We live in a time when preachers in the area almost apologize for the size of their congregations.  People so focused on these super churches, and demean themselves, listening to the accusations of the evil one, the accuser of the brethren, instead of thanking God for those two-dozen people that are faithfully there and that they’re ministering to.  And someday, will participate with them in glory as those crowns are cast at Jesus’ feet, and what they contributed to the lives of those that are there for eternity.  What a privilege and what an honor and something that we should be thankful for, praise God.

How thankful are you for where God has placed you in His body?  So busy, so active, so literal in the Scriptures.  “Maybe we could lighten up a little bit?”  Well, let me remind you, a little leaven leavens the whole lump; amen?  I thank God for what He’s enabled us to see in the Scriptures, and more than that, the grace to stand and not be moved to the right hand or to the left.  To not add to or diminish from God’s Word.  It’s His grace that’s enabled us to do that.  It’s His mercy that’s enabled us to do that.  I am so thankful for what God is doing in our lives at this time, preparing us for the soon coming of Jesus.  “Do not get weary in well doing; amen?  For in due season, we’ll reap, if we don’t faint.”  Are you thankful for these great things that God has done?  “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the Lord is good; and His mercies endure forever; and his truth, His Word, endureth to all generations.”  Thankful for those great promises.  If God is for us, who can be against us; amen?

In Psalm 34 we see He’s given His angels charge over us.  Are you thankful for that?  Do we stop in the day to pause long enough to remember that and just worship Him, praise God?  I will bless the Lord at all times.  “His gates” are not “coming to church.”  “His gates” are “entering into His presence.”  We enter the presence with thanksgiving in our hearts.  Praise and worship open the heart of God, it opens that access of God that has been so perfectly provided through the blood of Jesus Christ.  So, we don’t praise Him for what we hope to get out of this visitation; we praise Him for the blood of Jesus and have access into His presence.