Pastor’s Pondering: November 2015

November has always been one of my favorite months because there are so many great things that happen in November.  Thanksgiving immediately comes to mind and with it hunting and holidays leading into December and the New Year.  November is a month for preparing.  Most people probably associate November and preparation and think, “I’ve got to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have to make preparations for feasting and family.”  Those thoughts are certainly part of our experience, but I would like to challenge you to think about preparation from another perspective.  Thanksgiving, the act, not the holiday is not something we associate readily with preparation, but I think it is an incredibly important part of our spiritual preparation.  Are you ready for heaven?  Thanksgiving will be one of our primary activities when we get there and it is one of our best means of preparation as we await that glorious day.  If you preach the gospel to yourself you will understand how thanksgiving is an inherent part of our faith.  How could it be any other way?  Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves.  We have been saved from certain death that we deserved.  How can we not be thankful to our Savior?  That is why the apostle Paul tells us in several of his letters that we are to pray and thanksgiving is to be a large part of our prayers.  Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 I love Thanksgiving, I’m pretty fond of all the holidays we observe in this country, but I particularly love that we have a day set aside for thanksgiving that is named after that activity.  When you consider Thanksgiving as a national holiday, you really cannot escape the Christian influence prevalent in the foundation of the United States.  That is why I’m grieved when I hear with more and more frequency the purposeful denial of the day and its purpose by referring to Thanksgiving as “turkey day.”  More and more stores are opening on Thanksgiving Day in order to draw in shoppers with the trinkets and trash of this world.  Think about it, the holiday is Thanksgiving and on that day we are to do just that, we are to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy.  It is a day for joy and gratitude, not a day for making sacrifices to the idols of materialism.  So here is my challenge to you this year as we live through another November, prepare.  Prepare for Thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday.  Prepare with thanksgiving for family and friends so when the holiday comes you will be ready to truly celebrate it before the Lord.  More importantly than that, I say to you, prepare with thanksgiving to God for that great day when we will see our Savior face to face.  We are a saved people; therefore we are a people of thanksgiving.  No matter what hardships, trials, calamities, or storms you have faced, in Christ you have every reason to be thankful.  Prepare for Thanksgiving with thanksgiving and make it a day of blessing the Lord,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”