November 22nd 1917
Today the day before Thanksgiving I must review for what I must be grateful for in recollection of a mom with a third grade education teaching us both English by using the Bible in English and Spanish so I was reading in kindergarten and one summer not long ago I was privileged to share my language and Leadership course over six weeks of summer in Sullivan County area with the inmates of the correctional.
Among the long list of things for which to be thankful my son Robert and progeny are high up along with the 22 years of marriage Bliss with Reverend Dr. Chandra Bisram-Cruz and our blessing of Abishai Gideon.
Her work as legal secretary let us buy our home in Buffalo and when there was no other way to rid us of the crack house next door we purchased the property and evicted the dealers so that when our house suffered Fire 3 days before Christmas we had a new home next door.
Her work also paid for four mission trips to Pakistan where we helped two orphanages and a seminary for which God took note and sent $44,000 which allowed us to buy and the crack house and evict the dealer.
After the Reverend doctor went home to her reward in glory and the shock of losing his home aging out of school after losing his mom I suffered the loss of my son for whom I have yet to affirm my visitation rights at his group home where his non-verbal autism is being cared for.
You may well ask why be thankful for such as these more so in light of Thanksgiving week being the week the Court will decide the sale of the church left by Pastor Santiago after we donated the space for his church which left behind when his open heart surgery became the cause of his retirement.
So as we inventory those things by which we have been blessed while we wait to hear from the court and if judge Bergnasi will make our church and parsonage homeless we must pause for the cause and vent in Fierce gratefulness.
FROM PRAYER WARRIOR
Verse of the Day,
I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.– Psalm 9:1 (NLT)
Prayer
Glorious heavenly Father, Today we pause to thank you for the beauty of your creation. We thank you today for the beauty of this world. Sometimes we can get wrapped up in its pain and brokenness so much that we miss its wonders. We also know that You created all things beautiful in its time. There are so many times, Lord, when I want you to move at my pace, not yours. I confess that this is not only sinful but also silly. I totally understand that my timing is not better than Yours. But in the rush of the moment, I can be painfully impatient. Forgive me, Lord.. May we envision the people in our lives in terms of their full potential. May we see ourselves not as we are but as the people we are becoming by your grace.
Abba, Heavenly Father, thank you for choosing to use that which is small for your great purposes. This encourages me, Lord, not to worry about the size of what I’m doing, but rather to focus on its character. May everything I do today – every decision, every interaction, every word, every deed – be a blessing for your kingdom.
Help me to trust that your ways are always the best, that your timing is always the best. Help me to see more clearly how you are at work in my life and through me in the lives of others. May I learn to be in synch with you and your ways, patient in my trust, expectant in my hope.
Oh, Lord, Rock of Ages, we come to You and lay our burdens down and give You thanks for Bearing them for us. Guard me this day, Lord. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Bible Promise of the Day
I have the ability to do all that I have promised. Almighty God Promises that, we have Eternal Life through faith in Jesus Christ
He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:20-22)
Prayer Quote of the day
The Christian will find his parentheses for prayer even in the busiest hours of life.
Author: Richard Cecil
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1).
God is calling out a remnant of business people throughout the world who understand the role of prayer in their business life. These people have learned that prayer is not a five-minute exercise in the morning devotion time, but it is a vital strategic tool to discern and know the will and purposes of God in their work life. You see, they have learned that their business life IS their ministry unto God and others.
These men and women have entered into a covenant relationship with intercessory prayer partners who help discern the activities they should be involved. Some even have paid staff for the purpose of interceding for the decisions and activities in which they will be involved. They are a small remnant of business people who know that skill and technique are not enough to fulfill the purposes of God.
"A servant of the Lord has well said: Prayer is the rail for God’s work. Indeed, prayer is to God’s will as rails are to a train. The locomotive is full of power: it is capable of running a thousand miles a day. But if there are no rails, it cannot move forward a single inch. If it dares to move without them, it will soon sink into the earth. It may be able to travel over great distances, yet it cannot go to any place where no rails have been laid. And such is the relation between prayer and God’s work. Without any doubt God is almighty and He works mightily, but He will not and cannot work if you and I do not labor together with Him in prayer, prepare the way for His will, and pray ‘with all prayer and supplication’ (Eph. 6:18) to grant Him the maneuverability to so work. Many are the things, which God wills to do, and would like to do, but His hands are bound because His children do not sympathize with Him and have not prayed so as to prepare ways for Him. Let me say to all who have wholly given themselves to God: Do examine yourselves and see if in this respect you have limited Him day after day." Watchman Nee Let Us Pray, p. 11, Christian Fellowship Publishers
Is prayer a vital part of your strategic business practices? Put prayer on the front lines, instead of an afterthought. You will begin to see renewed power in your work life.
FROM DAILY MEDITATIONS
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1).
God is calling out a remnant of business people throughout the world who understand the role of prayer in their business life. These people have learned that prayer is not a five-minute exercise in the morning devotion time, but it is a vital strategic tool to discern and know the will and purposes of God in their work life. You see, they have learned that their business life IS their ministry unto God and others.
These men and women have entered into a covenant relationship with intercessory prayer partners who help discern the activities they should be involved. Some even have paid staff for the purpose of interceding for the decisions and activities in which they will be involved. They are a small remnant of business people who know that skill and technique are not enough to fulfill the purposes of God.
"A servant of the Lord has well said: Prayer is the rail for God’s work. Indeed, prayer is to God’s will as rails are to a train. The locomotive is full of power: it is capable of running a thousand miles a day. But if there are no rails, it cannot move forward a single inch. If it dares to move without them, it will soon sink into the earth. It may be able to travel over great distances, yet it cannot go to any place where no rails have been laid. And such is the relation between prayer and God’s work. Without any doubt God is almighty and He works mightily, but He will not and cannot work if you and I do not labor together with Him in prayer, prepare the way for His will, and pray ‘with all prayer and supplication’ (Eph. 6:18) to grant Him the maneuverability to so work. Many are the things, which God wills to do, and would like to do, but His hands are bound because His children do not sympathize with Him and have not prayed so as to prepare ways for Him. Let me say to all who have wholly given themselves to God: Do examine yourselves and see if in this respect you have limited Him day after day." Watchman Nee Let Us Pray, p. 11, Christian Fellowship Publishers
Is prayer a vital part of your strategic business practices? Put prayer on the front lines, instead of an afterthought. You will begin to see renewed power in your work life.
