John Hellen

1. THANK YOU SONG

“Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart” Don Moen

 

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART
GIVE THANKS TO THE HOLY ONE
GIVE THANKS BECAUSE HE’S GIVEN
JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON

 

AND NOW LET THE WEAK SAY I AM STRONG
LET THE POOR SAY I AM RICH
BECAUSE OF WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE

FOR US

 

REPEAT

GIVE THANKS    link for song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rf_iPsB8LU

 

2. THANK YOU BIBLE VERSES 

Ephesians 5: 19-20

19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.  20 Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Psalm 103: 1-6

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all within me, praise his holy name.  2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-  3 who forgives all your sins  and heals all your diseases,  4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,  5 who satisfies your desires with good things  so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.  6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

 

 

 

 

3. THANK YOU GOD PRAYER

The song, verses and prayer will be presented at our visit this Saturday to a men’s shelter for their Thanksgiving Dinner

 

Thank you, God for bringing us together today to praise your name

 

Thank you, God for being our Father. Thank you for breathing life into us. Thank you for creating the heavens, the earth, and all life on the earth. Thank you for creating us in your image. Thank you for being the one and only God, who is faithful and true, and the only one who can save us and place our feet on a solid rock. Thank you for not leading us into temptation. Thank you for protecting us and for delivering us from evil.  Thank you, for your grace and mercy towards us. Thank you for your patience with us even as we stray from your commands. Thank you for always giving us another chance.  Thank you for waking us up every morning. Thank you for answering our prayers, according to your will, your grace, and your timing. Thank you for providing us with our daily bread. Thank you for providing us with roofs over our heads, clothing and food and water. Thank you for giving us the strength necessary to carry on from day to day. Thank you for forgiving us for our sins, as we forgive others. Thank you for healing our diseases.

 

Thank you for the men that you have drawn to you, who have been saved, and whose prayers you have answered. Thank you for the men you set free from their bondage, and who now are functioning on their own. They sought you, and knocked on your door. They asked you for help. You opened your door, and answered their prayers.

 

Thank you for the brother, whose prayers to be reunited with his family were answered. Thank you for the brother, who was miraculously reunited with his wife through your grace and mercy. He did not know where she was, but you knew, and you led him right to her. Thank you for the brothers who you helped to get the SSI and workers compensation benefits they needed. Thank you for opening the door of opportunity for the brothers for who you found jobs and housing. Thank you for healing one of the men from a terribly inflamed leg. It was swollen and red and in a cast. We prayed the prayer of faith for his healing. When we came back two weeks later, his leg was totally healed.

 

Thank you that you loved us so much that you sacrificed your only son, Jesus, to die on the cross so all our sins could be nailed to the cross, and so those who accept Jesus as Savior could be washed of all our sins and purified by His precious blood.

 

Thank you for providing us with the free gift of salvation, which we qualify for, not by our deeds, but just by believing in Jesus, accepting Him as Lord and Savior, and repenting of our sins. That is all we have to do to be saved. We don’t even have to clean ourselves up first. We only have to believe and repent. Thank you for giving us a second free gift. Thank you that as soon as we are saved, you place your Holy Spirit inside of us. He will guide us, instruct us, comfort and strengthen us, help us to pray. He will help us to obey your commandments. He will help us to love you with all our mind and heart, and to love others as we love you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to accept your free gifts of salvation and of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that all we have to say in response to your free offer is “yes.”

 

Thank you that when Jesus returns and your Kingdom comes, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you that you will bring to earth the New Jerusalem where all that are saved will have eternal life, with no more suffering and no more sickness. Thank you that your children will dwell there in your presence. Thank you that you will restore to the believers the tree of life. Thank you for the gates of Pearl and the streets of gold in your holy city. Thank you that there will be no strife and no more injustice. Even the wolf will lie down with the lamb. Love will prevail. All will serve you and praise you constantly.

 

Father God, we give you all the glory and all the honor. We praise you. We worship you. We trust you. We bow down before you. We will obey your commands.  We love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our spirit. And we will love our neighbors as ourselves. We will forgive others as you forgive us.   You are our shield and the lifter of our heads. You are our fortress in times of trouble. You lift us up with your love. Only you can rescue us from the miry pit. Without you, we are nothing.  You are the one and only God.

 

Trust and Obey

See words and hear tune at http://nethymnal.org/htm/t/r/trstobey.htm 

Hear song on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98_uwooblA

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Refrain

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

Refrain

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Refrain

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Refrain

 

This beautiful song sums up, in two words, what we must do to please God and obtain His blessings. Just Trust and Obey.

