“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter in law. “He has not stopped showing His goodness to the living and the dead.” ~Ruth 2:20, NIV What is the best thing God has ever done for you? Apart from your salvation, when in your life have you been most aware of the goodness of God? 
In a culture that seems to have forgotten its Godly heritage, how can we bring God back to the center of our Thanksgiving celebrations and prayers? Will it be disrespectful to other faiths to say "grace" at our table? How do we remove some of the awkwardness of prayer if our families are not accustomed to praying together on a daily basis? This Thanksgiving, I'd like to give you some practical ideas to honor God as you celebrate the harvest with family and friends. Grab a pencil and jot down the ones you think might work for your festivities. Above all, don't let a fear of offending others keep you from shining your light! You might be surprised at how attractive that light becomes!  My father used to have a “personal proverb” he lived by, a saying I heard him repeat many times when I was young. He said: “Keep your expectations low. Don’t trust anybody, and you’ll never be disappointed.” To my little ears, this seemed like a pretty good formula for success; after all, who has not been betrayed or disappointed at some point in their life? His proverb, while it reeked of self-protection, seemed a sure guarantee for a pain-free life. 
As I write to you on this Election Day, the winner of the 2016 election has not yet been determined. Even as this decision unfolds, the Lord is stirring me to remind you that the warfare and deception we have seen on a national level applies to believers at an individual level. Satan, our enemy, is still "seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8.) To forget this would be to surrender again to an apathy far more dangerous. Thankfully, many Christians have been stirred by the election process to wake up from apathy and passivity, and are praying fervently for our nation. If you are one of these people, it might comfort you to know that the fear, complacency or even apathy you have felt for some time is not entirely your fault, although the enemy would like you to believe it is!  Encouragement is a rare commodity. Strife and division abound in today’s culture, so much so that it seems things have never been worse. Even within the church, we find sharp divisions between believers over politics, doctrine, gifts, and personalities. Despite our call to love one another, Christians often doesn’t look much different from the world. If the lack of encouragement and unity makes you wish Jesus would simply come and rapture us now, you might be surprised to know that two of the most respected leaders in the early Christian church encountered the same problem, just a few years after Jesus walked the earth! The source of their division was a man named John Mark. |
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Deborah Perkins 
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August 2023
AuthorA severe hearing loss from childhood caused Deborah Perkins to develop what she now calls her secret weapon: tuning in to God's voice. A Wellesley College graduate and an award-winning writer, Deborah is now a wife and mother of 3 boys. Deborah has devoted over 25 years to professional and lay Christian ministry in New England and beyond. Her passion is inspiring people to cultivate greater intimacy with God. 
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