Tag: Thankfulness

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How’s Your Memory?

 

“Take heed lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you this day:

Deuteronomy 8:11

Read Deut. 8:11-20

Forgetful

Leon, an elderly man in our church of blessed memory, used to go around handing out $2 bills to people, always with a big smile on his face. When he gave one to me he said, “If you keep this in your wallet, you’ll never be broke.” I still have that $2 bill, and our kids have theirs also. I don’t keep it in my wallet though. I’m always afraid I might spend it in some moment of weakness, especially considering I almost never carry cash with me.

I keep that $2 bill on my dresser. Every time I see it I’m reminded of Leon’s generous, loving spirit, how he exemplified Christ to me, and how blessed I am. I have food, health, shelter, and family! What more could I ask for? Our spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting should be like that $2 bill. They should remind us of how much God has blessed us and of His great plans for us. The Lenten season is a time for Christians to be reminded of what a generous, loving Heavenly Father we have.

In the western world, we have so much abundance, too often we must work at being thankful. If we aren’t reminding ourselves of God’s abundant provisions in our lives we tend to think we built all of them ourselves. While thankfulness for God’s blessings should be a daily state of mind, I am thankful for a church that calls us to remember. We need to remember not only all God’s blessings, but all His deliverance as well.

The children of Israel inherited a land flowing with milk and honey, a land God gave to them. He knew in their success they would forget Him. The best remedy for not forgetting is to live daily in a spirit of thankfulness. For me, Lent is a season to remember how blessed I am, especially how “Forgiven” I am. As a way of saying, “Thanks” to the Father, I offer up fasting, and concentrated times of prayer and meditation.

How’s your memory? Are you living gratefully for the blessings of life? Or, like the Israelites, have you forgotten just where you came from and who delivered you? If so, take some time this Lenten season to let God remind you of all his blessings, and as an act of love, offer up times of prayer and fasting.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

My daily Lenten prayer – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit. ” NRSV

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A Cup of Thanksgiving

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you;

Matthew 26:27

Today most of us in America will sit down in a tradition that dates back to the Pilgrims and their dinner of thanksgiving, as they gave thanks to God for bringing them to this new world. We eat turkey and dressing and all the trimmings in remembrance of God’s providence in our lives. The providence that brought us to today. No matter what problems or pains we endure, we’re here. We’re alive and well enough to give thanks.

But for some, today will be a day of mourning, a day of sorrow. People die on and around Thanksgiving just like any other day. What about them? How will they find thankfulness in their hearts for God’s providence? I pray they will. His Providence is always there, but sometimes we have to look through a lot of pain and tears to see it.

It wasn’t easy for those early pilgrims as they braved a new and sometimes hostile world to carve out a life. They built homes and villages, and planted crops and families all to begin again in freedom. They left behind the religious oppression they felt in the old world. And it didn’t matter how hard it would be in the new world, they we’re determined to make a new life…and so they did.

What about you? What about me? Are we determined that no matter what obstacles lay ahead of us that we will make it through in this life? There is only one way to know we can make it through – with faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the object of the Pilgrim’s thankfulness, as He should be ours. Nothing we enjoy today comes to us of our own accord, but through His divine providence.

On the last night of His life, Jesus gathered for a traditional meal with his disciples as they celebrated the Passover. But it was not a night like any other. That night, Jesus gathered them not only to remember the deliverance of their ancestors, He gathered them to deliver them. As Jesus celebrated His last Passover with them, He was celebrating His first Eucharist with them – His first Thanksgiving with them.

The Eucharist is known by many names, Holy Communion, The Lord’s Supper, or simply Communion. But Eucharist was the name given by the first Christians, and they gave it that name for a reason. In their common Greek language, “Eucharistia” meant Thanksgiving. That night, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for them both. He was thanking the Father for His own body about to be broken and His own blood about to be shed.

I wonder if we can do that today? Can we gather together with friends and family and raise a cup of Thanksgiving for what is about to happen? None of us knows what tomorrow may bring. For some it will bring great loneliness having passed the first holiday without a loved one who died. For others it will bring great joy as they move into the season of Advent and Christmas, with hearts full of hope.

Whatever your lot is today, I pray you will not only see Pilgrims and Turkeys, but that you will see a broken lamb giving thanks to God for you and your life. A life He died to save, and not just to save but to save for an everlasting life filled with joy, and the fulfillment of our original creation. So today, let us lift a cup of Thanksgiving to the one thing for which we should be most thankful – eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Pastor Brad

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Where Does All the Madness End?

Further thoughts on Luke 12;                                                                                    Click Here to Read This Week’s Gospel: Luke 12:16-2

Black Friday

I started this week with an intention to be thankful for what I have been given in this life. No, not the stuff (but, yes that too), but the real gifts: family, freedom, shelter, food, and of course, love. Thanks to meditating on Jesus’ parable about the Rich Fool in Luke 12, I have managed to be more thankful than usual. In my meditating, I also started wondering how much and how soon all this bounty we enjoy in America might go away, if we stay on our present political course. Let’s face it, for all the slams capitalism has received by the current Administration, it is what built our freedom and plenty. That, coupled with an understanding  it all happened by God’s grace (which as a nation we have totally taken for granted) brought me to a place of anger this day after Thanksgiving.

Why am I angry? Because like the fool in the parable, we ought to know better. Just like the fact that no communist/socialist economy in the world has ever produced the kind of success in science and industry capitalism has in the West, so too no other Western nation has ever produced the freedom the United States has. And, what have we done with our freedom? If the advertisements on Thanksgiving week TV are any indication we’ve used them to further fuel greed in the masses.

I spent over 18 years in the retail industry in my young working career (before entering the ordained ministry). I worked every day after Thanksgiving; it was always the biggest shopping day of the year. BUT…our store didn’t open till 8AM, AND there were no mobs beating down the doors to get inside. No one was trampling over their fellow man to grab a supposedly incredible deal item out of the hands of another. There was almost something beautiful about it. Were the retailers greedy? Sure. But they were sane about how they went about it.

Where does the madness end? Now retailers can’t even wait until Friday. Many big box stores are opening on Thanksgiving Day! Pretty soon there won’t be a Thanksgiving Day because no one will have time to cook; they’ll all be out shopping for early “Black Thursday” deals. And, then it will be Black Wednesday, Tuesday and so on. Get the picture? Like the fool in the parable, greed has taken over our thankfulness.

Where does all the madness end? I guess, when like in the parable, God says to us all, “You fool, this night your soul will be required of you.” I pray we don’t get to that point. I pray we wake up and take time to smell the coffee on Friday morning. Then, relax and enjoy a second cup as we reflect on the wonderful time we had on Thursday with our families. I did. And, that’s what I plan to do next year, and the year after that, and so on and so on, unless and until the Lord puts a stop to the madness one way or another.

It doesn’t have to come to that, you know.We can put a stop to the madness. Next year, you can refuse to go out and shop on Thanksgiving Day. Just stay home, relax and enjoy your family. There will always be another deal.