Thanks Giving

Although every day should be a day of "thanksgiving", this time of year seems to draw up more gratitude then any other time. Giving thanks seems to be the message from every corner of society for a short week in November. The lists people compile always seem to include similar things, things we daily take for granted, and yet for a moment, stop, and recognize the reality of the blessings they really are. If we honestly took ten minutes to reflect on our own life and compile a list of blessings, we'd find that ten minutes wasn't enough time, the list could go on and on and on.

But then Thanksgiving ends and Christmas and then the new year rolls around and the attitude of gratitude fades from society almost immediately, and unfortunately, even amongst Christians. We find new reasons to complain and daily disappointments and frustrations seem to fill our lives once more. What a terrible truth this is. What a terrible witness to the world we become.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that thanksgiving seems to fade from the Christian as it does from the world, but rather the reality of that thanks is often forgot. Think about it this way for a moment...the house you gave thanks for is now a source of complaint because of the constant fixings it needs; or maybe the job you gave thanks for becomes a source of discontentment when you don't receive the raise you had so hoped for; or the thanks for a healthy body seems to be forgotten when the sniffles come around. How often we forget, and how often we neglect to realize HOW MUCH we should be giving thanks. As believers, it should continually be on our lips.

I too have fallen prey to forgetting and have found myself yet again this season reminding myself of the need for continual thanksgiving in my life, every moment of every day. As I sat and thought about the list I could compile I realized that what made my #1 spot was something that despite the lack of anything else in this world would and should fuel thanksgiving in my heart for eternity...the GOSPEL. And because I have heard it so many times, I admit, I often neglect remembering the realities and beauty of it, so I began to preach it once again to myself...

The reality that In the beginning GOD...created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) is mind boggling. And then God, the Maker of the universe, the always existent One, created man in his image. And when man, under the sovereign plan and will of God, chose to disobey, to sin, to pridefully believe he knew better than the perfect God, God wasn't surprised. In fact, He had a beautiful story that had just begun to unfold. Through the sin of one man, all were now born into sin...me, you, every individual who has ever crossed the face of this earth. Although a moralistic society can curb some of the wickedness of man, all are depraved, and as Romans 3 says, "There is NONE who do good, no not one". And the Bible goes on to teach us that because of this reality of sin, all are headed for eternal destruction, all deserving hell. A holy God must punish sin, and no matter what the sin, how small or how great, one sin makes you entirely imperfect, and demands punishment.

Yet this holy, majestic, all powerful, God of the universe who could NEVER be in a relationship with any individual who was imperfect exhibited the most PERFECT LOVE we will never comprehend. In His grace, in His mercy, in His love, He made a way for the relationship between himself and man that had been marred by the reality of sin, to be made new, to be made right. It wasn't through the "good" he saw in certain individuals, or the good works that they did for him. It wasn't through the religious rituals that certain people performed. It wasn't through anything that any person could ever do...nobody could EVER merit the favor of God!

Instead, in His perfectly divine love, He did the unthinkable...what you and I would never do, He gave up the most precious thing to Himself...His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. His love went a distance we can't even fathom. Jesus Christ, came down in human form, humbling himself in ways we can't even comprehend, and lived a perfect life we could never live; never once sinning. And then, He faithfully submitted himself to the will of the Father and was nailed to a cross of wood. The physical pain was brutal, unfathomable, gut wrenching awful; but that wasn't even close to the emotional and spiritual turmoil He endured. For a brief time, which must have felt like an eternity, He was cast out of His Father's presence as he bore the WRATH of the Almighty God FOR ME...for you. HIS FATHER CRUSHED HIM ( "Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, " -Isaiah 53:10). For every sin I ever would commit, He paid the price, undeserving of it all, in fact He deserved only glory. And during that time, He thought of me, even though I wasn't born yet (2000 years ago). He had planned to call me to be His, not because I was some amazing person, in fact I was the exact opposite, a vile and wretched sinner. He had planned to call me simply because He chose to love me, and to glorify Himself through His redemption of me. As Hosea 13:14 says, I will ransom them and redeem them from the grave! WOW...

And then in His glory He conquered sin and death once and for all and rose victoriously from the grave! And it was finished, redemption for the souls of His children had been accomplished. What an incredible Truth! 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, "But thanks be to God, which give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.".

And He caused me to believe, to repent, and to put my faith and trust solely in Him. For that I am eternally grateful. For the Gospel, for the cross, for my Jesus...this is EVERYTHING to me. Oh how grateful I am. Oh how often I neglect to remember the weight of it all.

As believers, our lives must be marked with thanksgiving 365 days a year, not just during Thanksgiving, and that thanks must always start with the Gospel. When you stop and remember, and marvel once again at what the Lord Jesus did for you, how can you not give thanks!!

"For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." -Ephesians 2:8-9

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves." -Ephesians 1:4-6

"...because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." -Hebrews 10:14

"But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. " -Isaiah 53:5

"For if, by the trespass of the one man (Adam), death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." -Romans 5:17