THANKSGIVING

Our November meeting of Baskets of Life was a program of beautiful praise and worship music to thank God for all that He is and has done for us. As we enter the Thanksgiving holiday, let our hearts focus on our thankfulness.

What does thankfulness mean and how can we make it real in our own lives? The word "thank-ful" means having a heart full of thanks. To have our hearts full of thanks, we must empty it of negative emotions which distort our thinking.

Our society encourages us to look at what we don't have and we become dissatisfied. Advertising is designed to make us want the newest model, the most shiny, expensive items, which is constantly changing. The big screen TV that we purchased last year only satisfies us until the next model comes out with newer features
, so we are envious of what we don't now have -which leads to covetousness. Matt 6:19,21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,where moth and decay destroys, and thieves break in and steal...For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. 

  

Entertainment, such as TV and movies, depict extravagant and dangerous lifestyles that seem so exciting. When we compare our own ordinary lives with what we see, we become disappointed with the responsibilities and routine of daily life. Some people attempt to step over the moral boundaries into the lifestyle depicted, but quickly discover that leads to severe consequences..addictions, financial loss are just a few.

The average American is on some type of social media for 6 hours a day.

When we compare our lives to what others say their family members are doing...little Suzie is on the honor roll, taking dance, voted most popular, we wonder "why can't I have a child like her?"  Jealousy grows within us. 

  

As discontent grows, we begin to feel negative emotions. We begin to look at the negatives and not the positives in our life. If this pattern becomes a habit, we see few things to be thankful for. How many times have we sat around the Thanksgiving table with family members (or ourselves included) complaining about how our life does not measure up to our expectations.

The word Thanks has its origin in the word Think. It's the not the events or circumstances that cause us to have negative feelings, but how we think about those things. It's our thinking, not the circumstances that cause us to be discontent. When we take control of our thinking, we can look at life differently, so we can be thankful.

Scripture shows us how:

In everything give thanks...1 Thessalonians 5:18

Place your trust in God, not in mankind or material things. God loves you; you

are his child. He wants the best for you. Even when life seems unfair, trust that God can turn things around to benefit you. Don't focus on the circumstance at this moment, this too shall pass.  Good things come to those who wait.

...rejoice in every good thing which the Lord, your God, has given you. Deuteronomy 26:11 

Keep your focus on what you do have and not on what you don't. The simple things in life bring the most joy. Stop your hurried pace and enjoy the beauty of the sunset, see how pure, white snow is as it blankets the earth.Thank God for his creation and that you have eyes to see. Go for a walk and thank God you have two legs that move, breathe in the fresh air and know that God is the one who gave you breath. Love and appreciate the family in which God has placed you. God has a plan and purpose for your life. You are there for a reason. 

Colossians 3:15-16

Let the peace of Christ control your hearts...and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude.

Psalms 135:3

Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto His name; for it is pleasant..Thank you Jody for your beautiful praise music. Go to our U-Tube to hear some of the music sung at Baskets of Life, Nov. 19th 

What do Twislers

and Halloween have in common?

Yes, that red licorice stick of candy and Halloween. What do they have in common? The answer...they are both twisted and both cheap imitations.
Did you know that there is not one bit of licorice in a Twisler? The ingredients are corn syrup, flour, sugar,gelatin spun round and round to give a twisted appearance.And, Halloween is now considered by many to be a holiday, but is far from being a holy-day. Quite the opposite. It celebrates the complete opposite of holy. It is actually an event that Satan, the ruler of this world, has lulled us into believing is a harmless, fun activity. Both appear to be something they are not.

When Lucifer (satan) was an angel in heaven, he wanted to raise his throne above the the stars of God... and make himself like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:12-14) He has been in competition with God for eons..wanting more of our time, our money, and our very decision making. 

• We've been bombarded the entire month of October with TV ads to celebrate Halloween, and the stores are loaded with all kinds of decorations and costumes. Americans spend so much money for this "holiday" that commercially it is second only to Christmas. Money that could be spent on healthy food for growing kids, paying bills, or tithes to God are instead being spent on candy that causes tooth decay, weight gain, sugar addictions and diabetes, which is at an all time high. How good is this??
• Trick or Treat night has recently been extended over an entire week. What exactly is Trick or Treat?...it appears to be a harmless activity, but it's origin is not. Children would threaten homeowners that if they did not receive candy, money, or treats, they would play pranks on the people, such as breaking windows, sitting fires, etc. That does not sound like fun to me..but more like extortion.Surely, not Godly behavior.
• Satan is an expert of masquerading. (Rev.2:13-15). He deceived Eve by appearing as a serpent or snake, and roams about as a lion. Halloween is about masquerading as something or someone we are not. Everyone knows that Halloween parties are incomplete without costumes. There are entire stores that sell nothing but costumes, with people beginning shopping for them months in advance and spending large amounts on money for the most outrageous. Is satan our role model?
• The symbols of Halloween are those that reflect the work of satan:
  
