Excerpt from "Beyond Thanksgiving" by Joshua Kansiewicz

"Thanksgiving: the holiday that expresses gratitude through gorging. There can seem to be little room for gratitude between rushing to get the turkey cooked, catching up with Aunt Sally, and fixing our attention on the football game.

Thanksgiving is a food holiday. It is a family holiday. Though it was originally intended as such, it is hardly a faith holiday. In the middle of a deeply critical and pessimistic culture, however, it is still an oasis of sorts. It is a day when Americans remind themselves that the world is not merely the sum of negative influences like shallow politicians, violent crimes and white noise. There is reason to be grateful.

I remember saying grace last year over our turkey and stuffing. As I tried to quiet my kids and cousins, I remember feeling a sense of growing unease. "Is this enough?" I thought. The prayer was genuine, and I was truly grateful.

But as I poured rivers of gravy over mountains of mashed potatoes, I considered gratitude and wished for a better or more consistent means of expressing it. I suspect I am not alone and that many other Christians feel that setting one day aside each year for thanksgiving is not nearly adequate, considering the greatness of God and the graciousness of His gifts.

Fortunately, God has taught us methods of cultivating and expressing gratitude that are far more meaningful and fulfilling than the American "once-a-year" approach. God commands gratitude in dozens of places throughout the Bible. In many passages, God takes time not simply to command gratitude, but also to train us in offering it. This year, as Thanksgiving rolls around, let's take the time to learn more about gratitude."

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excerpt from "Beyond Thanksgiving" by Joshua Kansiewicz posted on vitalmagazine.com        click here to read entire article

What it's like now...

Here's why we have very few "meetings" at Pathway Church...

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                  © 2014 Dennis Fletcher  Reprinted from LeadershipJournal.net

Rebekah was very beautiful and old enough to be married.   --Genesis 24:16

"We live in a culture that only worships a certain kind of beauty…

The 6’ tall, 90 lbs., Barbie-figure, Photoshop-manipulated beauty.

Because we live in a culture that worships that kind of beauty, we have a tendency to swing the pendulum the other way and say that it doesn’t matter how you look…that everyone is beautiful in their own way…that you don’t really need to keep yourself looking good.

And, if we’re not careful, we begin to think a pursuit of beauty is a bad thing…

But it’s not…because God creates beautiful things.

God wants us to be beautiful people inside and outside…

Not according to culture’s standards but by His design"

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--excerpt from a study at Pathway Church on 09.27.15       click here to hear/download

Our culture is confused about a lot of things.

How we think about gender...
What is it to be a man?   What is it to be a woman?
How we think about sex...
Inside or outside of marriage?  Only for marriage?
How we define marriage...How we view and value the covenant of marriage.
 

Crazy thing is...not much has changed since Jesus walked on planet earth... 

Some Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with a question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female...‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’”                                                                                    --Matthew 19:3-5 (NLT)

 

It seems like Jesus didn’t even answer the question, but actually he did…just not in the way we expect. Jesus takes us to the beginning in Genesis 1 and 2 and basically says..."You've lost the reason for gender, lost the intent of sex and lost the purpose of marriage...Everything is all messed up because you're asking the wrong question."

 

The wrong question is...'How can I get what I want?'

Can I change gender whenever I decide to?

Can I have sex with whomever I want to?

Can I divorce whenever I want to?

 

These are the wrong questions...The right question is...

"What are God's intentions with gender, sex and marriage?"

 

 

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excerpt from a study at Pathway Church                                   click here to listen or download

 

 

Chuck Swindoll's Story...

Today I read a letter from Chuck Swindoll. He has been a source of encouragement and growth in my life through his books and teaching.

Again, Chuck speaks into my heart...

"I want to share a personal story with you. Deeply personal.

My mother's prayer for me 57 years ago changed the course of my life.

