The Big Four

Happy Thanksgiving! This week, our entire nation is celebrating Thanksgiving. The irony of it is with so much cooking, traveling, entertaining, football, and shopping the biggest sales of the year, very little thanks will get done. For the most part, just a single prayer gets said on Thanksgiving day – possibly before the meal, and usually by one person. We miss that the whole point of the holiday season is to give thanks to God for what He’s done in our lives.

So I just want to share with you a way I think we can make this thanksgiving season different and carry it right into Christmas the season and into every day in 2010. It begins with realizing that everything you own and everything you are comes from God. Without God there would be nothing in your life. In the Old Testament,1 Chronicles 29 reads, “Everything has come from You [God] and everything belongs to You [God].”

If we did not have God in our lives, if God had not created us, we would have nothing. So it all starts with God. When we start to think, “What we can be thankful for?” we really have to thank God for everything. If you are a Christ follower, you have reason to thank God for what I call the “BIG FOUR.” If we get these down, our priorities will be healthy.

1. I AM THANKFUL TO GOD FOR THE GRACE HE HAS SHOWN ME.

2. I AM THANKFUL TO GOD FOR THE PLAN HE HAS FOR ME.

3. I AM THANKFUL TO GOD FOR THE ETERNAL LIFE HE HAS GIVEN ME.

4. I AM THANKFUL TO GOD FOR THE CHANGES HE’S MAKING IN ME.

More than just saying thanks, let’s live thanks! How? By singing, by serving, by giving, and by sharing. I hope your thanksgiving week is filled with lifelong memories and that, for you, thanksgiving is lived out every day of the year.

Don't Forget Joy...

Have you ever realized you don’t really enjoy your life, but you just seem to endure it? You think that if life is not perfect, it is hard to be happy. If you could just change your situation… get rid of your problems, then life would be free. If we are looking to be happy in life, we must learn to be joyful in the situations, problems, and in the experiences of life.

You see, happiness often centers around circumstances. In fact, the word “happiness” comes from the word “happenstance” from which we get another word, “circumstance.” We have a happy time at Disney World, Sea World, or a sporting event (especially if your team wins). You leave the place or event and, eventually, you lose your happiness. Yet joy is constant. So how do you have happiness in spite of what is going on in life?

In Galatians 5:22 Paul writes that “joy” is who we are because we are Christ followers and His Spirit lives in us. Knowing that God is the overseer of our lives, we are joyful because of who God is and who we are. We reveal that “joy” through thankfulness, thanksgiving, and through our attitude of gratitude. Paul goes on to write that in spite of all situations, “I rejoice and I will continue to rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18). What was Paul’s secret to being content when situations and circumstances were at times good and at times not so good?

SECRETS TO JOYFUL LIVING…

• A healthy perspective makes a difference.
  ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him.
• Always distinguish the trivial from the significant.
  Focus on what really counts.
• Tap into your fresh power supply when life drains you.
  With God's power nothing can devastate me.
• Never forget the purpose you live for.
  The secret of joy -- Jesus first, Others second, Yourself third.

You're not here by accident or to simply take up space. When you discover your purpose and get right in the center of it, it fits! And then you will feel fulfilled and realize that is why you're here! It’s not about religion; it’s about relationship. Paul did not say, "For me to live it’s about religion or church or Bible study or ministry.” No, he said, “The only thing worth living for is a relationship with the one who made me.”

COMMUNITY...

Call it community… team… family… I want to encourage you to see belonging to a spiritual family as what God has provided for us to make it through life successfully. God surrounds our life with people. Even in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” We were made to live in community.

God has given us the privilege of being born again, so we are now members of God’s own family. When we were born physically, we joined the human family, the human race. When we’re born spiritually, we joined God’s family.

What is God’s family? When I read the Bible, I see the Apostle Paul teaching us how to live in the family of God (1 Timothy 3:15). The family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of pure, absolute truth. The church is not an institution, not a religious denomination, not a society club, not an organization, nor a business. God’s Word says, “The church is a family.” That’s how we are to relate to it. We who know the Lord are all a part of it.

The church is our family; it is our support and foundation. What would happen to a building or a house that doesn’t have a solid foundation? It would collapse. God says to all of us, you will struggle through life without a church family. It will be hard to be all God wants us to be without a church family. It is that important.

Saying, “I want to be a Christian but not part of any church family” is like saying, “I want to play football in the NFL, but I don't want to be a part of any team.” It's like saying, “I want to join the US Army, but I don't want to be in any platoon.”

We belong in God's family. There's a difference between attending a church service and belonging to a church family. God doesn't want church to be something that you go to. He wants church to be a family that you're a part of.

HEARING GOD...

I hope this blog serves as encouragement to you. For those of us who want to become all God designed us to become, we must hear God. There are a number of topics God wants us to hear from Him if we are going to be effective representatives of Him.

In the Old Testament, Habakkuk saw the unrighteous or unhealthy overtaking the righteous and those wanting to obey God. Habakkuk was curious why God would allow this. I find myself not understanding the hand of God at times, but because I know the heart of God, it helps me in my journey. What about those of us who don’t understand the hand as well as the heart of God?

Here are a few encouraging steps from Habakkuk 2 that we can take when it comes to hearing God...

• Verse 1 - We see Habakkuk pulling back to a secluded place where the noise of the world is silenced by the vision of God. Sometimes the world is so loud you can’t hear God. Pull back; take time to retreat.

• Verse 1 can tell us one more thing as we look a little deeper into this verse: WAIT. God speaks. He can be heard when we take our foot off the gas pedal, let the engine of busyness slow down, and WAIT. Habakkuk waited to see what God was saying.

• Verse 1 again shows us that Habakkuk pulled back, slowed down, and then God was able to give Him a mental picture. It is amazing what God will show us when we pull back, slow down, and watch.

• JOURNAL. I am big into journaling. If God shows it, a thought comes, an observation is made, then journal it, write it down. If you have to write it on something temporary, go back later and rewrite it on something permanent. Journaling is a great discipline by the way.

• THANK GOD, worship Him...to that He responds.

I hope these thoughts from Habakkuk 2 create a whole new dimension when it comes to our faith journey in Christ.