Our world is very different this Thanksgiving week, from even one year ago. How has your life changed? God offers us some keys to "ThanksLiving." What difference might they make in each of our lives these last 40 days of 2014?

Life is filled with unexpected opportunities and challenges. What's the difference? How do we react and respond to them? Where is God when we find ourselves in the middle of them?

The 50 days of high potential are about to begin. Friend and family gatherings, business profits, generosity and gladness; music and the mystery of Christmas... and what's going on deep inside each of us? How would God like to refine each of us? How would God like to refresh our world through each and all of us?

Every day we evaluate situations... how good is good enough, how bad is beyond hope of restoration? Sometimes we look at people the same way! In God's eyes, every person is worth restoration; no person is too broken... and no person is good enough.

Over the next 70 days, our homes, offices, classrooms, and even front yards will be decorated, inviting all of us - children and adults - into the festivities... Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. What will happen these days in each of our lives? What difference might we make in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and fun places if we walked these days as "God-Changed and Sent People?" What might Jesus want to accomplish if He walked these days among us?

We live in a world of diverse religions and ideas about truth.Into this diverse world of competing truth claims, Jesus tells us that we can know the truth.We also live in a world that is looking for freedom from oppression and war.Jesus declares that his truth will set us free.It is this message that we bring to a world looking for truth and freedom.

Jesus said that those who hold to his teaching are his disciples and that the truth will set them free. We will look at "from what we are set free" and "to what purpose are we set free" today. Calvary Community Church wants to have mission partners that are set free - and that help others to be freed - by Jesus' teachings.

From the refugee camps filled with two million fleeing Syrians, to the human-trafficking Asian back alleys, to the regions terrorized by ISIS and Boko Haram, to the starving in Africa and those caught in the drug wars of Central and South America, to the broken families and decaying inner cities of North America, come the appeals... who are those "God-sent people" who will hear our cries, care about our pain and help us in Jesus' name?

In our broken and confused world, what difference can one person, any person make? If that person is a "God-sent" person, they can make a "kingdom difference," which could change a life, a family, a community, even a nation! What would it take for each of us to see ourselves as "God-sent" people, living "God-sent" lives, making a "kingdom difference"?

We all live many "journeys" in life. What has been your "spiritual journey?" What has been your response to Jesus' invitation to "come and follow Me?" What can we learn from the disciples who walked with Jesus and how can their "journey" affect ours?