We have a Thanksgiving tradition in our family where each person at the dinner table prayerfully thanks God for something in his/her life. I am always touched by the breadth and depth of God's blessings! Lindsay recently continued that tradition with friends in Japan - way to go, Lin!
In our American culture, Thanksgiving often is translated into a vague sense of appreciation for what we have, rather than an opportunity to thank the one who is the giver of all good things. Below are some verses that can help us reflect on what we can thank God for – you might want to share some of these around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Eat well and be thankful!
1. His love for me. (Psalm 107:1) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2. My salvation and Christ’s sacrifice for me. (1 Corinthians 10:16) Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
3. God’s righteousness. (Psalm 7:17) I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
4. His Word – the truth that guides me. (Psalm 119:62) At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.
5. Trials that He has allowed in my life – and through which He has sustained me and developed my character. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
6. His strength and protection – physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally (Psalm 28:7) The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
7. His blessings given to me – family, friends, health, vocation, “daily bread” (Matthew 15:36) Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people.
8. His blessings given to others (Psalm 107:8) Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.
9. My gifts and talents; His call to me to serve and love others, and to proclaim Christ (1 Chronicles 16:8) Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
10. The fellowship of believers – my church and other ministries in which I participate (1 Thessalonians 1:2) We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
11. In the midst of challenges, His peace that goes beyond understanding (Philippians 4:5-7) Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Walking and Waiting
Isaiah 26:8. “Walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you.”
I have always believed that waiting on God is not the same as inactivity. It does not mean that when confronted with an issue or situation we go sit in our room and wait for God to do something. You know the old joke, where a man was standing on top of his house in a massive flood with high water all around him. A guy in a boat paddles up and says. “Get in!” The man says, “No thanks, I’m waiting for God to save me.” A helicopter flies over and the same exchange takes place. A few hours later, the rising water overcomes the man and he drowns. When he gets to heaven, he asks God, “Why didn’t you save me?” God replies, “I sent you a boat and a helicopter – what did you expect?”
The verse above suggests that we move as we wait. We walk. We take action. In particular, we are to be careful to walk in God’s ways as we wait; to be obedient to his commands.
Most of us like closure to issues. It is hard to keep options open. But often we make the mistake of making decisions ahead of God because we are unwilling to wait for him to show us the best way. We need to be carefully pursuing multiple options, praying and listening for his movement to direct us.
Six months ago our church had a plan to build a big facility on a piece of property we had purchased. We became uncomfortable that this one plan was the right plan. So we backed away from it and opened our thinking to many options. We have more work to do as a result, and we don’t know yet which option God has in store for us, but we are all at peace that we are listening to God and not prematurely closing off options he wants us to pursue.
Do you have a big issue you are dealing with? God promises to hear your prayer and answer it. So pray and wait on him, but walk while you wait.
I have always believed that waiting on God is not the same as inactivity. It does not mean that when confronted with an issue or situation we go sit in our room and wait for God to do something. You know the old joke, where a man was standing on top of his house in a massive flood with high water all around him. A guy in a boat paddles up and says. “Get in!” The man says, “No thanks, I’m waiting for God to save me.” A helicopter flies over and the same exchange takes place. A few hours later, the rising water overcomes the man and he drowns. When he gets to heaven, he asks God, “Why didn’t you save me?” God replies, “I sent you a boat and a helicopter – what did you expect?”
The verse above suggests that we move as we wait. We walk. We take action. In particular, we are to be careful to walk in God’s ways as we wait; to be obedient to his commands.
Most of us like closure to issues. It is hard to keep options open. But often we make the mistake of making decisions ahead of God because we are unwilling to wait for him to show us the best way. We need to be carefully pursuing multiple options, praying and listening for his movement to direct us.
Six months ago our church had a plan to build a big facility on a piece of property we had purchased. We became uncomfortable that this one plan was the right plan. So we backed away from it and opened our thinking to many options. We have more work to do as a result, and we don’t know yet which option God has in store for us, but we are all at peace that we are listening to God and not prematurely closing off options he wants us to pursue.
