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GIVE THANKS

Psalm 107:8-9
“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”

Most of us have fond memories around our parents’ table at Thanksgiving. For us, sometimes it was just my parents, grandparents and great grandmother, but almost always someone who did not have anyone to celebrate with. Maybe a friend or a widow. All the women would cook for two days! So much love and work went into it. So many Thanksgivings have been memorable. Hands down the best was the one I wrote about last year. It was hamburgers on what was left of my mom’s back porch following Hurricane Andrew. Her house was destroyed, but she was safe. My sister’s house was destroyed, but she was safe. That gives the word THANKSGIVING a whole new meaning. 

It’s easy to live a life of thanksgiving when things are going our way. It’s another story during times of trial.

We are surrounded by people whose Thanksgiving will be a time of loss or maybe even regrets, missing loved ones or separation from loved ones.

As a church, we need to remember those whose Thanksgiving will not be like it used to be.

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving meal is that there is room for one more. Why not invite someone to your house for Thanksgiving? It is one of the biggest blessings your family will receive. The thrill in your guest’s eyes to not be celebrating alone. The church could give you some names of people in our church with no family or cannot afford to put on a big meal.

This is something else we can thank God for. We are a people, a nation that is blessed beyond belief.

Now I close this article with my funniest Thanksgiving. It was when I was a missionary on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. I lived with a great Christian family. They attended church off the reservation. Often times, they were asked to attend their church Thanksgiving dinner in their native costumes. They were the “Token Indians.” So, as we neared Thanksgiving, they asked me if I would wear my “pilgrim” outfit. I was the token pilgrim at their family dinner.

Bro. Greg

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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