CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

November 21, 2004

KEEP PRAYING FOR:

Our college students                                                  Our nation, leaders and military

Various friends, relatives and co-workers                  Our college students

Yevette’s mom and dad                                            David and Leon in the Navy

The Oller’s traveling to Oklahoma

EVENTS:

Nov. 25 - Thanksgiving Day

Dec. 25 - Christmas

GIVE THANKS

“Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

As a nation, we have much for which to be thankful.  This week, a day has been set aside as a national day of thanksgiving.  Years ago, people would attend church in the morning praising and thanking God for what He has done.  Then people would join families for dinner and fellowship.  Unfortunately some of this tradition has left us.  We now have stores opened to sell more and families suffer.  Families are important to our nation and to our existence, so let us give thanks to God for our families no matter how imperfect we are.  We are thankful for children and grandchildren, and ask that they forgive us when we as parents have not always been as observant and respectful as we should have been.

Let us give thanks for our country, though not perfect.  Let us ask God to forgive us for sins that we as a nation have commitment, for ignoring Him, and for the sinful behavior of a few broadcast around the world.  We need to seek His forgiveness for ignoring the helpless and for greed and selfishness.  Yet we have much to thank Him for such as the freedom to worship in peace, to express our opinions, and to serve others.  We are thankful for our leaders, especially as they appeal to and seek guidance from God.

Paul says that we are to “give thanks in all circumstances.”  Difficult as it is to do, we must.  So we give thanks when things are not going our way so that we might learn to be content.  We are thankful for the faith of those who struggle with illness as they show us a unswerving commitment to God.  We are thankful for lives well led, especially of loved ones.  Yevette’s mother is just one example of this.  We are thankful for examples of those who suffer for the faith, who live in difficult times and circumstances, and challenge us to keep going forward to the prize that Paul talks about (see Philippians 3:12-16).  We thank God for experiences that have molded, challenged and corrected our lives.  We thank God for people who have done the same, whether on purpose or not, for our benefit or not.  We thank God for friends of long ago, for renewed fellowships, for new friendships, and for new opportunities.  We thank God that through the example of His Son, we can pray for the salvation of those who intend to harm us, so that they too might know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We thank God for those who challenge us with speeches and in writings, for our educational experiences both in school and in the university of hard knocks.  All of these and more have made us who we are. 

We thank God for His people.  We are thankful for the time we spend together and miss the fellowship when, for whatever reasons, we cannot meet.  We thank God that we are free to talk and to express our opinions, knowing that some of them are not traditional.  We thank God that translators have translated scripture, that scribes have taken the time to copy them, and that others were willing to preserve and transmit the Word to us.  We thank God for missionaries who go to different cultures to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.  We thank God for Christians in persecuted societies for spreading the word through blood, through house churches, and their willingness to risk their lives to do so.  We ask God to forgive His people, the church, for ungodly behaviors and bad attitudes, for selfishness and for the desire to be served rather than serve.  We ask that He would open all our hearts to that of a servant.

Most of all, we thank God for Jesus.  Salvation has come through Him and Him alone.  In a month, many will celebrate His birth, the beginning of the historical deliverance of humans from sin.  We will sing songs that tell us about this story, as we sing songs that tell us about the story of God in Christ.  And we are thankful for people with the talent to write beautiful words and music in which we can praise God.  We thank God that through His great love, He was willing to give His One and Only Son so that humankind’s redemption was possible, and that Jesus was willing to walk this earth and pay the price of our sinful actions.  We are thankful that while God deals with sin, He has chosen to reconcile Himself with us so that we have the hope, the confident expectation, of eternal life with Him in holy praise.

As we can see, we have much to be thankful for today.  So take some time this coming Thursday to be thankful.  Our national history tells us that this is an early tradition in the formative years of our country.  We remember that the Pilgrims gathered with the Native Americans to thank God for a blessed harvest.  And God has continued to bless us in many ways.  That story, and the story of God in Christ is worthy of repeating as we gather around the table.  In many ways, it should remind us of our gathering around another table weekly to remember what God has done through Jesus Christ. 

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

                                                                                                   George B. Mearns