Hello everybody, my name is Colin. I am a member of Alithia Ministries and today we

are going to start doing a podcast. There's a few reasons we wanted to start doing a podcast.

First and foremost, this is just another way to spread the word of the Lord and to spread

the joy of Jesus Christ. Another reason is this is a good way we thought for people to

get to know the various members of Alithia. I will primarily be leading podcasts, but in

future uploads we may have other members on as either an interview type style or where

they can lead the bulk of the podcast to get other thoughts and opinions out there. If this

podcast grows quite a bit, we may have on various pastors, priests, or spiritual leaders around

the community on, see if they would be interested in some form of interview or their thoughts on

a variety of different subjects. And then if this really kicks off, fingers crossed,

shooting for the stars, we may have on some bigger names or attempt to have on some bigger

names. But coming back to today's podcast, I wanted to do a more simple and short podcast

about Thanksgiving and joyfulness. Obviously Thanksgiving was a month ago and this Sunday

was joyful Sunday for Advent. So we'll be talking about those two topics and how they are intertwined

and why we should acknowledge them and why we should foster those in our lives. I'll be reading

from a few Bible verses on Thanksgiving and then joyfulness and then giving my thoughts on them

in between. And for full disclosure, I'm going to be reading from the King James Version of the

Bible. I really enjoy the King James Version. It was a very important part of history. If it gets

a little confusing for people, we may switch it up. So if anyone has thoughts, you can leave that

in the comments. But here we go. Reading from 1 Thessalonians chapter five verse six through

18 or sorry, 16 through 18. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. And everything give thanks.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And also Psalm 103 verses one

through four. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the

Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all dynamicities, who healeth all my

diseases, who redeemeth thylei from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender

mercies. So these are the Bible verses concerning Thanksgiving. Where obviously,

Thanksgiving seems like a very shallow thing when first looked at, you know, you're just

you're giving thanks for the things you have, you know, you should, you shouldn't take them for granted.

But you know, these, these Bible verses point us to a more deeper sense of spiritual Thanksgiving.

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. This is a very direct call to talk to God and give

thanks for what we have. In the same way that you may thank your parents for the toy you got on

Christmas. It is right and just to give thanks to God. Psalm 103 is a very common song. So many of

you may be familiar with bless the Lord, O my soul. But truly, that is a form of giving thanks.

For this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Forgive us all mine, thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases.

That's a little bit of a more targeted one for a lot of people, I think. It's hard to give thanks

when you are in the middle of something. It'll be a medical diagnosis, something going on with

family, friends. You know, the list is practically endless and everyone struggles with something.

And those struggles as everyone is aware of makes it very hard to give thanks when you are just

tunnel visioned on that. But God is with you in those trials. And it is right and just to give

thanks to God, even when everything may seem gloom and dark. Again, in the same way, going back to

the parents analogy, when you are going through something that is absolutely devastating to you,

it is proper for you to talk to the people you care about. That may not be your parents. For me,

it has been. I've been blessed with very gracious and loving parents. That may not be for you. And

that is why it is so important for you to have someone there with you. My best friend, he's

going to be my best man at the wedding, Joseph, the CEO of Lithium Ministries, always someone I can

go to. And I give thanks to God all the time for him being in my life. So many people I've been

blessed with. But that's enough about me. Kind of went off track a little bit there. But it is

right and just to give thanks to God. Moving on to joy, we've got another two Bible verses here

that I'm going to read for joy. And then again, I'll give a little bit of my opinion and understanding

on joy. Again, reading from the King James Version of the Bible. James chapter one,

verses two through three, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations,

knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And Luke 15 through 17, I say unto you,

that likewise, joy be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over 99 just persons who

need no repentance. So Luke 15, verse seven is one of my all time favorite Bible verses, one of my

favorite songs, reckless for love. Very popular song is based off of this Bible verse, the idea that

Jesus leaves the 99 righteous people to seek out the one sinner who repents of his sin.

And different versions and translations of the Bible actually say that the angels also rejoice

in heaven at the choirs of angels rejoice over the one sinner that repents. And I just think that is

beautiful imagery. Anytime that the Bible talks about the angels rejoicing, it is just that touches

me. It is just beautiful. I love it. Now, joy, joint Thanksgiving, obviously have, they are similar

in nature. That's why I wanted to tie them into a podcast together. But obviously, they are different.

