It is Good to Give Thanks to the LORD

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It was an unusually mild late afternoon and Patty asked if I wanted to go for a walk. After some coaxing I reluctantly said yes. As I slipped on my shoes she mentioned, “Why don’t we make this a thankful prayer walk!” To be honest I wasn’t in the mood for her plan but decided I couldn’t really say no to the idea.

For the first few blocks she started us out and eventually I thought I better offer up some thanks as well. Before you know it a dam broke and my mind was flooded with reasons to pour out praise. Even those painful places in the past year turned into reasons to thank a faithful Father for His Shepherding along the unexpected twists and turns.

The 3 mile journey ended up almost an hour and seemed like only a few minutes. We got caught up in a sacred place where our hearts found a river of peace that carried us along. Our thankfulness list was inexhaustible. We recalled miracles of our Heavenly Father’s faithful provision, His abundant grace, and magnificent displays of the sunset over the Rocky Mountains.

Right before I wrote this blog I was reading Psalm 92 during my morning devotions which starts out:

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD. To sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning and Your faithfulness by night…” (vs. 1-2).

A spirit of thankfulness and praise is truly “good” for the soul. It helps us enter into the rhythm of heaven where praise permeates everything. The source of our thanks and praise is the “Most High” who has brought us a saving love in His Son Jesus, such love will never ever let us go.

Psalm 136 is another that highlights the goodness of God and reminds us to give thanks.  It repeats this truth 26 times:

“For His steadfast love endures forever.”

Our thankfulness walk reminded me of how good it is to give thanks to a Father for everything especially for His enduring, and saving love that has been sealed by Christ’s finished work on the cross. There is no greater gift!!

As 2026 arrives I pray the Holy Spirt  will help us in this New Year to “continually give thanks to the LORD!” To declare His faithful love at the start the day, to continue to give thanks through out the day, and end each day with a  grateful heart.

 

 

A Grace Filled Christmas

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We went to see an absolutely amazing Christmas light display the other night and as I was taking the picture my granddaughter went up and hugged the cross. For me it was a holy moment which captured the most powerful message of Christmas, GRACE!

Grace has permeated the month of December for us with memorial services for Patty’s brother Randy and my mom just days apart. Both services pointed to God’s life changing grace giving as a free gift. My brother-in-law used to say “I don’t understand all the mystery of grace but I know I need to believe it and receive it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The text my mom wanted me to read and share was from 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you,  for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

When you lose a loved one life slows way down and your spiritual focus becomes super intensified. Those things that seemed like such a big deal before suddenly meaningless as you stare death in the face. What brings comfort, hope, peace, and yes even joy is knowing the gift of grace. The grace that comes to us as a free gift from Father God given to us through His only Son Jesus. Jesus, who became a helpless baby in order to identify with our weakness and eventually to destroy the power of sin and death through the cross and resurrection.

Yes, Grace is “mysterious” because we have nothing to do with it. Our works and efforts to reach God’s love and acceptance is worthless. Even receiving the gift of grace is grace! We need the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to believe and receive this precious gift of Jesus’ work on our behalf.

“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:5-6)

As I was scrolling through my pictures of the Christmas lights and landed on the one with our granddaughter hugging the cross I said to Patty, “that is the best Christmas present of all!” The picture reminded me to cling to the cross of Christ which is the greatest gift of Christmas and will last for all eternity.  And before you know it GRACE will lead you and me to our forever home joining other followers of Christ and best of all spending eternity with our Abba Father!

On behalf of Oceans Ministries we thank and praise the Lord for so many of you who have been God’s amazing grace to us and all we are called to share His grace with. We pray that you will have a deep sense of His grace poured out over you this Christmas season.

 

 

 

A Devotional on John 13-17 – “To the Place Where I Belong”

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A devotional to help grasp the mystery of “Jesus, our Immanuel”:

Every Christmas millions of people sing, “Jesus, our Immanuel.” This glorious prophetic promise from Isaiah 7:14, that God will to come dwell with His people. But do we really understand in our hearts these life changing words we sing?

One of the greatest sections of Scripture that has helped me grasp the mystery of His loving presence dwelling within me is Jesus’ teaching in John 13-17. We’ve been created to have the Father & Son make their home in our hearts, God with us forever.

The 31 day devotional, “To the Place Where I Belong,“ is the result of years of dwelling in these sacred passages. My hope is that my journey to understand Jesus, our Immanuel will be a blessing to you as well.

More info about the book:

 

Sample two-page spreads from the book:

 


Click here to purchase the book!

