Thanksgiving.

Today is the big day. The day when most of strap on the 'ol feed bag and eat ourselves into oblivion, and then flop down on the couch and melt into a turkey induced football coma. Gotta love it.

I would urge all of you though to take a moment and thank God for all that He has blessed us with. I hear a lot about the bad economy, the health care debate, and how much things generally suck. I want to remind everyone of how good we really do have it, for the most part.

We live in a country where we have freedom. We all, for the most part, have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Even if you don't have some of those things, we still live somewhere that we have an opportunity to get them.

This Thanksgiving and Christmas season give thanks for what you have, and not only that, think of those who don't have as much as you do. There are a lot of people who are in need. Homeless people, people who just lost their jobs, can't afford to get food, can't afford to buy their kids gifts for Christmas. We all at some time or another have had the gift of help from somebody. This summer and fall a lot of my friends and neighbors and family came together in some way or another to make sure that the roof on my house got replaced. It was amazing to see God work through people!! To see people give up their time and cash so that a friend could not wake up on Christmas morn with a lap full of holiday snow.

I would implore and beg all of you to help someone in need this season. Contact a local charity and see if you can adopt a family for Christmas, give your time or money to a local mission where they feed the homeless, every time you walk by the red Salvation Army kettle throw in some cash or change. If we all do a little it adds up to a lot, and we can change the world, just a little for the better.

Matthew ch 25: 34-40; "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

We have so much to be thankful for, let's share what we have with others. Let's give, so others also can have something to be thankful for.

Thanks for listening to me rant, have a great Thanksgiving, God bless you all.

First Blog Post Ever?!!

Okay so here it is. This is the first blog I have ever posted. I hope it doesn't suck. My name is Jason, I am a Christ follower, A husband to a beautiful wife, a father of two great kids, and a total screw up. I am hoping by doing a blog I can be a help to others, share my thoughts on life, and express myself. So here it is:



Today I did something I have never done before. I am trying to get more and more into God's word 'cuz I think it helps to grow you as a person and as a Christian. Lately at church (crossing-church.com) we have done this thing called the EZ313. Basically, it gives you daily bible readings and you take the verse or phrase that most talked to you and write it down, what you observe about it, apply it to your life, and ask God to help you do what it says. (SOAP, Scripture Observation Application Prayer) This has been an amazing help to my daily bible reading. But one of the things that was talked about at the last series at church (Eat This Book) was how the bible was written down by scribes. So I took a chapter of the bible and wrote it all out by hand. I was amazed at how much more the Word stuck out and how much more I got out of it by reading it and writing it. I was also amazed by how long it took just to do one chapter, and how many times I had to look back and forth from bible to paper. It totally gave me a new appreciation for how much work it was for the people who were scribes and had to do all this by hand on an animal skin to get copies of the bible before the printing press. Amazing.



So, the chapter I chose to start in was Matthew chapter 5. I figured to start in the Beatitudes would be kind of cool, and shorter than doing a whole book of the bible which was my original plan.



A couple of things that really stuck out for me were:

• 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.' If your desire is to do what is right, you will be satisfied. Righteousness is doing what God asks you to do.


• 'Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' When you strive to do what is right, you will face opposition, people will make fun of you, they will hate you, and some of your days will suck. But, the kingdom of heaven is yours!! This is really cool because often times I lose sight of what is most important, being a Christ follower is not always tulips and daisies and all things nice. Persecution is not fun, but the reward for doing what God wants us to do is so much greater than the pain we suffer here.

These were just a couple of the things that stuck out, there were many more, the whole chapter really spoke to me. It gave me a new perspective when I paid attention to each word and phrase as I wrote it down. Really cool!! Give it a try I think it will change how you view God's word.