We have different words for them, different understandings. So

with joyful Sunday being the third Sunday of Advent, I am Catholic, you know, probably should have

said that beginning, talk about the dominations a little more. Not all denominations celebrate

different seasons of Advent is kind of say it's Advent, you know, to Christmas, Catholics actually

have a different celebrations of Advent. And this Sunday is recognizing joy. So I wanted to

touch on that for that reason. And the priest at Mass just gave a beautiful talking and understanding

of joy, saying that it is not only something that comes from our faith in Jesus Christ,

but it is one of the most important things that come from Jesus Christ in our faith in Him.

The spiritual without joy is like giving medicine to a dead man.

And that may seem like a kind of odd analogy. But I'm going to try to explain that here.

This may just bear with me. My thoughts are going to be kind of everywhere a little bit,

and then we'll tie it all back together. So we've joined Jesus Christ. We as Christians

believe that Jesus dying on the cross for us is the most important moment in history that is the

day that Jesus defeats death. And we are now able to go to heaven with Him. That is the day that

death when no longer had the sting that it once did.

And

through that, I'm sorry, my thought, I'm getting a little lost my thoughts now.

Now, through that, that is obviously, again, the most important day in history. But because

of its importance, we also find it the most joyous day in history. Because we hold deep joy in that.

And the going back to the analogy of giving a dead man medicine is if you are spiritually dead

and you hold joy, that joy doesn't get you very far. And this Rema kind of tie it back to things

giving it constantly praying and giving things to God, that is a very big way that we build a

connection and relationship to God. And I'm sorry, a little sick, my throat. I'm sorry. But through

that relationship with God, you know, I particularly struggle to pray to God sometimes, that is not

something that I have built a strong habit doing, which I am trying to build a stronger habit of

doing. And I know a lot of people also struggle with prayer. That truly is one of the biggest ways

that we build a relationship and connection to God. And if you don't have that relationship and

connection to God, what good is that joy going to bring you? Obviously, you can be joyful about

things in the world. Going back to the parent analogy, you can have joy and even Thanksgiving

about the present that your parents got you. But that deeper sense of joy only comes through a

connection and understanding of Jesus Christ and our Lord our God. reading again from James.

I'm just going to read the whole thing over again. He's we I've kind of lost my check of

thought again, just recent or everything. Again, James one versus two through three, my brethren,

count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this at the trying of your

faith worketh patience. Gonna bring it back to the analogy of the suffering and finding it hard to

give things when you are in the middle of middle of anything. Because it is truly the biggest thing

that you've encountered in your life. No matter, you know, how someone on the outside may see it,

someone has, you know, everyone has something that is the biggest thing in their life, you can be in

the middle of that, and it can be very hard to be joyful or give thanks. What James tells us here

is that we should still have joy when we are suffering.

For the joy.

Sorry, I'm just gonna read right from the verse again. Count it all joy when you fall into

diverse temptations. I'm not even really sure how to elaborate on that more. We should be joyful

when we are tempted the same way that we are to give thanks in the middle of suffering.

And I just think that again, that is just beautiful imagery.

And it's obviously very difficult, but you know, we never are blamed as Christians for having an easy

worldview. Knowing this, the trying of your faith worketh patience. Patience obviously being a fruit

of the spirit. This is something that is inculcated through having joy. So that's what I wanted to

talk about for Thanksgiving and joyfulness. I apologize for my thoughts being all over the

place. We are still working on creating this podcast and having it be more cohesive and concise.

Again, I may have on different members of Alithea to have them share their worldview and opinions

and thoughts of theology and Christianity. The next couple of podcasts may also be a little

everywhere lack of better terms. Again, very, very new to this. We're kind of trying a few things out.

I may mix up the format of how we do these podcasts. But yeah, gonna try and not say

um as much. I know that drives people crazy. Again, I apologize. Please have patience with me.

As we work on this podcast for Alithea, this is something that we find very important and that

we've been working toward for a while now. With that, have a very blessed day and I hope that you

would ponder for yourself what it means to be thankful and joyful and what that thankfulness

and joyfulness means with our connection and relationship to our Lord our God.

And we will see you next time guys. Goodbye.