Thanksgiving was yesterday

The holiday, that is.

It’s a great time to remember,
recall and recite those things we are thankful for…..
and to whom we are thankful.

It’s full of family,
friends,
food
and football.

Food is prepared and cooked for days and it’s all eaten in about 1 hour.

The build up is long and the “holiday” is over after the meal.

However…..
as Lee Corso repeatedly says
on GAMEDAY each football Saturday……

“ not so fast, my friend.”

The “day” we label Thanksgiving
is the 24 hour period on the fourth
Thursday every November.

But true THANKSGIVING
is a life-long attitude and mindset.

It’s an developed attitude which we grow into when we understand appreciation and gratitude.

It is not an automatic human trait….

your children do not say
“Thank you” without you teaching them and constantly reminding them.

Thankfulness is a developed trait.

A practiced trait……
it should be a habit

It can be a LIFESTYLE.

When we learn to say “thank you”
and understand and what it means….

we can then move into ….THANKFULNESS.

A habit or lifestyle of THANKFULNESS…..

comes from a mind and heart of humility and politeness.

It’s graciousness.

Thankfulness is a mindset of
knowing from where things come.

From where do things come….???

Many things come from other people.

Many things come through other people……from another source.

As it says in The Word ….
“every good and perfect gift….
comes from above….”

Knowing and understanding from where eventually all gifts are derived from … allows that humility and graciousness.

Gifts come the heart of another.

Spouses, parents, children, friends
are those others…

But….

“Not so fast, my friend “…..

The Supreme OTHER is the original Giver of LIFE, and all
“good and perfect gifts”.

“Good and perfect gifts”
are the ones which
do not need batteries,
they do not come with receipts
and they are sometimes not visible to the eye.

They are usually timely
sometimes perishable
many times life-long
and the most perfect are eternal.

Receiving these gifts and understanding the depth behind them creates in us the constant attitude of THANKFULNESS.

Every time you think of something
you have ….
can be a time to say “Thank you”.

Every day there will be a moment you will feel the sense of gratitude and that’s the instant you should express “thanks”.

The lifestyle of gratitude and
THANKFULNESS is birthed through
the awareness of what a “gift” is….

for it is on some level a sacrifice.

Some “other” has sacrificed something for the gift given.

It is birthed through that awareness….

and grown through the
practice of stopping ….
and expressing “thanks.”

From the birthing and the practice…
we will walk into a lifestyle of
unending thankfulness.

Living in “thankfulness”
is a good place to be.

Living in “thankfulness”….
pushes back on the natural inclination toward self-sufficiency

and allows humility and gratitude to
exist and affect our thoughts
attitudes and lives.

THANKSGIVING is on the fourth Thursday of November…..

the giving of THANKS is a lifetime of

daily….
expressed…

GRATITUDE.

As we get into this Thanksgiving week, move yourself into an attitude of Gratitude and Thankfulness.

Last week I mentioned thinking about and then expressing the reasons why you are thankful for those around…. to those around you.

I would encourage you to take a step beyond that and spend time considering those you are thankful for….to whom you cannot express any words.

This group includes those people who have exited this life…. or who are no longer in your life
through location or vocation……
and my encouragement to do this is
wrapped with a sense of Joy…
not sadness or grief.

It is a joyful thing to rehearse the gifts,
the words,
the lessons
and the lives lived out for
and before us…

by our parents,
grandparents,
family members,
old friends,
ministers,
teachers
coaches…..

for those lives and lessons have contributed and molded us into the people we are….and are becoming.

I believe this attitude is more of what THANKSGIVING is about.

The inner consideration and sense
of gratefulness and thanksgiving
for what has been granted, given and bestowed upon us….

is what can move us closer to the spirit of THANKSGIVING…
and where we are spiritually instructed to be.

To….”give thanks in all things”.

In spite of the prayer of thanks we can speak as we sit down to eat, we probably take the food we eat for granted.

How many meals have you missed this month??

It’s easy to take an everyday occurrence for granted.

It’s the same thing with the people we see and speak to everyday.

Only if you take time to consider what those “everyday people” gift your life with ….
will you be able to appreciate and
experience gratitude for and toward them.

Take the time….

Having this inner sense of gratitude
and thankfulness will change the way you look at life.

You will most likely be happier.

Joy will abound.

Your step will most likely have a little spring to it.

And a smile will more easily
grace your face.

Use these next few days leading up to the THANKSGIVING Thursday… to set aside time, consider and enter in to a time of really being thankful.

