November 14, 2010

Colossians 3:15 

 Thankful....Thankfulness....Thanking

Colossians

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as memebers of one body you are all called to live in peace.  And always be thankful.

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Thoughts.....

Hello to all!  This morning, as last Sunday, and for the next couple of Sundays, we will be looking at ways of saying and feeling thanks.  You may see some repeated words or phrases.  This is just to reinforce or let others new to the site know what we are doing. 

This month in the United States of America, we celebrate Thanksgiving...a day set aside to give thanks for everything God has given us.  But every day should be a day of thanksgiving.  This whole month, I thought we could look at what words are used in the Bible regarding giving thanks and the meanings behind them. 

This may appear to be an English grammar class of sorts, but it is really going to be inclusive of Hebrew-Aramaic, and Greek. I am going to provide for you what The Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible has for references and definitions.  I would like you to take the time to review the scripture references and do the brief exercise I will provide in a bit.  The number at the end of the reference refers to the location of the definitions in the dictionary in the back of the book, for both the Old and New Testaments.  I will note the actual word, word source and definitions.  Please note the references given are from a compilation of the King James Version and the New International Version.  If you do not have either of these Bibles, you will find minor variations, and perhaps not the actual word, but the thought intent instead.  

May blessings abound as you are thankful, and express your thankfulness thanking God and others.

THANKFUL (3 references).

Psalm 100:4                                             3034  Old Testament Hebrew-Aramaic

Romans 1:21                                            2168  New Testament Greek

Colossians 3:15                                         2170                  "

THANKFULNESS (1 reference)

Acts  24:3                                                2169  New Testament Greek

THANKING (1 reference)       

2 Chronicles 5:13                                      3034 Old Testament Hebrew-Aramaic

Old Testament Hebrew-Aramaic (in order listed, not chronological)

3034  yada, v. GK, to express praise, give thanks, extol, make a public confession, make an admission; to praise is to speak of the excellence of someone or something; to give thanks has a focus on the gratitude of the speaker.  

New Testament Greek (chronological)

2168  eucharisteo, v, GK, to thank, give thanks, render gratitude; this can mean words that express gratitude or the emotion of gratitude.

2169 eucharistia, n, GK, expressions of thanks, thanksgiving, gratitude.

2170 eucharistos, a, GK, thankful (in word and anttitude)    

Ok..so we have another pattern here this week.  Feel thankful, give thanks, express thanks....read the scriptures and see which words pop out at you.  Think about whether you have felt, done, acted on, performed any of these recently....and whether you are willing to do this today....for all eternity?  It's really important to read at least some of the references (this week there are not many) to get a feel for what occured before and after...the why...the thanks....a miracle?  How will you convey/show, your thankfulness to our Lord this week?What gift of gratitude will you give him or others?

Let's look a little bit at the scriptures together.

Psalm 100 says to shout, worship and go to him singing with joy.....enter his gates with thanksgiving.  Give thanks to him and praise his name.  So you can shout, and worship, go before him, and sing as ways to show thankfulness, gratitude to our Lord.  It says acknowledge him....that the Lord is God.

In Romans 1 (and 2) we see God is angry at the choices people made and how they lived their lives.  So he is also today.  It says they knew God, but wouldn't worship him as God, weren't thankful to him, or willing to give him thanks.  He abandoned them to live a life of sinfulness and to be judged.

Colossians 3 tells us how to live our new life with Christ and to let heaven fill your thoughts.  We are to be representatives of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.  Colossians 4:2 tells us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Acts 24:3 tells of thankfulness for governmental reforms and the peace they bore.  And Paul seemed pretty thankful for Jesus....try to hear how he might have sounded as he said "...I believe in the resurrection of the dead!".  Hallelujah...Alleluia.

2 Chronicles was about having finished the work of building the Temple and moving the Ark of the Lord's covenant on the annual Festival of Shelters in early autumn.  Believe this from 2 Chronicles 5: 13-14:  "The trumpeters and singers performed together in unison to praise and give thanks to the Lord.  Accompained by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they raised their voices and praised the Lord with these words:  "He is so good!  His faithful love endures forever!"  At that moment a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord.  The priests could not continue their work because the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of God."  Have you ever praised God with so much glory that he embodied the space you were in with his glorious presence?  What rapture!      

Do you see the joy, the glory in being thankful?  Could you be filled with thankfulness following Jesus Christ?  Would you be thanking him continually?  Would you be able to say, "I am so thankful to my Lord.  I am filled to overflowing with thankfulness.  I will be continually thanking him through eternity."  

I'd like you to make a list of those to whom you feel THANKFULNESS. And also a list of those you have have been THANKFUL for in your life....recently and over your life.  Relax.  I am not going to ask for your list.  This is not going to be graded.  This is for you...and for God.  It is an attempt to help you realize what a major, or not so major, role God plays in your life....and others.  It is also an opportunity for you realize all you have been given in life, whether it be mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, or material.  Perhaps just friendship....a monumental gift.  A moment to say thank you to those who have stepped up, embraced, reached out.  You may not be able to say thank you directly.  Someone may have died.  Say thanks anyway.  Someone may live elsewhere or be lost to you.  Say thanks anyway.  God will know and the thanks will be showered on that person in another way...and upon you from God.   The world is round.  Perhaps they are thankful for you.  Have you considered what you have done for others?  Will you be found worthy of thankfulness?   And what have you done for yourself that is good?  Have you been thanking yourself?      

