Sunday, November 29, 2020

Gratitude. A Wrathful Man Stirs Up Strife. Can a Nation Turn Back to God? Update.

Gratitude.

“We live at the time in man's history where we understand as never before the wonders of life.

A young man sitting on a rock looking at the night sky.Cristofer Jeschke/Unsplash

Without gratitude to God and others in our lives, we are dark and dismal with no inner light. Turn on your light and be thankful.

Plants, animals, birds, fish and mankind—all are wonderfully made. The more we study and learn about how life continues, the more amazed we ought to be. Our hearts beat without our interference, our food digests while we do not even think about it, our blood carried oxygen and food to each cell and removes waste without stopping for a "thank you."

But we have a mind that can appreciate that every breath we breathe, every electric impulse that is our brain, every beat of our heart and all we are have been given to us from our Creator. God does not stand by and seek our appreciation, but we are blind, deaf and dumb indeed if our hearts do not burst with thanksgiving and gratitude.

Gratitude is a natural flower that grows within the person who considers who and what he is and where he is going. David wrote of being thankful in Psalm 100 and Paul simply said, "Be ye thankful" (Colossians 3:15). Without gratitude to God and others in our lives, we are dark and dismal with no inner light. Turn on your light and be thankful.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/this-is-the-way/gratitude

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A Wrathful Man Stirs Up Strife

Proverbs 15:18

“A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention.

Once again, wise King Solomon points out the dangers of anger and contention. Being slow to anger can prevent a multitude of problems. This is demonstrated in many ways, but can be especially seen in our words (see Proverbs 15:1, for example).

For more about dealing with anger, see “A Biblical Look at Anger Management.” For more about being a peacemaker, see “Blessed Are the Peacemakers.”

For more about wise communication, see the helpful article in our section on “Communication.” From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/a-wrathful-man-stirs-up-strife/?

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Can a Nation Turn Back to God?

“God makes His standards of behavior—and the consequences for violating those standards—crystal clear in the pages of the Bible. God demonstrates time and again that His standards of behavior—summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and what Jesus Christ described as the two “great commandments” (see Mark 12:29-31)—exist for the good of humanity. When practiced, they lead to a far higher quality of life, both now and in the life to come.

God allows free will, the capacity for men and women to make choices. God invites, even commands, people to choose life and the pathway that leads to life. But He allows people to make wrong choices—and suffer the consequences, even through succeeding generations.

Much of the Bible represents a call to action to turn to His way of life, both on a national scale and individually.

Happily, the Bible records several instances where people—both collectively as a nation and personally—heeded this divine call to action. People chose to give up their old way of living and began to “think differently”—the Greek word translated “repent” actually meaning to change one’s mind. When they changed the way they were thinking, surrendered to God and reformed their behavior, amazing things happened.

But is this limited to God’s chosen nation of Israel? What about other nations or peoples?

God’s standards are omnipresent. His way of life is a living way. And the Bible records God’s intervention and pronouncements involving empires and countries large and small. Moreover, God has preserved a specific and important example of another nation humbling itself before Him.

This example is that of a major economic and societal power of biblical times—ancient Nineveh. Nineveh represents one of the oldest and greatest cities of the ancient world. It served as the capital of the Assyrian Empire, reaching its zenith around 700 B.C.

But during that time, in the face of the cruel actions of the city and its inhabitants, God sent a prophet to declare the depravity of the city’s transgressions and announce coming divine judgment. His instructions to the prophet are preserved for us: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2, English Standard Version).

God sent the prophet Jonah, whose mission and existence was validated by none other than Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 12:39-42). Jonah came to that great ancient city and declared its soon-coming demise: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4, ESV, emphasis added throughout).

Then something amazing happened: “The people of Nineveh believed God” (verse 6). Alarmed at the prospect of suffering vast destruction, the entire city—“from the greatest of them to the least”—took part in a citywide fast. The people were committed to showing God they were willing to change. The king even issued a proclamation commanding the city’s inhabitants to “call out mightily to God” (verse 8). His directive? “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”

Even though Nineveh’s doom had been declared, the king hoped: “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (verse 9).

The result? “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it” (verse 10). The people of the great city of Nineveh presented themselves before God in a repentant attitude and were spared!

As Jesus Himself confirmed, “The men of Nineveh … repented [changed their mind and behavior] at the preaching of Jonah” (Matthew 12:41, ESV). Jesus does not refer to the “fairy tale of Jonah.” He confirms that everything in the book of Jonah is real history—it really happened!

The same is true today! Any nation or peoples—whether in the Americas, Europe, Asia or Africa—can save themselves by turning to God. “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18:32, ESV).

Even though the Bible prophesies economic calamity and widespread destruction before the return of Jesus Christ, God provides a way out or through. While these words were specifically given to Israel, they apply to all of mankind: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV).

What about you? Don’t wait for others in your nation to turn and seek God. As the apostle Peter urges you and everyone in Acts 2:40 (ESV), “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!””

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Update

On Tuesday I went on the bus to College Station to my ophthalmologist appointment. My daughter is able to drive short distances now since her accident, so she met me there, but she wasn’t feeling very well so we only had a short visit before the bus came to take me home again.   I have to have more surgery on my eyes in January.

We three Sabbath keepers had our usual Bible study on Friday morning. Sherry and I had intended to go to my old church in Willis on the Sabbath morning, but bad storms were forecast, and the pastor decided that it would be safer if everyone stayed home. Many of that congregation travel quite a way to attend. That was a shame because I was looking forward to seeing them all again and had prepared several dishes for the potluck. Organic chicken salad, lentil bread, honeydew melon, yellow squash and cucumber salad.  All foods which did not require spending time in the church’s kitchen.  The pastor’s wife doesn’t go anymore, she is not well.

So Sherry and I went to the Sabbath School Bible study at the church around the corner for the Sabbath day.

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