 

Trust is imperative because it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). Jesus said if we have only the faith of a mustard seed, we can move the mountain (Matt 17:20). We all face our mountains be it external circumstances that are trying us or problems with controlling our flesh, but if we go to God in faith and repentance, He will be faithful and forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), and whatever we pray for, believing in faith, we will receive (Matt 21:22). God will bless those that trust Him—“O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you” (Ps 84:11-12). If we trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding, God will lead us in straight paths (Prov 3:5-6). How many times do we try to do things our way and by our self will without consulting God, and then flat on our face, and then cry out to God, and, in His great mercy He lifts us up? If we consult God, the Spirit of Truth will guide us in all things.

 

Obedience is also crucial to please God. See the scripture quotes, below:

 

Be watchful and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. (Deut 12:28)

If you love me, you will obey what I command. (John 14:15). Jesus says if we love Him, we must obey Him.

If you obey My commands you will remain in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. (John 15:10)

My command is this: love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12). Jesus gave us this commandment and the other commandment, of course, was to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and spirit.

But He said, Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28). Apparently, Jesus agrees with Deut 12:28!

And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. (1 John 3:22). So, we receive if we believe (TRUST) as stated in Matt 21:22, and also receive if we OBEY. Therefore, just do as the song says and Trust and Obey. There really is no other way. Do not get caught up in the debate of obedience vs. faith. It’s not trust or obey,  but both of the above that we need to please God.

So, how can we make ourselves be more obedient? Hint: in Ezek 36:27, God says: I will put my Spirit in you to cause you to obey my commandments. We need to fan the flame of the Holy Spirit daily so He can help us to walk in the Spirit and overcome the flesh. We fan the flame of the Holy Spirit by prayer, repentence, and reading the Word daily.

 

 

 

 

Thou, Oh Lord

 

Please click on the following link to see the fabulous song “Thou, Oh Lord”   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y284YvkYrZo

 

God Hears Our Heartfelt Cries

 

If we cry out to God with our whole heart in a spirit of repentance and faith, He will hear our cry and deliver us from the trials that besiege us and the pit we have fallen into. We need to cry out with repentance, faith, a pure heart, and with praise and thanksgiving. The lord will forgive us, redeem us, and save us from the pit of destruction. See the passages, below.

 

The first passage, Psalm 3, is the Psalm from which the above song is derived almost word for word, from the Kings James translation.

Ps 3: 1-5 David had sinned with Bathsheba. Because he turned away from God, he underwent many troubles. He was fleeing from his son, Absalom, who was trying to kill David and replace him as King. In this Psalm, David repented of his sins and turned back to God. He cried out to God. God heard his cry and became a shield for David. God delivered David from his oppressors, and restored him to his former glory. If we cry out in trust, the Lord he will lift us up and be our shield. He will restore and sustain us.

1 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. 2Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. 3But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head.  4I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. 5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

Psalm 46: 1-3 God is our strength. He will protect us through all our trials and storms and calm the waves just like Jesus did when the vessel carrying Jesus and his disciples was in the midst of a great storm. But we must cry out in faith and not fear. Remember when Peter was walking towards Jesus on the water, he had no problem until the wind kicked up and he took his eyes off of Jesus, looked at the world around him and began to fear. Then he began to sink and Jesus held him up saying to Peter, ye of little faith. So we must cry out to the Lord but not in a mindset of fear. See the passage, below for further emphasis on the importance of an attitude of faith.

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;  3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 If we trust the Lord and not ourselves, He will deliver us from our troubles.

9But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raised the dead:  10Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.

Psalm 40: 1-4 David waited on the lord. He cried out to God. God answered David and delivered him from the slimy pit. God set David’s feet upon the solid rock. David loved the Lord. He put all his trust only in God. He sang praises to the Lord.

1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

 

Isaiah 38: 9, 17-18 The King confessed his bitterness to God. God cleansed him of all his prior sins, and delivered him from the pit of corruption. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, forgives our sins, and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9).

 

9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and then recovered of his sickness:  17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou has in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.18For the grave cannot praise you, death can not celebrate you: they who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.

 

Psalm 103: 1-5 David praises the Lord. He agrees, with all his soul, that God is the only one who can redeem us from destruction (deliver us from the pit) and can renew our strength.

 

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me bless his holy name.  2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:  3Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;  4Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with love and kindness and tender mercies;  5Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.