Being Thankful

 

  With Thanksgiving this week, Pastor Fred preached on what it means to be thankful. It was a good word to hear, especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season with shopping, prepping and trying too coordinate time with family and friends. Here are some of my observations from the message.

  My first observation is that if we are to be continuously thankful, does it mean that we need a heart change? Another way to put it, how often do we need an attitude adjustment? It is way to easy to become a complainer, snarky or down right negative when things don’t go our way or we get stressed. Often the ones we love take the brunt of this and it often changes the dynamics of how they interact with us. Being snarky often creates more snark and could lead to hurt feelings. Sometimes being continuously thankful means we put ourselves in timeout, find out what our issues are and we deal with them. It even means seeking forgiveness when our bitterness has affected other people. 

  My second observation of being continuously thankful, we are to embrace Ephesians 5:18, which is that we are not to be drunk, but we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For those of us who grew up or spent time in a Holiness Church, this verse would be used to be anti drinking of any alcohol. I think the verse is adding alcohol and any activity that takes us away from God. What are those things that is all consuming and takes our focus off of God. When we get that focused, we tend not to make Godly decisions and something else becomes our god. Being thankful is making sure that God is the center of our lives and that all good gifts are from Him and we use those gifts to worship Him and not ourselves. 

  My third observation is are we thankful in spite of our circumstances. We all know that one person who always seems to be getting suckered punch by life, but they still are praising God. I knew a guy that way in college. No matter what, Denny always had a smile on his face and trusted God. So here is a question that I have, do we trust God because of our circumstances or in spite of them? Is our faith big enough to trust God in every situation and realize that He sees the picture when we don’t. In essence being thankful is a daily choice and there are days where it is a lot harder than others to be thankful 

  My final observation is when we are not thankful. In Romans 1:18-32, the crux of Paul’s message is that He revealed Himself through creation and we choose not to be thankful. In response, God washed His hands and gave us over to our selfish desires and sin. In essence God is saying “have at it kids.” This happens when we either are not thankful and ore greedy and we deserve every thing we get because we worked for it. In essence it is the unbiblical theology of karma, where we get stuff based on our actions, mo matter if it is good or bad. When we are not thankful, we often become conceded and eventually God will let go and let us suffer the consequences of our speech and actions.

  In conclusion, being thankful is a choice and a lifestyle. Throughout his letters, Paul consistently writes how He is thankful for Gods grace and for other people doing the will of the Father. This is a guy who was abandoned, shipwrecked, and beaten for his faith. Paul put God first in everything he did. I will close with Colossians 3:17 which in essence is no matter what we say or do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead 

Questions: 

  What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

  When we are not thankful, what are some causes to it? 

   How do we live a life of thankfulness?

Rest

   

  This weekend Pastor Ben talked about rest and how after six days of creating, God took the seventh and rested. One might ask how can a God that is all powerful, need a day of rest? I think that is a legitimate question, but I also think that we need to redefine what rest is. Here are some of my observations about rest and how we can redefine it. 

  My first observation is that we have to decipher between what is being lazy and it means to be restful. Laziness usually means a lack of ambition, no drive and has no real sense of purpose. We can be lazy and busy at the same time if we don’t have a clear goal and or purpose/plan to get something done. True rest is that we are intentional about doing it. It is carving out time to spend with God took be renewed by Him and to foster a relationship with Him. This happens through the study of Scripture, prayer, worship and the gathering of believers. One of the ways I find ways to rest and connect with God is by grabbing my camera and head to a state park to take pictures, walk and to commune with God. Holy rest takes us out of the ordinary and our comfort zone to be more aware of God and to communicate with Him. 

  My second observation is that rest is that we are relying on God. In the Old Testament, there is a thing called the Year of Jubilee. It happened every seven years where the fields go unworked, debts are forgiven and slaves are made free. This is really radical because it forced Gods people to rely on God and be in communication with Him. In a culture that almost relies on either relying on ourselves to get stuff done or relying one someone else to it without much effort or participation from us. To sum it up, it is having that peace that we don’t need to do it all. Psalms 50:10 proclaims that every beast in the woods is Gods along with the cattle on a thousand hills. God is able and willing to provide for all of our needs.

   My third observation our beliefs come out in not what we say, but what we do. We can say we are going to loose that extra ten pounds, or work on communicating with those important to us. If we don’t put in the work   to it, what we say is pointless. Godly rest helps us to not only find out what is important but to develop the faith and relationship with God to put our words into action.

  My final observation is twofold. The first one do we not holy rest because it requires change either in thought, action, speech or location. How often do we stay in our disfunction because we either enjoy it, because it gives a right to do nothing but complain or it takes work.  In essence we are comfortable with the sin in our lives and we don’t mind being held in bondage by it. In essence we don’t want to do the work that God is calling us to so we would rather be a slave to sin. The other part is that God is more concerned about our character, because it affects everything we do and our relationships. Our we more concerned with God forming our character and us abiding in Him, or do rather do our own thing?

  So here are a couple of questions to ponder;

    What are those things that steal our joy and our Holy rest? 

