Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I love the Fibber McGee and Molly radio broadcasts! One of the running gags on this show was Fibber’s closet: People who mistakenly opened the closet door got buried under a pile of stuff that Fibber had stashed away.
In one episode, Molly is determined to grow through all of the items that were strewn across the floor before they got shoved back into the closet. One by one Molly asked Fibber about all of the odd knick-knacks and he had a good explanation for every single one justifying why he couldn’t possibly part with it. One of my favorites was this—“What’s this bamboo pole,” Molly asked, and Fibber said, “Why, that pole is very important. If I was ever offered to be Joe Louis’ sparing partner, that’s the ten-foot pole I wouldn’t touch it with!”
I’m afraid that many of us have closets like this in our minds. We’ve accumulated a lot of just-in-case stuff for each and every scenario that may come upon us at some point in our lives.
All of our contingency plans implies that something is going to go wrong and that only the prepared and well-stocked will make it through.
Psalm 107 is the first psalm in Book 5 of the Psalter—the book that focuses mostly on praise. This author is recounting the history of Israel through the times of crisis:
lost and homeless (v. 4)
hungry and thirsty (vv. 5, 9)
trouble and distress (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28)
darkness and deepest gloom (vv. 10, 14)
prisoners in chains (v. 10)
knocking on death’s door (v. 18)
terrorized (v. 26)
at their wits’ end (v. 27)
We quickly go into crisis mode when we forget that God is in control!
In God’s Kingdom there is no emergency, no crisis, no Plan B. God is sovereignly in control—Isaiah 46:10.
God is in control of the macro—Genesis 1:1; Job 38:4-11
God is in control of the micro—Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 29:11
God will use what we call a crisis to display His glory—Exodus 14:4 NLT
When you feel yourself spiraling into crisis mode—when you feel you’re at your wits’ end—you can get back into contentment mode.
“When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.” —Oswald Chambers
That’s what Job finally did—Job 42:1-2.
And that’s also what the psalmist did—Psalm 107:6-8, 13-15, 19-21, 28-31.
Prayer is a great rescue in trouble, and ongoing thankfulness is a great inoculation against going into crisis mentality. Notice that those four repeated phrases have both cried out to the LordANDLet them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love.
Let’s strive to remain aware of His unfailing love by cultivating consistent gratitude. I like v. 2 from the NLT: “Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others He has redeemed you from your enemies”. When you are preoccupied with telling others and yourself how good God is, there isn’t room in your heart for the worry that leads toward crisis mode.
Remember: We can quickly go from contentment mode to crisis mode when we forget that God is in control, so remain full of thanks. “At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20 AMPC).
Look back through the pages of history and you will see a common theme. Whether it’s world history or your own personal history, you have so much for which you can give thanks.
In tough times, we tend to become forgetful because we are so focused on the intensity of the moment. But if we will simply look back in time, we will see just how faithful God has been to us. We bring our focus back to Him in our trying times when we remember and rehearse “the wonderful things He has done” (Psalm 107).
The season of Thanksgiving is a good time for us to be reminded of the powerful resource we have when we are giving thanks for our blessings. Thankful people are confident people because they choose hope in God’s faithful provision over grumbling about their current circumstances.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I take some time at the end of each calendar year for a quick recap of everything we have learned during this year at Calvary Assembly of God. I do this because I want to make sure we are all on the same page with each other before we move into a new year. And I also think it’s very important that we are continually reminded and reassured of what God has done for us. In our series on gratitude we talked about the dangers of forgetting to remember and re-tell the blessings of God. We see in the letters from the apostles both a re-telling of their own words, and reusing and amplifying the words of Jesus and other apostles.
You can click on the sermon series title to find a list of all of the sermons in that series. Clicking on those individual sermons will give you a short written recap of that message, and it will also give you the link to watch the video of the full sermon.
Kingdom Praying. Jesus made it clear time and time again that He came to reveal the Kingdom of God to us. He described what the Kingdom was like and told us that He came to be the means by which we could enter God’s Kingdom. He also told us how God’s children could access the power and privileges of our Heavenly Father through the means of prayer. He assured us with words like, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Jesus said quite simply that we had access to our Father through prayer. And then to make sure we didn’t miss out on this awesome privilege, He instructed us, “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:8).
Jots and Tittles. As we get closer to the death and resurrection of Jesus, there are an increasing number of prophecies that are fulfilled in these events. Jesus appears to have been very attentive to making sure that each and every one of these prophecies were fulfilled to the smallest detail. Near the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus noted that not one iota—or “one jot or tittle” in the Old English vocabulary—of any of God’s promises would be left unfulfilled (Matthew 5:18). It’s amazing that Jesus so carefully attended to all of these, but it’s also important to ask ourselves what these fulfilled prophecies mean to us today.
