The night is almost over, and the day is near.  So we should get rid of the things that belong to the dark and take up the weapons that belong to the light. ¹³ We should live decently, as people who live in the light of day.  Wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality, promiscuity, rivalry, and jealousy cannot be part of our lives. ¹⁴ Instead, live like the Lord Jesus Christ did, and forget about satisfying the desires of your corrupt nature.
(Romans 13:12-14 -- GW)

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

(Proverbs 18:24 -- NIV)

Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so that freed from our sins, we could live a life that has God’s approval.  His wounds have healed you.
(1 Peter 2:24 -- GW)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come1
Let earth receive its King;
Let every heart prepare him room
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hill, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground:
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness
And wonders of his love,
And wonders of his love,
And wonders, wonders of his love.

(by Isaac Watts)

My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you?

(John 14:2 -- GW)

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day proclamation, 1863 . . .

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans. mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

1. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is Thy Health and Salvation!
Join the full throng:
Wake, harp and psalter and song;
Sound forth in glad adoration!
2. Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Who, as on wings of an eagle, uplifteth, sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
3. Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief
Ever hath failed of relief?--
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.
4. Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee,
Who from the heavens the streams of His mercy doth send thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with His love doth befriend thee.
5. Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

(by Joachim Neander, translated by Catherine Winkworth)

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From ev'ry mountainside

Let freedom ring!

2

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

Thy woods and templed hills;

My heart with rapture thrills,

Like that above.

3

Let music swell the breeze,

And ring from all the trees

Sweet freedom's song;

Let mortal tongues awake;

Let all that breathe partake;

Let rocks their silence break,

The sound prolong.

4

Our fathers' God to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright,

With freedom's holy light,

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God our King.

(Samuel Francis Smith)

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done,
In whom his world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms
Has blest us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.

Oh, may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us
And keep us in his grace
And guide us when perplexed
And free us from all harm
In this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given,
The Son, and him who reigns
With them is highest heaven,
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.

(Martin Rinchart or Rinkart)

Give thanks to the Lord because he is good, because his mercy endures forever.

(Psalm 107:1 -- GW)

Therefore, a time of eternal rest exists for God’s people.
(Hebrews 4:9 -- GW)

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”
¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

(John 8:10-11 -- NKJV)

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

(Acts 4:12 -- NIV)

Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation.  The old way of living has disappeared.  A new way of living has come into existence.

(2 Corinthians 5:17 -- GW)

"Why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer’s eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to another believer, ‘Friend, let me take the piece of sawdust out of your eye,’ when you don’t see the beam in your own eye?  You hypocrite!  First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the piece of sawdust from another believer’s eye."
(Luke 6:41-42 -- GW)

You must understand this: In the last days there will be violent periods of time. ² People will be selfish and love money.  They will brag, be arrogant, and use abusive language.  They will curse their parents, show no gratitude, have no respect for what is holy, ³ and lack normal affection for their families.  They will refuse to make peace with anyone.  They will be slanderous, lack self-control, be brutal, and have no love for what is good.
(2 Timothy 3:1-3 -- GW)

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

(2 Peter 3:9 -- NKJV)

"Stop storing up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Instead, store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust don’t destroy and thieves don’t break in and steal. 

²¹ Your heart will be where your treasure is."
(Matthew 6:19-21 -- GW)

Each of us lives for 70 years—
        or even 80 if we are in good health.
            But the best of them bring trouble and misery.
                Indeed, they are soon gone, and we fly away.
(Psalm 90:10 -- GW)

Give thanks to the Lord because he is good,
because his mercy endures forever.

(Psalm 118:1 -- GW)

Jesus is the answer, for the world today,
Above Him there's no other,
Jesus is the way.

 

If you have some questions
In the corners of your mind,
Traces of discouragement,
The peace you cannot find,
Reflections of your past,
Seem to face you everyday,
But this one thing I do know,
That Jesus is the way.

I know you've got mountains,
That you think you cannot climb,
I know your skies are dark,
You think the sun won't shine,
But in case you don't know,
That the word of God is true,
Everything he's promised,
He will do it for you.

 

Jesus is the answer, for the world today,
Above Him there's no other,
Jesus is the way.

(by Andrae Crouch)

You don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  What is life?  You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears.
(James 4:14 -- GW)

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
(Matthew 5:6 -- ESV)

The pigs preferred death to being possessed by the demons. 

----------------

"This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent.  We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world."
(Ephesians 6:12 -- GW)

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
(John 9:4 -- KJV)

I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “God lives with humans! God will make his home with them, and they will be his people.  God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There won’t be any more death.  There won’t be any grief, crying, or pain, because the first things have disappeared.”
⁵ The one sitting on the throne said, “I am making everything new.” He said, “Write this: ‘These words are faithful and true.’”

(Revelation 21:3-5 -- GW)

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live . . .

(Deuteronomy 30:19 -- NIV)

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