Sunday: A Wonderful New Daily Audio Devotional From Pastor John Piper @ Desiring God

ALSO:  The Great American Heartache---Why Romantic Love So Often Collapses On Us 

ALONG WITH MY DAILY BIBLE READINGS EACH MORNING FROM ONE YEAR BIBLE BLOG on my sidebar (which includes readings from the Old and New Testaments, a Psalm and Proverb passsage), there is a dazzling new, Gospel resource that I'm finding rich and edifying which I want to call your attention to.  It is brief but extremely powerful and well worth checking out, listening to and mediatating on daily:

It's called Solid Joys Daily Devotional with Pastor John Piper at Desiring God. When you click on the link, you will find the day's latest devotional and also you can scroll down and go back days, even  weeks to review old devotionals you missed or wish to review.

Today's timely devotional is Glorify God By Giving Thanks.

I hope you will integrate this feed into your daily quiet time and find it as wonderful a resource as I do.  It is now also posted as a link on my sidebar.  God bless and thanks for coming by.

UPDATE:  DUCHESS MEGAN MARKLE SUPPORTSk LONDON MOSQUE THAT SPAWNED 19 TERRORISTS

Thanksgiving Centerpiece On Board

ESSAYS FROM A CLAREMONT THANKSGIVING
 

I LOVE THE FALL HUNTER GATHERER LOOK--pine cones, magnolias and pheasant feathers (from Martha Stewart).  Perfect for dining al fresco or inside. It could use a little more red---berries or apples, for zip, but otherwise spectacular.

It's a glorious day of sunshine and soon-to-be warmth here in Middle Tennessee.  If you can breathe the air and it's warm enough,  hope you will join me for a nice walk in the woods;  we're  getting far too sedentary.   So much to be thankful for. Happy, Blessed Thanksgiving Day!  I include a prayer of thanksgiving from the Anglican prayer book:

Collect for the Day

Almighty and gracious Father,

we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season

and for the labors of those who harvest them.

Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty,

for the provision of our necessities and
the relief of all who are in need,

to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen

(The Collect for Thanksgiving Day)

Sunday, Ministering To People Who Are Suffering

WHY DOES IT SEEM THAT SUFFERING INTENSIFIES AT THIS TIME OF YEAR when days are shortest and light from sun is weakest? Does God design life that way? When life is supposed to be so cheerful it often become depressing and desperately isolated.

In this week alone horrendous mega forest fires in California have left so many without anything--- homes, possessions, family members and often worse. It boggles the mind how quickly disaster can happen to any of us and change the course of our lives and destiny forever.

How can we help in a way that truly reaches past merely restoring money and physical possessions? Nancy Guthrie talks here about what Christians and can do and how we can pray more deeply for those in need of so much:

          

Veterans Day Weekend With Lt. Dan Crenshaw and Pete Davidson on SNL

FORGIVENESS WITH HUMOR EQUALS A TERRIFIC BIT OF RESTORATIVE TV. Way to go for a change. Poignant, clever and very funny.

Pastor Mike Atkins From Ecclesiastes 8: Trying To Figure Out What God Is Doing In Our Lives, In the World Is Futile

THERE ARE A LOT OF MOVING, DISPARATE PIECES IN OUR LIVES THAT DON'T ALL FIT NEATLY TOGETHER AND MAKE SENSE. But righteous people and their purpose are in the hand of God. We may not know the end of something, but if we do what God guides us to do, then one day we will. If we humble ourselves and let ourselves be guided, God will bring something marvelous out of even the most difficult times. Please join me in praying for the thousands of victims of the catastrophic fires in California who have lost their homes and much worse. Also please pray for our favorite blogger and friend Gerard Vanderleun, his mother and little cat who are all surviving and prospering by the Grace of God.

 Fav TobyMac song dedicated to Gerard et al:

I Publish Only A Few Comments, But Now and Then I'll Treat Myself to One From the Hillary Camp

UPDATE:  SURBER---SESSIONS WAS THE WORST
UPDATE: WINNING THE HOUSE IS POLITICAL FOOL'S GOLD
UPDATE:  SIMON----HAS TRUMP PUT THE SENATE OUT OF DEM RANGE FOR 2020? 