 

November 26, Gloriously Home!

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I was writing in my journal early on the morning of November 26, giving thanks to the Father for my spiritual birthday. Recalling that Sunday night many years ago, I gave thanks to God for my mom who faithfully had us go to church morning and evening. And on that November 26th evening the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of my heart to hear the simple Gospel message of the cross and resurrection. I entered into that church an angry, bitter, insecure 13 year old with a hard heart, and left filled with the transforming love of Christ. I thought about how my mom was present at the two most important moments of my life: my physical birth and my spiritual birth.

I was able to talk with her on the phone the night before and could tell she was suffering and knew her time on earth was getting short. I felt I needed to text her and thank her again for being a gift to my life.  This is what I texted:

“Hi Mom, hope you are feeling better and we pray nausea decreases. Also today is Nov. 26. Back on this date in 1978 you took us to Sunday night service at the Naz. church. I was thanking the Father for your faithfulness in bringing us to church and the impact it had. How you came down to altar as I wept tears of joy for the gift of salvation given to me that night. Thank you for all you did to point us to Jesus (♥️❤️)!”

At a little after 9 PM, my step dad, Pastor Bill called and said, “Your mom went home to Jesus.” Bill and his daughter Lori were holding her in bed and singing the words to an old hymn when she made it gloriously home:

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

My mom’s faith became sight as she beheld the loving glory of her Savior welcoming her home. As I write this I’m preparing a message for the memorial service for Patty’s brother Randy, who passed away way too young in his sleep. What gives us hope and even joy in the midst of losing people we love is knowing the glorious homecoming my mom and Randy are experiencing. They are encountering a new world of perfect, glorious love welcomed by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They also are with the great cloud of witnesses, which includes loved ones who went before them. What a victory celebration they are having!

Now November 26 has another special meaning for me as I think of the gift my mom received when she saw her Savior face to face and she was welcomed gloriously home. It will be a constant reminder to “turn my eyes upon Jesus…” and live with the great anticipation of the glorious home that is to come.

Hold these words of Jesus deep in your heart as you await your home coming:

“I Am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:26

 

 

Thanksgiving for our Living Hope

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This season of the year can be difficult for many. Presently we have family and friends journeying through loss and suffering and Thanksgiving maybe filled with more lament than praise. As we are daily reminded through sources of media suffering abounds all around us from natural disasters, wars, and idols of destruction fueled by the sin nature.

How can we “rejoice always” and “give thanks in every circumstance” as stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:17? One of the answers to this is found in the brief letter of 1 Peter written to followers of Jesus who were going through extreme suffering and persecution. Peter gives them these comforting words:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1:3-5).

Our Thanksgiving can flow out of the fact there is an empty tomb in Jerusalem! The resurrection of Jesus from the dead changed everything for those who have been “born again.” My sin and your sin have been buried with Christ in His death never to resurface again before our Father. And on that glorious resurrection morning we were raised with Christ new life, a life  experienced by heaven invading our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit. We are beloved children of the Father just as Jesus is, and everything that belongs to Christ is ours both now and for eternity and these precious gifts can never ever be taken away!

I can’t say I enjoy suffering and my first response is often complaining, yet I have learned that even in suffering as unwelcome as it is, can be a a gift.  Peter tells us that suffering is like a refiners fire that strips away “stuff “from our lives that may be holding us back from encountering the Father’s glorious love. In an unanticipated way, suffering brings forth His love, and awakens within us a longing for a deeper desire to know and love Him. Surrendering our broken  and contrite hearts to the Father,  points us to His faithfulness, and creates within us thankfulness and a “joy unspeakable and full of glory!” (1:6-9).

The Father’s greatest gift to us through Jesus is to know deep within our souls that we are loved forever by our faithful Abba. Our ur last enemy is death and yet death becomes the tool to bring us into the glorious love of God.  What a glorious day it will be when our faith becomes sight. When we encounter our Savior face-to-face and dwell with Him and the born again sisters and brothers for all eternity.

Perhaps it is a tough season of suffering for you right now. My prayer is that the resurrected Lord Jesus who lives in you will fill you with a “living hope,” covering your wounds with the His healing promises of love. That He would open the eyes of your heart to see His Fatherly hands holding you tight and carrying you safely home.

In conclusion, I’d to recommend two powerful books  by Timothy Keller that have blessed Patty and I in difficult seasons:

“Walking with God through Pain and Suffering”  and “Hope in Times of Fear -The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter.”