Making a thankful list…

Today is American Thanksgiving. Interesting that many celebrate it with food, traditionally turkey and pumpkin pie, and lots to eat. While Canadians celebrated this holiday last month, it is a good idea to be thankful every day (without all that food)!

The news is filled with sadness. A fire in Hong Kong with hundreds still missing. Murders. Accidents. Political decisions that harm many. Yet these three chapters in Romans are filled with things for which I am thankful.

I am no longer a condemned sinner. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set me free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in me, as I walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” 

What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? It is giving up and saying no to selfish and sinful ‘I-wants’ and doing what God wants. It is setting my mind on the things of God and being filled with His peace, without any hostility toward Him and knowing that if I insist on doing what the old me wants, I cannot please God nor submit to His law. (Romans 8:1–8)

This is not slavery by force but by choice. He has shown me that putting to death all fleshy thoughts and actions, I not only live but live without fear. I can call Him “Abba! Father” and know that I am His child, His heir, even when suffering happens. He helps me in my weakness even when I don’t know what to pray because He intercedes for me according to His will. His prayers are always answered. (Romans 8:12–27)

I don’t know why He has shown mercy to me, but just as He raised up Pharaoh to show His power, He had mercy on me that I might fit into His plans. It makes no sense to resist this merciful God. (Romans 9:15–18)

I want others to be saved, and realize this is God’s desire because I didn’t care about anyone else in that way before Jesus came into my life. I realize many are still ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own through so-called ‘good works’ yet I am certain that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1–4)

I also know the simplicity of the gospel. My part was to confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. With faith in my heart, I am justified (God considers me just as I had never sinned) and saying it is really important. I know this is true for all Christians. All who believe in Him are saved and He bestows His riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9–13)

PRAY: Lord, I’ve been blessed in many ways, but my stuff and even all great experiences do not last. Eternal life with You is by far at the top of my thankful list. You have blessed me: peace with God and the peace of God. Trials come and I have days filled with angst and challenges, but You never leave me or fail me. Just thinking of You gives me great joy. Thank You!


 

Eternal Thanks

 

READ Colossians 1–4

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. While many will give thanks for home, family, and a turkey dinner, my thoughts this morning are on the words of thanksgiving in the NT book of Colossians. They are focused on what God has done for me, eternal blessings for which I am eternally grateful. First, thanks for other Christians . . .

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven . . . (Colossians 1:3–5)

Yesterday’s conversations with God’s people mutually encouraged our faith, our love for one another, and directed our minds to the power and care of God. We are thankful for that, just as these verses say we should be for His deliverance and our redemption:

. . . Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins . . . . And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him . . . . (1:10–14; 21–22)

This passage makes me wonder about Thanksgiving in the lives of those who do not know God or have rejected Him, not so much what they are thankful for but who are they thanking? In their minds, where have all their blessings originated? We who believe in God and have been blessed with His great salvation have reasons for thanksgiving that are unknown to many. We know, because we have “received Christ Jesus the Lord” that we can “walk in him, (be) rooted and built up in him and (are) established in the faith” and therefore can be “abounding in thanksgiving.” (2:6–7)

Yes, I was “dead in my trespasses” yet “God made (me) alive together with him, having forgiven (me) all (my) trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against (me) with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (2:13–14) I have the most awesome reasons for being thankful! Because of Jesus, I can:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12–15)

And because of Jesus, I can also “Let the word of Christ dwell in (me) richly” as can all believers, “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever (we) do, in word or deed, (we can) do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (3:16–17)

Finally, this reading tells me to, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for (other Christians), that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ . . . that (we) may make it clear, which is how (we) ought to speak.” (4:2–4)

Today, this is how I want to speak and act around that dinner table. Yes, to be thankful for our material blessings, but also for the grace of God that has blessed me with eternal life through the knowledge of Him, our incredible Joy!

 

The Best Wine

People have claimed no interest in Christianity because they “want to have fun.” They have no idea that the first miracle Jesus did was to turn water into wine at a wedding.
 

Fundamentalists might say that it wasn’t really wine, just grape juice, but they don’t know their Bible very well either. In most cases, God warns against too much wine and drunkenness. Paul said that church leaders must "not be addicted to much wine”(1 Timothy 3:8), but also told a young pastor to “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Timothy 5:23).

When Jesus ate the “last supper” with His disciples, He served them wine. At the beginning of His ministry for that wedding, the host ran out of wine. This was a huge social faux pas, but Jesus met the need and water became wine, not ordinary wine, for the people said to the wedding host,  

Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. (John 2:10)

Today’s devotional says this illustrates something about God. When He is at work, He keeps the best for the last. Consider creation. First there was chaos and the formless deep, then light and form, then life. And at the end of it God created people in His own image, to reflect His glory. We are the “best wine” of creation, the delight of the heart of God. Of all else, He said it was “good” but of humanity, He said we were “very good.”

But that was a long time ago and before sin. Humanity is no longer good in the sense of imaging God or following His ways. Yet in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to repeat that creation sequence, this time in human hearts. He reveals Himself in Jesus Christ and grants new life, bringing light to darkness, and goodness out of those who have resisted Him.

The devotional author rightly says that the old life still struggles for the mastery, and we are in heaviness through manifold temptations, but the difference between Christ and our tempter is this, that the Devil’s tomorrow is worse than his today -- but the tomorrow of everyone who trusts in Christ is always brighter and better than yesterday.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23)

Also, every time I obey God, He gives me a new vision of His love. Every trial reveals His grace and compassion. Then, when all my wrestling is over and like a tired child I lay down to sleep, in that great morning I will wake up and see His face in a land where there is no more fatigue or fighting, no more trials and temptations. At that, I’m very apt to say, “You have kept the best wine until now.”

Intimacy with Jesus

Imagine the joy of realizing that the whole plan of God is to develop an intimate relationship with His people! We tend to think that His story is some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil or something like that. Not being a “big picture” person, I know I did. However, those who can look at the entire scheme of things are better able to distil the work of God into basics: creation, redemption, intimacy.

In the NT, before Jesus departed for heaven He comforted His disciples. He said that He would come again and take them to Himself. Whatever they expected when they got there, it was not an aloof Savior.

And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5)

I can easily imagine Jesus greeting those men with a big hug of welcome. They had been his friends in this world, sharing in sorrows and troubles and now welcomed to rest and to share glory with Him. He will lead them through His eternal dwelling place and show them His glory. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory” (John 17:24).

He will lead them to living fountains of waters, to His banqueting house where they will “have the full measure of joy within them” (John 17:13), eating and drinking with Him, according to his promise (Luke 22:30). They will enjoy that new wine He promised (Matthew 26:29) and His banner over them is love.

Their conversation will be as intimate and their access as free as on earth, but more so because in heaven their union will be perfect. It will be the same for all of His people, imperfect here, yet there the sin and darkness that at times blurred our relationship will all be removed. Nothing will stand between us and our Savior.

I cannot imagine seeing the full glory of Jesus Christ, but I do understand that my heart will be filled with awe and worship. I can foresee a surprise, even a joy that I’ve never known before. This One, God the Son, will draw me into open and intimate closeness, freely and fully communicating Himself to me, granting the fullest enjoyment possible, satisfying the utmost cravings of my soul. 

Today’s reading suggests that He will then say, “Eat, O friend, and drink; drink your fill, O lover” (from Song of Solomon) for there will be nothing to hinder or interrupt my enjoyment nor will there be any end of this happiness. Here it is a taste; there it is a glorious banquet.