"The Great Thanksgiving Question"

 

“The Great Thanksgiving Question”

 

(This past April I began a series of the significant biblical questions surrounding the three most important annual celebrations observed by God’s people. “The Great Resurrection Question” is recorded in Luke 24:5: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” During this month of special emphasis on gratitude we’ll explore “The Great Thanksgiving Question”: “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (Psalm 116:12). Then Lord willing in December we’ll look at “The Great Christmas Question” raised in Matthew 2:2: “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”)

The author of Psalm 116 isn’t identified in the heading but its content fits with experiences in David’s life. He often expressed his thanks to God for His blessings (e.g. Psalm 28:7; 30:12; 34:1) but he does so here with a question: “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (Verse 12), He wasn’t specific in his answer but expresses appreciation for his salvation (Verse 13) as well as a pledge to keep the promises he made to God before witnesses (Verse 14). We as God’s people can say “Amen!” to his response but the door is left open for us to enumerate the ways He’s blessed us individually and humbly declare our gratitude. Recently our present pastor, Brian Stowe, shared with our church family that for several years his young adult daughter has kept a “Thanksgiving Book” in which she daily lists at least three things for which she appreciates God’s goodness to her. This is putting the words of an old hymn by Johnson Oatman, Jr. into practice: “Count your many blessings—name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” Could God be leading us to keep such a record as well?

Andrae Crouch put it this way in his 1972 release “My Tribute”:

  “How can I say thanks for the things You have done for me? 

 Things so undeserved yet You gave to prove Your love for me.

 The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude.

 All that I am or ever hope to be I owe it all to Thee.

 To God be the glory for the things He has done.

 With His blood He has saved me; with His power He has raised me.

 To God be the glory for the things He has done.”    

Let me never forget that it’s only “…by the grace of God I am what I am….” (1 Corinthians 15:10). If that doesn’t fill my heart with gratitude what will?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan

 

"How Big Are Your Ears?"

 

“How Big Are Your Ears?”

 

During spring training in the early years of the New York Mets when the legendary Casey Stengel was the manager a player made a dumb play (something that happened with considerable frequency in those days) which prompted an unprintable response from a teammate. In describing the incident a sportswriter commented, “Casey has big ears, the better to hear you with!” (Apparently he was familiar with the children’s story “Little Red Riding Hood”.) Stengel then took steps to correct this mistake but it was soon replaced by many others as evidenced by the Mets’ woeful record in their first few seasons.

By God’s grace my hearing is still pretty good, especially considering my ever advancing age. But to my shame I’m prone not to use my ears as well as I should when listening to God’s voice (or Karen’s for that matter). In Scripture the phrase “He who has an ear/ears to hear, let him hear.” appears some 14 times; “Hear the word of the Lord” (with some variations) more than 20 times; and “Listen” 352 times. And let’s not overlook the words of Jesus’ brother: “Everyone should be quick to listen….” (James 1:19, emphasis added) or Solomon (“{The one} who answers before listening—that is {one’s} folly and {one’s} shame.”—Proverbs 18:13). Am I getting the message?

The psalmist writes, “I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying….” but then adds, “Let (His people) not return to their foolish ways.” (Psalm 85:8, NLT). So listening is only the first step—we must act on God’s words with obedience (“Do not merely listen to the word…Do what it says.”—James 1:22, emphasis added). Obeying can be difficult—remember God’s commands are contrary to our human nature and that’s why He has to repeat them—but let’s never forget, “The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.” (Psalm 19:9).

How big are my ears when it comes to hearing and doing what God says? Will I respond, “…Do not let me stray from your commands.” (Psalm 119:10)?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan

"Cruise Control"

 

“Cruise Control”

 

One of the most welcome conveniences in today’s cars is cruise control. This maintains a constant speed as we drive on open highways. It was invented in 1948 by Ralph Teetor, a blind mechanical engineer who became frustrated by constantly changing speeds as he rode with his lawyer. The system, called “Speedostat”, was first used in the Chrysler Imperial in 1958 and was soon adopted by other manufacturers. It has a number of advantages including keeping to speed limits, avoiding driver tiredness and fuel economy. But it also has its down side, most notably coping with hazardous road and weather conditions. But the percentage of vehicles having it as part of its bells and whistles is constantly increasing world-wide.

When I turn the system on I’m giving some measure of control over to something else but I can reclaim it easily by turning it off. While this usually works well with driving it doesn’t in my walk with Christ. The Apostle Paul directs his readers (including us today), “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.” (Ephesians 5:18, NLT). We could replace the wine example with overindulgence in food, hobbies, sports or anything else that threatens the Holy Spirit’s full direction in our lives.

Those of us who are long-time believers run the risk of putting our lives on “cruise control” and coasting rather than being fully engaged in worship, growth and service. Jesus addressed the Laodicean church about this danger when He said, “I know…that you are neither cold nor hot…So, because you are lukewarm…I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16). Our Lord’s friend and apostle wrote, “…Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18). (The original Greek verb is a present imperative which might be rendered, “Continue to grow….”) Paul picks up on this thought in his words from house arrest in Rome: “…Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6. emphasis added). So it’s God’s desire to work in us throughout our lives but we must “…yield (ourselves) unto God….” (Romans 6:13, KJV) for this to happen.

Galatians 5:16 challenges us to “live by the Spirit….” With the struggles of today’s society this can be tough—it’s hard to stand for the right when the wrong is popular—but we can say with Paul, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13, emphasis added), And as we pray “we…find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16). So rather than submitting to “cruise control” let’s give ourselves to Spirit control. Which holds more promise?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan (with helpful input from Karen)

"Axing the Runaround"

 

“Axing the Runaround”

 

Over the past three or four decades Karen and I have flown to many destinations. But because of the airlines’ “hub” system I can think of only three occasions in which we’ve had to make more than one plane change: twice when returning from one of the “lesser” Hawaiian Islands and another time when we missed a connection in Chicago and Karen had an extra stop on her way to see her aunt in Las Vegas (honest!). Sometimes we have to battle crowds at the transfer spot but all-in-all the system has worked well for us.

Not long ago Karen ordered something on line and it arrived at our home via this route: Plantation (the Fort Lauderdale area), Opa-locka (near Miami), Ybor City (part of Tampa), Sarasota, Ybor City, Lake Mary (Orlando vicinity), Seminole (north of St. Petersburg), somewhere in Lakeland and finally our house. This zigzag journey took four days and (by my rough calculations) 550 miles. No wonder the USPS recently announced longer delivery times!

And then there’s the matter of phoning customer service for assistance. With most companies a robotic voice gives a menu of options which often doesn’t fit the reason for our call. To try to talk to a live person can become an exercise in futility. And even then who knows how long we may be put on hold? Maybe we get the runaround with the hope that we’ll give up and accept the situation.

These scenarios show that technology isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Thankfully there’s one important area of our lives that has axed the runaround for almost 2000 years: prayer. Since God is unchanging in His perfection (“I the Lord do not change.”—Malachi 3:6; “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”—Hebrews 13:8) His way of approaching Him in prayer is just as it’s always been: an immediate connection. The Apostle Paul puts it this way: “For through him (that is, Christ) we both (that is, Jews and Gentiles alike) have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:18). When Jesus died on the cross “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Matthew 27:51), showing that we could now directly enter the presence of God without the need of a human mediator (“Let us…approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”—Hebrews 4:16). So the runaround, hoop jumping and even “hubs” have been eliminated forever. What better reason could we have to “…pray continually….” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)?

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan