A Grateful Heart

By Paul Chappell

Wednesday, Nov 21, 2012

I got this from Bro Doc’s post, I wanted to share it. 

DEVOTIONALLANCASTERBAPTISTCHURCH 

Ravensbruck was known as one of the worst German concentration camps during World War II. When Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie found themselves imprisoned there, they were disgusted to discover that their barracks were infested with fleas.

When Corrie began to complain, Betsie insisted that they instead give thanks, quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” With some persuasion, Corrie finally joined her sister in thanking God for the fleas.

Several months later, the two sisters expressed their surprise that the camp guards had never come back to their barracks to disrupt or prevent the evening Bible studies they held for their fellow prisoners. It was then that Corrie realized that the very fleas which she had so despised had actually been a God-sent protection from the cruel guards.

When we think we deserve good things, we find it hard to be thankful, and we often miss the blessings God sends “in disguise.” Greed, materialism, and selfishness destroy a grateful heart. God, our society, and our parents don’t owe us anything, no matter what others may say or think.

Rather than complaining about what we don’t have or don’t get, it is important that we are grateful for what we do have. Every one of us will suffer setbacks and experience loss. But there are always things for which we can be grateful—things we can never lose. As believers, our eternal destiny is settled and can never be changed. We always have the promises of God on which we can fully rely.

Over the years working in construction I have met women construction workers. Some were treated like ladies, with all due respect others were treated the opposite.

I can quickly say it wasn’t the clothing, because in construction you have to wear certain clothing. It was how they acted; it dictated how the men would respond to them. At first all new female workers were treated mostly with respect, just a few little hints of wrong. Depending upon how the female would respond opened up for more of being treated like a lady, or not a lady. Some of those females just compromised a little at first to fit in, and soon they weren’t treated like a lady.

Our actions equal the words we speak, what we do, how we respond to what others say and do. 

Like that saying goes if it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, odds are it is a duck, and it will be treated as such.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/election-map-shows-mostly-purple-not-red-and-blue-nation-85043/

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and then to discover that prisoner was you.”

As I was meditating upon forgiveness and its relationship to repentance these thoughts came to my mind.

Can you forgive one who has wronged you, even when they have not asked for forgiveness?

I have heard many state that one has to ask for forgiveness from God before they obtain it. If that is true and your able to forgive another when they have not asked, have you not made your self more able to forgive than God?

Perhaps the key is to understand that God accepts the payment Christ made. That our repentance is simply our way of accepting the debt has already been paid.

It’s not God who needs to forgive, but our needing to believe that the debt is paid.

The gift has already forever been placed in front of all of us, but picking it up is our choice.

Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Our neighbor’s house had many cockroaches, and the owner of the house took me into it after the neighbors had moved out. It was day time and we went in, it looked trashy but I didn’t see any cockroaches, and the owner said he would allow me to come back over come evening. That night he came back over to his house and invited me in. When we flipped on the lights in each room there were cockroaches every where, and as soon as the light would come on they would scurry to the darkness.

Here is my perspective of the final judgment of God upon all, based upon the actions of a cockroach.

Upon mans final judgment the brightness of God will appear, and those like him will embrace the light. Those unbelievers shall see the light and scurry into the darkness that is waiting for them, like the cockroach. We each shall be our own judge jury and executioner.

1Ti_6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

1Jn_1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

2Co_6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Luk 7:37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

When Jesus was asked about the woman his reply was how she showed him great love. Her great love for him came because he had forgiven her a huge debt of sins. She felt his great love by him forgiving her, and in return was able to show that great love.

Luk_7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

The word also tells us, we are forgiven as we forgive others, for how can we believe Christ died for us and deny that he died for another? If we deny forgiveness we cannot feel the great love that God shows us by our being forgiven. We control how much of God’s love we desire to feel, the more we feel the more we can show others.

Mat_6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat_6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

Mar_11:26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Several months ago a neighbor moved out of the house they rented, they were nice people but very dirty and they I believe sold drugs.

As I talked to the owner of the house after the neighbors moved out he told me how filthy they were, and that they had cockroaches. He was going to have an exterminator come and spray the house. I was told to spray my yard and my house prior, because once they sprayed the house next door the roaches would be moving. I couldn’t imagine roaches crossing the yard and coming to my house, but I was wrong. I found two roaches; we had never had a single roach in the 22 years we lived here. I quickly sprayed the yard and begun spraying our house, it seemed to take care of the problem, it has been a few months and still thank God no roaches.

Now here is something to think about:

Perhaps as the end grows closer true Christians will come forth, and as they over come problems in their lives the demons will flee from them. Once the demons flee from the true Christians they shall gather more intensely upon the remaining people. 

That would mean greater temptations would come forth, and people would become much more evil. Perhaps that is why we are warned to seek holiness in order to escape what is going to come upon the whole earth?