Accountability Partner

Here is today's verse:

James 5:16

16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Over the years I have heard many men and women of God tell me and others that we need to have a person in our live that will help us with our walk with God. It must be someone who you know is very strong in their faith and someone you can trust with personal information that you would be sharing with them. We call these folks accountability partners. Once you find this person you have to be honest with them about your life. Just like the verse above says you confess your trespasses (or sins) to them for the sole purpose of them holding you accountable for your sins. They will then pray with you about this sin and then help you stay true to your commitment to God to walk the walk not just talk the talk. Now let me also say you must confess your sin to God first and foremost but the bible tells us here to be in prayer for one another and to pray for one another so we may be healed. I believe part of the healing process is our friends helping us to stay away from what ever the sin was that crept into our life! The verse goes on to say our friends effective and fervent prayers avails much. That is so awesome. Again be sure to choose friends who are solid in the faith and are in their Bibles daily!

Do you have an accountability partner? Find one today it will help you in your walk with God!

Have a great week!

Tom

Need healing?

This verse is very interesting:

James 5:14
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

I have often wondered since I first read this verse many years ago why this isn't isn't practiced in most churches today. The first part of the verse is really pretty simple. Do we have any sick? Yes all over the place. While I think James is talking to the church here I want you to think how many folks in your church are sick? Cancer, disease, flu, are just a few of the sicknesses we have. Once again our great God tells us exactly what we need to do. Call for the elders of the church. They are then to go and pray for the sick person and then anoint them with oil in the name of Jesus. Why in the world don't we do this? It isn't hard. Perhaps it comes down to two things. First it may be like everything else...we are to busy to take the time to do this. God forgive us if this is the reason. Second...could it be we don't have the faith in God that He can heal the sick? If we don't have faith in God to believe He can heal then how in the world can we believe in His Son? Those are the only two reasons I can come up with and neither are worth a hill of beans.

Folks we need to get back to following God's word. God is amazing and can do marvelous works but we must be obedient to His Word.

I am interested in other opinions on this...why don't the church as a whole practice this?

In Christian love...Tom

I know someone who is suffering....do you?

Here is the verse for today:

James 5:13

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

When I first read this I thought to myself..."People are suffering everywhere." Why are people suffering? The answer to this is broad. Some bring suffering on themselves by allowing sin to dominate their lives. Some don't take care of the bodies God has given them and thus suffer the consequences. Some suffer with disease that they have done nothing to get but have been overtaken by. There are many, many more reasons for suffering too. So what is the answer. God gives it to us right here. Pray. Wow is it really that simple??? Yes it is. God wants us to talk to Him about our suffering. I can say from my own expiriences in life that prayer has helped me in a way that nothing else can when I am suffering. My problem is though I want to try everything else to solve my suffering before I take it to God. Why do I do that to myself? Plain stupidity I would say! Just like any good parent God wants us to bring our pain and suffering to Him and He will console us like no other. Thank you God for listening to a sinner like me, I am forever greatful.

I like the second part of this verse too. Are we cheerful? We should be! God is sooooo good. If we are we should be singing psalms. Go read a few and look at some of the praises to God. It will teach you much as to how David and others praised God in good times and bad. The definition of a Psalm is a Spiritual song. You may even want to write your own Psalm and sing it to God. He loves it when we worship Him with honesty. Pour your heart out to Him. If you read the Psalms in the Bible they poor their hearts out to God even if they feel like God has left them they cry out to Him. Pure honesty. God can handle it. He can also handle your praises and adoration for Him. So sing away God loves to hear from His children!!!

Such a simple verse but so much to say! God loves you remember that!!!

Tom

Is your word good?

Here is today's verse:

James 5:12

12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

If there is anything that really gets under my skin it is liars. I try my best to tell the truth even when it hurts. Since Jesus is Truth I believe He wants the truth from us at all times. For some reason we have started to believe that little white lies are ok but this is not found in scripture. In this verse God warns us not to swear or make an oath by heaven or earth. What He means by that is when we tell someone something and say I swear to God I will _____ fill in the blank. Do not do that! God tells us not too for one but also if you do not do what ever you promised you just broke an oath to God! If we would just do as God says and let our yes be yes and our no be no it would be so much eaiser and it would be pleasing to God. Not long ago folks made agreements by a handshake. Now we have to have all kinds of paperwork and lawyers and people still break their agreements! Again God says this should not be so and if we do lie we fall into judgement! I like to stay away from judgement as much as I can!

So as those who are followers of the Truth let us be up holders of the truth even though it may hurt sometimes it will be worth it in the end!

God bless....Tom

Do good!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Now look out cause here comes Christmas. This verse is a good one to prepare us for Christmas.

James 4:17
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

I have thought many times about doing good to others. Why is it that during Christmas we try to help others much more than we do at other times of the year? I guess that is why they call it the "giving season". This verse should really speak to us. I want you to stop for a moment and really think about it. If we know to do good and do not do it....we sin. Very simple but very deep. We can define doing good many different ways. Here are two ways that pop into my head. The first is telling people about Jesus. Sharing the gospel. It is not hard to do but we don't very often. When we don't share the good news according to this verse it is sin....wow! Second when we know someone is in need and we walk away thinking someone else will take care of it again it is sin. Do you see how deep this little verse can be? Take time to think on this today...it may change some things in our life!

Tom

Origin of Thanksgiving

I am challenging you to read this story and to stand up before you family this Thanksgiving and remind them what this Holiday represents and why America was founded. Don't expect somebody else to do You do it!!! My friends it is time to stand up for God before it is too late!