  rotting corpses, bare-boned skeletons, witches, monsters, evil henchmen, devils, tortured souls of the dead. This stuff in real life is not fun. Death is the work of satan, not of God. How many of us have mourned the loss of a loved one, yet satan, through Halloween, makes death seem glamorous. 
• Terror and fear are also made to seem like fun. Haunted Houses are so popular that folks stand in line to enter, and horror movies are a hot ticket especially this time of year. However, if anyone were tortured and brutalized in real life, it would not be fun, but a tragedy. We even expose our small children to all this, yet did you know that children's minds cannot distinguish reality from fantasy? Heart monitors have been placed on children going through Halloween torture chambers and their heart beats are elevated to a dangerously high level.(What parent wants to scare their precious child to death?)
• This all seems like insanity to the rational mind. How can this be? Well, satan is the Father of Lies and the Spirit of Falsehood. He is the murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent and his cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray. (2 Cor.11:3) The god of this age (satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light..the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor.4:4.) 

We all want to fit in and be liked, but we need to be mindful of what we are doing...which means, we need to think what are we really saying through our actions. Do we really want to celebrate evil, pain and death? It's so easy to take the broad path of our society...do what everyone else is doing, without really thinking about what our actions mean in the spiritual realm. Satan wants to entice us to follow the crowd in doing what seems on the surface as fun. He excites and incites us to act in ungodly ways. Don't fall for his tricks. Jesus said "Away from me, satan! for it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only." Mat.4:10  Peace be with you, Christine

Forgiveness

Forgiveness... What is it? How to? When? A number of folks have asked for an explanation of this concept over the past few monthly meetings. Wow, what a deep question. Understanding forgiveness will add peace, strength and patience to a believer's walk on this earth.

Before a person can ask for forgiveness, he has to do something wrong. Before one can forgive someone, one must have had something wrong done to them. In the Bible, chapter 2 of Genesis, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a place of paradise, in order to tend it and keep it. God gave Adam one rule. They were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we all know, Adam and Eve broke that rule and did eat of the fruit. When God looked for them in the garden, they hid from Him. God called for them and asked why they were hiding from Him, had they done something wrong? "Have you eaten of the tree, that I commanded you not to eat?" Adam's response is so human, "The woman you gave me, gave the fruit to me and I ate... so it's her fault." Eve's response is just as human as Adam's, "The serpent, who was really the devil, fooled me and I ate." Why does mankind always seem to try and put the blame elsewhere? Mankind wronged God by breaking His only rule. I do not know of anywhere in the Bible where Adam and Eve ever asked God to forgive them. So, sin nature entered the world and entered mankind. Man's nature is to be rebellious and break rules.

 Some may wonder that not eating fruit from a certain tree doesn't sound like a big deal, why such a harsh penalty? I don't know that anyone can answer that question. It was God's garden. We don't get to make or question the rules. Just as when I visit you in your home, there may be rules I don't understand, but the loving thing for me to do is to obey them. If I don't, I have created a division between us and it is my responsibility to make things right. The bottom line is that man wronged God and it was his responsibility to put it right..... But he couldn't. We just are not able to do the right thing all the time in every situation.

Having been wronged, did God "hold a grudge"? No! Before He even told Adam and Eve the consequences of their having wronged Him ( being thrown out of Paradise and having to work hard for their food from then on) He told His plan to redeem them as He said to the devil, "... and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." God's prophecy is that there will always be trouble, problems between those people who are by nature rebellious (people with the nature of mankind, or basically all of us) and the "seed of the woman". The devil's seed will bruise his heel, but the seed of the woman shall bruise the devil's head. Wait a minute! I thought that the male gender carried the seed and that the woman carried the egg! That's correct! And that shows us why, a few thousand years later, when a young woman named Mary, who had never "been with a man" became pregnant with the only begotten son of God, it was such a big deal! This was God fulfilling His promise to mankind that He would bring mankind back to Himself. God created seed inside this young woman and Jesus the Christ was born, because she obeyed God completely. Jesus loved mankind, even those rebellious ones who always troubled him and caused him problems. He continued to obey God, even to letting people murder him by crucifying him on a cross. Jesus did God's will completely, always forgiving those who wronged him... even those who nailed him to the cross. That is why Jesus spoke the truth when he said, "... I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me."

God forgave us because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for mankind. God gave man a path back to Himself. Surely we have all been truly forgiven by someone for something at some point in our life. Remember how light our heart felt when we received it? Remember how we swore to ourselves that we would change and not wrong them again? Remember how healthy our relationship with that person was at that moment?  Jesus Christ took this sin that Adam and Eve had committed, which allowed sin nature and rebelliousness to become such a big part of our nature, and paid the price that allowed God to open His arms to us and welcome us back into His presence. Jesus Christ paid the price required. Men had tried for thousands of years to earn God's forgiveness and couldn't. Instead of throwing mankind away, God sent His son Jesus Christ to pay the price so that we could be forgiven. God forgave us.

