Reflection 3: God's Thanksgiving…

The Many Things to be Thankful For!

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2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. ~ Psalm 95:2-3

Everything around us both in nature and in this man-made world of technology I find God within it, the true and only source, the brilliant artist which made and planned every aspect of everything we see, hear, touch, and interact with, for God is in everything.  We live such blessed lives with all our modern conveniences and toys we take for granted.  We often times look to our technology and wonder how we ever survived without it and if truth be told there will come a day when all this that we cherish shall pass away, but God will remain.  Every living person on earth today has so much to be thankful for, we have so many things which we take for granted and yet through it all God still loves us and there is still only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ his only son.  I say these things knowing that you all know this and that you will most likely think.. ‘yeah…yeah…blah blah.’ but I hope you take time to see Thanksgiving from Gods perspective this holiday season.  See God knows the next great invention on the horizon, He is aware of our dependence upon technology and I know He smiles each time He hears a person confess how they could never live without it.  But, I also know He might just be asking all us each time we make that small confession, ‘What about me? Where do I fit in?’ I say that because it used to be a no brainier of where God fit into our lives.  It used to be an exciting experience to dress up and go to church and hear the message told in an unsuspecting heart warming way that tickled the imagination.  I remember a time when life was a lot less commercialized and the mystery of God was on the tips of everyone’s tongues as everything in nature was still an exciting mystery of awe and wonder.  Back then it was easy to relate these marvelous works to God, it was easy to bow before our creator and give him thanks, sing songs, and rejoice in his greatness as the one true God.  But I fear for our souls in this remarkable age of technology that we just might have found a way to not give glory to God, but yet start to see ourselves as the creator and begin to give homage to our things forgetting God entirely.  This I say to you because life is about so much more than things and gadgets, but rather it is and always has been about that search, that walk, that personal time spent alone with God in the silence of complete and utter communion.  So if there is anything I am grateful for it would have to be that God has never left my side, that he has always taken care of me, and He alone is still that mystery of wonder and awe.  That my friends is the true secret of life lived within the realm of God’s love.  I am so grateful that God has given to me the things that He has and that He alone has made everything in my life possible, from my family and friends who have enrich my life in the precise way they have and I can only hope I have done the same for them.   I am so grateful that God gave me life, that he gave to me the ability to write and express what is in my heart so completely.  He has taken care of ever need and taken away all my fear and hurt in the bad things which I face filling my heart with love, forgiveness, and understanding.  It is with these confessions I hold up to God, give him thanks this Thanksgiving because I know it was a want on His behalf to do these things.  I know that God was not obligated, nor had to do anything for me but He instead chose to do so.  His love is so replete with grace that His will is to spread love throughout the entire world, and if there is any singular thing we all have to be thankful for it is that pure agape love of God! So, I humble myself and acknowledge that the technology which allows me to communicate with all of you was made possible by God.  I know this because he has given to me the time to write, made available to me the many different computers I have used in all the various locations in the world I have written from, and most importantly the audience which reads and grows and shares each post.  He has given all these things to me, to share with you, for God alone made the technology possible.  In a real tangible way God gave to me, sharing His message through me much like I use the computer as a tool.  Therefore, we are all tools of the one true living God, and that is the highest honor anyone could ever have, and yes it is a reason to be thankful for, it is the main reason we all should give glory to God.

What I Own… Belongs to God!

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11″ While you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 12 For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God,” ~ 2 Corinthians 9:11-12

Call me lazy… but I own nothing in this world, for I rent everything!  I can say that I own my car but God gave me the ability to keep it for a specific period of time and one day he will take it from me.  But in this God always gives to me something better in return.  So from this perspective none of us own anything.  To say that you own the things in your life would mean that there is nothing which could take it away from you and my friends that is simply not the truth… that is not reality.  It is only proper to say that God owns everything and allows us to hold his possessions for a period of time… in effect we all rent from God! Thus, when God gives you a tool that helps tell a story of moral significance, or a mode of transportation that will deliver you to His people, or the words to use when your mind is blank is in affect God using you as His divine tool for His divine purpose.  In every instance you have been made whole and in that service not only has your needs been meet but so has the needs of the many, all of which causes great thanksgiving to God!  For to simply to say yes is in a real way glorifying God and thus bringing you closer to your true purpose in this life. Be not dis-hardened for God also is thankful to you for your service and in this he gives to you His abundant love.  To be in the service of God is the only true service we where made for, to love God and to be loved by God.  In conclusion we don’t own anything, but yet everything belongs to God first! We are thankful to Him for His generosity, kindness, mercy, grace, and love in allowing us to be enriched by all the experiences of His stuff… i.e. technology, cars, brick houses instead of caves, and the dinner we eat, tot he family we eat that dinner with.  It all belonged to God first and He loves us so much that He has made us part of His experience.

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Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may your Holiday Season be filled with Gods Love.