Origin of Thanksgiving

"O that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" -Psalm 107:8,15,21 and 31



For Christians, Thanksgiving means more than just turkey and football. Most of us have a vague notion that this holiday began when the Pilgrims invited their Indian neighbors to dinner to thank God for his provisions. But there really is much more to the story.

The Atlantic crossing in the fall of 1620 had been an extremely difficult journey for the Pilgrims. For two months, 102 people were wedged into what was called the “’tween decks”—the cargo space of the boat, which only had about five-and-a-half feet of headroom. No one was allowed above deck because of the terrible storms. This was no pleasure trip, but only one person died during the voyage.

The Pilgrims had comforted themselves by singing the Psalms, but this “noise” irritated one of the ship’s paid crewmembers. He told the Pilgrims he was looking forward to throwing some of their corpses overboard after they succumbed to the illnesses that were routine on such voyages. But as it turned out, this crewmember himself was the only person on the voyage to become sick and be thrown overboard. God providentially protected His people. A little-known fact about the Mayflower is that this ship normally carried a cargo of wine; and the wine spillage from previous voyages had soaked the beams, acting as a disinfectant to prevent the spread of disease.

During one terrible storm, the main beam of the mast cracked. Death was certain if this beam could not be repaired. At that moment, the whole Pilgrim adventure could very easily have ended on the bottom of the Atlantic. But, providentially, one of the Pilgrims had brought along a large iron screw for a printing press. That screw was used to repair the beam, saving the ship and all on board.

After sixty-six days at sea, land was sighted off what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts. But that was not where the Pilgrims wanted to be. They had intended to establish their new colony in the northern parts of Virginia (which then extended to the Hudson River in modern-day New York), but two factors interrupted their plans. The winds had blown them off course, but they also learned that some other Englishmen who wanted to settle in the same northern part of Virginia had bribed the crew to land them somewhere else.

Once again God was in charge and the Pilgrims were right where God wanted them to be. Had they actually landed near the Hudson River, they would have most certainly been attacked by hostile Indians. Instead, there were no Indians on Cape Cod when the Pilgrims made landfall there.

Many years before some local Indians had captured a Frenchman on a fishing expedition in that region. Just as he was about to be killed, the Frenchman told the Indians that God would be angry with them, would destroy them all, and would replace them with another nation. The Indians boastfully told him that his God could never kill them. However, when the Pilgrims landed in that same region, the land had already been cleared and the fields had already been cultivated, but those Indians who had prepared the land had nearly all died of the plague a year or two earlier.

Despite this provision of safety from the Indians, the Pilgrims barely survived their first winter on the Cape. Only four families escaped without burying at least one family member. But God was still faithful. In the spring of 1621, He sent Squanto to them, an Indian who could speak their own language and who offered to teach them how to survive in this strange new land.

Squanto was one of the few Indians from that area who had not died of the plague. He had been captured as a young man and taken to England as a slave. During that time he mastered the English language; and then had been freed and returned to his native territory shortly before the Pilgrims arrived. Probably the most important thing Squanto taught the Pilgrims was how to plant the Indians’ winter staple crop—corn.
The Pilgrims thanked God for this wonderful helper, but they also shared with Squanto the most valuable treasure they had brought with them from England—the Gospel. Squanto died within a year or two after coming to the aid of the Pilgrims, but before his death he asked them to pray for him that he might go to be with their God in Heaven.

Other Indians who Squanto had introduced to the Pilgrims were also impressed with their God. During the summer of 1621, when it appeared the year’s corn harvest would not survive a severe drought, the Pilgrims called for a day of fasting and prayer. By the end of the day, it was raining. The rain saved the corn, which miraculously sprang back to life. One of the Indians who observed this miracle remarked that their God must be a very great God because when the Indians pow-wowed for rain, it always rained so hard that the corn stalks were broken down. But they noticed that the Pilgrim’s God had sent a very gentle rain that did not damage the corn harvest.

It was that same miraculous corn harvest that provided the grain for the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving meal with their Indian friends and helpers. Today, many of our public school children are taught that we celebrate Thanksgiving because the Pilgrims were thanking their Indian neighbors for helping them; but the evidence of history shows that on that first Thanksgiving Day the thanks of both Pilgrims and Indians went to God for His great goodness toward them all. But the story does not end there.

Even though the Pilgrims hosted the first Thanksgiving dinner in America, the holiday itself actually has its origins almost 170 years later, after the Revolutionary War had been won and our American Constitution had been adopted. In 1789, Congress approved the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Congress then “recommended a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” to thank God for blessing America. President Washington declared November 26, 1789, as the first national day of prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord.

Another 75 years later, after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as a day to acknowledge “the gracious gifts of the Most High God” bestowed upon America. Every president did the same until 1941 when Congress officially made Thanksgiving a national holiday.

Now that you know the true story, this Thanksgiving make sure that your children learn it too. Let us all join with generations of Americans before us in giving thanks to God for blessing our country.





I am going home for Thanksgiving so I will be out of pocket for a few days. May you and your family have a great Thanksgiving and may God recieve the glory!

Tom

Enjoy today!

James 4:13-14

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away

This is a clear warning that we need to live each day to the fullest. We are never promised another day. As this week brings another Thanksgiving be sure to enjoy the gathering of your friends and families to the fullest. Also and most importantly take time to share what this holiday is all about...Giving thanks to the Almighty God who has blessed us so much more than we deserve. I was thinking the other day about how many families celebrate Thanksgiving without ever taking the time to thank God..what a shame. So during your gathering enjoy! But also remember this time next year you or someone else at your gathering may not be there so tell them that you love them and take advantage of every second together!

Have a great Monday!

Tom