YOUR SEASON OF THANKSGIVING: Before I begin, I would like to state clearly that I dont subscribe to making money out of people in terms of church fund raising that has very recently gone beyond boundaries, but let me add a few tips to your ideas here. There always has to be a balance when we present facts and truth. It is needful at this point to bring in the balance. Id do so below. Thanksgiving is powered by the word GIVING. Thanks is what you give. So there isnt thanksgiving without a giving. When you give thanks, youve given. In this case, we should now be asking what is thanks? More specifically: How do you express thanks? A worker spends a full month working for you. He does things that bring you profit. How do you say thanks? You give him salary (Money and Promotion). Thats thanksgiving to him. Youve just appreciated his works by giving him something that says so. If you just verbalize the words thanks, he would be in a very bad mood. Here Jesus heals you and tells you to go show yourself to the priest and do what Moses commanded by law to be done. What did Moses command? Did he leave it at just go tell the priest thank you? Nope! Some giving had to take place. That was thanks. Im adding a few tips here so you enrich your knowledge. In thanksgiving, you can give words. Words of gratitude and appreciation. The keyword still is giving. Then you can give support and then you can give kindness. You can give an helping hand. How do you appreciate the long time labor of your parents? Not by words only but by gifts that are tangible. Churches today overemphasize the gifts, but certainly you cannot underemphasize it either or it becomes the same deadly mistake. One last thing, you want to give thanks to a father. How do you do that? You do that with Honour. How do you honour a father? You honour with your substance. God required same. He spoke through Malachi and expressed His view about this. The honour you give is presented by your substance bring. We speak of Jesus giving thanks and breaking bread to get a multiplying miracle. Ive preached that many times. But here is the catch: A BOY GAVE. That boys giving back to a generous God made that bread multiply. What were the exact words of Jesus thanksgiving? No mention of it. So what if he just thanked God for the boy. Wont that work? What if he just thanked God for giving the bread to the boy and giving the boy the heart to give it to the people? That works too. Overall, it is one person GIVING to one person who in turn GIVES to others that Jesus thanked God for. So take the giving out and thanksgiving varnishes. In conclusion, where ever there is a thanksgiving, there is often a GIFT. 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV) reads: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! You could package this as words, heartfelt gratitude, material gifts or even money. Its the emphasis on the material kind only that makes thanksgiving look crafty and nasty. However, the fact still remains that giving is what makes thanksgiving a sacrifice. It does involve letting go what you would have loved to keep. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice because you must let go of something. The question is: WHAT IS THAT you are willing to release to prove your gratitude? If you kick me to let out more words, Id say: as part of your thanksgiving, give your time to God for the winning of souls into Gods kingdom. If you give God your time too, youve also thanked him for you giving him that time. By Steward Godwin Jornsen Senior Pastor, IN HIS NAME BIBLE CHURCH (#IHNBC)
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:46:44 +0000
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