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Amen,

If you liked this Reflection on God’s Thanksgiving… please leave a comment. Also please “LIKE” and “SHARE” this post with others.

Brian Keith

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Reflection 2: God's Mindset…

God and His Mindset

“Happy are you who are hungry now, you shall be satisfied. Fortunate are you who weep, for you shall laugh.” ~ Q10, Lost Gospel Q.

Mindset is everything.  Simple but true.  God’s mind is sharp and focused on one thing, that would be you, me, and all of humanity.  This is evident from the first page of Genesis of the Bible to the last page in Revelations, all 66 books of the standard Christian version and all 81 books of the Catholic Bible, not to mention all 82 scriptures of His son’s teaching which were recorded and passed down to us in the form of The Lost Gospel Q.  God chose to make us in His likeness, He chose to make a place that would support our every need and gave us dominion over the Earth, He chose to love us no matter the cost, and God chose to forgive us and to ultimately save us.  Since these decisions every action God has taken has been to support those specific promises all of which He was so confident in that He had it written so everyone could see for all time His devotion to us.  Because God’s mindset is so focused on us it affects our personal lives and relationship with Him.  It is the primary reason why God also stresses the need for every person to be focused upon Him and His word.  God’s heart is set upon a real lasting personal relationship with you and everyone around you spiraling out to encompass the entire planet.  God wants a relationship so as to build you up and to make you strong.  His grace is focused on your sin and the forgiveness of those sins in such a way that it makes each and everyone of us sinners worthy of God when on our own we could never be truly worthy.  God’s mindset is one of hope and love, you could say that God is the creator and chief among the optimists always seeing to good in everyone and thing always seeing the opportunities through the calamities we face.   God’s mindset is to be there with us through those calamities holding our hand, giving us the strength to make it through to the finish line.  God’s mind sees what we cannot and His spirit is eternally seeking the path that will mould us into a more perfect version of ourselves, individualized personal development plans if you will that only ends with our absolute purification of our heart, mind, and soul.   God’s mindset is set upon giving us the length of years to see the truth, to testify to it, to live by it,  to live a Godly life, and yes to ultimately return to Him and to live with Him in Heaven forever.  So it is that when we are hungry He gives us food, both to nourish our bodies and our spirit. So it is when we cry He wipes away our tears and gives us a reason to smile and laugh.  God’s miracles support His love for us, His words have never been broken, and His mind is filled with thoughts of your eternal happiness.

God’s Mindset vs Our Mindset

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” ~ Isaiah 55:8-9

First and foremost there is no comparison between God’s ability to continue to see the positive through the pain and heartache when times get hard verse our ability which is infinitesimally less than, so much so in fact we don’t even rate on the universal scale of positive thinkers or believers.  This was made completely evident in the willingness for God to send Jesus, His only son with one mission and for that mission to have only one out come, Jesus’s death!   For that to even be on the table so to speak was far and beyond anything we humans or even Satan himself could ever comprehend let alone pull off.  With that said,  I can only testify that  it is this one singular thought that converted me as a child and has played a major role in my life ever since.  How could a god, a perfect being, an entity so powerful and magnificent need and love our drama? How could God need our ungratefulness, our sneakiness, our filth of mind and soul, our lack of courage and willpower to always do the right things in life regardless the outcome, and our pride and selfishness which is the root cause to so much chaos in our world?  The short answer is that He does not need us, but rather we need Him.  When a person first realizes this one point it is a transformational thought because what happens is for the first time we become aware of our own mortality and sin.  It brings to mind our unworthiness, it makes us responsible for our sins, and it also reinforces in every-way possible of how blessed we are to have a God who loves us anyway.  Then there is the small idea that comes next, the door opens and we see how many times in our life we have given-up on God, not God giving-up on us.  Millions of years have gone by and yet every action and promise of God has been to make our life and world better day by day, hour by hour,  minute by minute, and it is us who do not have the time to notice or even to say thank you in return.  It is mankind who has often given-up on God, and still our Lord is there loving us and providing for us – despite us.  This makes God’s words real and tangible,  ever lasting,  and never changing,  because they are perfect in every application in every manner and interpretation for God has made known what and who is on His mind, the what and the why that is in His heart, and more importantly the how we fit into His master plan.  For when we apply Gods teachings into our lives we do the right things and in turn those actions glorify God, when we love others it glorifies Him, when we forgive our enemies it glorifies Him, and when we reach out to God it glorifies Him.   God made us, He alone protects us, and provides for us.  It is God who chooses to remember us and to honor us by His grace.  Because these are the truths about God then we as Christians need to filter everything in our lives and thinking through his Holy filter and through His holy words and promises.  Because there is so much immorality in our world due to our imperfect nature we need to cling to the mercy and grace of our loving all powerful God.

 God’s Mindset Equals Strength

“Look at the lilies that grow wild in the fields. They don’t weave clothes for themselves. But I tell you, even King Solomon in all his splendor was not dressed as beautifully as these flowers. If that is how God clothes the grasses, which are green today and burned in the sun tomorrow, how much more will God provide for you. How little faith you have!” ~ Q52, Lost Gospel Q.

Faith in God is at the core of our personal strength in life.  Faith is the bedrock of our actions we take, what we think, how we feel, and how we apply our new and old knowledge no matter the source.  This is proved true every time you debate others, to the side you defend, and to the manner and tone you use when debating.  If a person has no faith in God then their arguments tend to be in the negative excepting modern teachings which are contrary to the Bible and to the will of God thus their personal beliefs tend to be based upon false teachings.  Therefore,  when we compromise on the truth of God, the Bible, and the teachings of Jesus and all his disciples who uniquely owned the moral authority to preach the word of God which has been written down and spread across the world, we fall into the worlds trap of acceptance of unholy beliefs and compromise ourselves in the most unholy of ways.  In this trap we find ideas that degrade our bodies, our minds, and our soul. Within this trap we hear unholy music, unholy words, unholy sounds that invade our personal space and warp our perceptions of the very word of God.  To this end what we allow in unfiltered by the teachings of the Bible, (which are the very words of God), and unfiltered by His moral principals do we then assign ourselves to the notion that it is us who have to become accepting of the world, instead of the world changing to accept God.  The side-affect of this is seen in our societies as we assimilate these false teachings into our beliefs and thus begin to comprise the teachings of God.  It always starts very innocently with a song, or a joke, or a law passed by a government or constitutions written and then changed by governments and like a computer virus working in the background unchecked it begins to change our vocabulary and it warps the very meanings of words we once held as holy and changes them to mean something completely different and unholy.  Thereby the words that you use to placate others so as to fit in or to not offend them, which would have been against your personal beliefs and suddenly now do not reflect God in your words, then you in deed compromised  God, compromised your faith in God, and fallen short and have missed the opportunity to share as a witness for God.  Therefore, faith is a mindset you burn into your every action, into your every words, and within that you share God’s holy message in order to help inspire others to become followers, and eventually for them as they study the Bible to become the children of God as He had intended.  Faith is God’s mindset!

Take this as proof, God created Adam and the garden of Eden so as Adam would be taken care of with more than enough to eat and drink and to be happy. God loved Adam so much that He gave to Adam all the wild animals and plants of the garden so as to fill Adams mind with the love of God expressed through all he saw and heard.  God then created Eve so Adam would not be lonely and feel unloved, thus with each embrace of Eve, Adam felt alive and could feel the love of God in the most holy of ways.  Eve too shared in this experience and was Adams equal sharing in all the fruits and rewards of a life given by God.  These two people knew God in a way we could never experience,  they saw God in a way we can never replicate, and they heard the very voice of God in a manner our ears will never in this life hear.  Though they were not perfect, and made mistakes and fell from grace, God in his punishment of them never stopped loving them and never stopped believing in them nor has He ever stopped believing in us.  God’s Mindset has never attempted to placate Satan, He has never changed His beliefs to become more popular, God is not guilty of adopting a superficial life style that is more in tune with the world and modern dogma.  God did not become more  accepting to sinful acts and more willing to negotiate on holy principals, nor has God  changed the meanings of words to make them mean something completely contrary to their original meanings to suit a new belief so as to entrap us further within our sin.  God has not stopped spreading His divine message nor has He changed the facts or purposes of the events of our history so as to be more easy on our conscience.  God didn’t send Jesus to save humanity and then half way through changed His mind because it was too hard or would hurt to much. Nor did God abandon Job when Satan destroyed His life, or when King David fell to lust and had Bathsheba’s husband killed.   Therefore, we need to adopt God’s mindset and allow Him full access so that our faith in Him will grow and our spirit can bathe in the full glory of the Holy Spirit.  God so wants to dress us up with faith, with love, and arm us with the knowledge of truth so as to protect us  for ever and ever.  The world is very much like grass which is green today and burns in the sun tomorrow, but God’s mindset never changes, never tires, and never turns away or forgets His promises.  For God’s mindset is perfect, strong, and equals strength and wisdom, character, devotion, purpose, courage, and love if you accept God and adopt His word as the truth, the life, the pure and only source for all eternity.

Amen,

If you liked this Reflection on God’s Mindset… please leave a comment. Also please “LIKE” and “SHARE” this post with others.

Brian Keith

Your invited to stay in contact with me!

EMAIL: listeningfaithfullyblog@gmail.com

Facebook 

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HELP SUPPORT LISTENING FAITHFULLY BLOG BY MAKING ALL YOUR ONLINE PURCHASES THROUGH OUR WEB STORE!  CLICK HERE.  As a special token of appreciation please accept a free downloadable gift from me to you: FREE BIBLE