     If Gods grace is free and unmerited, does it still need a response from God?

  What does it mean to abide? 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Gods Faithfulness

 

  Just a quick reminder that Pastor Fred preached on Gods faithfulness this weekend. Fred started off by diving into Lamentations 3. I will start with a question. How many of us has that one friend who tells it like it is and that tact is not in the top ten of their spiritual giftings? They will stick with you through the thick and thin, but warm fuzzies aren’t their thing. I feel that the Old Testament prophets are those type of friends, because they deliver Gods message to His people no matter the consequences. Jeremiah, the author of the book of Lamentations is one of those type of friends. In the book, he is lamenting how the people of God are in exile, Jerusalem is in ruins and the few people that do remain have no place to worship. Jeremiah is venting about the condition of everything around him, but in chapter 3 of Lamentations he declares that God is faithful and that His mercies are new every morning. So what can we meditate on about Gods faithfulness and goodness, especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner. 

  The first thing that Gods faithfulness is that it is not fickle. His faithfulness is at the very core of who He is. If God wasn’t faithful, that means water wouldn’t be wet. God is always there giving out grace and love  even went we are not faithful to Him. In the famous hymn come thou fount of every blessing there is the famous line of: 

              Prone to wondering, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love

 Even though we get on rabbit trails or develop a squirrel mentality, God doesn’t. We can always go back and find God with a repentant and He will take us back with open arms like what the father did with the Prodical Son. 

  My second observation is that Gods faithfulness is not ment for one person or a group of people. Every person is created in Gods image and that means His faithfulness is for all of us. John 3:16 tells us that. Also we can’t earn Gods grace or faithfulness because He gives it freely. But here is the kicker, Gods faithfulness demands and even requires a response. We all have a choice to either accept Gods grace and faithfulness or we can choose something else. It maybe cool in the short term but eventually the chickens will come home to roost and we will have to deal with those consequences, but God will be there because His faithfulness is not dependent on us and if it was, He would be God

  Finally, at some point in our lives we will go through that valley where we feel that we are alone and nothing is going right. It could be because that there is a strain in the relationships we hold dear, we received some not so great news from our boss or doctor, or we could be at a point where we can’t find God no matter what we do. Hang in there and God is still there. Take time to pray, read Scripture and find a friend that can be honest with you. A part of that is to have that friend listen and to hold you up in prayer and accountability. I heard a quote somewhere that we “got to know when to keep bang on the situation and when to let it go.” Having faith is knowing when to keep on banging and when to let it go. One last illustration. One time I was in that valley and I had a friend go Old Testament prophet on me in a good way and told me as much as we want that mountain top experience, the oxygen one the nutritional grass is in the valley. This is where we grow and where God ultimately provides His faithfulness in the daily care for us and for us to rely on Him because we seek His face above all else 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Dwelling among us

 

  As we are going through the attributes of God, Pastor Fred talked about the transcendence and the immanence of God. As a reminder, transcendence is where God sits outside of creation and how He is above and greater than creation. Immanence is where God dwells among His creation and is among us. This reminds me of John 1:14 where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. If we were to take a deep dive into the Greek, this verse has a meaning of God came and He set up a tent so He could live among is and be known to His creation. It kind of has a camping feel to it where we pitch a tent out in nature so we can get away and connect with God through what He has created. This leads me to a couple of thoughts. 

  The first one is that are there times when God shows up and we don’t recognize Him. For whatever reason we don’t realize that He is in our midst. Could it be because we are not mature enough to recognize it, or that we are so distracted with our own things that we don’t realize when He speaks. Or do we pull a Jonah and we run the other direction. It’s because He has either asked or could ask us to do something we don’t want to do. In my experience, when this happens, there is some tension in the relationship and something that is causing the relationship to go haywire. It could be because we aren’t on the same page or that I have an attitude and sin problem and I don’t want to properly deal with it. 

  My second observation is when God healed the blind man with the mud and when he went to the temple to tell the priest and they ask who done the miracle the guy didn’t know. We could be like

that guy, realizing something happened, but, who, why or how is pretty unexplainable. Do we go out to find Jesus to thank Him or are we grateful the miracle happened and then go about our life. When God shows up, it’s more than just so He can do cool party tricks, but for Him to have a relationship with His creation. 

  My final observation is that as God dwells among us, it does that mean we or the rest of creation is equal to Him. In college there were a few times where my professors “let down there hair” and became a little more vulnerable and I learned a lot during these conversations, but when they put the professor hat back on, our relationship changed and I needed to be reminded of that. Pastor Haven often tells us youth leaders that we aren’t the kids friends, but we are there mentors and there is a difference and it often comes with boundaries. As cool as it is that we are created in Gods image and that the Creator wants a relationship with His creation and dwells among us, He is still Holy, sinless and God. As much as God can be our friend, He is still God and has authority over all. For those parents who acted more as friends to their kids growing up than parents, how well did the kids turn out and did they ever struggle with boundaries or authority. 

 To close out, in Jeremiah 29, God states that we are to be His people and He our God. Also God can and wants to be found, we have to be committed to searching Him out and not sticking our heads in the sand