An ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I didn’t ask what are you thankful for, or what Thanksgiving do you remember most? But what does Thanksgiving mean to you?
In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is now known as the first Thanksgiving. While cooking methods and table etiquette have changed as the holiday has evolved, the meal is still consumed today with the same spirit of celebration and overindulgence. The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle.
All of this is well and good, but what does Thanksgiving mean to you? Is it just a day of family, eating and football? Or is it something more? We should be giving thanks every day, not just one day a year.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in everything,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (HCSB)
We need to remember to always give thanks, even when we don’t feel like it, even when we don’t understand, even when we are mad or sad, give thanks.
We need to be careful what we say, a heart of gratitude shows up in the mouth.
Psalms 35:28 says, “And my tongue will proclaim Your righteousness, Your praise all day long.” (HCSB)
Psalms 107:1-3 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe
3 and has gathered them from the lands—
from the east and the west,
from the north and the south.” (HCSB)
This Thanksgiving, let’s all try to have an attitude of gratitude, let God hear it, let man hear it, let yourself hear it.

HARVEST PARTY 08 Pictures

This is part 2 of the Harvest Party, I had trouble loading pictures last time. So here are some pics. This could be the best turn-out we have ever had.

If you missed it, you missed a great one.

A NEW PRESIDENT!!

Well, we have a new president in our nation tonight, President Elect Obama. For better or worse, if you voted for him or not, it is what it is. What's in store for our nation? I don't know, I hope and pray for the best and fear the worst. One thing I do know, we must pray for him as we have for President Bush, more than we have for President Bush. And we must continue to pray for President Bush, his days in office are not up yet. There are those who have made threats against Obama if he was elected, pray for his safety. When a president is shot, it is always bad, no matter who it is. In my lifetime I have seen two presidents shot. Reagan who recovered, and Kennedy who didn't. It is never good for our nation when a president is shot, pray for his safety, pray that God will draw Obama close to Him and give him wisdom to do our country no harm.
Always remember that no matter who sits in the White House, we know who sits on the throne. It is God's throne, always has been and always will be. Pray for our nation as never before, I feel that time is short and Jesus will return soon. We need to be an active witness for Him who set us free.

HARVEST PARTY 08

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….about a month after Thanksgiving, which is almost a month away. But if you go into Wal-Mart you can go from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas in about 2 isles. You can decide what kind of Halloween candy (it’s on sale now), which Thanksgiving decorations and what size Christmas tree to buy in just a few steps. Amazing isn’t it? I keep looking for the Easter eggs on the next isle, but that won’t come out until they have made all they can on Christmas.
Wow, did you come to our annual Harvest Party? I believe that this may have been one of our best. All of the booths were great and all of them were busy the whole night, we had a church full of kids and everyone had fun. Did you try your hand at the basketball shoot, or the cake walk, or the pin the nose on the pumpkin, or the ring toss, the cup stack, pick up ducks, tug of war or the drag races? Or any of the other 4 or 5 or 6 booths that I didn’t even mention? Like the target shoot, or the ball toss or...well you just had to be here.
Did you know that we had drag races inside the church, one of the booths was drag racing. It was a two person team, one pulling the sheet and their partner riding on the sheet (drag racing...get it?). We had some great races with the kids, youth and adults. We even had a monster pull, I know that it was because we had two wives pulling their husbands (monster being pulled). It was a great night.
Why do we do the Harvest Party every year? This is a great way to minister to kids and parents. We had several adults here that do not go to our church, some that I talked to don’t go to church at all. But they all got an invitation from me and I hope from you also to come to church here. You see they got to see us having fun, and they realize that we are just people like they are. Sometimes the unchurched look at us like we are something strange or like we don’t want to associate with them. Something like the harvest party puts us side by side with them, loving on their kids. It works.

IS GOD CONCERNED

I believe that God is concerned about every area of our lives, and I believe that He wants to be actively involved in our lives if we will let Him. Why would He say that He knew us in the womb, why would He send His Son to die for us and then not be concerned about us and what happens to us? I was asked once if it was OK to pray for a car if a person had no way to get around, or was this just trivial prayer. I said that I myself had prayed for a car, not having a car was a hardship on me and my family and we could not afford to go out and buy a car. so we prayed about it, and someone gave us a car. It wasn't new, it had a lot of miles on it, but it ran good and it provided a way to get to work. we have had to put some money into that used car, but it is a good car. And we have loaned it to others from time to time.
Gos does care about you and your daily life, He loves you and He wants the best for you. Take your daily cares, concerns, joy, needs and thanksgiving to Him everyday, this is what He wants, and you will be better off if you do.

WHAT DOES GOD THINK??

Do you think that God is really concerned with the things that concern us? When we pray for our everyday needs, do you think that God really is concerned with them? Does God consider these things to be petty, does He expect us to have enough faith not to bother Him with these trivial things. Or do you think that God wants us to talk to Him about everything??
Let me know what you think about what God thinks.

SOUTH AFRICA

We were happy to have Susan Stokeld with us on Sunday; Susan is a Southern Baptist Missionary with the International Mission Board (IMB). She has been working in the Pacific Rim. She was here for our On Mission Celebration which were are doing in conjunction with our Red Fork Annual Jubilee.
I always love to have a missionary in our service, we need to be reminded of whom and how the message of Christ is being carried around the world. We as adults, youth, and children need to learn about missions. And the best way to do that is to hear from missionaries, this is the best way for that spark to be put in our hearts for missions. We give about 30% of the money that comes in to missions, that includes 20% to the Cooperative Program. The Cooperative Program is what enables our missionaries to stay in the field. It is great to give the way that you do, but when we meet someone who is on the receiving end of our missions money and hear about what they do then we have a better understanding of how it all works. Through the International Mission Board (www.imb.org), Southern Baptists support approximately 5,100 missionaries who are engaging more than 1,170 different people groups around the world.
New churches numbering over 1,458 are planted through the efforts of more than 5,153 North American Missionaries, whose efforts are coordinated through your North American Mission Board (www.namb.net) and individual state conventions.
Working together, Southern Baptists saw 836,898 new believers baptized in 2006!
If you missed hearing Susan, you missed a treat!!
Sunday night at Calvary Baptist in Vernon we had our Annual Jubilee and all of the missionaries that were at Red Fork churches were there with tables set up so that you could see things from all over the world. We also had a missionary speak during the 6:00 service, I had the honor to speak during the 4:00 service. If you did not go because you did not see the importance in it, shame on you. We as an Association to begin going to the Mbalantu tribe of the Owambo nation in the South African country of Namibia.
I will be sharing more about these people soon, but begin praying about going, and get your passport ready, if you don't have one, get one.
Let me know what you think about going to Africa.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:19 (NIV)
In HIS Service, Bro. Randy