The way we spend THANKSGIVING
is usually eating, watching football
and taking a trip to someone’s home.

Being THANKFUL has nothing to do with any of those things.

Look at your life…,
ponder those things for which you are THANKFUL…..

For which you are grateful….

For which you are appreciative.

Take the steps to rehearse this on your mind and heart.

I encourage you to think on these things and
determine to express
and actually SPEAK
words of GRATITUDE and
THANKFULNESS to one or more people.

As you read this
someone may come to your mind.

That may be the person you need to speak to.

Tell them you are THANKFUL
for them….

then surprise them….

TELL THEM WHY…..!!!

Its like saying “I love you”
to your wife.

It’s nice and she appreciates
those three words.

However,

she will be never forget
the words you say to her when you EXPRESS THE REASONS WHY
YOU LOVE HER.

It may be you speak to your spouse…

It may be you speak to a child,

It may be a friend…

There are people to whom you need to speak.

It takes more thought,
and more effort.

Saying the WHY you are thankful
will mean more than the food you put in your mouth.

The WHY that comes
out of your mouth,
from your heart

will bless and benefit
those to whom you speak
these words of THANKFULNESS.

Begin to THINK
about how you are THANKFUL
and the words through which you will express the WHY.

And then do it.

I heard this on an episode of
POLDARK.

If you have not watched this
Masterpiece Series on PBS,
I recommend it.

In a recent episode the main character, an Englishman named, Ross Poldark,
makes a comment about another character who was had suffered a setback and was hurting.

He said…..

“A sure remedy for a sore heart …
is a mission.”

Read that again.

It was a fictional character speaking in a television series…. but the words spoken are a great
truth.

I had to write it down….as I do when I hear or read a profound or memorable phrase in a television show, movie or book.

“ A sure remedy for a sore heart…
is a mission.”

It is a sure thing
that focusing on some task
outside of one’s self
or one’s hurt or pain…

will change the focus from the
subjective to the objective.

It changes the concentration from
the inside and the despair
to the outside and the task at hand.

It removes the mind from the past and places it in the present or future.

It looks ahead
and can create a thought process toward a solution and some task at hand.

Be aware of people who are hurting.

Consider what their “mission” might be ….that can possibly lift them out of the stagnation that pain and despair can push them into.

Giving of oneself to another…
or to something other than oneself,
is a proven process that will
displace the pain and replace it,
maybe quickly or over time,
with focus and concern for the
the “mission” and its outcome.

It’s somewhat like this.

If you THINK on the numbers
from 1-25 ….
go ahead,
start counting.

When you reach
the number 10…
begin to SPEAK
out loud,
the alphabet….

You will find the spoken word takes precedence and the counting stops.

The spoken activity of the “mission”
replaces the inner concentration on the counting of numbers.

You, yourself,
have probably experienced this.

Therefore, notice those around you who are in a rut,
who are in the middle of turmoil,
or in pain.

Consider a “mission” for them.

Encourage them in it.

Volunteer to undertake the “mission” along with them.

If they will walk with you in this….
and it may take some time,

however….

it’s a sure remedy.

It’s not a sit-still life.

Nothing productive happens when one is passive.

I would say 95% of all successful endeavors have reached the level of success because of vision, effort and exercise.

When passivity enters into a business….or a relationship….. slow down and failure are soon to follow.

It’s not a sit-still life.

Rest is important.
And temporary.
And short-lived.

Life is not a sit-still thing.

Faith is not a sit still thing.

If you possess It….
It will lead you to get up
and ACT on It.

Like the book of JAMES said….
“Faith without works…is dead”.

Show me someone who possesses true faith and I will show you a person of vision, effort and exercise.

Nothing you care about is a sit-still thing.

Marriage is a good example.

The ceremony is beautiful,
it can be costly
and is a great deal of fun.

But after the Vows
and the reception
and the honeymoon…

if one party gets passive,
the other party will grow increasingly irritated and the relationship will fade.

On the honeymoon itself…
if one party is passive,
the other party will be less than pleased.

The tuxedo, the dress, the rings,
the words expressed and the intimacy ….
are merely the beginnings.

If one party says that they are
now “married” and that’s it….
It will be not last long.

If you love someone…
you ACT on that love.

Inaction does not reveal love….
it involves vision, effort, exercise.

Love is not a sit-still thing.

That’s one problem with some
belief systems.

The ceremony of baby dedication
is beautiful and enriching and is
a truly religious experience in some
churches.

However,
if the parents believe that the baby is then “taken care of” spiritually…
then there can be the occasion where the parents are, or grow passive about the spiritual life of the infant/ adolescent/ child.