THIS COMMENT IS TOO EXTREME TO DELETE. Without further ado, I give you Hillary Bill from Sewanee, TN on the elite radical left to all of us drug addled deplorables in Tennessee:

Only in a redneck state like yours, would a bimbo be elected whose degree is in Home Economics and has worked in beauty pageants vs a guy who has a Physics degree from Harvard and has successfully managed a state with $33 billion budget. Of course we know Tennesseans are in a lot of pain and they need their opiates which Marsha will be happy to supply after receiving her payoffs from big pharm... every other parent in Manchester, Winchester, and small town TN is on disability and has a opiate problem. I guess if you keep them medicated, you'll get their vote. Sorry, you can't blame the brown people for this, it's purely a white redneck problem. What is wrong with these people? Poorly educated, scared of the brown people, gun fetishists, and afflicted with fear and gullibility... It's a redneck nation, at least 50%, the worst of America which you vote to keep over fed and medicated.

But, justice is soon to come. It's Mueller time!

MY RESPONSE:

All the advanced degrees on earth cannot make up for your hateful,  condescending, disrespectful attitude towards the people of this state. These are my people.  Get a grip and grow up and out of your hysteria. You're a troubled man and starting to sound like an unhinged mass shooter in the making....this has been going on for years and today it's over. Get some help.

Grateful for Red Slam in Tennessee and Forecast Cat 5 Blue Hurricane Hit Land As Downgraded Dud

UPDATE:  DEMS TAKE HOUSE, BUT TRUMP WON ELECTION

SURE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IDEAL TO HAVE KEPT BOTH HOUSES last night.  Still there's much to be thankful for:  Marsha Blackburn and Bill Lee keep Tennessee clearly soaked in red.  Beto, Andrew, Stacy and Taylor Swift were defeated.  President Trump is still a winner. For now.

Had Enough Already? Almost Over......No Really

THIS 5 YEAR OLD HAS HAD ENOUGH OF BEING WHIP-LASHED by his dad's run for governor in Alabama. Poor little guy.  The rest of the story....

This photo says it all and speaks for most of us.

I'm With Don Surber---Blue Wave Is Real, Red Wave Is Real, and....

....the GOP will keep the Senate and maybe the House! though the Dems will get more votes. Would not have thought it a year, a month ago, but today is a new day.  And Donald Trump is a political magician.  The nation's IQ test which Roger Simon poses today at pjmedia will be passed by freedom loving, responsible voters.

 See you Tuesday night glued to the tube.

UPDATE

Sunday, From the Book of Proverbs

'Those who give to.j the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses. (28:27) I SHALL NOT WANT. If we are generous with wealth, we will lack nothing. While this cannot mean that all generous, righteous people become more prosperous, the second clause guves us a hint at why financial generosity van enhance material security. Selfish people get curses from the community around them. Thus the generous het the blessings of the community. In Mark 10:29-31 Jesus says that if, through generosity, you lose 'homes' or 'fields' for his sake, you will receive new ones 'in the present age.' The reason that Christians are free to radically give away money when needs are evident is because they are now members of a community that will do the same for them, should they ne in want.... In your life or the life of someone else, have you seen how the strength of a Christian community encourages and supports generosity? PRAYER: Lord, to live as a rugged individualist is not your will for me, and it leaves me vulnerable. Change my heart and strengthen the church so we, your people, can truly be members of one another. Amen From Tim Keller, Proverbs, God's Wisdom For Navigating Life NOTE: I had planned to do a post on a Christian perspective on Henley's Invictus. However, my computer screen has gone haywire and may be finished. Can't do that post until I get it fixed. Thanks for coming by.

Darrell Waltrip Helps Marsha Blackburn Over the Finish Line

WE'RE ALL READY FOR A LIGHT-HEARTED, FUN AD TO WIND THINGS UP AFTER A BRUTAL SENATE RACE in which the voters have been assaulted as much as the candidates.

Marsha and Darryl are lightning things up and delivering the NASCAR vote and beyond. I love it! Have already voted for Marsha for Senate and Bill Lee for governor. Now,  let's take it on home, Marsha and Darrell!

Thursday: All Saints Day---A Stunning Promise

A DEVOTIONAL FOR ALL SAINTS FROM RICHARD KEW

Revelation 21:1-7

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 

Thought for the Day

As I read a passage like this I wonder at the audacity of it. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth..." that is a breathtaking statement leaving us wondering how the old will be subsumed by something utterly new and holy. Yet this is the end toward which the whole of Scripture points. We can only marvel at the grace and majesty of the living God and realize that this side of our own transition to eternity the hows and whys of this happening cannot be answered. But there is a promise within this passage to which we can cling, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, humanity." As he makes all things new the redeemed community of God's people will accompany him and the Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, who won our salvation. No wonder this is one of the key readings for All Saints' Day.

Thanksgiving for the Day

Without knowing precisely what it means for all things to be made new, it is through the Cross of Jesus that this will happen for us and we can bring gratitude humbly before him.

Intercession for the Day

Let us each pray that we may be ready for the day of our departing this life for the world that is to come.