Now that we know this, how can we not forgive others who want to be forgiven? Now that we know that man's basic nature is to make mistakes, break rules and step on toes, we know to expect strangers, friends and family to wrong and disappoint us. Sometimes they do it by accident and sometimes on purpose. If I am honest, I can look back and see the times I've disappointed and done wrong to others. Actually there are too many to count. And since God was gracious enough  to forgive me, how can I not offer forgiveness to others who have wronged me? If someone does not want to forgive me for something I've done wrong to them, even if I've asked for their forgiveness, why can't I even forgive them for their lack of forgiveness? To forgive or not is simply a mental decision each one of us makes. If I remember all the wrongs I've done to God, yet He forgave me, it seems much easier to me to be gracious enough to forgive others. After I've forgiven them, I might be somewhat on guard until I feel I could trust them, but I train my thoughts
 until I'm sure that my thinking and actions are truly loving, not faked. I'm only responsible to God to try to live my life according to His wishes; I'm not responsible for how they live their life. I can now go on with my life with a clean and clear heart.

I urge each of us to try forgiving others. It's the way God designed to help relationships stay loving. I know we've only scratched the surface of this deep and vastly important topic. If you want discuss this more, please come to our Bible study after the meal following Baskets of Life. May God bless you and yours this day and forevermore.

Jeff & Christine

Church Attendance and Membership

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Every meeting at Baskets of Life, there is an opportunity to ask any questions about God, Jesus,the Bible, or about other Christian beliefs. This month, we received several related questions:

• Does it matter if you attend church without being a member?
• How important is having a church membership?
• Should you attend only one church? 
• Is it okay to be members of more than one church?
• I am confused about all the different denominations.

Before we answer these questions, let's understand the differences between being a Christian and church, between spirit and religion. Being a Christian means inviting Jesus into your heart and confessing with your mouth that you want Jesus to be Lord over your life. It is having a personal spiritual relationship with Jesus. When you do that, Holy Spirit is deposited in your heart to dwell within you, giving you wisdom and guidance on how to live a godly life on this earth. We also have the Bible, especially the first four books of the New Testaments (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) where you can read the actual words Jesus spoke, how and with whom He interacted. We get to learn how to live a life in tune with His beliefs. He is our example.

He tells us that although we live in this world, we are not of this world. This means that we don't "follow the crowd" and live the way most people do...which is living only to meet their own desires without regard for what pleases God. Jesus recommends that we "fellowship" with other believers, who will help each other in speaking and acting according to God's word. A common way to do that is by attending church, since most people who attend are Christians. There are many different denominations because some groups of people like to emphasize a particular type of ceremony based on their interpretation of the scriptures.

Churches are a man-made institution, which means it is made up of people, and as humans, we are each imperfect. So, don't be discouraged if they let you down. Our focus needs to be on Jesus and not on the people. As people, churches like to make up their own "rules" which sometimes reflect God's Word, but sometimes they do not. That is why it is important for each of us to read the Bible for ourselves so we can tell if a church is in error in what they require. No where in the Bible does it say that you must attend or be a member of a church.

What matters is that you love Jesus in your heart,and pray often to our Heavenly Father with gratitude and awe for His grace and mercy. Read the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is what it means to be a Christian...a follower of Christ in heart, mind and deeds. 

May God's Peace and Love be with you,

            Christine and Jeff    

Welcome!

 

Living a life of love, peace and hope can only be accomplished when we listen to God and follow His instruction. We all think that we know what's best for us and how to do that, but we all fall short, and end up with disappointment, heartache, ...or worse. 

Proverbs 3:5 tells us not to lean on our own understanding on how to live life, but we are to trust in the Lord completely. Yet, we don't have to trust in Him blindy, either. We cannot trust in the Lord with all our hearts unless we personally know who the Lord is, and what He desires for us and from us. The only way to know this by reading His instruction manual for life, also known as the Bible.

Most people think that they know what it says, but it's usually based on what we've heard someone else say, or because we follow a religious tradition (which often leaves us empty.)

I grew up "in the church." I attended Sunday school and church from ages 5 - 18 years old, but I had never read the Bible, or been taught how to read the Bible, or even to understand how the Bible could help me in my daily life. When I began attending a Bible-based church as an adult, I had a lot of questions, but I was too embarrassed to ask them. I was afraid that I would look stupid. I put the pastor on a pedestal high above "little-ol'-me" so never asked the questions I had. But I was hungry to find answers.

I wonder if some of you may be in that same situation? That's why we are starting this blog...to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, in an understandable way. ..to find out who Jesus is, and to learn how much He loves you. Once we learn how wide, long, high and deep His love is for us, then we can truly trust in Him. Every month we'll discuss questions or topics we've received from you.

We hope you enjoy and grow as you walk with us through 
God's Word, to know within your heart how much you are loved by the Creator of the Universe, who wants the best for you!

Christine & Jeff 

Psalm 138:2-3

"I will worship ... and praise your name

for your loving kindness and for your

truth; for you have magnified your

Word above every name.  When I 

cried to you, you did answer me and

did increase the strength of my soul."

 

Hello Everyone,

Baskets of Life meets the third Tuesday of every month at 3 o'clock at the Wright Memorial Church located at 735 Mt. Vernon Road in Newark, OH.