Have you asked God for forgiveness for any sins you may have committed?  Have you been thanking him?  Have you been thanking him for giving you Jesus?  Have you been thanking Jesus for dying for you?  Now may be a good time if you have not.  Have you been thanking Holy Spirit for enlightening you?  Thanking implies continual thanks.  We need to be continually thanking him for all he has done.   

I hope this will be an emotional journey for you...that you will take the time to let this soak into the core of your being....and that you will 'echo charis'....as we learned last week....'repeat charity'.

May you keep God close to your heart and bless God with thankfulness....and may he keep, be thankful for and bless you! 

Now.....let us sing:

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART  * 

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son.

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son.

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Because of what the Lord has done for us.

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Because of what the Lord has done for us.

Give thanks
Give thanks. '

Psalm 100

Shout with joy to the LORD, O earth!  Worship the LORD with gladness.  Come before him, singing with joy.

Acknowledge that the LORD is God!  He made us, and we are his.  We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.  Give thanks to him and bless his name.

For the LORD is good.  His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. 

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Let Us Pray

Dear Heavenly Father God, Lord Jesus, and Teacher...Comforter Holy Spirit.  Thank you....for everything.  I come to your presence with an abundance of thankfulness....thanksgiving.  I am blessed to know you love me and that you have given me the opportunity to be forgiven of my sins...if I ask, and, that I might receive eternal life, if I live a life of obedience to you expressing thankfulness with thanksgiving.  May I learn to continually be thanking you.  Please forgive me of my sins, and instill in me the desire to be a promise child.  Please Holy Spirit, come into my life fully.  Baptise me in your fullness.  Please fill me to overflowing with all those things I need by and of your grace, to be everything I need to be for you, those in the world to whom YOU send me, and for myself.  Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but say the word and I shall be healed.  All are called to ministers of Jesus Christ.  Now send me forth to do all you have called me to do and be for the people that so desperately need to hear your message...or be reminded.  Help me be encouraged to live the life I have started with you.  Help me to always be thankful and say thank you to you and to others.  I pray I will always be able to continually praise your Holy name in worship with thankfulness.  Keep me strong.  Help me to pronounce to the world who you are, that you are, and how wonderful you are, and that they can have you in their lives, too.  Help me to bring them to Holy Spirit that he might baptise them with the fullness of your love, your saving grace, your guiding grace....and may they always be thanking you for what you have given them...been to them...and with what you have filled them.   Let me encourage others...and be encouraged.  Give me and all others in the world a new life in you.  And help me and all others be worthy to receive the prize of the high calling of God...eternal life.  I am so grateful that you love me...thank you.  I bow down to you, my Father, God, and Glorious Love....Jesus, Holy Spirit Sanctifier.  Help me to always be real...be true...be right...be loving...and...be thankful.  And SPEAK thanks NOW.  Thank you....and...Amen.         

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More love.... 

  Benediction...Blessing

Let us hear from Paul as he prays:  

When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God!  By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.  May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages.  Amen.  Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT         

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Scroll down to read Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving...'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'.

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Definition of a Christian:  Anyone who believes in God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Regardless of church name or religious affiliation. 

It is not how we worship, but that we worship!   

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If you feel that the Church of the Holy Spirit has inspired or helped you, we'd like you to prayerfully consider tithing regulary to us or gifting us, so that we can further the work and carry out the will of the Father as proclaimed in Matthew 28:19-20 NLT

 to

 "Go and make disciples out of all the nations

baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:

I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

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  Our Current Cause

It is time to reach into the community and the world around you to see wherein lies the greatest need.  As you choose to focus on these areas, do so with a servant's heart.  Whether the need is for children, adults, or animals, or any cause in between that will help those in need, ask God how you can best serve his needs, what path you must take, and how long you should persevere.  Sometimes we are to be in the lives of others merely as stepping stones.  Sometimes we are to touch those lives forever.  Whatever journey you are called to take, whatever team you will be a member of, know this:  God is with you always...even til the end of time.  He loves you, is grateful for you, and will help you along life's way, especially if you are helping others along theirs, persevering with a servant's heart. 

Please accept my sincerest thanks....and God's....and may God richly bless you!   

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In the meantime, we hope you will trust us to direct them to where the need is the greatest.

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    One last thing....

 Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving

'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'

"Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer:  "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.  You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people.  Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly.  "The Father has given me all these things to do and say.  This is a unique Father - Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge.  No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does.  But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen."

"Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you'll recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly.

   Matthew 11:  25-30

  The Message

And the people said,

"Amen."

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I now write most prayers in the position of ' I ' (first person) because most people are sitting at their computer alone, not in groups, and it allows those reading and praying to personalize the prayer as coming from them going to God.  Variations may appear on holidays when families may wish to use the prayer provided.

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*The words and music to "Give Thanks With A Grateful Heart" are by Henry Smith.  

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.

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