Thursday, October 29, 2009

THANKING FORWARD

As October, my favorite month, winds down towards the 31st, I am looking forward to November, the Thanksgiving month. Active, living faith always moves forward toward God and His purposes for our lives. Giving thanks for what God has done and for all He has blessed us with is not only a duty, but an enjoyable part of worship. He is worth our gratitude! Faith empowers me to also give thanks for what is ahead and yet to come. There are many promises and prophecies from the Lord that are still being made complete in our lives. Giving Him thanks for the forward progress of our lives is essential for us to arrive on time and in full possession of His promises. Jesus, in His earthly ministry, was always in forward motion reminding His followers that there is more to come. He sent the Holy Spirit to us for a continual reminder of all that He said and to show us "things to come". In this function, just a few days ago, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me this thought, "This Thanksgiving you will have new and fresh reasons for giving thanks for what I am now doing."

While I reflect upon the past blessings and present benefits from the Lord, I am now looking more to the future with anticipation and a thankful heart!


Friday, October 16, 2009

I love October!


I was born in October, born again in October, Baptized in the Holy Spirit in October, called to preach in October, saved from certain death in a car wreck in October, married to Ruth in October....the list just goes on and on, but you can see why I love October.

My dad, Seth Thomason was born October 1, 1911 and he went to Heaven on October 22, 1985. My good friends Norma Ruth Davis, Cecelia Hopper, and Joyce Fleming were all born in October. I am sure there are others.

I like October weather too. In my home country (Texas Panhandle) October was truly autumn like with cooler temps and trees losing their leaves. In Broken Bow, Ne. we usually had our first snow by the end of October. In Florida, well....it is beginning to cool off and look more like Autumn. We have one maple tree that is shedding its leaves.

Something happens inside of me when October rolls around. I become much more expectant of good things happening and special surprises from the Lord. This October is no different. My spirit is all excited at what God is going to reveal in the next couple of weeks of October.....something good is about to happen!!! Then comes November, the month of giving thanks!

Monday, October 12, 2009

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Exactly one year ago today, Ruth and I were married in a Sunday morning worship service at Cornerstone Church, Jacksonville, Fl. with Dr. Don Normand officiating. Many of our family and friends were present to witness our vows and to send us off on our honeymoon.

It has been a wonderful year as we have witnessed God's hand in our coming together and in our becoming one as a new couple. After being alone (me 5 years and Ruth 8 years) we saw how miraculously God arranged our meeting, falling in love, and marriage in spite of coming from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We already see His hand in putting us together as a ministry team as well. When your life is in God's hands, He works all things out for good!

It has been a busy year. Trips to Oklahoma (family funeral), South Florida (Kingsway Fellowship, Int'l), Amarillo, Tx. (meet friends and family), Knoxville, Tn. (more family), Honduras (missions trips) and Ruth's middle daughter, Angielyn, was married in September to Matthew Hughes in Savannah. All this plus, we moved to a different place and of course, the church.

Everyone has been kind and gracious to us. Everyone loves Ruth! We are very happy together and know our destiny in God is in full swing. The future looks so much better now that we are together. Thank you Jesus!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Two Faced Face Bookers

I really like facebook for a lot of reasons. One reason was unexpected but I think it is a good benefit. Since I am the past or present Pastor of many of my young friends on facebook, I have noticed that once they accepted me as their "friend", suddenly their profile pictures and content became much more "Christian" than before. I think knowing that Pastor is looking on provides an accountability factor that is helpful to these young ones who have not yet developed an "inner-governor" to keep them from going "buck wild" on the internet. Sad to say though, I have had to block some of my young friends from my site due to their unseemly behavior on line. I am thankful for the most of them who are just wonderful clean hearted followers of the Lord Jesus. Just remember this, "there is an all seeing eye watching you" and it is not Pastor Thomason, it is the Lord God with whom we all must give account. :-)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Simply Believe!

I see it over and over again in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Whenever He was confronted with overwhelming needs of people where emotions were running strong and the cries of desperation reached His ears, He would often say, "Only Believe" and "Be not afraid, but believe" and "nothing is impossible to him that believeth" and "do you believe that I am able to do this?"

To those of us who have been following the Lord for many years, these remarks may seem an oversimplification and even misleading. After all, life is just more complicated than that, right? Wrong! If Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory and Creator of all things says that all we must do to receive the impossible is "Believe", then that is all! Our religious dumping of other conditions and rules into the equation only render a paralyzing blow to our "believer" and wrecks any opportunity we might have to accomplish the impossible.

