PONDER THIS!

Ponder this!

Although we will never achieve perfection in our Christian walk, in the midst of our failed efforts to get it right, there are certain disciplines we can do.

We can: 


1. Pray daily and listen for God’s reply;


2. Attend church regularly; 


3. Share Christ in and with a lost world;
4. Give God tithes and offerings, which provide for the Church, advance the Kingdom and prioritize our own personal lives;


5. Love others. Mother Teresa profoundly said, "A life not lived for others is not a life." 


6. Love and live for Christ above all else. 

Everything else goes the way of all the earth, but what we do with and for Christ is eternal.

'Father, give me a heart that longs to please you. Grant me Your mercies EVERY day. In Jesus' name, amen'.

"As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” Psa 18:30

From my heart to yours,


JBS

DOWN TO THE LAST PENNY

Dear Pastor Bruce,

Our God is amazing and faithful! There are no words in the English language that can adequately describe the blessings he bestowed on my wife and me in the last month.

We have always trusted God to meet our needs and have followed Biblical Principles in our past financial dealings and commitments.

For the first time in my life I found myself unemployed for a period of three months. Now the real test was about to begin. Were we truly going to be dependent on God’s promises and tithing principle when times were very difficult and the funds were limited.

We continued to tithe and honor our commitment to support missionaries and Christian Organizations through funds from my weekly unemployment payments. The funds in our banking account lasted exactly to the day I was offered a job as a principal in a private school. The new salary was $18,000 more than my previous salary as a Christian School Principal.

What happened next is even more unbelievable in human terms. A second financial door was opened and more blessing were received from God. I was offered a part time educational consulting job at $18,000 per year.

The Lord was not done. A legal matter was resolved in an amicable manner. When I added the total funds from all three blessing I received a net gain of $54,000 per year.

My wife and I truly believe tithing is more than giving 10% of your income; it is about obedience, eliminating your pride and trusting God and his principles.

We give God all the glory and praise for his faithfulness and provisions.

Sincerely,

RKP and LSP

CONTENTMENT

Just this week I asked a friend how I could pray for him, he replied: “That I would be content.” This is what God gave me.  Maybe it’s apropos to you as well.

TRUE CONTENTMENT is in complete opposition to the world.  The flesh and its lusts CAN NEVER satisfy - what we accomplish and what we achieve - they are insatiable appetites.  Life's ONLY TRUE contentment is in LIVING FOR and OBEYING Christ.

 True contentment comes through Christ: walking with, and in obedience to, Him.  Nothing else matters; it is all rubbish and will count for nothing in eternity.  It's a hands breath, a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow. Only what's done for Christ will last.

 And, what is done must be for Him and not us - that is the struggle for all of us, I believe.  For whom do we do what we do?  Is it for us, because it makes us feel good? (I don't think that's a bad thing – but it doesn't count for eternity.)  Only what we do for Him will count for eternity, therefore that is our true satisfaction and ONLY contentment.

 Today my Bible reading was in Ecclesiastes 7: 2-4. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of pleasure, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.  … 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.”

 What is the preacher saying?  That when a person lives for pleasure they only think about the now, which is a vapor. But if we hang around funeral homes (lol!) we realize life is brief and what we do must count for “the forever.”  Pretty powerful stuff!

Personally, I have found that my only true satisfaction and contentment is in Christ.  I love my wife; she is God's best gift to me.  But I could live without Sheryl, I could live without Joel and Noelle and the grand-children, and my best friends.  But, I could never live without Christ.  He is my everything.  He is my true satisfaction and contentment.  And whenever I'm not content or satisfied it is because I have moved away from Him; He has gone nowhere.

 

THE HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING & ITS CELEBRATIONS

The History of Thanksgiving 
and its Celebrations

We often think of Thanksgiving as a day peculiar to the United States, but throughout history mankind has celebrated bountiful harvests with a variety of joyful ceremonies. Harvest festivals and thanksgiving celebrations were held by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Chinese, and Egyptians. Below is a brief history of Thanksgiving as celebrated in the UNITED STATES:

In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim's fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.

The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to God that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. George Washington, our first president and the Continental Congress, on October 14, 1789 proclaimed that Thursday November 26 should be set aside to offer "PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER" 

      In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of "THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE TO OUR BENEFICENT FATHER WHO DWELLETH IN THE HEAVENS."  Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

Information from Studio Melizo edited and revised by J. Bruce Sofia

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

There is no better way to begin Thanksgiving then giving thanks in the Assembly of the Saints (Church).  If you're in the area why not join us.  Service begins at 9:30 am.   