Do you have a big issue you are dealing with? God promises to hear your prayer and answer it. So pray and wait on him, but walk while you wait.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Extending God’s Grace to Others
1 Peter 4:10. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.”
Here’s another one of my all-time favorite verses. It packs a ton into a short sentence.
First, there is the gift. In this context Peter is talking about spiritual gifts. These are imparted by the Holy Spirit to believers, and include teaching, leading, prophesying, etc. (see Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 for more examples). While these can be also seen as natural talents or developed skills, spiritual gifts are distinctly given to God’s people for a particular purpose. Here and elsewhere scripture tells us that all believers have at least one spiritual gift. This is huge. We tend to think that we’re not Mother Teresa or Billy Graham and so we’re sort of second class saints. But we have been given a spiritual gift that God considers to be of enormous importance – and our gift is designed just for us. So let’s forget about comparing ourselves to others.
Second, there is the purpose. Some of these spiritual gifts could be used for our own benefit. But we’re told that the purpose of these gifts is to serve others. Again, we don’t have to think that how we serve others is better or worse than someone else – it’s just different. God has always given me a heart for younger people, and I was drawn to the ministry of Young Life which the Lord has used in big ways for over half a century to reach adolescents around the world. It was very clear to me early on that I was not gifted to be an up-front leader of kids. But I do have administrative and leadership gifts that God has used to help the ministry plan for the future, structure its organization and raise funds.
Third, there is the value. The idea that each of us can participate in extending God’s grace to others is profound. God’s grace is of incalculable value. God has redeemed people through the blood of Jesus Christ. He loves everyone in the world and he cares about those is need. As the omnipotent God of the universe he does not need us to help him. But this is the plan he has chosen. So each of us – using the unique gifts that God has given us – has the opportunity to extend God’s love to others, to extend his grace. I picture this as a rainbow or a huge quilt that has tremendous variety but all works together for God’s purpose and will. What is your spiritual gift? Make sure you know, then put it to use serving others and watch God do something spectacular!
Here’s another one of my all-time favorite verses. It packs a ton into a short sentence.
First, there is the gift. In this context Peter is talking about spiritual gifts. These are imparted by the Holy Spirit to believers, and include teaching, leading, prophesying, etc. (see Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 for more examples). While these can be also seen as natural talents or developed skills, spiritual gifts are distinctly given to God’s people for a particular purpose. Here and elsewhere scripture tells us that all believers have at least one spiritual gift. This is huge. We tend to think that we’re not Mother Teresa or Billy Graham and so we’re sort of second class saints. But we have been given a spiritual gift that God considers to be of enormous importance – and our gift is designed just for us. So let’s forget about comparing ourselves to others.
Second, there is the purpose. Some of these spiritual gifts could be used for our own benefit. But we’re told that the purpose of these gifts is to serve others. Again, we don’t have to think that how we serve others is better or worse than someone else – it’s just different. God has always given me a heart for younger people, and I was drawn to the ministry of Young Life which the Lord has used in big ways for over half a century to reach adolescents around the world. It was very clear to me early on that I was not gifted to be an up-front leader of kids. But I do have administrative and leadership gifts that God has used to help the ministry plan for the future, structure its organization and raise funds.
Third, there is the value. The idea that each of us can participate in extending God’s grace to others is profound. God’s grace is of incalculable value. God has redeemed people through the blood of Jesus Christ. He loves everyone in the world and he cares about those is need. As the omnipotent God of the universe he does not need us to help him. But this is the plan he has chosen. So each of us – using the unique gifts that God has given us – has the opportunity to extend God’s love to others, to extend his grace. I picture this as a rainbow or a huge quilt that has tremendous variety but all works together for God’s purpose and will. What is your spiritual gift? Make sure you know, then put it to use serving others and watch God do something spectacular!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Hope
1 Corinthians 13:13. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Many years ago I read the familiar 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians (the “love chapter”) and puzzled a bit at verse 13. After the beautiful discourse on the character of love, the chapter culminates with a statement that compares the importance of love with that of faith and hope, implying that these are the “big three.” I could easily grasp the importance of love and faith as foundational to my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Love is the central message of the Gospel (John 3:16), and we enter into an eternal relationship with God by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But I wasn’t sure how hope made it to the top three.
