Thankful by Definition

Can you believe that the holiday season is upon us? What a year we’ve had! And as we approach the holidays I think it appropriate to pause and reflect. As we do I think one word would summarize my feelings – Thankful.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that the word thankful has 3 intents.

First, thankful means that we are conscious of benefit received. I think if we all just stop and think about it we can all be conscious of benefit received. With unemployment levels at historic proportion, I don’t know about you, but I am conscious of the many blessings in my life; I am conscious of the benefit of living in the greatest country known to man; and I am conscious of the benefit of the freedom to worship our great and glorious God. While I am at it, I am conscious of the benefit of a good church, family, friends and this Florida lifestyle.

Second, thankful means being expressive of thanks. So let me express my heartfelt thanks for all things; every breath, sight, smell, relationship (I guess you get the idea). 2 Corinthians 9:15 says; 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we just remained in a state of being thankful; expressing thanks in all things?

Third, thankful means being well-pleased and I have got to tell you I am well-pleased. I am extremely well-pleased when I reflect on all of life’s blessings. I am well-please when I think about all that Christ has done. There are so many negative influences in the world, but if we focus on what is really important in life shouldn’t we all be walking around in a state of being well-pleased. Not in a prideful, arrogant way, but in a humble and happy state of thankfulness. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reminds us; 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

When you really stop and think about it, being thankful should be easy for each of us. So on Thanksgiving 2010, let’s end with a Thanksgiving Poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson;

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Grace and Peace!

Radical Generosity

Recently I have been studying a little about Christian Stewardship and have been driven toward a single verse. It seems appropriate at Thanksgiving, but the verse is 2 Corinthians 9:7;

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Somehow that just shakes me up! Can you see that it is not a command or a requirement; we are given complete freedom yet we are reminded that by being generous from the heart, being cheerfully generous is a true testimony of faith in Jesus? I just had to dig a little deeper and I looked up the Greek words for Cheerful Giver.

In Greek the word Cheerful is Hilaros – which means joyous and prompt to do anything and the word Giver is Dotes which literally means giver (ha – I couldn’t resist). But if you put it together what we are told is that God loves someone that is so joyous that they promptly give.

It reminds me of the people Pastor Francis Chan describes in his book; Crazy Love; people that are so radically transformed by the radical love of Jesus that they give in radical ways. It is a call to really come to terms with just how generous our loving God has been with us and that in turn we can honor him out of loving gratitude by being cheerful givers.

Some time back I read a story that Charles Swindoll tells; it is the story of a soldier in WWII and an orphan and it was shortly after World War II came to a close, Europe began picking up the pieces. Much of the Old Country had been ravaged by war and was in ruins. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of little orphaned children starving in the streets of those war-torn cities. Early on chilly morning an American soldier was making his way back to the barracks in London. As he turned the corner in his jeep, he spotted a kid with his nose pressed to the window of a pastry shop. Inside the cook was kneading dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts. The hungry boy stared in silence, watching every move. The soldier pulled his jeep to the curb, stopped, got out and walked quietly over to where the young man was standing. Through the steamed-up window he could see the mouth-watering morsels as they were being pulled from the over, piping hot. The boy salivated and released a slight groan as he watched the cook place them onto the glass-enclosed counter ever so carefully. The soldier’s heart went out to the nameless orphan as he stood beside him. “Son...would you like some of those?” The boy was startled. “Oh, yeah...I would!” The American stepped inside and bought a dozen, put them in a bag, and walked back to where the boy was standing in the foggy cold of the London morning. He smiled, held out the bag, and said simply: “Here you are.” As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child ask quietly: “Mister ... are you God?”

Oh my, can you see that we are never more like God than when we give.

Friends beginning this Thanksgiving may we be transformed and truly understand the radical Generosity of God; may we begin to be radically generous with a world that so desperately needs it; may we all be cheerful givers.

Grace and Peace!

God's Word

Oh how I love God’s word! It is so amazing and it is so much more than a guide on how to live the Christian life. Michael Horton recently wrote:

“Scripture is of no use to us if we read it merely as a handbook for daily living without recognizing that its principle purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ and his gospel for the salvation of sinners. All Scripture coalesces in Christ, anticipated in the OT and appearing in the flesh in the NT. In Scripture, God issues commands and threatens judgment for transgressors as well as direction for the lives of his people. Yet the greatest treasure buried in the Scriptures is the good news of the promised Messiah. Everything in the Bible that tells us what to do is “law”, and everything in the Bible that tells us what God has done in Christ to save us is “gospel.” Much like medieval piety, the emphasis in much Christian teaching today is on what we are to do without adequate grounding in the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. “What would Jesus do?” becomes more important than “What has Jesus done?” The gospel, however, is not just something we needed at conversion so we can spend the rest of our Christian life obsessed with performance; it is something we need every day–the only source of our sanctification as well as our justification. The law guides, but only the gospel gives. We are declared righteous–justified–not by anything that happens within us or done by us, but solely by God’s act of crediting us with Christ’s perfect righteousness through faith alone.”

You know what? We do get some amazing insights into walking the Christian walk, but can you see that as we do that, as we grow in knowledge and maturity that every word, every verse, every passage points to Christ and His Gospel for the salvation of people like me. Amen and Amen!

Grace and Peace!