Thanksgiving Praises
Fred Passmore
“Now, our God, we give You thanks, And praise Your glorious Name! You are good! Your unfailing love endures forever!” 2 Chronicles 5:13
Thanksgiving Praises by Lawrence Guido
As we enter this month of Thanksgiving – Come, Sower Family! Let us unite our hearts and voices and thank and praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the privilege to proclaim His salvation and hope, His gracious gifts and unending blessings, and the opportunities He will offer us along with the obligation to serve and honor Him in the days to come.
THANK GOD for the 2,975 prisoners who receive the Seeds of Hope and Sowing and Reaping each by name and the 17,000 who receive them through chaplains and other prison staff.
But, we are obligated to do much more for our Lord and our Sower Family Inside. So, after you thank Him for giving us this great opportunity to serve Him by proclaiming His unending love and His eternal Word, pray that He will double the number who receive the publications by name to 5,985 and the general distribution of Seeds of Hope to 34,000 by November 1, 2021. Visit our Prison Ministry page on our site to see letters received from thankful inmates.
THANK GOD for the 1,250 visitors who visit our Seeds of Hope Daily Devotional site on the internet each day, and then visit our prayers and other publications before leaving the site. Our visitors come from over 12 different nations from around the planet, and the Seeds are available in over 50 languages.
But, we are obligated to do much more for our Lord. So, after you thank Him for bringing these visitors to our site, pray that He will increase the number to 3,000 site visitors each day and visitors from 25 different countries will view the site each day. This great opportunity from the Lord is a reminder that “My Word will not come back without accomplishing its purpose.”
THANK GOD that our radio broadcast, Seeds From the Sower, number over 215,000 this year and our television broadcast A Seed for the Garden of Your Heart go into over 2,000,000 homes three times each day.
But, we are obligated to do much more for our Lord. So, after you thank Him for this great ministry, ask Him to increase the number of radio broadcasts to 375,000 and telecasts to 3,000,000 by November 1, 2021. We will be sending letters to radio and TV stations in 2021 asking them to carry our programs as Public Service Announcements, as they do now, free of charge. We do not purchase time for our broadcasts and God has opened the hearts of program managers to broadcast them free. Pray that this “gift” from our Lord will continue despite the attacks on freedom of religion.
THANK GOD for and ask Him to bless the ministry of the seven students who graduated from Guido Bible College in August 2020.
But we are obligated to do much more for our Lord. “The harvest is great but the laborers are few.” So, ask the Lord to lead and guide us as we strive to enroll 30 new students in the 2021-2022 class. Pray with us that God will bring us new staff members to develop and improve our curriculum, recruit new students, and generate funds for our Service-Study Scholarship program.
THANK GOD and ask Him to bless, lead and guide “Mrs. Becky” and her letter writing companions who write over 250 personalized letters to prisoners each month.
But, we are obligated to do much more. Ask God to increase the number of people who meet on campus each month to write the letters. And, additionally, ask Him to send His Spirit to guide the words in the letters that are being written to our Sower Family Inside. Pray that the letters will encourage the prisoners, lead them to a deeper walk with the Lord, give good answers to their problems and requests, and show how much Jesus loves them, wants to save them, protect them and their families, and meet their needs.
THANK GOD for supplying the finances for 125 Study Bibles, 350 TouchPoints, God’s Answers For Your Every Need books, new believer’s packets and the book How Good is Good Enough? to prisoners this year, as well as finances for mailing copies of the book, When God and Cancer Meet to Sower Families who have loved ones suffering from cancer.
But we are obligated to do much more. The demand for study Bibles, books, correspondence courses, and requests for specific publications increases every day. So, ask God to provide an increase in the giving of our Sower Family Outside to provide literature for our Sower Family Inside so we can meet this growing and critical need. We strive to develop a personal relationship with our “Family” – outside and inside – so they will share their needs with us so we can pray for and help them every way that we possibly can. We cannot do this without your working with us to accomplish this need.
THANK GOD for the number of visitors who come to the Chapel in The Pines each day to pray, read His Word, meditate, and leave prayer requests. We receive many prayer requests from our visitors, and we estimate the number of daily visitors to be over ten each day.
But we are obligated to do much more. So, ask God to provide the money to erect a highway sign on the interstate announcing “Guido Gardens” as a place where visitors can enjoy a time of peace and quiet and relaxation, and then find their way to the Chapel where there are Bibles and literature proclaiming the Good News of God’s grace. The Gardens attract many guests to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. But, the purpose of the Gardens is to attract people to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and accept Him as their Savior and Lord. This “quiet and silent” ministry is a source of inspiration and hope for many and has been uniquely blest for many years.
THANK GOD for the launch of the Rural Church Ministry Project in August with 22 in attendance.
But we are obligated to do much more. Though our attendance was smaller than expected for our first meeting, the interest was huge. The pastors and other church leaders who attended the first session had many interesting questions to ask and unique needs they shared with us for us to help them. So, ask God to empower and enable us, through Guido Bible College and Guido Ministries, to provide encouragement, strength, and resources to sustain and grow their witness and ministries in the communities where God has placed them.
If because of God’s grace and love we are obligated to do much more for the Lord, what can we, the Staff, Trustees, and Sower Family do to accomplish “the much more” through this, His ministry?
The first, most certainly, is to engage in prayer each day for the Ministry. James, with no exceptions, gave us the “formula” if we expect God to answer our prayers: we must be earnest and righteous to have great power in our prayers if we expect wonderful results. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results!” (5:16) If we expect God to continue to bless and expand our ministries, intensify their impact, and increase their effectiveness, we must be sincere, intense, persuasive, passionate, and honest about what we ask God, through Christ, to do to honor and glorify His Father for His sake, in and through our ministries. It cannot now or ever be about us! It is and has been in the past and must always be unreservedly about Him! Also, our relationship with Him must be “right.” We must have a willingness and desire to live a life that seeks to mirror the life of Jesus – a life of “right living” in God’s sight – that meets His expectations with and through the strength that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. Earnestness and righteousness will then give us this “great power” that James is talking about and we will – without any doubt – produce, through God’s grace, great results that will please Him and enable us to do more for Him through this, His ministry.
The second is, if possible, to increase your giving. Jesus said, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Matthew 6:21) Some of you have given faithfully, even sacrificially, throughout the years as members of the Sower Family. For that, we are extremely grateful and in your debt for enabling our many ministries. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted giving this year. We have been, are, and always will be very frugal with the gifts God gives us, through our Family, to bless and honor and glorify Him.
The third is something that you may never have thought about: using your influence to grow our network of individuals who support us. Before I purchase any product online, I look carefully at the “stars” and “reviews” of the product. The more stars I count and the more positive reviews I read, the more inclined I am to purchase or use that particular product. This is true of most individuals when choices or decisions are to be made, or suggestions followed. As a member of the Sower Family, you are the best “marketing representative” of and for Guido Ministries, and you can – if you choose – encourage others whom you know, fellowship with, worship with, or work with, to become a partner in prayer for us, and to support us financially. Your words, suggestions, and influence mean much to your friends. If you will and after you pray about it, consider asking your friends to support us with their prayers and – if they would be willing – their financial support.
Thank you, and God bless you! Larry Guido