A few years ago as I browsed the books in my study, my eyes fell upon an old work by one of my favorite authors, F. B. Meyer, a British pastor of yesteryear. On impulse, I pulled the volume from the shelf, leaned back in my old, leather desk chair, and began turning the pages. To my unexpected delight, it wasn't F. B. Meyer's words that spoke to me that evening but my mother's. In her handwriting, she had added her own observations, prayers, and related Scriptures on many of the pages. On the back cover, she had penned: "Finished reading this, May 8, 1958."

1958. It was in May of '58 while serving overseas in the Marines that I had written in my journal: "The Lord has convinced me I am to be in the ministry. I need to begin preparing for a lifetime of serving Christ."

Amazingly, that same month, my mother had finished Meyer's book. As I scanned her words, I found one reference after another to her prayers for me as I was overseas . . . her desire for God's best for me.

My mother had encouraged me regularly as I was growing up. I can still hear her voice, "I love you, Charles. Always walk with God, son. Finish strong!" I had long treasured her guidance. But that evening I realized that my mother had prayed for me when I didn't even know about it—and it had changed the course of my life.

For the past 57 years, I have been privileged to pass on the faith I learned from her as a child, as well as the lessons I've gleaned from the Scriptures."

Does God Care If I Have Nice Things? by Matthew Young

Nice is relative. To one, a new Ferrari is nice, and to another a used vehicle under 100,000 miles is nice. Let's boil the question "Does God care if I have nice things?" down to more specific ones, such as:

• Does God care if I purchase a purse over $300?
• Does God care if I fly first class?
• Does God care if I own a home that is more than 5,000 square feet?
• Does God care if I drive a car for pleasure, not just practicality?
• Does God care if I have expensive hobbies?
• Does God care if I eat at expensive restaurants?

No one can definitively answer these questions, but another set of questions may help.

1. Is it necessary?

I am not saying every purchase we make must be a necessity. If that were the case, we would never be able to enjoy a latte or a movie. I do believe this is a starting point, however because necessities are necessary.

2. Is it responsible?

If we have established that what we desire to purchase is not a need, but rather a want, then we must establish if it is a financially responsible purchase.

3. Is it beneficial?
There are many things we want and that are financially responsible, but are not beneficial.

4. Could this money be of better use somewhere else?

What it comes down to is a lifestyle. We are commanded to live with open hands, being generous and sharing because in so doing we are laying up true treasure that is lasting (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Beware of finding yourself holding too tightly to luxuries.


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excerpt from an article in Vital Magazine                                          click here to read entire article

A 5 Year Old at a Waffle House

At only 5 years old, Josiah Duncan is teaching what it means to show compassion.

It all started when the Alabama boy and his mom encountered a man outside a local Waffle House. Josiah didn’t understand why the man wasn’t clean. It turns out little Josiah had never heard of homelessness. He had a lot of questions – but most of all, he was troubled that the man looked hungry.

That’s when Josiah decided to do something to help. He asked his mom if they could buy the unidentified man a meal. She said yes.

So into the Waffle House they went, with Josiah handing the man a menu after realizing no one was waiting on him.

After the food arrived, Josiah did one more thing...he blessed the man with a song, "God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessings, Amen, Amen."

By the time Josiah was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the restaurant.

News outlets and commentators on social media are right to praise this little boy. After all, Josiah didn’t just empathize with the man he saw outside the Waffle House – he was moved to action.

But I also think Josiah’s mom deserves to be recognized. She took her son’s request seriously and empowered him to act. Despite the fact she’s raising her son in a culture that is becoming more individualized and calloused, Josiah was able to feel – and act out – compassion.

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excerpt from Jim Daly's blog of Focus on the Family     click here to read entire article

Pray for Nepal

As aid organizations struggle to reach Nepal residents reeling from an earthquake 16 times more powerful than Haiti’s 2010 disaster, groups including World Vision, Convoy of Hope, and Samaritan’s Purse are racing to help survivors as aftershocks continue.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck at 11:56 a.m. Saturday, when many Nepalese churches were still conducting their weekly worship services.

AsiaNews reports that a Protestant church in the outskirts of the capital city, Kathmandu, collapsed and killed 70 worshipers. A Church worker in Nepal reports:

"Saturday is the worship day in Nepal and most churches worship between 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. The terrifying earthquake came at 11:56 Nepali time and most believers ran out to save their lives, some were trapped under building whereas other were buried alive in the building as it collapsed."

