There is always something to be thankful for - even in the worst moments, days, weeks, and years. This is not to minimize your hardship, as we have an empathetic and faithful High Priest, Jesus, who understands our grief, suffering, pain, and loss and who tenderly comforts us in all that we go through. But there is a hidden key and a true benefit in thankfulness that is tucked away in the Bible - it shifts our perspective and aligns our heart with our Savior’s joy and peace. A Pastor friend recently said to me, I don’t think you can be angry and truly thankful at the same time. Try to find everything you can be thankful for and see if anger, complaining, frustration minimizes, and your joy and peace increase. Philippians 4:6-7 says   6" Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
 
Here's my gratitude list –
* A Savior that saved me from life-altering effects of sin.
* My Lord who reigns over my life and brings order out of chaos and a whole and healed heart out of brokenness.
*   The Holy One who sanctifies me through His grace and truth and allows me to share in the divine nature of His Son. I get to become just like Jesus, what!?!?  That blows my mind every day!
*   For jobs that I enjoy
* Favor
*   An incredible church family
*   A fun car
*   The ability to learn and assimilate knowledge
*   Freedom to worship
* Extra money to give to others
* Legs that work, eyes that see, imperfections that keep me humble and keep me dependent on Him
*   Trials and tribulations that make me more mature,
* The gift of forgiveness and reconciliation, wisdom, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit
*  The ability to hike in a beautiful state
WHEW, that was a LOT! I could go on and on… My brain wasn’t in this positive of a place when I started but now, the benefits that I have in life are refreshed in my mind. Do I have lack, weaknesses, and things I want to change and increase in life? ABSOLUTELY, but why not be thankful and content in what I have now?
 
The other thing I encourage you to do, is to shift your focus to others around you this Thanksgiving season. Jesus the King of the Universe, stripped Himself of His divinity and stooped down as a servant to love, have compassion on, speak truth, heal, set free, raise the dead and feed the hungry. There is a verse that Jesus impressed on my heart years ago, I would encourage you to read the entire passage of Isaiah 58. But I will highlight two verses – Isaiah 58:10-11 “And if you offer yourself to [assist] the hungry and satisfy the [a]need of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. 11 “And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your soul in scorched and dry places, and give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”
 
Will you take out a piece of paper and write what you’re thankful for? Will you take time to be a true blessing to someone else during this Thanksgiving season?

Cassia Hendrickson
 Production Manager
Rocky Mountain CTN

There are  a lot of things happening in the front range for Christmas.  Check out our Community Calendar page to find out more. 
​​https://www.rockymountainctn.com/calendar.html

Love is always right.
Hate is always wrong.
 
Could any moral truth be more self-evident?  Especially for us as followers of Jesus Christ, who commands us to “love one another, even as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) We know from scripture that “God is love.” (1 John 4:16) Conversely, we also know from God’s Word that “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 4:20) The truly loving nature of God towards mankind is perhaps the most central message of the Gospel that we aim to communicate to the world.  Particularly in today’s culture which aims to characterize Christianity as hateful, bigoted, and self-righteous, it seems as though the stakes have never been higher to consistently display the love of God to the world in our attitudes and actions.
 
So, if our calling is to walk in love, is hate ever justified?
 
The way that the world (and much of the church) thinks about hate, you would certainly think not.  We have all seen signs, bumper stickers, and PSA’s displaying messages like “stop the hate,” or “hate has no place here,” or “spread love, not hate.”  These relentless campaigns against “hate” have been so effective that even raising the suggestion that hate could ever be justified for a Christian provokes a very natural response of indignation.
 
Consider, however, the words of our Lord Jesus who said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) Is Jesus truly commanding us to hate our families… and even our own lives?
 
Before examining this challenging message from Jesus, it’s important for us to recognize an important truth about hate:  hate is a necessary component of love.  In order for you to love something, it requires that you naturally hate that which harms it.  If you truly love people, for example, you will naturally hate murder.  If you love children, you will hate pedophilia.  In fact, if you found out that someone did not hate pedophilia, you would rightly reject any claim they made about loving children.  How could you possibly love one without hating the other?  If you love the truth (as God does), you will hate lies.  Likewise, if you love God Himself, you will hate the things that He hates.
 