Hope as a noun is “the sense that what is desired can be had;” or as a verb “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” I started thinking about why scripture places so much importance on this. I’m no psychologist, but humanly speaking, it makes sense that people are motivated and encouraged as they believe that there is something good or desirable that lies ahead. Hope is an energy giver.
So what is that “something good” we desire? For the follower of Jesus, the easy answer is eternal life with God (not to digress, but the most poignant description of heaven for me is in Revelation 21:4 where heaven is described as a wonderful place where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” – what a stark contrast to the world today).
But there is more. I am convinced that there is much good to look forward to in our time on earth. I could go on and on about this (maybe I will another time!), but let me suggest just one aspect of the hope we can have. As a follower of Jesus, God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us. As we yield to the Spirit’s leading, he transforms us into people whose lives, according to Galatians 5:22-23, are increasingly characterized by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” There are a lot of temporal things that I could hope for (and often do). But the hope that God could make me this kind of person is absolutely staggering. Imagine people describing you with these words – now that’s a hope to get excited about!
Many years ago I read the familiar 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians (the “love chapter”) and puzzled a bit at verse 13. After the beautiful discourse on the character of love, the chapter culminates with a statement that compares the importance of love with that of faith and hope, implying that these are the “big three.” I could easily grasp the importance of love and faith as foundational to my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Love is the central message of the Gospel (John 3:16), and we enter into an eternal relationship with God by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But I wasn’t sure how hope made it to the top three.
Hope as a noun is “the sense that what is desired can be had;” or as a verb “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” I started thinking about why scripture places so much importance on this. I’m no psychologist, but humanly speaking, it makes sense that people are motivated and encouraged as they believe that there is something good or desirable that lies ahead. Hope is an energy giver.
So what is that “something good” we desire? For the follower of Jesus, the easy answer is eternal life with God (not to digress, but the most poignant description of heaven for me is in Revelation 21:4 where heaven is described as a wonderful place where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” – what a stark contrast to the world today).
But there is more. I am convinced that there is much good to look forward to in our time on earth. I could go on and on about this (maybe I will another time!), but let me suggest just one aspect of the hope we can have. As a follower of Jesus, God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us. As we yield to the Spirit’s leading, he transforms us into people whose lives, according to Galatians 5:22-23, are increasingly characterized by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” There are a lot of temporal things that I could hope for (and often do). But the hope that God could make me this kind of person is absolutely staggering. Imagine people describing you with these words – now that’s a hope to get excited about!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Those in Authority
1 Timothy 2:1-3. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior."
Today is election day 2008 in the U.S. If you live in America, you are probably relieved that the long campaigns are finally over. I know I am!
I don't know if the candidates I vote for today will be elected. But I do know that I am called to pray for those who are. Scripture tells us to pray for those in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness - and that this is the kind of life that is good and pleases God. This description reminds me of the fruits of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When we yield our own desires and will to God, and allow the holy spirit to rule in our lives, these characteristics and behaviors result.
So go out and vote today and, more importantly, pray regularly for the men and women who will assume authority.
Today is election day 2008 in the U.S. If you live in America, you are probably relieved that the long campaigns are finally over. I know I am!
I don't know if the candidates I vote for today will be elected. But I do know that I am called to pray for those who are. Scripture tells us to pray for those in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness - and that this is the kind of life that is good and pleases God. This description reminds me of the fruits of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When we yield our own desires and will to God, and allow the holy spirit to rule in our lives, these characteristics and behaviors result.
So go out and vote today and, more importantly, pray regularly for the men and women who will assume authority.
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