Another road trip...

We will be off soon to Virginia to get another look at that baby and also gather up a new family photo for the wall.  God has been so good to us to see this all come together and Steph and I are giddy with delight.  The vehicle will be packed full of good food and company for the trip so we are ready.  (I think?!)

I think it will be 5 sermons to cover the kingdom parables of Matthew 13.  Each seems to be building upon the last and so next Sunday's will be on the treasure, the pearl, and the net.  It falls right in line to ask an invitation as Jesus does in a round about way.  One parable deals with a man stumbling upon a treasure.  Some come to Christ that way, just cruising through life and then usually something happens to make them look around and they see Jesus who was there all along just knocking and waiting for an answer.  The second deals with a man searching for a treasure.  Some come to Christ this way also.  They are actively searching for truth.  The result is the same in both, the treasure requires a giving of all to possess it.  What happens if we don't?  Then comes the parable of the net and Jesus telling us again that there will be a time where a reaping or separating of good and evil will come.  It is a sad ending but the chapter ends with Jesus entering His hometown and preaching in the synagogue and the people are impressed but they can't get past that this is just little Jesus, Joseph's son.  The outside factors trumped the truth of Him and therefore He had back His power being seen there.

Does God hold back His power being seen in places today?  I think so.  He held it back then because of unbelief.  Many times our God is too small in our churches and we limit Him to whatever has worked in the past.  We sometimes can be guilty of what the people of Jesus' hometown were doing to Him in our own circles and not realize that God can raise up capable people with the body to go way beyond what we can imagine.  "He's or she's just so and so's kid." No, he or she is a child of God and with God's direction and submission to His will, God can move mountains through those people.  I pray to keep my heart sold out to Him so that He does not hold back His power.

Maybe a post over Thanksgiving weekend, but if not have a great time with the family.  Here is a reminder of why we have this holiday on a national level from Abraham Lincoln himself.

--Adam--

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards 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 cannot 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 theatre of military conflict; while that theatre 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 defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe 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 battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness 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.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln