Have a blessed Thanksgiving celebration and may God be praised for His provisions to us all!

Welcome to Wednesday, November 23, 2011. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner last evening to celebrate our Stefani's 18th birthday. Anytime you can have an Italian dish made with eggplant coupled to a wonderful family gathering, well, you just have to admit that it is a blessing and we thank God for it, and for her. (Note to my diabetic monitoring device: You deserve a few days off because some of the numbers you might see could be somewhat scary.) With the Thanksgiving holiday before us, I plan to take a few days off from my blogging activity. Lord willing, and the Creeks don't rise, (Creek Indian Nation, if you wondered about the capitalization.), In fact, I am actually at home today having taken the day off to help my wife get ready for tomorrow. I do hope to be back at the old keyboard playing some familiar tunes beginning next Monday. This past Sunday we had a time of testimony and remembrance during my morning Bible class. The passage I used to introduce our time of sharing together came from the 145th Division the the Psalms. I like it because it causes those who read it to focus exclusively on the greatness of our God and His provisions for His own. During our testimony time there were wonderful memories recalled, some tears, some laughter, and some thankful thoughts directed towards God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was good because it emphasized the counting of our blessings. Therefore, I wish each of you a most wonderful holiday celebration, time off, and hopefully, some reflection upon God and His goodness to us. I leave with you for your reading and contemplation the 145th Psalm:

Psalm 145

A Praise of David.

 ¹ I will extol You, my God, O King;
         And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
 ² Every day I will bless You,
         And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
 ³ Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
         And His greatness is unsearchable.
      
 ⁴ One generation shall praise Your works to another,
         And shall declare Your mighty acts.
 ⁵ I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
         And on Your wondrous works.
 ⁶ Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
         And I will declare Your greatness.
 ⁷ They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
         And shall sing of Your righteousness.
      
 ⁸ The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
         Slow to anger and great in mercy.
 ⁹ The LORD is good to all,
         And His tender mercies are over all His works.
      
 ¹⁰ All Your works shall praise You, O LORD,
         And Your saints shall bless You.
 ¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
         And talk of Your power,
 ¹² To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
         And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
 ¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
         And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
      
 ¹⁴ The LORD upholds all who fall,
         And raises up all who are bowed down.
 ¹⁵ The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
         And You give them their food in due season.
 ¹⁶ You open Your hand
         And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
      
 ¹⁷ The LORD is righteous in all His ways,
         Gracious in all His works.
 ¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
         To all who call upon Him in truth.
 ¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
         He also will hear their cry and save them.
 ²⁰ The LORD preserves all who love Him,
         But all the wicked He will destroy.
 ²¹ My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD,
         And all flesh shall bless His holy name
         Forever and ever.

I add the blessing that Moses pronounced as found in the Book of Numbers Chapter 6: "The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace." See you next Monday and may God bless each one! Amen.    ....More later.