Thanksgiving

In a "Me First" society, it is a challenge to take time to give thanks. We still live in the greatest country in the world. Our country has prospered the globe. With our farms, we feed the starving and with our gifts, we clothe and find fresh water for those in catastrophic circumstances.

Our forefathers came here to find religious freedom and thanked God for it and his Providence and provision on their first Thanksgiving.

Family, blessed friends, church family, the coming of a new pastor, a bountiful harvest and the ability to store it, a warm home with water and room for so many, money to buys things we don't even need...these are among the many blessings for which I am thankful. Above all that, God has richly blessed me with salvation. That is worth everything.

God has richly blessed us and we often forget to thank the one who gives us everything. I am challenged to remember to be the one leper who remembers to come back and give thanks to Jesus, who healed him (check out Luke 17:11 for the whole story).

"In Romans 1"18-32, Paul give a vivid description of the downward moral spiral of pagan humanity of that day, as God gave them up more and more to the wicked inclinations of their evil hearts. Near the beginning of the description, Paul writes, 'Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their think, and their foolish hearts were darkened; (verse 21, emphasis added).

So their ever-increasing wickedness actually began with their ungodliness (failure to honor God as God) and their unthankfulness to Him....It may seem like a small sin to us, but God takes it seriously." excerpt from Respectable Sins, by Jerry Bridges

May each of us be thankful today, tomorrow and each day for all that God has done for us.

Happy Thanksgiving!