The Assemblies of God World Missions reports that "three AG churches are totally destroyed and several lives lost."

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--excerpt from an article on ChristianityToday.com        click here to read entire article

Do I come into a church service ready to 'listen' to God?

Today I read an article that really made me consider my 'listening skills'.

"What is it like for you to listen to a sermon? What do you experience when you sit and listen to a someone speak about the Bible? Once you've heard a sermon, what do you do? (Yawn? "Glad that's over!" "What's for lunch?") You might not even remember what was said—it was over your head, boring, too complicated, not connected to your world.

I can understand that. I'm a professional sermon listener—I teach preaching and communicating (in an educational setting) and I've listened to thousands of student's sermons. And, yes, sometimes I have no idea what the speaker was talking about!

The concept of remembering—or not remembering—what the speaker said isn't a new idea. For centuries men and women have walked away from sermons or teaching, and didn't remember what was said. In fact, it didn't make any difference in their lives.

My advice: Lean into what God is saying to you and you'll become a better listener.

We begin to discover what this means when we look at Psalm 78:1. God is talking directly to his followers. —"my people."  He cares that they hear what he has to say. He wants their full attention. Both lines of the first verse say the same thing: "Listen".

To "open up your ears" means to 'put yourself in a position to hear God.' It's a poetic way of saying: get ready to tune in or listen up."

So, instead of blaming the speaker...maybe I need to ask myself some questions...

Do I come into a church service ready to 'listen' to what God wants to say to me?

Have I placed myself in a position ready to hear what God wants to say to me?

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--excerpt from "How to Listen to a Sermon"--an article written by Scott Gibson

A fact I read that made me go 'wow!'...

An American 13-year-old teenager today has never known a day without the Internet, mobile technology and social media. He or she started kindergarten the year the iPhone was released and Facebook opened its site to the public.

"Dinner...as a Family"--written by Jim Daly

Sharing meals together is one of the simplest, yet most important things parents can do to help their family thrive. There's plenty of evidence that making dinner together a family priority is definitely worth the effort. Consider the following:

• The largest federally funded study of American teenagers found a strong link between regular family meals and academic success. Eating dinner together also led to improved psychological health, as well as lower rates of alcohol and drug abuse, early sexual activity and suicide.
• A 2005 Columbia University study found that teenagers who eat with their families at least five times a week are more likely to get better grades and less likely to have substance abuse problems.  In fact, the Univ of Michigan found that family mealtime is the single greatest predictor of improved achievement — more than studying, sports or other school activities.
• A study of preschoolers found that mealtime conversations helped to build vocabulary more effectively than listening to stories or even reading aloud.
• Eating together as a family also appears to decrease the likelihood of teenagers developing eating disorders. Research conducted in Minnesota found that adolescent girls who ate with their families at least five times a week were at far less risk for anorexia and bulimia than girls who didn't.

In today's fast-paced world, the dinner table might be the only place where families can gather together in the same room during the week. Your children will be under your roof for a relatively short time. Before you know it, they'll be away at school and tackling life on their own. One day you'll wake up and wonder where all time went. Don't let the opportunity pass your family by.

So, if your family has fallen out of the habit of sitting down together on a regular basis, what's the best way to get started again? Take it one night at a time. Don't set yourself up for failure by trying to go from rarely eating together to dining as a family for seven nights in a row. Set aside one or two nights and protect them with great fervor.

When we eat together, we're nourishing more than our bodies.


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excerpt from an article by Jim Daly of Focus on the Family               click here to read entire article

You should read this if you're praying for someone to come to JC...

