundance instead of looking to God’s purpose for his abundance through a the lens of Gods Grace&Mercy. The farmer in James obviously does something else with his/her abundance...that demonstrates his/her perseverant trust in God’s Ways and not his/her own. This perseverant trust in The Lord is what “Establishes our heart” for the purposes of The Lord & not our own...what keeps our hearts from becoming hardened from knowing God’s Heart and HIS Heart for those around us...and leads us to a heart & a life full of the character,integrity,& eternal honor that can only come through Trusting Christ for everything! Dear Lord...this lesson opens a dark place in my heart...where I place my own ways and plans above Yours in many things...I am so very sorry...May Your Spirit help me to be different according to Your Heart and Your Word....mold me to become a man of Your Heart,Your Character,& Your integrity...& may my words and my life bring Honor to only You!