elizabethprata

A grateful heart withstands a shaking

Posted on November 19, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

As this year draws to its close: I stand on the Cornerstone of all creation, because the mercy of Jesus saved me lo those many years ago. Gratitude fills my heart and my life with the blessings He has delivered to me, first fruit of which is that precious salvation. He Who is the fount from which all beneficence flows, in His mercy accepted my piteous cries for forgiveness and smiled upon my soul, bringing light and peace.

He continued to bless me by sealing the Holy Spirit within me to rely upon as my guide and teacher. He allows me to grow in His light and remain upon His paths by sending me wisdom as I read His Holy Word. He gives me earthly fulfillments- I am not hungry, I am in a warm home, I am clothed and I am employed. I learn from Paul who said to the Philippians,

“Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

Contentment no matter the circumstance is truly a gift. Do you have a grateful heart as this year closes? The end time is a period when the Lord is shaking heaven and earth, and we see what remains. “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” (Hebrews 12:26).

Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26-29). Gratitude and contentment in the midst of terrible circumstances is key to remaining unshaken. Paul was unshaken, content in all that occurred.

So was Abraham Lincoln. His Proclamation in 1863 at the height of the US Civil War was The basis of the holiday we celebrate nowadays. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation was gratitude to the LORD. Notice how his decree began, not with a listing of current troubles, and if any man had a right to complain it was Lincoln. But the proclamation began with gratitude toward the Lord for blessings. Lincoln begins:

“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 unequalled 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 had 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 consciousness 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 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, tranquility 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…” (1863. end Lincoln proclamation)

Friend, you are of the Kingdom – the Kingdom that will not be shaken! My prayer for you is that your heart is filled with gratitude for all things, no matter the circumstance.

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16).

Further Resources:

How President Lincoln Created Thanksgiving

theology

The premier thankfulness

Posted on November 18, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

About Thanksgiving, the holiday- I’m reminded of the hymn, “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.” My thankfulness stems from the root of it all: my salvation. I’m thankful Jesus came, taught, died and rose again for pardon of my sins. I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit’s ministry to guide me on all straight paths in His Light. I’m thankful for Father God Who made us in His image….and did not wipe us all out in the Flood. I’m thankful that He sends the angels to protect me. Am I thankful for friends? For turkey? For my job? Absolutely. But the gratitude for secular things pale in comparison to the center of the universe: GOD, and the fact that He resides in me through His grace and mercy. From that One Truth, all other blessings flow.

The most important question you can ask yourself at Thanksgiving, is “Am I thankful I’m saved?”

Black Friday, greed

Thanksgiving only lasts one day but thankfulness is forever

Posted on November 17, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

My dear sisters who are laboring under the tsunami of the world’s sin, grieving over hating your own, and mourning over others’- I offer a small message of encouragement, by way of a large message from Charles Spurgeon.

This Age of Grace is rapidly accelerating to the time of the end and the time of the Age of Tribulation and wrath seems to be on the horizon. Gaps are widening, we see that clearly. Believer vs. non-believer never had less in common. Poor vs rich were never more far apart. Those who are strengthening versus those who are apostatizing were never more numerous. It will all deepen and widen more tomorrow…and tomorrow… and tomorrow…

So those of us who are large in number globally but perhaps few in groupings locally, are daily made more aware of our sin. We thus are ever more knowing of our own wretched condition, which is forgiven sinner. We’re always heaping gratitude to Jesus when our sins prick up more vividly to our heart as each craven day passes. Sometimes we hate our own sin so much that we totter, weakened as we see the horrific face of it. But far better than we feel weak in our heart, fainting in knowledge of our sin, than our conscience be weak, failing to feel its prick.

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25)

Here is the encouragement. Charles Spurgeon preached a message to his congregation in 1882, called “God’s Non-Remembrance of Sin.” Far from being antiquated or irrelevant, it is even more alive today than it was when it was delivered, I venture to say. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and it’s 2000 years old and still relevant. In the same way, any sermon delivered by wisdom of and submission to the Holy Spirit is also alive today, and fresh.

The sermon I linked to above is and wonderfully concise and encouraging. If you are feeling low because of your sin and the state of the world, if hopelessness starting to fray the edges of your mind and heart, take hope from this sermon. Our sins are not only forgiven, but forgotten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All too often we focus on our sin and plead with the Spirit for strength to withstand them another day. We confess and repent, and rely on His Goodness and Grace to forgive, but we still remember. He does not!