Excerpt from "5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening" article by Dave Ferguson

"We’ve had the privilege of seeing thousands of people find their way to God. Over the years we began to notice some patterns. When people come to faith, they seem to pass through a set of similar experiences. Where people start and what motivates them to begin this journey are often different, but the stages they go through are remarkably similar... We call them the “5 Awakenings.”...Here is a brief overview:

Awakening to Longing. This is the universal feeling people have that “there’s got to be more” to life. We all feel the longing for love, purpose, and meaning. And it is the quest to satisfy these basic longings that sends us on a journey. The common experience: initially we may not understand that God gave us these longings, so we try to satisfy those longings by running away from God rather than toward him.

Awakening to Regret. We find ourselves alone, directionless and confused, and eventually we say, “I wish I could start over.” Many people get stuck repeating the first 2 Awakenings. We call repeating the first 2 steps the “sorry cycle” – pursuing God-given longings outside of a relationship with God. Many people get stuck in the “sorry cycle” for years and still others never escape it.

Awakening to Help. After repeating the “sorry cycle” of trying to fulfill these longings without God, and ending up with regret over and over again, we finally acknowledge something has to change. We come to the end of ourselves and say, “I can’t do this on my own.” We hit bottom. We come to our senses. We realize we need help.

Awakening to Love. We come to the realization that Jesus is the one who leads us back to God. As we come back to God, we are ambushed by grace. We discover “God loves me deeply after all!” However, often there is a shadow of shame and guilt that follows us home and we struggle to believe we are loved and accepted just as we are.

Awakening to Life. This is where we discover that through following Jesus we have “life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)  The New Testament uses two words for life: bios and zoe. Bios refers to chronological life: days, months, and years. But zoe carries a deeper meaning. It refers to life as it was truly meant to be lived. Zoe is eternal life. When Jesus says he came so we would have “life and have it to the full” he uses the word zoe. As we experience this final awakening we realize, “Now, this is living!”

Understanding the '5 Awakenings' has helped me make sense of the journey toward God. My hope is that they will inspire you to more effectively guide people into the arms of a heavenly Father who longs for their return."


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"5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening" was published in CT Leadership Journal March 2015        click here for entire article

Food Thoughts from Cookie Monster...

What a great video about encouraging by Chuck Swindoll...

Do You Agree with These Parents’ Decision to “Cancel” Christmas?

When John and Lisa Henderson grew weary of the poor behavior of their three boys, ages 5, 8, and 11, the couple decided upon a radical remedy...

They decided to “cancel” Christmas. No Santa. No stockings. No presents.

“We have not cancelled putting up decorations, celebrating the birth of our Savior, or any of our other heartwarming traditions,” Lisa explains in her recent blog post, which has gone viral and won the family an interview with “Good Morning America.”

But after months of working with their boys to help them curb a growing sense of entitlement and bad behavior, the parents decided to take the money they would have spent on presents and “put it towards service projects and giving gifts to others.”

Their goal? “Teach them giving rather than continuing to feed their desire for more.”

Lisa goes on to describe how the family of five has spent their time recently: organizing a clothing drive to benefit people in a Philippine village hit by Typhoon Haiyan; giving families Nativity sets; looking into participating in the Adopt a Grandparent program.

The boys cried when they learned of Christmas being “cancelled” – but as Lisa relates in an update to her original post, they have since reacted by “making gifts for each other… learning exactly what we wanted them to learn … thinking of others.”

This blog post has received a lot of attention. Some comments communicate a sense of outrage that these parents would “rob their children” with this “overboard” reaction.

Of course, the irony is that the Hendersons aren’t really cancelling Christmas at all. Rather, by reemphasizing the importance of expressing love to one another and exhibiting a spirit of radical generosity, this family is recapturing its true meaning. Christmas isn’t something you find under the tree in a colorfully wrapped box.

It’s good to let go of the superficial and false understanding of Christmas. Don’t miss passing on the wonder of the season to your children. There’s a marvelous mystery and intrigue to a God who sent His only Son to earth not as an earthly king robed in glory, but as a tiny baby born in a filthy manger to a poor unwed mother.

That’s the type of Christmas that can never be cancelled.

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excerpt from Daly Focus by Jim Daly of Focus on the Family       click here to read entire blog

Had to share a laugh with you...

