Happiness

All your happiness, peace, joy, and success in this life are dependent upon genuine, trusting faith in God. This faith will prompt true obedience to the commandments of God. Your knowledge and faith in God is the strongest restraint from every evil practice, and the motive to all good.

Believe in Jesus as one who pardons your sins, one who wants you to be happy in the mansions He has gone to prepare for you. He wants you to live in His presence; to have eternal life and a crown of glory.—Messages to Young People, 410.

Whatever is done to the glory of God is to be done with cheerfulness, not with sadness and gloom. There is nothing gloomy in the religion of Jesus. If Christians give the impression by a mournful attitude that they have been disappointed in their Lord, they misrepresent His character, and put arguments into the mouth of His enemies. Though in words they may claim God as their Father, yet in gloom and sorrow they present to the world the aspect of orphans.

Christ desires us to make His service appear attractive, as it really is. Let the self-denials and the secret heart trials be revealed to the compassionate Saviour. Let the burdens be left at the foot of the cross, and go on your way rejoicing in His love who first loved you. Men may never know of the work going on secretly between the soul and God, but the result of the Spirit’s work upon the heart will be manifest to all; for He “that seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”—Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 88.
With God at Dawn p. 260
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Prayer Requests
—-Debbie who we were praying for passed away Friday night, she left a husband and two youg children keep her family in prayer. and pray that the Lord gets here quicker . Also one of my best girlfriends for years is dying of pancreatic cancer pray for her grown children who are out of the church. even so come Lord Jesus. M.
—-Here are several prayer requests from our little Monday night meeting: Annie, Ainsley, and Johannah’s health issues, Loretta’s family needs prayer for physical and spiritual healing, Evonia’s brothers need prayer, Sherlyn asks prayer for our children and grandchildren, brenda prays that Andrew can be transferred to first shift, Ann W had a praise for good blood work results, and we all had unspoken prayer requests. Rose
—-Please pray for David and his family. Buck
—-Please pray for Ray that God restores his damage and Helps heal him. He has 4 young kids and fiance needing him…. He had a brain aneurysm Friday. They took him off life support and said there is nothing they can do. I for one know God can do Miracles, I’m living proof of that. Ray is still with us and needs a Miracle. Belinda
—-Please keep praying for Maya (age 4). She has an upcoming trip to the OR where they will remove her cast, stretch her tendons, and fit her for a new cast. She’s very upset she can’t walk on her cast right now, but it’s just part of the process. Pray that when she starts physical therapy it goes smoothly. Jennifer
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Dear Friends,

Some years ago, we went camping in northern Oklahoma at Osage Hills State Park campground for the weekend. It was close to the Tallgrass Prairie Nature Preserve where we had been before looking for bison to photograph. Since we had only seen a herd of bison from a distance that time, Ronnie Jay had wanted to camp nearby so we could get up early and drive through the preserve in hopes of seeing some buffalo close to the road.

Ronnie Jay awakened me before dawn both mornings so we could drive through that treeless landscape of rolling prairie that is the Tallgrass. The first morning, we were the most successful. Within less than a hundred feet, three bull bison crossed the road in front of us. We got out of the car and snapped many pictures of them. The first bison stopped and looked intently at us. He must have thought disgustedly, “Tourists! Will they never leave us alone? Well, let them have their fun.” because he and the others continued on without another look in our direction. I was glad of that reaction rather than an aggressive one.

Seeing those bison whet Ronnie Jay’s appetite to see more. We not only drove through that barren countryside that morning but near sunset that day and sunrise the next day. Although we saw more bison in the distance, we didn’t get another opportunity to see any more as close as we had the first morning. Still Ronnie Jay was delighted. This weekend was the culmination of a month’s worth of planning on his part.

Just as Ronnie Jay’s whole focus was on getting some good bison photographs, so we must be focused on the great commission left to us by Jesus. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matt 28:18-20

Just as Ronnie Jay planned before we went on that trip, so we must prepare to win precious souls for the Kingdom. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 2 Tim 2:15; 1 Peter 3:15

Just as he searched the preserve over and over again to see the animals he had wanted to see, so we must “go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in.” Luke 14:23 And if we do, we have the promise, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Ps 126:23

May we be diligent in our search for the lost. May we seek for them with as much interest, energy, and desire for their salvation as Ronnie Jay had to see bison close enough to photograph. May we claim the promise “ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Luke 11:9, 10

Rose