Gratitude

An Unexpected Gift

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments 
I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Philippians 4:18 ESV

Last week our small group had a party to signal the beginning of a summer break. Each person brought a dish of some kind, and we even invited some of our neighbors to join us. What a wonderful time it was talking about our summer plans and upcoming travels. Towards the end of our get-together, one woman asked offhandedly if I might be interested in her old guitar which she was thinking of donating to the thrift store. I didn’t hold out much hope about her instrument, but I offered to take a look, expecting a worn-out guitar in a dilapidated case. How surprised I was when Ginger walked with carrying a professional case, which when I opened revealed a very nice Yamaha in near perfect condition. Though the strings were overdue for changing, when I put a new set on I was delighted with the tone. Unknown to our friend Ginger, I had prayed a while back for a new guitar but had forgotten about it. Excitedly I called and thanked her for such a beautiful and unexpected gift! That got me to thinking about other unexpected gifts we read about in the Bible. Of course, we must begin with God’s amazing and unexpected gift of salvation, but in today’s verse, the Apostle Paul also shows his gratitude for a gift from friends. He had neither asked for nor expected them to send him anything, but when they did, he wrote to say thank you. He says that gifts like these are a fragrant offering an acceptable sacrifice and they make the heart of God glad. Let’s be thankful for those rare moments when we receive such gifts, because in them we see a tiny reflection of the heart of Jesus who came as the most unexpected gift of all! I do hope you will enjoy one of the first songs I got to play with my new gift. Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

A Thanksgiving Remembered

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 
Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4 NLT

We often think of the first Thanksgiving as when the Pilgrims celebrated God’s provision, after having survived their first terrible Winter. But the fact that it is now a national holiday owes in large part to one very determined woman named, Sarah Hale. Sarah was a renowned editor of a Lady’s periodical and an author. In her novel, “Northwood” which she wrote in 1827, Sarah began the conversation about adding Thanksgiving as an annual observance. Soon she launched a letter writing campaign to governors, congressmen, and presidents. Despite growing popular opinion, the idea of making Thanksgiving an official holiday met varying degrees of opposition from many politicians until October of 1863. There, in the middle of our bloodiest war, Abraham Lincoln recognized that what our nation needed most was not just a military victory, but more importantly, God’s intervention. He understood, as today’s verse makes clear, that the way through the door into God’s presence came by giving thanks. Though Thanksgiving was generally observed after the war, the official designation of it by the law of the land did not come until December of 1941, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Today, we are blessed to have one day set aside every year: not just for football and turkey, but for remembering that it is God who has given us life and provided our needs. We need not wait for disaster to drive us to our knees. Thanksgiving and praise should be our opening prayer every morning and our closing thought each night. Thank God for His help, both in ages past and for His faithful presence right here and now. God bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Stopping in our Tracks

/ pastorpete51 / 9 Comments 
 And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.  Luke 17:16 ESV

On our recent trip, one morning, I noticed that, instead of being thankful, I was doing a lot of complaining. My bed was too hard, (but it was clean): the air conditioner was too loud (But it worked well), the breakfast served at the hotel was skimpy, (But someone had come in at 5 AM to prepare it for me). I asked God to forgive my ungrateful attitude and began recalling the many times when Jesus gave thanks. He thanked God, for the five loaves and two fish, before they were multiplied. He thanked God for always hearing His prayers before Lazarus was raised from the dead. Even on, “The night when He was betrayed,” Jesus took bread and gave thanks. So ashamed of my own petty griping, I wondered how I could become grateful like Him. But as asked for forgiveness, God began to show me that “Giving thanks” was not something He was asking me to feel, rather it was an action that He expected me to do.

God wants us to have the thankfulness of the man in today’s verse. This guy was nobody special. He was simply just one of ten lepers, who came to Jesus for healing. All ten of them looked to God for help. All of them, prayed, asking for mercy, all of them obeyed what Jesus told them to do, and all of them were joyful when they saw that they had been healed. But the Samaritan was unique because he stopped in his tracks and returned to give thanks. If we are to learn gratitude, we need to do the same. Instead of trying hard to work up a grateful feeling, we need to just stop in the tracks of our fussing and moaning, come back to Jesus, and simply give Him thanks!