Mark 11:24 (And I do not apologize for using these words of Jesus) Jesus says to His disciples, "What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them."

1. Desire things. Implies a certain amount of intensity.
2. Pray for the things you desire. Go ahead, it is o'k to ask for what you want.
3. Believe that you receive them. There it is: BELIEVE.
4. Have what you desired and asked for in prayer believing. Go ahead, have it!

This is what Jesus said to us. It is His unchanging, unfailing Word. He watches over His Word to perform it. So what He said is going to happen. We just simply have to believe Him.

Jesus talked like this when he was at the tomb of Lazarus. He was faced with the emotion of Mary & Martha who were a bit tiffed at His tardiness in coming to the aid of their brother. Jesus even wept at the situation, being deeply touched by their grief. He called upon them to believe in Him as the Resurrection and the Life. Only believe. The impossible was about to happen, and all they had to do was BELIEVE. Jesus told them to remove the stone from in front of the tomb, and then He called Lazarus from the regions of the departed back into his body and out of the tomb! Our lesson? Believe on Jesus to receive the impossible. Do what He tells us to do. And let Him do the remainder, more difficult task, i.e. raising the dead, etc.

"Only believe, only believe, all things are possible, only believe."
"Lord, I believe, Lord I believe, all things are possible, Lord I believe."

Friday, September 11, 2009

HONDURAS


I returned from ten days in the Central American country of Honduras a week ago and have been musing over the whole experience. I was there with a team from Dr. James Maloney's Acts Group. Team members came from Canada, Idaho, Kansas, Indiana, Florida and Texas. They were great people who love God, love the Word, and love to minister by the Holy Spirit. We joined the ministry of Jim & Linda Tjelmeland in Comayagua and soon spread out through the area, preaching, teaching, prophesying, praying for the sick, etc. The whole event culminated in a 2 night Prophetic Conference held at a local gymnasium in downtown Comayagua. Dr. Maloney delivered a powerful prophetic message to the Church in Honduras. Many received healings and special blessings from the Lord in all of the meetings conducted by members of the team. Our dear friend Luis Sorto spent the week guiding a team and translating for us each day.

Dr. Maloney and I were able to meet the Mayor of Comayagua with the help of Missionary Jim Faber. Our conversation centered around recent political developments in Honduras and we assured him that there are millions of Christians in the U.S. praying for his country.

The people of Honduras are very united in prayer and fasting for their nation and we believe God is listening and responding to make "all things work together for the good" because these people really love the Lord. The eyes of the world are upon these people and God will be glorified! It was truly a great opportunity for us to be there in such a super charged spiritual climate.

Monday, August 17, 2009

School Starts Soon

We are more than half way through August and I cannot believe that school is about to start up again. What ever happened to the 3 month summer vacation? What ever happened to kids actually going to school to learn? It seems that the more time they are in school and the more money we throw at the system, the less return we get on our investment. Today, we have graduates that can't read, write, spell, think, make change, or know who Jesus is. Thank God for home schools, Church Schools, and private schools that are producing some awesome young people to lead the next generations. I know several of these bright spots in a dim world and they are giving me hope. Thank God for parents and educators who pioneered the home school and church school movement. They often paid a great price to pave the way for millions of families across this country to produce a generation of World Changers!!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Clouds filled with Me

With the myriad of internet places to park my thoughts (blogs, emails, twitters, etc.) I forget where I need to update. My own "blog spot" is neglected since April and here it is July already. A lot has happened in the interim. One thing, life goes on and it is very daily. It seems like I spend way to much of it on the computer. Yet what do I do to control this? I buy an I-phone!  Now I have a mini computer so that I can keep up with my MacPro and can even Sync them together.  Then, I can ball it all up and toss it into "the cloud" via my Mobile.Me account somewhere in the sky. I wonder, if it rains, will all my "stuff" fall to the ground?  If so, I am sure it will "fertilize" the soil and bring new life to a dying world.  At least that is my hope.  Sigh.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Welcome to RonnyD's Blog

The internet has become a fascinating place to meet and greet new people and people from the past. What with MySpace, Face Book, Google, and beyond, we have discovered a replacement for writing letters and making phone calls. My latest discovery: Twitter, has me thinking what will come next? I don't know, but this 58 year old man is determined to keep up with each new innovation in communication technology....it is the only way to stay up on what my friends are doing since they never come by or call anymore.