Lessons from Elisha's Story (1 Kings 18)

If You Give Your Best in Obscurity, God Will Recognize It

When we receive a call from God, we are often anxious to begin the work immediately. No doubt Elisha wanted to be God’s prophet. But God often gives us the time we need to learn what we must to serve Him well, even if it’s not what we want. In the case of Elisha, serving Elijah helped him learn how to serve God. Elisha left a season of sowing in the fields to enter a season of sowing in the life of Elijah.

If You Do Your Best in the Small Things, God Will Give You Bigger Things to Do

In the ten years Elisha served Elijah, he was asked to do the lowliest of tasks. An officer of the king of Israel described Elisha as the one who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. That was normally the job of a servant of low status. If Elisha did that, he undoubtedly performed other menial tasks during his decade of service.

This was undoubtedly a change for Elisha. When Elijah placed his mantle on him, Elisha had been plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. That means his family must have been wealthy. It is likely that he was used to having others serve him. But Elisha was willing to do whatever God asked of him.

If you are willing to do small things in the service of God, and do them with excellence, God will give you opportunities to do bigger things for Him when you are ready.


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--excerpt from a blog post by John Maxwell              click here to read entire article

You can read more about Elisha in John Maxwell's book, "Learning From The Giants"

Thanksgiving...

George Washington initiated it nationally, on November 26, 1789, and Abe Lincoln institutionalized it in 1863, but Thanksgiving began here in America much earlier.

Claims for the first one include San Elizario, Texas in 1598; San Augustine, Florida in 1565; Berkeley Hundred, Virginia in 1619, as well as the Pilgrims in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims set theirs separate from Sabbath worship, held on a weekday, and ours is most like theirs.

But let’s step back even further, to Bible days. Let us consider Thanksgiving from the perspective of biblical festivals.

For a parallel to the Pilgrim festival of Thanksgiving, Deuteronomy 26:1-11 provides instructions for thanks to God as the Hebrews entered the promised land. The verses describe a harvest festival of first-fruits, probably celebrated in conjunction with the festival of weeks (called Pentecost in the New Testament.)

The ‘order of service’ in the text indicates several steps:

•A pilgrimage (vv.1-2)
•A declaration by the worshipper (v.3) that God has been faithful to his promise of land.
•A transference of the offering to the priest (v.4)
•A response by the worshipper that acknowledges the “fruit of the ground” comes from the “gift of the land.” (vv.5-10)
•A communal celebration (v.11)

Through this festival, the Israelites were bearing witness that bountiful blessings come from a promise-keeping God, not the fertility deities of their Canaanite neighbors.

Thanksgiving today calls us to the same confession.


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--excerpt from an article written by Rich Israel, Religion Department Chair and Professor of Old Testament at Vanguard University

It All Starts With Desensitized Parents...

Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania recently conducted a study to gauge how violent and sexual content in movies affect parents. Specifically, they sought to measure how being exposed to such images influenced what parents thought would be appropriate for children. They found that as parents see more sex and violence in movies, they become more desensitized to it themselves and are more likely to let their children watch such movies at younger ages.

Parents were shown clips from six mainstream films containing similar levels of graphic violence and explicit sex. After each clip, researchers asked participants what age they thought the film would be appropriate for, giving them a range from 6 to 19 years old. For the first violent clip, the average age given was 16.9, and for the first sexually oriented clip, it was 17.2. But by the time they got done watching all the graphic content, parents had gradually reduced the ages to 13.9 for the violent material and 14 for the sexual content of the final clips they saw.

In addition, parents who'd watched films with graphic sexual and violent content in the week before the study were more likely to OK such material for younger viewers.

Daniel Romer, director of the Adolescent Communication Institute of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, summarized the study's findings by saying simply, "We saw a really remarkable desensitization." And he and his team further theorized that because the Motion Picture Association of America's rating team is composed of parents, this personal desensitization could be a contributing factor with regard to "ratings creep," the phenomenon of movies' problematic content being rated more leniently over time.

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--excerpt from an October 27, 2014 post by Focus on the Family's Plugged In          click here to read entire post