God… hates?  How could this be, given that according to 1 John 4:16, God Himself is love?  When we have a proper understanding of love and hate, that they are not opposites, per se, but components one of another, we can easily make sense of the scriptures which tell us things like “there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him…” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
 
God’s love for mankind is not incongruent with His hatred for these things we do.  It is precisely because of His love for us that He hates these things that harm us.  God hates sin.  The Apostle Paul admonishes us by the Holy Spirit, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9) In context, Paul is instructing the church on how to act out love towards people.  It’s very interesting that he begins his entire instruction by pointing out that in order for our love to be sincere, we must hate what is evil.
 
There’s a saying within Christianity that “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.”  When it comes to our unsaved friends and family, though, we often feel as though we can’t consistently do the same.  We feel that if we hate what they are doing, we are hating them.  This is an improper understanding of love.  Loving someone does not necessitate celebration and affirmation of their choices.  If we accept love on these terms, then we cannot believe that “God is love” if He also “cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” (Habakkuk 1:13)
 
In Jude 22-23, the Bible says, “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”  We absolutely need to be merciful and loving to God’s fearfully and wonderfully-made people… and in doing so, have a righteous and holy hatred for the sin that is dragging them to Hell.  We need to hate the sin in our own lives with just as much fervor.  We must not accept an indifferent attitude towards the things that God hates.  The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  A necessary component of acting out that commandment is to hate sin in the same manner.
 
This brings us back to Jesus’s challenging word about needing to hate in order to be His disciple.  Is Jesus commanding us to literally hate our families and selves?  Certainly not.  This would contradict many of His other teachings about love.  The point is that Jesus expects us as His disciples to have absolute contempt for anything that would stand between us and Him, no matter how precious it is to us, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)
 
So, is love always right?  Not if you love sin.  Love is only as good as the object of your love.
Therefore, is hate always wrong?  Not if you hate evil.  Hate is only as wrong as the object of your hate.

Jeremy Randazzo
Master Control Operator
Rocky Mountain CTN

Thank you to all of  those that have served our great country and for the families that  have supported them in their  sacrifice!

Phrases we are all familiar with:
Love is in the air.  Love is blind. Don’t you just love the view from here?
Love is forever  (Well maybe not always in our lives but certainly its true with God and how much he loves us).

There are so many ways to love, ways to show our love. Places, people, pets, sandwiches, those brownies my wife just made. I love the way the way they smell when I come in from shoveling snow off the driveway.     We use the word “love” practically every day. 
Love is all around! We sing about it. “Love is a many splendored thing.” We read it, we say it. We probably do use the word every day. And we all know what it means, but did you know that the bible uses the word 538 times?      (It depends on which translation you have)   and it uses different words for different kinds of love. Let’s be clear, though, all love comes from God.    Jesus even uses the word “love” thirteen times.

The Bible first uses the word in Genesis 22:2. Then God said, “take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac and go to the Moriah area. Sacrifice him there on a mountain as a burnt offering, which I will show you.” This would be storge love, family love or parental love.    (/ˈstɔːr.ɡi/; from Ancient Greek στοργή (storgḗ) 'love, affection')

Matthew 22: 39, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”  I just love my new little granddaughter. Have you seen my new dog? He’s such a good boy, I just love him. I love my wife. All of these uses of the word love are certainly different from each other.
1 Peter 4:8 “Above all. Love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. “And that’s Philia, Brotherly love.

There is romantic love in the Song of Solomon which is a gift from God. The Bible says to “Let all your actions be guided by love” I Cor. 16:14.     

Psalm 136: 1-3 “Praise the Lord! He is good. God’s love never fails. Praise the God of all gods. God’s love never fails. Praise the Lord of lords. God’s love never fails.”

In the Bible, Agape Love (Charity) is the best of all forms of love. This word describes the unparalleled love that God has for all mankind.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.  That kind of love makes my love of those fresh raspberries I just picked not seem so important. But God gives us his love, freely and He expects us to share that love with those around us.
 
1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It warms our hearts, it warms our soul. Love makes life complete and heals us.

“Love is always patient, love is kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Today, take inventory of   how to incorporate (give out and receive) more love. 

Dan Smith
General Manager 
Rocky Mountain CTN- Colorado Springs

FREE THANKSGIVING MEAL IF YOU ARE IN THE COLORADO SPRINGS AREA:
One of our church friends and programmers in Colorado Springs, Israelite Church of God in Christ, is giving away a turkey and all of the dinner fixings.
If you or someone you know is in need of a Thanksgiving dinner and lives in the Colorado Springs area,    call or text 719-392-3322 by Sunday, November 15th to sign up to receive the basket.
Pick up will be on Saturday, November 20th from 9am - noon at:
123 Security Blvd. Colorado Springs, CO 80911.
*You can watch the video for more information.