I’ll excise a few pieces of Spurgeon’s sermon for you:

“What the Law asserts, the understanding also asserts, for within the awakened man there is the memory of his past offenses—and on account of these his conscience passes judgment upon his soul—and condemns it even as the Law does. “God must punish wickedness,” is the utterance of conscience.”

“Thus, for once, the devil craftily cooperates with the Law of God and with conscience—these would drive men to despair, but Satan would go further and compel them to despair as touching the Lord Himself, so as to believe that pardon for transgression is quite impossible.”

“With the desponding I shall try to deal at this time and may the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, help me to console them–”

“Our first theme is this—THERE IS FORGIVENESS. Our four texts all teach us that doctrine with great distinctness. Is not that a sublime assurance, “I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins”? Does not Paul put it sweetly as from God’s own mouth, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Remember how the Psalmist, in the 130th Psalm makes this a special note of thanksgiving “There is forgiveness with You that You may be feared.” Let us adore the Lord because He delights in mercy!”

“Secondly, THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. This is a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders—that God should say that He will do what, in some sense, He cannot do—that He should use speech which includes an impossibility and yet that it should be strictly true as He intends it. God’s pardon of sin is so complete that He, Himself, describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression.”

“The Great Father’s heart is not brooding over the injuries we have done—His infinite mind is not revolving within itself the tale of our iniquities. Ah, no! If we have fled to Christ for refuge, the Lord remembers our sin no more! The record of our iniquity is taken away and the Judge has no judicial memory of it. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing and it is quite gone out of your mind—but an event happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned.”

“I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) .
“For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34).
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:12.)
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17). —end SPurgeon excerpt

Please take heart! Please do read all of Spurgeon’s gem. Thanksgiving Day is coming, but our thankfulness to the Lord for His mercy, forgiveness, and forgetting of our sins is something we are thankful for every day, even through the time when day shall be no more and time shall be no more, and we still have an eternity to be grateful.

gratitude, praise, thanksgiving

Tis the Season of Thanksgiving

Posted on November 16, 2020November 16, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Next week is Thanksgiving, a time when we traditionally celebrate the blessings we enjoy in life. Many families have a tradition of sitting around their table and each guest or family member saying what they are thankful for.

I’m thankful for my salvation. For that to be possible I am thankful for the Holy Spirit drawing me to Jesus. For that to be possible I am thankful to Jesus for obeying the Father and dying on the cross. For that to be possible I am thankful for God who created all the world and who is so Holy that His Son obeyed Him and took all the wrath that was destined for me on that cross. I am thankful He revealed Himself to us in His word, and that we have the privilege of prayer, the Bible, the gifts, the fruits, and eternal life. I am thankful for the promises of prospering us in the regenerative process of growing in Christlikeness, for treasures and rewards in heaven, for the promise of rest and peace.

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Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: The Character of Sin

Posted on November 15, 2020 by elizabethprata

Right-click to open larger in new window. Published with permission

Artist’s Statement:

I was compelled to say something that spoke encouragement for “the saved to continue on,” even while recognizing and knowing the true character of sin, the taste and its aroma. Our efforts to reach the lost becomes harder each day; the news-media ridicules Christ’s redeemed, and with deceptive words, demands we not speak Gospel Truth. But we must “continue on.” I must keep fresh in my mind that previous centuries of the lost hated Christ, and that this present century of the lost will hate us (even as we the “saved” seek their rescue).

theology

Everything is beautiful

Posted on November 14, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Wow.

‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’. In my opinion, babies, like babies. If you ever gazed on a sleeping baby you have seen beauty in its time.

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sacrifice, temple

What piece of furniture won’t you find in the Temple?

Posted on November 13, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata*

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)

Here is an illustration of the inside of the Temple of God when it was at its best. It has a lot of furniture in it. Tables for showbread, lavers for washing, tables for the sacrifices, the ark, etc. There is something missing. Look for it. If you don’t notice what it missing, then scan below for the answer- (Illustration source)

Figure it out yet? The verse was the clue. The piece of furniture missing from the inside of the Temple was a CHAIR. A stool, a couch. Anything to sit on. There was nowhere to sit. Priests were always at work because sin always had to be atoned for. It was endless.

When Jesus accomplished His work on the cross, He ascended to the heavenly temple and He SAT. IT IS FINISHED!!!! Sin is finally atoned for via the one Holy Sacrifice and God accepted it, signifying His acceptance by raising Jesus from the dead.

“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10).

