Psalms 18:49, “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.” Psalms 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” Ephesians 1:16, “Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;” Colossians 1:3, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,” 1st Thessalonians 1:2, “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;” 1st Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 2nd Thessalonians 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”
Have you ever noticed how much the Bible emphasizes being thankful to God? I was thinking today about how much I am thankful for Google's "Blogger." Ironically, I have lost 90% of my web traffic since 2015 because of Google's changing of their algorithms. I don't understand how it all works. I just know that my Jesus-is-Savior.com website ministry used to receive about 1,000,000 visitors each and every month, but now that number if visitors is down to a mere 65,000 per month in comparison. That is still a lot of people and I praise God with a grateful heart.
I also appreciate the Google directs people to my ministry, even if it is much less than I used to receive. I used to receive roughly 30,000 visitors PER DAY before 2015. But now in 2021 I am fortunate to receive 65,000 hits in a month (about 2,000 visitors per day). Albeit, I have never focused on the numbers. My attitude when I began this ministry in 2002 (and still is today), is that even if I only have 10 people who give me their heart to learn, I will give them my best and it is worth my time for Jesus Christ!!!
Still, I was becoming discouraged that Google was censoring my articles, whether on purpose or inadvertently due to their stricter algorithm rules. But then one of my loyal web visitors suggested to me that I start a blog. He uses Word Press, which I don't care for much. When I found Blogger, I feel in love with it the first day! If you love to write and express your thoughts, BLOGGER is first class all the way! Whoever designed Blogger deserves a pay raise! Bravo my friends at Google!!! Facebook is a living nightmare, but Blogger is so user friendly and easy to figure out. I cannot recommend Blogger enough to all my blog readers! And it's all completely free, which I very much appreciate from Google.
The only thing that I wish Google would change for Blogger, is to make the blog automatically default to its original URL address, so when my purchased domain name expires (if I die), then all my work won't be lost after I'm gone. For example: I purchased a cool website domain called "Faithalonesaves.org," for this blog. My original name provided by Blogger was "Faithalonesaves.blogspot.com" (which is fine, but I really liked the name I purchased. But if I die in a sudden car crash tomorrow, in a year when my domain expires, my "Faithalonesaves.org" blog won't be accessible anymore. I hope Google will do something to change this in the future. If not I will likely not use the purchased domain anymore at some point, so I can have the peace of mind that all my hard work won't be lost.
Having said all that, I have no complaints against Google. I am very grateful for their Blogger feature. THANK YOU GOOGLE!!! Thank you God for the opportunity to share my beliefs, convictions and Bible knowledge with others, so that God can be a blessing through my humble labors. My only heart's desire has always been to be a blessing to OTHERS. I have never made a single penny from my internet ministry, and I don't plan on ever doing so. My full reward is waiting for me in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20; 1st Corinthians 3:8).
Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” I love and appreciate that Bible verse. Our blessed Savior is very ethical. So much in fact that He promises to reward even giving a cup of water to another Christian. Mark 9:41, “For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.”
Did you notice in our various text passages of Scripture, that prayer is often mentioned in connection with being thankful? That is more than a mere coincidence. Thankful men are praying men! Thankful women are praying women! Colossians 1:3, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,” Amen and amen. People aren't thankful because they are happy, people are happy because they are thankful.
In Romans chapter one, the first step in the downfall of a person's life is a lack of gratitude toward our Creator. Romans 1:21, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” I love that phrase: “WHEN THEY KNEW GOD.” Every child knows God in their early years. Every human being KNOWS GOD from infancy, just as does every living creature. Psalms 104:21, “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.” What a sad commentary on the human race, that wild beasts would seek their provisions from God, while we humans often don't.
