Tag Archives: thanksgiving

Nov 21 2012

a prayer of thanksgiving for matters for which God is rarely thanked

 

Holy Father, in the name of our Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we thank you:

for our weaknesses. For without our weaknesses, we would be all the more tempted to rely on our own strength rather than on you and your strength;

for our critics. For our critics keep us ever mindful that though we may think at times we are made of iron, we too, like them, have feet made of clay;

for our limitations. For without our limitations, we we might grow proud and have little room in our heart for others;

for our enemies. For without enemies to love, our love would remain forever stunted in growth;

and for our troubles. For without our troubles, we might come to think that we can get along just fine in life without you.

Amen.

Nov 20 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Equality & freedom: A Black Intellectual Writes to Thomas Jefferson by Bobby Valentine

On July 4, 1776 explosive words from Thomas Jefferson captured the hearts of men and women, white and black, in the British Colonies in America.  Those words read, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ … The letter of Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson on August 19, 1791 was laden with potential to renew the promise of the American Revolution. … Perhaps Banneker should be in the Canon of American Saints as much – perhaps more – than Thomas Jefferson.”

Faith & politics: The Real ‘Evangelical Disaster’ by Rachel Held Evans

“The great evangelical disaster is that evangelicalism has become synonymous with Republicanism rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ. This happened long before the 2012 presidential election. It happened when we turned the Bible into a conservative position paper and Jesus into a flag pin. “

Generosity: Family Christian Stores Buys Itself, Pledges to Give 100% of Profits to Widows and Orphans

“Under the new ownership, Family Christian’s pledge is to contribute 100% of its profits to Christian causes and, specifically, ministries serving widows and orphans both in the USA and abroad.”

Thanksgiving: * An American Thanksgiving from a Global Perspective by Dan Bouchelle; * Tips for Teaching Your Children Thanksgiving! by Mark Woodward

* “I have traveled to all six populated continents and preached for churches in each place. I spend a lot of time listening to church leaders and disciple-makers describe the realities they face in their countries with all the joys and struggles that entails. I also have gotten to witness first hand the living conditions, social realities, political climates, and spiritual environments of many different parts of the globe. With that as the backdrop to my current life, I enter into this Thanksgiving season differently than I once did.”

* “If you want your children to be thankful—grateful—adults, you have a great opportunity to work on them during Thanksgiving.  This holiday can be so much more than Indians and pilgrims or eating and football!  We Christians have a great opportunity to re-capture the holiday from the secularists and materialists and instill in our children a grateful spirit rather than an entitled one!”

Nov 19 2011

why give thanks?

NOTE: Following is a copy of the discussion guide that will be used in MoSt Church’s LIFE groups tomorrow (Sun., Nov. 20). This guide will enable your follow-up of the sermon that I’ll preach, God willing, that morning on reasons for our gratitude to God. You’ll find these LIFE group discussion guides categorized each week here on my site under the category title LIFE group guides.

Aim

To explore why we’re to grow in gratitude toward God.

Word

• We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. (Colossians 1:3 CEB)

• We’re praying … so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God; by being strengthened through his glorious might so that you endure everything and have patience; and by giving thanks with joy to the Father. He made it so you could take part in the inheritance, in light granted to God’s holy people. He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. (Colossians 1:10-13 CEB)

• Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught. (Colossians 2:7 CEB)

• The peace of Christ must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people. The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17 CEB)

Keep on praying and guard your prayers with thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2 CEB)

Open

Icebreaker questions are meant to get us all talking. Choose one of the following to discuss as a group.

1. What food would you be most thankful for if it appeared on your Thanksgiving table?

2. Complete this sentence: “Right now in my life, I’m particularly thankful for ________.”

Dig

These questions are intended to help us grapple with Scriptures related to the morning’sermon.

