Good Day, Meetpastordan Readers…Happy upcoming Thanksgiving to all of my wonderful readers. I hope you all will have an extraordinary day with family and friends, and I hope you will take time to thank God for the incredible gift of friendship. No doubt friendships, or relationships, are important to Him because He created us for a relationship with Himself – and not just a here-and-now relationship, but for an eternal relationship.
For those of us in Christ, every day should be a day of thanks giving. After all, we were snatched from the domain of darkness and transferred into the domain of light in the blink of an eye. At the moment we accepted His Gift of Grace (Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior), our sins were forgiven (past, present and future sins); we inherited eternal life; we were grafted into His family as His child, and we were blessed with the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower us to become the person God created us to be. In other words, we were given a second chance at life. 2 Peter 1:3 explains this clearly and succinctly. “The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His divine nature (supernatural nature) gives us everything we need for living a godly life.” Notice that verse does not say “some things” or “many things”, rather it says “everything”! That “everything” is His supernatural nature, or the Holy Spirit, doing for us what we here-to-fore could not do for ourselves.
The Book of Psalms is laden with a plethora of thanks giving praises for victory over our enemy. Let’s take a moment and let those poetic words uplift our spirits.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever. Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise Him half enough? Ps. 106
“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done. Sing to Him; yes, sing His praises. Tell everyone about His miracles. Exult in His holy name; O worshipers of the Lord, rejoice! Search for the Lord and for His strength, and keep on searching. Think of the wonderful works He has done, the miracles and the judgments He has handed down. He is the Lord our God. His rule is seen throughout the land.” Ps. 105
“Lord, help!’ they cried in their trouble, and He rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live. Let them praise the Lord for His great love, and for all His wonderful deeds to them. For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. ‘Lord, help!’ they cried in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom; He snapped their (our) chains. Let them praise the Lord for His great love and for all His wonderful deeds to them. For He broke down their prison gates of bronze; He cut apart their bars of iron.” Ps. 107
“I will praise You, my God and King, and bless Your name forever and ever. I will bless You every day; and I will praise You forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! His greatness is beyond discovery! Let each generation tell its children of Your mighty acts. I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious splendor and Your wonderful miracles. Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim Your greatness. Everyone will share the story of Your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy of Your righteousness. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to get angry, full of unfailing love. The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all His creation.” Ps. 145
“Praise the Lord, I tell myself. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God even with my dying breath. He is the one who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He is the one who keeps every promise forever, who gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners. (Us) The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts the burdens of those bent beneath their load. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord protects the foreigners among us, and He cares for the orphans and the widows. The Lord frustrates the plans of the wicked. The Lord will reign forever! Your God is King in every generation.” Ps. 146
“Praise the Lord! Praise God in His heavenly dwelling; praise Him in His mighty heaven! Praise Him for His mighty works; praise His unequaled greatness! Praise Him with a blast of the trumpet; praise Him with the lyre and harp! Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with a clash of cymbals; praise Him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that lives bring praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! Ps 150
King David, author of the Psalms I just quoted, was called “a man after Gods own heart”. Even with his many shortcomings, which included adultery and murder, David kept returning to God with a repentant heart because he knew God was his source of strength and redemption. That, my Dear Readers, is the lesson we are to learn from David. No doubt he revered God, he loved God, and he trusted God, but the truth is, none of us are immune to satan and his insidious schemes. Even the best of us can get tangled up in His snare. The tragedy of that scenario, however, would be if WE did not return to God with repentant hearts. He has shown us, with innumerable examples throughout the Bible, that His preference is mercy over judgement! No wonder David praised God so bountifully, because he knew he was a sinner saved by God’s Grace! (But David also turned to God in his darkest hours, realizing He was his source of strength and courage…such as Psalms 40, 69, 80. This is also a valuable takeaway)
Because we are in Christ, we too are former sinners saved by Grace. The sin-issue ended when we accepted God’s Gift of Grace. Jesus paid the penalty for OUR sins, and God said, “I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12) Now we have a new title; we are now called saints, meaning we are sin-free and set aside for a sacred purpose. But you might ask, “Won’t we continue to fall short as we continue to be transformed into the image of Christ?” And I would answer, “Absolutely!” But as we’re told in Romans 3: 23-24, “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in His gracious kindness declares us NOT GUILTY! He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.”
This, my Dear, Wonderful Readers, is why every day is Thanksgiving for us! God, in His loving kindness, snatched us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the domain of light!! We are saved from ourselves. The more we grow in Christ, the more joyful and abundant is this life. But let us never take our eyes off of the real prize: Eternal life in Paradise with Jesus and all Christ-followers. Apostle Paul set the stage in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive the wonders God has planned for those who love Him.” Let the Thanksgiving celebration continue!
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May God Bless You abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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