Takin’ Him to the Streets. Just before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told His followers that they would have the joyful responsibility of taking the good news of forgiveness and eternal life to all the highways and byways of every nation. Later on, Paul would get more specific about all of the groups to which he was taking the message of Jesus (see Luke 24:46-47; 1 Corinthians 9:20-22). That commission is still in effect for Christians today: We are to share the gospel with everyone—from easy street to skid row, from Wall Street to Main Street, and every street in between. The streets on which you live and work are different from the streets where I travel. In fact, all of us live on different streets, but everyone we meet on every street needs to hear about Jesus. In this new series of messages, we are going to learn how the Holy Spirit can help us be ready to take Jesus to those on each street where God sends us.
Ascending. Every year, Jews from around the world made four pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for various feasts and sacrifices. These journeys reminded them of God’s goodness as they went to the Temple to worship, and they helped refocus on God’s ways as they returned to their regular routines. Jerusalem is over 2500 feet above sea level, so the pilgrimage there was a physical workout as well as a spiritual workout. These workouts were beneficial for God’s people, preparing them to minister in their cities in the following months. The Book of Psalms contains 15 songs that these pilgrims would sing to and with each other as they traveled up to Jerusalem. These Psalms of Ascent are still instructive for Christians today.
Living in your Gift Zone. God created each and every human being uniquely. We all come in different shapes and sizes, but we all share one thing in common: He created each of us with a unique personality and a unique gift package. By unique, I truly mean that we are all one-of-a-kind creations that have never existed in all of history! Here’s another thing we all have in common: We usually live in a comfort zone that is far smaller than our gift zone. Living this way keeps us from soaring through life in the way that God intended. He wants each of us to know our gifts, and to use our gifts in a way that benefits our world and brings Him glory. It starts with believing that we are indeed gifted by our Creator. Then we must have the courage to step out of our comfort zone into the much larger gift zone God has given us.
Is that in the Bible? A meme that makes me chuckle every time I see it is a “quote” attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which he says, “The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true.” (Not to spoil the joke for you, but unless Lincoln knew how to time travel to the future, I don’t think he knew about the modern internet!). I love this meme because it captures something that so many people fall into: a quick acceptance of a statement without verifying its source or thinking through the implications of the statement’s truthfulness. In this series I think you may be surprised to discover just how many phrases we call biblical aren’t, and how many phrases there are that we never realized are actually in the Bible.
Be Thankful. It’s so easy to spot the negative things. It’s so easy to gripe about the bad stuff with others. It’s so easy to complain about what’s wrong with the world. But the Bible repeatedly calls the saints of God to rise above this downward pull of negativity. In fact, for those who have a relationship with their Heavenly Father, who call Jesus their Savior, and who call the Holy Spirit their Counselor, there is really only one way to live: Grateful!
Christ’s Advents. The word Advent means the appearing—something that bursts onto the scene. At this time of year we are actually thinking about TWO Advents. We look backward in gratitude to celebrate the first Advent of Jesus when He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. And then we look forward in joyful expectation to the second Advent of Jesus when He will return to earth again as King of kings. As Christians live in this time between the two Advents, our celebration and expectation should bring four noticeable attributes from our lives: hope, peace, joy, and love.
This next year promises to be another amazing time of learning and growing. If you live in northern Kent County and don’t have a home church, I would love for you to visit us!
Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.
It’s no secret that the holiday season becomes extremely busy for us at work and in our personal lives. If we are too busy, we can miss out on the joy of this season. On this episode, Greg and I discuss ways that leaders can help their teammates not just survive but thrive during the holidays.
[0:36] Leaders help their teammates find and set healthy boundaries.
[2:49] A good starting point is simply acknowledging the stress that we or others are feeling.
[4:01] Can we intentionally scale-back some things at work during busy seasons?
[5:06] Leaders also need to talk with their teammates about their personal responsibilities.
[8:43] Leaders need to make sure they are modeling all that they are telling our teams.
[11:02] Stephen Covey had some wise words for us about priorities.
[14:07] Be proactive about some of the strong emotions some of your teammates may be experiencing.
[18:01] Leadership has to be about the people!
[20:33] Here are your leadership takeaways.
Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Paul’s first visit to Philippi didn’t go so well!
It started off with some success—Lydia and her household accepted Jesus as their Messiah, and a demon-possessed girl was set free—but then things turned sour very quickly! Paul and Silas were falsely accused of subverting Roman law, and without any sort of trial they were beaten and thrown into prison.
Even after the local magistrates realized their mistake in mistreating Roman citizens in this way, they simply asked Paul and Silas to leave town. You can read this story in Acts 16:11-40.
