Forever Grateful...

I love Thanksgiving.
I love the food. Love the crowded table. Love the sound of children running around the house.
Love the smells. Love the conversations floating throughout the rooms.
Love the football games in the back round...and the football games in the backyard.
I love the phone chats with family far away.
Love the fellowship around the sink cleaning dirty dishes.
I love Thanksgiving.

But this Thanksgiving had me thinking. About all of the above...but more than that...
Lately, my heart has been consumed with the persecuted church.
They have been in my thoughts, my prayers...and now my holidays!

Amidst the festivities...I thought about what might be happening thousands of miles away...across oceans and rivers and streams.
What we celebrate on Thanksgiving...is longed for and anticipated and prayed for.


The Pilgrims sought religious freedom...a land in which their hopes and dreams would once again become a reality.
It was not an easy venture...many lost their lives in this pursuit of freedom.
But what I enjoy today had to come by that once hard-traveled road.


There is a Bible sitting by my night stand, several down stairs on the book shelf, two or three in Jason's office, one in each child's bedroom.
There are any number of them available to read, study, memorize...devour.
But my sisters and brothers...for fear of losing their lives...have hidden the Word only in their heart.
They have walked not by sight but by faith. They have trusted in a God that has chosen...for the time...to stay the hand of justice.
They are silent in their suffering...but the echo of their faith is reverberated throughout the body of Christ.


Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
Hebrews 13:3

May this be true of all of us. That we remember and PRAY for those that are in prison...those that are mistreated. For we are all one body.
And above all...that we remain forever grateful for our religious freedom...and the freedom we hold in Christ!



Lord, we know Your heart is broken
By the evil that You see
And You've stayed Your hand of judgment
For You plan to set men free

But the land is still in darkness
And we've fled from what is right
We have failed the silent children
Who will have never seen the light

How long before You drench the barren land?
How long before we see Your righteous hand?
How long before Your name is lifted high?
How long before the weeping turns to songs of joy?

How long, how long
Oh Lord, how long?

But I know a day is coming
When the deaf will hear His voice
When the blind will see their Savior
And the lame will leap for joy

When the widow finds a husband
Who will always love his bride
And the orphan finds a father
Who will never leave her side

How long before Your glory lights the skies?
How long before Your radiance lifts our eyes?
How long before Your fragrance fills the air?
How long before the earth resounds with songs?

Oh, how long, oh Lord? Come soon, oh God
Come soon, oh Lord, we wait for You
We wait for You, come quickly, Lord, oh
Come soon, Lord