Thanksgiving

Thankful?

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment
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Are you ready for Thanksgiving this coming Thursday? Do you have the turkey and all of the trimmings? A pastor’s wife once asked me if I was going to join them for Thanksgiving. I replied, “Sure. I’ll be there.” She then said, “Oh good. Now we’ll have a turkey!” Hahaha, right?

A lot of people spend a lot of time preparing for the holiday. They prepare the menu, invite the guests, and make sure the house is presentable. Others begin packing their suitcases if they are going to be traveling far to celebrate with friends and or family.

I have to ask, though, “How many prepare their heart?” For the one who has been forgiven of their sins, through Jesus Christ, has a lot to be thankful for. Even if this life isn’t perfect and there are trying times, you still have God on your side. One of the best sermons I have ever heard lasted about ten seconds. The minister was sitting on a newspaper machine in Chicago. While the “Do Not Walk” sign was lit, he preached. He said, “I don’t care how bad life is. As long as you have God on your side, it will be okay!”

Because I am daily mindful of how much God has done for me and continues to do for me, I am always thankful! When I walk through the house, I feel blessed. This home has been a big blessing to me and April, and it will continue to be one after I am gone. (I am older than April by several years.) This house has the ability to rent out the second floor with no intrusion for whoever is living on the first floor. This will provide another stream of income for April.

Thanksgiving isn’t just an American holiday. It’s an ever-present attitude of the heart. Maybe you will be asked what you are thankful for this coming Thursday as you sit around the table. If you have a roof over your head, peace in your country, food on the table, good friends, and a family that loves you, a job that meets your needs and God, then you have more than most to be thankful for. And if you don’t have all of those things I listed, then turn to the God who loves you. Tell him. He’ll listen! And who knows, perhaps by the following Thanksgiving, you will.

“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? Mat. 7:11-20 (MSG)

Copyright © 2024 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.

But it Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I was flipping through radio stations last week and came across Christmas music. Yeah, one whole week before Thanksgiving, even. Why not? Stores have had Christmas items for sale displayed since Labor Day. But it doesn’t feel like Christmas.

Does it take party invitations or Christmas cards arriving? Making lots of plans for gatherings with family to make it feel like Christmas? How about putting up the Christmas tree? Or hanging some lights on the house? Going around and looking at other homes that put up lights? Do these activities make it feel like Christmas?

What if “Christmas” wasn’t a feeling but an attitude?

at·ti·tude

[ˈadəˌt(y)o͞od]

NOUN

a settled way of thinking about someone or something

So using the definition of “attitude,” I should have a settled way of thinking about Christmas. How does one do that? It starts with a healthy view of who Jesus Christ is. Yes, the baby that was born in a manger who we celebrate at Christmas. But that same child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. And he started his public ministry that wound up killing him. That baby one day hung on the cross and died for our sins.

Having the right attitude of who Jesus is, generates the right attitude about Jesus and Christmas. That means you can get excited about Christmas all year long because that is where God’s love began: He loved us so much that He gave us his only son. And ya know, I can “feel” God’s love; therefore, it can feel like Christmas!

Let us look only to Jesus. He is the one who began our faith, and he makes our faith perfect. Jesus suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.
Heb. 12:2 (ICB)

Copyright © 2022 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.

Big Chicken Day!

/ Mark Brady / 2 Comments

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, or as April calls it, “Big Chicken Day!”  Being thankful should come easy, but this year I had to think a moment.  Yes, I have survived any sickness from Covid, and those around me that got it have come through okay.  April and I were finally reunited earlier this year, that was awesome!  And I got medical attention before having serious issues.  So yes, I did have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  I forgot, God consistently provides for our financial needs and helps us bless others as well.

It bothers me that it took a bit of time to remember.  Those were big moments worthy of a big chicken to celebrate God’s faithfulness to me, his child, and his servant.  Why is it easier for me to only focus on the current irritants of life?  I don’t like it!

Recalling what God has done for us in the past helps our faith grow, which can help us with what we are currently going through.  The verse below is very popular, but here is a fresh spin on it.  It should help us remember how great God is; all the time:

1 The Eternal is my shepherd, He cares for me always.
2 He provides me rest in rich, green fields
    beside streams of refreshing water.
    He soothes my fears;
3 He makes me whole again,
    steering me off worn, hard paths
    to roads where truth and righteousness echo His name.

4 Even in the unending shadows of death’s darkness,
    I am not overcome by fear.
Because You are with me in those dark moments,
    near with Your protection and guidance,
    I am comforted.

5 You spread out a table before me,
    provisions in the midst of attack from my enemies;
You care for all my needs, anointing my head with soothing, fragrant oil,
    filling my cup again and again with Your grace.
6 Certainly Your faithful protection and loving provision will pursue me
    where I go, always, everywhere.
I will always be with the Eternal,
    in Your house forever.

Psalms 23 (The Voice)

So thank you God, for all, and for everything, on this day, but especially on Big Chicken day!

Copyright © 2021 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

You Are What You Eat

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

This is not a Thanksgiving post!  You will not be a turkey because you ate turkey this coming Thursday!  This is funny; I was asked if I would come over for Thanksgiving one year.  When I accepted, my friend said, “Oh good.  Now we have a turkey!”  Some friend, right?

Anyway, what I am addressing is being what you believe, what you accept to be true, even though it may not be.  Why the eating tie in?  Because people will digest something, and then they become that.

For example, people will become a worrier, simply by spending time worrying about something that most likely won’t even come into existent.  They are accepting lies as if they are truth and it affects them.  It shapes them into who they are, because of what they believe.

I told a lady the other day, “You worry a lot, and let anxiety overcome you.”  She agreed and said, “I always have, and I always will.”  What a lie from hell!  The devil has convinced her of this, even though it doesn’t have to be that way.  It certainly is not the life God wants for her, and every time she gets hurt, or believes these lies and it hurts her, it breaks the heart of God.  He loves her so much, and desires for her to be set free from this self-built prison!  This is not the life He intended for her to live.

The word of God teaches how to overcome such a life:

“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.”  2 Cor. 10:5 (TPT)

In case you missed it; we should analyze every thought and ask, “Is this true?  Is it a good thought that lifts us up, or is it a negative thought that tares us down?”  If the thought isn’t going to do us any good, then dismiss it.  Throw it out!  Quick!  Get rid of it, don’t entertain it one more second, and definitely don’t believe it.  If you will learn to do this, overtime you will change.  You will become the person God designed you to be, and live the life He intended for you to live.

Now the truth above is something to be thankful for!  Perhaps this is a Thanksgiving post after all?

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Can A Turkey Have a Happy Thanksgiving?

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

sadA friend once invited me to Thanksgiving.  When I accepted her invitation she replied, “Great!  At least now we’ll have a turkey!”

Feeling like a turkey?  Getting basted by your boss?  Carved by one you thought cared about you?  Devoured by life?

Emotions are a choice.  No one, or any circumstance can “make” you feel anything.  You choose to feel a certain way.  The only way, in life, I have learned to be happy, despite my circumstances, is to focus on the One, whose under His wings I find refuge.

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” (Ps. 91:4  NIV)  Now that’s a reason to choose happiness!

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved