Thankfulness Thursday Week 49 of 2014

Today is December 4th.

Today I am thankful for Advent.

Celebrating Advent involves spending time in spiritual preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. In Western Christianity, the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas Day, or the Sunday which falls closest to November 30, and lasts through Christmas Eve, or December 24.

30 years ago I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior during Advent. The Lord was with me throughout my young life protecting me and guiding me to Him. I was not raised in a "Christian" home. My dad decided that we should go to church and we went to Wesley United Methodist Church where I was in the children's choir and was an acolyte. We learned Bible stories and did crafts but I do not remember anyone talking to me about a personal relationship with Jesus. After a while I was the only one in my family going to church. We lived about 5 blocks away so I walked there and back each Sunday. Soon I decided that I would rather stay home and watch Shirley Temple movies. Fast forward to my senior year in high school where I attended my dad's wedding to his 3rd wife and was approached by their neighbor and also the associate pastor of College Park Baptist Church about attending church - they even offered to pick me up. After a couple of months I called the neighbor and asked to go. Just 2 or 3 weeks after that the Youth Leader came by my home during the weekly Monday Night Visitation and said "You should come forward." In Southern Baptist churches there is a time at the end of the service where everyone stands and sings a song or hymn and the pastors and leaders or deacons stand in the front to pray with people. I walked that aisle the next Sunday (or maybe I flew), prayed telling Jesus that I was a sinner, asked Him to forgive me and be my personal Lord and savior. 


If you are searching for something God may be calling you. I urge you to find a Bible and read the book of John. Here are a few verses to help you know that Christ died for you, He loves you and wants fellowship with you.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 
Romans 3:23-24

 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Have a blessed Advent season.