November is indeed the month of Thanks. In the church, we begin the month each year with All Saints Sunday as we honour, remember, and celebrate what the Lord our God has done in creating, redeeming and calling His people eternally unto Himself. As our nation and the church enters the season of Thanksgiving, we are both challenged to look to Almighty God. Though we often consider Thanksgiving a secular holiday, its origins certainly are not. Throughout human history, the church of Christ has called men and women, boys and girls, to give thanks to God. The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica: “Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil. 23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” [I Thessalonians 5:16-24, ESV]. There is an ancient legend about two angels who flew to the earth to gather the prayers of the people. Wherever people bowed in prayer, the angels were present. Whether they bowed by their bedside at night, in church, in a chapel, on the side of a mountain, in the city, in the country, or beside the mighty oceans, the angels were there. These angels stopped and gathered the prayers into their baskets. Before long the basket carried by one of the angels grew extremely heavy and burdensome for the one angel to carry, while the basket of the other angel remained almost empty. Into the first basket were placed the numerous prayers of petition: “Dear LORD, Please give me this or that. Father, I plead with you to do this or that for me.” Into the other basket went the prayers of pure thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. These prayers were offered by the people of God from generous hearts and minds wishing to express their delight in our Heavenly Father’s love, mercy, and grace. One angel turned and said to the other, “Your basket is so very heavy compared to mine. Why is that?” The other angel replied, “People are very quick and always ready to pray for what they want, what they desire, what they believe they deserve; but very few remember to thank God when He grants their requests.” There is something within each of us, something within the nature of our fallen human spirit that resists the simple act of saying, “Thank you.” Consider for a moment this event in the life of Jesus. Our Saviour, the Incarnate God, was walking with His disciples along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As they entered a certain village they came upon a band of lepers. You know the story. There were ten lepers in all. Some were Jews and some were Samaritans. Luke tells us that Jesus had compassion upon them. Jesus looked at the lepers, the outcasts of society, and was moved with mercy to heal all ten of them. Immediately, they all ran toward the city and the priests to be proclaimed clean and cleansed from their affliction. Yet, one leper, a Samaritan, stopped. He thought for a moment. Then, realizing that it was Jesus who had cleansed him, he ran back, praising God. He knelt before Jesus and offered words of deep appreciation, gratitude, and thanksgiving for the miraculous gift of healing. Jesus had given this man his life back to him. For all of us, but especially for those of you who are teachers involved in the profession of education, there is a book by Winston Pierce titled, A Window on the Mountain. In this book, the author wrote of his high school class reunion. A group of the old classmates were reminiscing about things and persons they were grateful for in times gone by. One man mentioned that he was particularly thankful for Mrs. Wendt. She had been an English teacher at their high school and had introduced him to Tennyson and the beauty of poetry. Acting on a suggestion, the man wrote a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Wendt and addressed it to the school. The note was forwarded to the retired teacher and eventually found its way to Mrs. Wendt. About a month later the man, her onetime student, received a response. It was written in a feeble longhand and read as follows: “My dear William, I can't tell you how much your letter meant to me. I am now in my nineties. I am living alone in a small room. I cook my own meals, but I must admit, I am often lonely. Many days I feel as if I am the last leaf of Fall, fluttering in the breeze, lingering behind, and waiting for my moment to drop from the tree. You will be interested to know that I taught school for over forty years and yours is the first letter of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning and it cheered me as nothing has for years. William, you have made my day.” The late Dr. Charles F. Stanley wrote, "God desires us to live with a spirit of thanksgiving in every circumstance. He tells us: `It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to His name, O Most High; To declare His loving kindness in the morning, and His faithfulness by night’' (Psalm 92:1-2). Learning to thank God for all that He sends our way has a powerful influence on every area of our lives. When you thank God – even in the trials and heartaches – you gain God’s perspective and are drawn into closer fellowship with Him.” As we enter the month of November, let us prepare our hearts and minds. Let us consciously consider God’s blessings upon us and upon our nation. Let us thank Him for the Holy Gospel that frees us from bondage to sin and the Law. Let us give Him praise for His blessings of national freedom and liberty that we enjoy every day. Let us enter into the month of November with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise upon our lips! Let us give thanks to the Lord our God as we remember to walk in the words of the apostle, “Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil. 23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” [I Thessalonians 5:16-24, ESV]. God’s peace and blessings, Pastor Jim

Thanks be to God!

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