1. What effect do you suppose Paul was looking for when he told people he steadily prayed for them? (1:3)

2. What three things must be in our life if we’re living a life pleasing to God? (1:10-13)

3. How would a Christian think/speak/act if they “overflowed” (2:7) with thankfulness?

4. How is ungrateful singing symptomatic of a deeper problem? (3:15-17)

5. What does it mean to “guard” one’s prayers “with thanksgiving?” (4:2)

6. Working only from the preceding texts, why should a Christian grow in gratitude?

Reflect

These questions facilitate our sharing what we sense God’s Spirit is doing with us through his word.

1. Complete this line: “When I recall Jesus being thankful, I remember when he _____.”

2. What are some of the greatest enemies of thankfulness people commonly face?

3. When you experience a season of deep gratitude, how do your ways change?

4. Some Christians naturally sing when they’re thankful. What is your “go to” response?

5. A long-time Christian says their heart is cold with unthankfulness. What do you say?

6. How, or with what specifically in mind, can we pray for you in terms of thankfulness?

May 11 2011

sermon follow-up: worry

If I was a gambling man – and I’m not – I’d be willing to wager you’ve not heard a sermon on “worry” before on Mother’s Day Sunday morning. It was no doubt a slight surprise to most, but I decided this year I’d just stay “in series” rather than jump off track for a “traditional” Mother’s Day sermon. And judging by some of the remarks I received following the sermon’s delivery, I think this was something of a needed scratch to a troublesome itch.

Worry is one of those things we may frown about a bit, but we don’t usually consider much of a “big deal.” Jesus thought otherwise. Among the wide variety of subjects Jesus dealt with in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spent more time elaborating on worry than any other subject, except prayer. That’s impressive given that he talked about matters such as anger, adultery, false teaching, revenge, etc. If worry is known by the company it keeps, it keeps some truly “bad company” and if Jesus spent the most amount of time on the matters that need the most attention, worry ranks up near the top. That’s something to think about!

But what exactly is worry? Worry is more than just “too much of a good thing” (concern); it’s something based on the wrong thing entirely: fear, not faith. Worry is, at best, a lopsided measure of concern built on a foundation of  a larger-than-life measure of fear.

The clear and present danger with worry is that it shifts our attention from our God to our goods, from our Savior to our situation and our stuff. It can, if left untreated, metastasize and take over a person’s life, becoming an “idol” to the person caught up in it. In short, worry replaces God as the center of things with our needs as the center. Worry, then, is no “second-class” or “side” issue, but is, as Jesus spoke of it, a front-line issue that must be confronted.

So will we ever get to the place where Jesus says “Don’t worry?” If so, when will we get serious about it and start? And when we set out on this mission to conquer worry in our life, with what shall we be armed?

You’ve heard me say before that the best way to have a great looking yard is to spend more time feeding the grass than you do fighting the weeds. I believe that holds true for most matters spiritual, certainly in regard to how to deal successfully with worry. Telling yourself not to worry will more often than not just keep you focused on your fears and viewing things as a struggle. In such an environment of the mind, worry can grow like weeds. However, if you deliberately feed your spirit with reminders of God’s goodness and generosity, if you deliberately look for the good and count your blessings, though you might not realize it at the time, you will be doing some of the best things you can possibly do to push yourself and your fears from the center of things.

Thanking God for the smallest of things – even things you might at face value consider “bad,” not good – is where our personal battle with worry will be won or lost. It is exceedingly difficult for worry to gain anything like a permanent foothold in a Christian heart that feeds on a steady diet of gratitude and thanksgiving to God. I believe that’s true no matter the context or person.

Have you ever heard of Corrie Ten Boom? She was a survivor of the Holocaust. Her account of how the prisoners in her bunkroom in the horrific Ravensbruck concentration camp came to thank God for fleas is a powerful illustration of how a heart seeking for things for which to be grateful to God is a heart that can bear any load placed upon it. Worry has no hope of survival in the soil of a heart full of thanksgiving.