Jesus is the sacrifice. He is sitting because He magnificently and perfectly finished the work. Praise His name!

*This essay first appeared on The End Time in August 2012

theology

Marooned with husband: A Sailing Story

Posted on November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

For two years in the 1990s I was a live-aboard yachtsman on a 37 foot sailboat. My husband and I sailed from Maine to the Bahamas and back, twice.

You might have heard about the Florida “snowbirds” who travel from some northern snowy state to Florida for the season to escape the cold. Liveaboard yachtsmen do that too, but aboard their own boats. We’d decided to give it a try, since my husband had sailing experience from owning a schooner in previous years. Solo sailing (“singlehanding” in the yachting lingo) is hard and only for the intrepid, but when I appeared on the scene he decided that the time was right and the two of us went off into the sunset.

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theology

A Few Thoughts

Posted on November 11, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Some random thoughts…

Do you ever pray and pray and then the thing you prayed for…the opposite happened? And then you feel like you didn’t pray enough? Or with enough fervency? When what you were praying for fell through and you think, it’s your fault? “If I prayed more…” “If I prayed more strongly…” “If I prayed better…”

I know it’s not up to me. God is sovereign. The verse says the prayers of a righteous man avail much. (James 5:16). It doesn’t say the prayers of a righteous man avail all. Still, it’s hard not to wonder, “Could I have done more?”

I was a journalist in the early 2000’s. I covered local politics and government. It really IS like watching sausage being made…sometimes rotten sausage. Messy and unappetizing. The local powers that be at the time had a stranglehold on the town. Nepotism reigned, town hall department heads were filled with relatives and friends. They felt like they owned the town. They felt entitled to do what they wanted. The newspaper at the time had a monopoly and created the narrative the officials desired, which reflected the elites’ views. The townspeople had to accept it because they didn’t have an alternative. But they were often angry and upset.

I came along and established a free and fair objective newspaper. I reported the truth, without fear or favor. In one incident, I was covering a local Town Council race and discovered that some of the valid write-in votes had been thrown out. Amazingly, I got the election clerk at the time on the record saying she and the poll workers threw them out “because they didn’t like the names that were written in”.

This was around 2003 or so. Seventeen years ago…a different time. I was incensed. When it came out in the paper the people were incensed. The write-ins would not have made any difference to the outcome of the race. But it made a huge difference to the person that took their precious vote, considered who to write in, and placed their invaluable emblem of free and fair election into the ballot box. That it was thrown out by elites with a false sense of entitlement was provoking in the extreme.

The Town Manager was no fan of mine but he did have a sense of right and wrong. Throwing out votes was wrong. He contacted the Secretary of State to ask what to do. The ballots had already been sealed and sent to the capitol. I don’t remember what happened after that, except that the Election Clerk almost lost her job, was reprimanded, and had to attend trainings for a while afterward.

And less than half a generation later, we have alleged wholesale election fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election. Ballots thrown out, found in ditches, others never mailed. And the mainstream press, the people I used to call my colleagues, failing to cover it. Social media suppressing it. I’m more than disappointed, and also more than relieved I don’t have to call them my colleagues any more.

It made me think of how low we’ve sunk- from an embedded town manager caring enough about someone’s local write-in vote to act immediately, to workers, politicos, and citizens allegedly participating in national fraud at the highest level…and in such a short time.

To me, it’s a grief, but it’s also a way to praise and admire my God. His ways are not our ways. His creativity in bringing about His will & plan is breathtakingly awe-inspiring. Though I do not like the progression of what I see, I much more revere what I don’t see, that is, His working in the world as Supreme God. God is working. We may not always like the sausage we’re served, but it is God who made it, and thus, worthy of consumption.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 55:8)

Jesus said we do not need to worry. Matthew 6:25: “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?“

So let us watch and marvel at His word, feel joy in His promises, even as we see others’ needs rise and they walk about in confusion and fear…because that represents a tremendous opportunity to share Jesus with them!

theology

Why the United States seems to have gone crazy

Posted on November 10, 2020November 11, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday on the blog I asked the question “Is America Under Wrath?” The answer is yes. Humans have been under God’s wrath since the Garden. I noted, however, that there are different kinds of wrath. We think of eternal wrath, as in lost people enduring for their punishment for their sins in hell. We also might think of eschatological wrath, the fire and brimstone kind of holy fury poured out on the world during the end of the last days during the Tribulation. But there is also a sowing and reaping wrath, cataclysmic wrath, and for today’s discussion, the wrath of abandonment.

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