But there were seeds planted in this city. Not just Lydia’s family, but the jailer’s family as well, became followers of Jesus. And what about the girl set free from demonic oppression? I have a hunch she joined with the Christians in praising God too! This group of believers then became the first financial supporters of Paul’s missionary work.
Paul knew that his brief imprisonment in Philippi had resulted in a thriving group of believers. And now as he writes a letter to these saints from a Roman jail, he is once again starting to see what God is going to do through this hardship—
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)
Paul was not embittered by his imprisonment, but he was rejoicing in all of the good things God was accomplishing because of his imprisonment.
✅ An attitude of thankfulness allows our eyes to stay open to God’s blessings even in hardships.
❌ A grumbling attitude prevents us from acknowledging what God is doing.
Paul’s trust in God’s provision gave him an attitude of gratitude in a difficult place, and he now encourages his friends to adopt this same mindset. In the next chapter, he writes—
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you. (Philippians 3:1)
Paul knew that in a heart full of gratitude there is no room for grumbling. That’s why always rejoicing in the Lord is “a safeguard” for Christians. Rejoicing in God’s character and God’s blessings keeps our mind on Him, making it very difficult for any temptation to ambush us.
Let’s proactively keep a heart full of gratitude so that no grumbling can seep in. But if we do find ourselves in a dark place that may prompt us to grumble, let’s react quickly to turn any complaints into praying and singing hymns to God, just as Paul and Silas had done in the Philippian jail, and undoubtedly as they were also doing now in their Roman jail.
But this isn’t quid quo pro—we aren’t grateful people just so we can get something back for ourselves. We should be grateful people because…
(1) …God is good all the time and so we should be thankful to Him continually—1 Thessalonians 5:18
(2) …Jesus was grateful—1 Peter 2:23; Hebrews 12:2
(3) …God blesses thankful people—1 Peter 3:9; Luke 6:33
(4) …your thankfulness can benefit people you haven’t even met!
Near the end of his life, David wrote a hymn of thanksgiving, which he taught to Asaph (his worship leader) who then taught it to all the citizens (1 Chronicles 16:7-35). Throughout this song, notice how many times David sang about not only giving thanks but sharing our thankfulness with those around us.
In difficult times, people search for what delivered others in the past. A good example is Psalm 106, where the psalmist warns his readers about the dangers of forgetting to be thankful for God’s blessings. This psalm begins and ends with words taken right from David’s hymn of thanksgiving as an added reminder of what our gratitude should sound like (see vv. 1, 47-48).
One hundred years after David wrote this song, King Asa needed to look back to it. His father Abijah had been evil throughout his reign as king, so had his grandfather Rehoboam. His great-grandfather Solomon started off well, but turned away from God near the end of his life. So Asa looked all the way back to the thankful heart of his great-great grandfather David (1 Kings 15:11).
Jehoshaphat needed this same song 100 years after Asa (200 years after David wrote it) in 2 Chronicles 20. Enemies had surrounded Judah and Jehoshaphat called the people to prayer. Jahaziel, a direct descendant of David’s worship leader Asaph, calls the people to trust God to fight the battle for them. As the army marches out the next morning, they put the worship team at the front who sang David’s 200-year-old song of thanksgiving and God used that to ambush their enemies!
Your lifestyle of gratitude today—your songs of thanksgiving—could be a blessing to future generations that haven’t even been born yet!
We would do well to learn the lessons of the past and make sure we are always quickly turning our grumbling into a song of thankfulness.
As you do, you are…
Emulating the lifestyle of Jesus
Banking up blessings from God
Ambushing the enemy
Bringing a testimony to non-believers
Establishing a standard for future generations
We bless God and bless others by employing two words: BE THANKFUL!
I’ve got a great Christmas gift idea for you to give to your favorite pastor: a copy of my book When Sheep Bite. I promise you that your pastor has been bitten and that there will be more bites in the future. This book will bring about the healing and restoration that your pastor needs.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it.” —Agatha Christie
“Let us remember, dear friends, that as we meet at our tables today with our sisters and brothers from distant parts, we are also invited by our elder Brother, our divine Friend, to join with Him in a higher feast, the way there sprinkled with His own blood. Let us not forget, as we are blessed with the providential bounties for the nourishment of these frail bodies that Christ the Lord summons us to a spiritual feast.” —Rev. James Cruickshanks, November 21, 1861
“The apostle Paul explained that the power of God at work within us, the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit, is exceedingly abundantly greater than all we could ever ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). Greater for what? For a clearer vision of Christ and more intimate communion with Him (Colossians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18). More continuous and abundant yields of spiritual fruit (Galatians 5.22-23). Greater consistency and effectiveness in the exercise of spiritual gifts for ministry (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). More power to bear witness for Christ, to love God and our neighbors, and to advance His rule of righteousness, peace, and joy on earth as it is in heaven (Acts 1:8; Matthew 22:34-40; Romans 14:17-18).” —T.M. Moore [check out all of the Scripture here]
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week I mentioned that I was a bit surprised that scientists had done so much research on the benefits of gratitude because science tends to have an over-reliance on the tangible world. But it’s hard to ignore that there are so many intangibles (like gratitude) which make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
We get ourselves into trouble if we focus exclusively on the tangible or intangible. We also get ourselves into trouble if we don’t use all of the resources God has given us.