GCCC: 359 Chapel Hts Rd, Sewell, NJ

WHEN DIVORCE IS RIGHT

IS IT OK TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?

IS IT OK TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?

INTRO: Some years ago when the Harry Potter books were being made into movies, people wanted me to address the subject from the Pulpit. In so doing, I addressed Halloween and Harry Potter. In order to keep this relatively short, this column only addresses Halloween. If you’d like the sermon (#2038), email darleen@gcccpray.com or call 856-582-0222.

Every year at Halloween people ask me, “Is it alright to celebrate Halloween?” And every year I tell people the same thing: “To the pure all things are pure.” What I mean by that is, if you have a problem with it, “Don’t,” if you don’t have a problem with it, “Do it and have fun.” Personally I have no problem with Halloween. Here’s why:

ILLUSTRATION: Now that I look back on it, this is somewhat surprising. Remember I grew up “Pilgrim Holiness.” As “Holiness,” practically everything was wrong except going to church – yet we were allowed to celebrate Halloween. And celebrate it we did! We’d go out with pillowcases, fill them up, come home, empty them, and go out again. Afterwards, those of us who went out together would compare our goodies and even trade for our favorite candies. Never once, not for a moment, did any of us think we were honoring Satan by going “trick or treat.” Why? We never even thought of it as Satan’s day, it was a time for us to have good clean fun and get all kinds of goodies. 

I still remember the Halloween parties where we would get prizes for the best costume. The person who remained unidentified for the longest time won the ultimate prize. How clearly I recall Bob Westcott – we were all night trying to figure out who was under that outfit. Finally, somebody recognized the boots – Bobby boy won first place. 

When Sheryl and I directed the Youth group at Mt Pleasant Church we would run a Scare Mare at Halloween. Hundreds of kids came through. The last room was a funeral parlor. By then they’d be scared to death. We’d give the plan of salvation. We had hundred’s of “decisions.” How many “disciples” was another story. We would say afterwards, “Just because you scare the hell out of people doesn’t mean you put them in heaven.”

WHAT AM I SAYING? If you want Halloween to be an evil holiday, then most likely for you it will be. If you want Halloween to be a time of clean, wholesome fun – it will be. “To the pure all things are pure.” 

1 Cor. 8:4-6 tells us:
[4] So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. [5] For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), [6] yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

IN OTHER WORDS Paul is saying, “I could eat food offered to idols and it would never bother me, because I know idols are nothing. Only God is God.” Again, “to the pure all things are pure.”

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WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY

As I have mentioned in the past, the LORD spoke to me about closing each day with Him.  (I have since the age of 13 started the day with the LORD.)  It took me way too long to make what He asked a discipline.  Three years ago I decided to use a devotional to close the day, and that worked.  For two years I read Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening.  One year the Morning, one year the Evening.  This year I’ve been using On This Day by Robert J. Morgan.  The book takes each day of the year and highlights an event in Christendom.  Here are a few one-liners from the book (I call them One Sentence Sermons). Here is a OSS from each of the first six months:

• Faithfulness eclipses fame as the mark of greatness.  Jan 7 (John Hooper)
• It is not in due time - but in divine time.  Feb 8 (St Paul)
• The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.  March 7 (Tertullian)
• Few assume greatness by themselves.  April 12 (Guillaume Farel)
• When you have something to say, you have nothing to fear.  May 11 (David Marks)
• Hard times should never make us hardened people, and adversity should never make us abrasive.  June 28 (Luther & Melanchthon) 

What stands out in my mind is how many Christians today, especially those living in our western American world, base their end-times theology around the comforts we are presently experiencing.  When I mention that the hour may come when we as believers will have to pay a price for our faith, I am ridiculed and mocked.  Seriously!  When you read On This Day, you’ll be staggered by the great price men and women have paid for the legacy of our faith.  BTW: Even as I write, children are giving their lives, refusing to recant their faith in Christ, in Iraq.  Look around you!  It’s happening before our very eyes — we Americans will one day, too, pay a price (maybe even with our lives) for believing in Jesus Christ.

Let me close with this OSS, which was my tweet/Instagram/post today: Man makes himself God through pride; God makes Himself man through humility!  Jacques Bossuet

In Jesus,

PB

The best of all is God is with us. Psalm 46:7/JBS