All posts by Kathie Whitestone Thompson

Follower of Yeshua. Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother. Some call me a teacher. Some say I'm a prayer warrior. A few accredit me with some writing skills. Me? I say I'm a work in slow progress, looking for perfection in eternity and until then having all the holy fun I know how.
Fascinating Facts of the Faith

Day 34

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Fascinating Facts of the Faith 

 2008 Barbour Publishing,Inc.

Songs of the Faith

Imagine how it must have felt to be separated from your loved ones and taken far from your native land–against your will. Is it any wonder that African-Americans living as slaves in America embraced Christianity? It provided the promise of hope and freedom from bondage in the life to come.

Unlike free men, those living under the fist of slavery had no time for a convenient faith. It was to them a port in the storm, a life boat in the ocean, a vibrant part of everything they did. It had to be. One of the results of their passionate faith was a body of African spirituals–simple, poignant, and faith-filled–that remains with us today.

All that’s known of this beautiful, almost childlike melody is that it is of African-American Christian origin. Perhaps it was sung by weary, frighened voices on board slave ships or later as the slaves labored side by side in the fields. The song’s message of simple surrender to God’s loving care is certainly consistent with the slaves’ experience. And it is still capable–even these many years after the abolition of slavery–of rendering a tender, heartfelt emotion for those who raise its lovely strains to heaven.

As is the case with other African-American Christian folk songs, this one is meant to be sung by one or many singers and lends itself well to both unison and harmony. 

God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’s so good to me!
 
He cares for me,
He cares for me,
He cares for me,
He’s so good to me!  
 

Fact: Gene Shay, cofounder and host of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, said, “In the strictest sense, [folk music] is music that is rarely written for profit. It’s music that has endured and been passed down by oral tradition. . . .Also, what distingishes folk music is that it is participatory–you don’t have to be a great musician to be a folk singer. . . .And finally, it brings a sense of community. It’s the people’s music.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. I Chronicles 16:34

God Is So Good — music provided, you provide the praise.

Praying For These

 If you would like to put your name in the drawing for the book, Free To Be Me by Betty Robison click HERE and leave me a comment. A drawing for the winner will be conducted Thursday night at 8:00 PM. So don’t wait too late to give me a shout.

Until then + + +
Kathie
Christian Living

Descriptive Words

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As I sit to write for our Wednesday time it has been a sweet Tuesday.

I’ve been catching up on my homework for my online class with Leah Adams and one of the Scriptural Addresses I visited today was 2 Timothy 3.  Allow me to share a word or two with you.  

2 Timothy 3 (New American Standard Bible) 1But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.   2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,   3unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,   4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,   5holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.   6For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,   7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.   8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.   9But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

Difficult times will come. How well we know that is true! And who among this group of believers does not believe we are in the last days? What an accurate description of 2011 is recorded for us here in this passage of Scripture! Look again at those descriptive words just before the words ‘without self-control’.

Lovers of self.   Lovers of money.   Boastful.  Arrogant.  Revilers.  Disobedient to parents.  Ungrateful.   Unholy.  Unloving.  Irreconcilable.  Malicious gossips. 

How far do you have to look to see all this?  Then we read ‘without self-control’ and I am wondering if Father’s placement of these words in His Text is significant? Look what follows ‘without self-control’:

Brutal.  Haters of good.   Treacherous.   Reckless.   Conceited.    Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Does a lifestyle of refusing to exercise self-control lead to brutality? An abhorrence for goodness? And on down the list?

I don’t know. But this I do know if it’s even a possibility, I’m ready to yield to the HOLY SPIRIT rather than my own fallen nature. How about you?

This reminds me a bit of Made To Crave.  If I lack self-control as to what I put in my mouth that nets me increased poundage. A lack of self-control as to what comes out of my mouth just might lead to me brutalizing the soul of another.   God forbid! May it never be!

And in the context of Scripture, it does go without saying that ‘self-control’ for the Christian is in fact actually ‘yielding’ to the HOLY SPIRIT in the given moment — right? I think so too.

I want to thank You, Father, for another day that You have loved on me and watched over me oh so carefully, and not just me but every son and every daughter that You have adopted by the Blood of JESUS. Thank You for showers of blessings, both literal and figuratively. And as our IDOKs settle in for this evening even before this devotion goes to post, I pray for peace, rest, ad refreshing.  We pray too for our IDOK Troops, thank You for their willingness to serve, and ask that You reward them richly and bring them home safe and sound. And I ask You, HOLY SPIRIT, to have mercy upon us and send us a moving of Yourself among us with conviction and power to repent all across this Land. And in particular, at this moment I am mindful of little ones who are sick and I ask You to heal them. And comfort the Mamas too as they tend them. Amen and amen in JESUS’ Name.

 Until Then + + +,
Kathie

Christian Living, Repentance, Salvation

The Day

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Do not live for today, live for The Day.

That is a one sentence summary of today’s (Sunday) message given by my Pastor at Satsuma First Baptist this morning. I am still digesting probably the most powerful, most affective, effective for me message I have heard since my salvation. Even though I knew as I was listening that my Pastor was doing a superb job delivering his monologue, yet my focus was not on the great job he was doing but on the holy, awesome GOD he was talking about. Ive heard it said when a good preacher finishes you leave the sanctuary saying that was a good message; but when a great preacher finishes you leave saying what an Awesome God!

I have a great preacher/pastor! And I have the Awesome God!

The Day.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air, and so we shall always be with the LORD. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

And I dare say if these words do not comfort you, you best be finding out why you are not comforted by them.

So that’s The Day.

Then what?

This what!

2 Corinthians 5: (New International Version, ©2011)10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.

And, in my opinion, what is the worst thing a Christian can do? Fail to allow the Holy Spirit through us by prayer, love, word and deed to persuade others that The Day is coming and they must prepare for that Day.

1 Corinthians 3 (New King James Version)10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

I think I am more keenly aware today than ever that when The Day comes I do not want to be saved ‘yet so as through fire’. When that glorious time comes to lay crowns at the Beautiful Feet of JESUS, I want some to give HIM!!!!

Words are too little, LORD, to say how grateful I am for what You have done this day for me toward The Day. Thank You. And now as this day is closing and these thoughts are nearly prepared for posting, I thank You for allowing me to write them and share them. I pray, HOLY SPIRIT, that You will use this to minister to every person who comes here to read and pray. Thank You for tending our IDOK Troops and our Praying For These in JESUS Name.  Amen and amen.

Until Then + + +,
Kathie