The Bible tells us that we have been created in the image of God, and that one of the things that separates us from the other creatures in the world is our soul (Genesis 2:7). Our soul is compromised of our mind, our will, and our emotions.
We cannot allow any one of these to lay dormant or even considered less valuable than the others, nor we can allow any one of these to bully the others.
If my emotions dominate (especially emotions like fear or anger) I can give into fight-or-flight—Psalm 106:7
If my mind dominates, I can become dark and confused—Romans 1:21 NLT
If my willpower dominates, I tend to be very selfish—Isaiah 14:13-14
When my emotions flare up, when my mind is dark, or when I feel selfish, I need to remember to engage the other two parts of my God-breathed soul. This is where gratitude comes into play.
I love reading the Psalms when I’m battling the negative emotions that seem to rush in during trying times. The psalmists were so honest about what they were feeling. Check out a couple of examples in Psalm 7:17 and 9:1-2 where we see David engaging his mind and his will to make the choice to be grateful to God despite his circumstances.
In the New Testament, we see a similar response from Paul and Silas when they are falsely imprisoned in Philippi (see Acts 16:22-26). Despite their cruel circumstances, they chose to life thankful worship to God. Luke write that the other inmates were listening, and so was the jailer and his family, who ended up accepting Jesus as their Savior.
I’ve got three important words for you when dark times threaten to hijack your gratefulness:
TALK TO YOURSELF
We see another psalmist doing this in Psalm 42:1-6. He asks his soul why it is so downcast, and then he says, “I chose to remember God in all His goodness and I chose to praise Him!” These words are repeated again in Psalm 42:11 and 43:5, which tells me that giving thanks to God is not a one-and-done thing, but something that needs to be continually repeated.
You can get some conversation starters for your self-talk in two simple ways:
Write down your gratitude
Talk about your gratitude
Keep a gratitude journal: Write something down at the end of each and every day. Write it down. Re-read it regularly. Tell others about it. And then be ready for others to ask you about Jesus—just like the Philippian jailer—when they notice how thankful you are!
Use your mind to talk back to your fears and worries, and then engage your willpower. Don’t let your gratitude get hijacked by the circumstances around you, but allow your thankfulness to help you reframe your circumstances into God’s plan.
Check out the other messages in our Be Thankful series by clicking here.
It’s so easy to spot the negative things. It’s so easy to gripe about the bad stuff with others. It’s so easy to complain about what’s wrong with the world.
But the Bible repeatedly calls the saints of God to rise above this downward pull of negativity. In fact, for those who have a relationship with their Heavenly Father, who call Jesus their Savior, and who call the Holy Spirit their Counselor, there is really only one way to live: Grateful!
This Thanksgiving season, let’s renew our commitment to live with such gratitude that we begin to reverse the trends toward the negative that seem to envelope our culture. I hope you can join me at Calvary Assembly of God beginning this Sunday for our series Be Thankful.
If you have missed any of the messages in this series, check them out here:
There’s something about gratitude that distinguishes people. Think about it: would you rather hang around with grumblers or grateful people?
The gratitude of Paul and Silas certainly made them stand out from the crowd when they were in Philippi. Wrongly accused, beaten, and thrown in prison, but instead of bellyaching, they were praising God. Later on, when Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Philippi, the theme of gratefulness permeates his letter.
The distinguishing mark is actually in the title: The GReat ATTITUDE spells out GRATITUDE!
Join us this Sunday as we rejoin a series of messages perfectly timed for this season of Thanksgiving where we’ll be learning how great the attitude of gratitude truly is! We would love to have you join us in person, but you can also check out the messages at 10:30 each Sunday morning on Facebook and YouTube.
You can check out the messages we shared in this series last year by clicking here.
If you’ve missed any of the messages this year, you will be able to check them out here:
I love the Fibber McGee and Molly radio broadcasts! One of the running gags on this show was Fibber’s closet: People who mistakenly opened the closet door got buried under a pile of stuff that Fibber had stashed away. 
When you feel yourself spiraling into crisis mode—when you feel you’re at your wits’ end—you can get back into contentment mode. 
Craig T. Owens 