Tag Archives: thanksgiving

A GOOD PSALM FOR THIS SEASON… Psalm 138

Posted on by

Soon we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  As Christians we are grateful to the Lord.  Once a year we set aside a special day for giving thanks.  King David has given us a wonderful psalm that I would recommend you read this coming week.

David is grateful to the Lord with his ‘whole heart’.  Every fiber of his being,  woven with thanks to the Lord.  Nothing half-hearted, but truly grateful.  In particular, David  gives thanks for God’s steadfast love, His faithfulness, His name and His Word.

God’s steadfast love.  His love is steady, never wavering or with ulterior motives.  No ‘He loves me/He loves me not’ gaming with the Lord.  His love is dependable and solid.  No strings attached, no tit-for-tat with Him.

Then the psalm says that our God is faithful.  He’s not going to drop you for a younger, better-looking convert.  He’s faithful and reliable.  He keeps His promises.

There’s more.  He’s told us His name.  So what?  Big deal!  God Almighty has shared His personal name with His human creation, with those who want to follow Him.  Do we not appreciate what a privilege that truly is?  To know and call on the very name of God?  Thank Him for such a gift …of knowing our God, by name.

Then verse 2 says that in addition,  He’s also given us His very Word.  To hear directly from God through the Bible, is a gift too amazing to put into words.  Let’s do it anyway!  ‘Thank you, Lord, for giving us yourself, your name, your love and faithfulness…and your precious, Holy Word’.

All His giving has nothing to do with material possessions.  How rich you are, or how big your house may be.  You might not have two pennies to rub together, yet you can have ALL of the Lord.  You might have difficulties galore yet still have room to thank Him . Lots of room.   Verse 6 says ‘for though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar’.

God is high in heaven.  Yet you can never be so low in life to be outside the reach of His care and love.  The proud, however?   He allows them sadly to go it alone.  Far, far away… as their own direction leads them.

So, we thank the Lord all this week, and on that special day, for all His blessings to each of us who love and follow Him in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Happy indeed!

 

Prayer:  Lord, we want to thank you for all your blessings to us.   In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!… Psalm 108: 1-4

Posted on by

I’ve always wanted to thank Billy Graham in person.  After all, he was the one I heard speaking  on that radio program a Sunday evening many years ago.  For some reason I heard the ‘Hour of Decision’ with Billy Graham. I had gone to Sunday School sporadically, but never really liked it or the church that I attended!

You ask why I didn’t go somewhere else?  I didn’t know that you were supposed to enjoy church. I  had questions about God and Jesus, but no one I knew had any answers.  Anyway, ‘you just don’t talk about those things’, even in church.  You don’t?  Really?  We didn’t.

I had no idea that some people did and that there were answers to my questions.  No idea at all.  Until that night.  I focused on his every word.  He said that Jesus loved me.  Jesus knew who I was.  He cared…about me.  And wanted to be in my life.  Are you kidding?

In a way, I didn’t know what Billy Graham was talking about, but something within said to ‘go for it’.  I  responded to that message.  The next day I got the Bible, never opened, that  I received when I was 8 years old  and started reading the New Testament.  Had Mr. Graham  told me to?  I don’t remember.

Then I discovered a couple of teachers in high school who were Christians.  One was an older woman that we would make fun of.  She was not so weird once I discovered that she also knew the Lord.  In 1964 my father and I loved going to the New York World’s Fair.  We went 12 times!  It was there that I got my very first Bible Study, the Gospel of John, from the Billy Graham Pavilion.  How exciting– and from that same preacher.

I’d like to thank him in person.  I almost have.  Was a counselor at a New York City crusade but he was too far away.  Saw Anne Graham Lotz, his daughter, at the Pike Place Market in Seattle and asked her to thank her Dad.  I’ll bet I’m the only one who ever asked her to do that!

While at the Cove, Billy Graham’s Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina,  I sat next to his first cousin, Ed Graham, at dinner.  I asked him the same…please tell your cousin what his ministry has meant to me.  I’d still like to thank him… in person.  But it’s not going to happen.

No problem really.  He didn’t save me.  He would tell me that also.  Jesus did.  And I can  thank Him whenever I feel like it.  Direct and personal.   Like it says in Psalm 108:3–‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.’  And someday I’ll get to thank Jesus in person for all He’s done for me…and you can join me as well!

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for saving us.  Amen.