I am not bragging, but God knows that I never eat a bite of anything without thanking Him for it. I am so unworthy. I thank God for the taste buds to enjoy food. I thank God for a working healthy digestive system, without which we could not enjoy a delicious meal. God is so good!!! God is more than amazing. Praise Him all ye earth, praise our great and magnificent Maker! When I look up and behold the stars, I am humbled. Did you know when you look at the stars, you are peering back into time, because it takes light centuries and even millenniums to reach the earth from their far away distance from the earth. That is mind boggling!
Dear friend, if you just ponder the universe and how it all began, it screams the existence of a divine Creator. For example: How big is the universe? Can it have an end? If so, what is beyond that end? Since it is scientifically impossible for nothing to occupy a space, it boggles the human mind to try to understand such things. Another mind boggling question is: Where did the universe and time come from? Can something come from nothing? If so, what existed before time, mass and energy? The ONLY logical answer dear friend is GOD!
I marvel that so many people believe in the possibility of alien life, yet they deny the possibility that there is a God. My friend, God is an alien by very dictionary definition!!! There is a God, and He is a good God. Just look at all the blessings that He gives us. Luke 6:35, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” God is kind to liars, cheats, murderers and every wicked person, but His goodness will end the moment every unsaved soul enters into eternity. Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
I just wrote this blog to express my thankful spirit toward Google and God (not that Google is God...lol). I think it is great that Google provides their Blogger service for free to the masses. That is very kind and generous of them. I regret that my websites are being censored (for whatever reason) by Google, but I've been uploading my older articles to Google's Blogger instead. This is very helpful, because I am not very good at understanding website design. Technology keeps changing. When I began making my website ministry in 2002, everything was pretty much HTML 4. There were hardly no mobile phones back then to surf the internet, which started in 1996 but took time to go mainstream.
I like that Google is honest, "FREE" truly means FREE. I signed up for Weebly because they advertise all over the internet that it is "completely free," but it sure isn't. The limitations imposed unless you pay them make publishing a decent website impossible. They hound you continually to get your money, for their so-called "COMPLETELY FREE" website maker. If you doubt what I say, don't take my word for it, read what others have to say negatively about Wix and Weebly (for their false advertising).
I have spent tens of thousands of hours writing, designing and publishing literally thousands of articles over the past 20 years since 2002. Very few of them are mobile-friendly. I wish there was a way that I could make them all compliant quickly, but there's not. I have to do it the old-fashioned one, editing one webpage at a time. Praise the Lord!!! I just fixed 142 broken links the other day for Lovethetruth.com, and now I am fixing 339 broken links for my website at Jesusisprecious.org. I still have 199 broken links left to fix. One day at a time.
Having said that, I really love and appreciate that Blogger automatically deformats all the junk out of my former articles, with the click of a mouse, and then perfectly formats them to be mobile-friendly. So I am definitely, God willing, planning on moving many of my older ministry articles into Blogger. THANK YOU Google!!! Blogger has been such a blessing to my ministry that I just wanted to give some credit and praise to Google, and moreover, to recommend and encourage that my blog readers make your own blogs. If you have an opinion as a child of God, you should prayerfully consider starting your own blog and share your voice for the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's completely free on Google, unlike the false advertising at Weebly. When I signed up for an account at Weebly, and created a "free" website and then went to "Publish" it, Weebly demanded money or they wouldn't upload it. What liars!!! Weebly are dirty liars!!! They are greedy and exploit people with false promises of a "completely free website," but they don't really mean what they say. Weebly's owner's don't honor their word. You shouldn't have to go out of your way to contact them, to ask them why they aren't honoring their word. That is how Satan operates, with deceit and half-truths!!! I mean, if Weebly wants to charge money, that is fine, but don't deceitfully lure people in by making false promises of a free website.
I'm so glad that God is not a liar. The serpent (Satan) in Genesis 3:1-5 came to Eve and deceived her, which is what the father of all liars does (John 8:44). When humans play word games, withhold information, call things "free" that have strings attached and limitations—they are behaving like the Devil. Anyway, it means a lot to me that Google is totally upfront and honest, with no strings attached for their Blogger feature. I love it! THANK YOU!!!