This spiritual passivity can lead to their own spiritual stagnation…. and if the parents remain spiritually dormant ….
the child will he raised on a level that is lower than the commitment the initial ceremony called for.

Spirituality is not a sit-still thing.

Try to live a spiritual life by only saying a few words,
attending Church once in a while,
and by never reading the Scriptures,
and by never seeking a closeness to
the One Who inspired those Scriptures…

and…
just like the marriage
that will slowly fail,
the passive spiritual life will grow dry and brittle
and will lack the intensity of love
and will fade into unimportance.

It requires vision,
effort and exercise.

If a Church gets or grows passive…
it will slowly die.

The Pastor and the congregants will need to act on vision with effort and exercise.

If a family gets or grows passive because of any reason…
the love will fade and the relationship suffers a slow death.

Never fall into the trap of the
sit-still existence.

In business,
you have to intentionally
“launch out”
once in a while to stay engaged.

In marriage,
you have to stay actively pursuant
of each other….
to continually grow the relationship.

On an individual spiritual level…
what is needed is the submission to be conformed to be like Christ with the vision laid down
in the Scriptures,
and the effort and exercise to purge ourselves from the old life.

That will not be achieved with a
sit-still attitude.

The sit-still life is like a plant or flower you might give someone.

If all one does is give the flower…
it is beautiful
and will remain attractive
for a short period.

If the flower is not tended to,
not watered,
not planted,
and left merely to itself…

the beauty fades
the petals fall
the stem bends and withers

and what was once beautiful
is now ugly and dead.

It must be actively and intentionally cared for,
attention and time must be given
and steps taken to nurture its growth.

Successful life is intentional

Successful life is purposed.

It’s not a sit-still thing.

When the sky is a clear blue and I hear I plane fly overhead….I look up at it …and remember.

I saw it live on television that Tuesday beginning at about 8:05, when I walked into my office and turned the television on.

I heard on the elevator that a plane had hit one of the Towers.

How could a pilot make that mistake?….was my thought and comment as I walked off onto my floor.

Within the next few minutes life changed.

As I sat down and looked at the screen I saw a slash in the side of one of the Trade Center Towers.

And then, that second plane came into view, lifted its right wing, and unbelievably flew into the other Tower.

I remember lowering my chin, pursing my lips and thinking that this was no movie and that my country had just been attacked.

It felt personal.

It felt like my home had been broken into and set fire to…..with me there.

My eyes did not move from the screen as the commentators searched for words to describe what everyone saw and knew was happening.

No one could think with any certainty at that moment that….

Our own planes.

with own own citizens trapped inside ……

were being piloted to bring this upon us.

As a few guys came into my office to watch, we were wondering who had done this and for what reason.

Those calculations ceased and we were again brought to silence when the television screen, from a distance, showed the people waving desperately and then some of them jumping out of the Towers and diving to a death different than the one they would have suffered if they had remained in their burning building.

That’s not what we see and know about America.

An hour or so later when the first Tower collapsed upon itself and the smoke rose and covered Manhattan…..I said out loud…

“God bless us”

That simple prayer was all I could think or say as I watched and witnessed the single, most destructive physical moment in all of my life.

I had been brought, involuntarily,

into the world of the wounded.

And the scars remain in all of us.

When the sky is a clear blue and I hear a plane fly overhead….I look up at it …..and remember.

There is a well known phrase that says…

“If you don’t STAND for something

you will fall for anything.”

As I have matured, which is a high sounding way of saying ” as I have grown older”…..

I really believe that phrase about taking a STAND is true.

 

As a man,

I know it is vital to consider things,

go through a process

make a decision

and take a STAND.

 

When I was in high school and college, and when it came to other people’s ideas and political thought….

I was a ship at full sail but without a rudder in the water.

My mind could be swayed with the changing of the wind.

I had developed no rudder for a directed course.

 

In the arena of spiritual things, I was less affected by the atmosphere around me because of the love, respect and devotion I felt for my father and mother, and the God they had raised me to revere and know.

I had a stance on some things….but I was mostly standing on the shoulders of the influential people around me…..parents, coaches, teachers, preachers and parents of friends.

Standing on the shoulders of others is a credit to the stances they have taken and is respectful and a correct thing to do….for a while.

 

But without a Stance of our own we have no identity.

And when those whose shoulders we have stood on are gone,

we are lost.

At some point in life we cannot allow others to take steps we need to take.

 

At some crossroad in the journey of the life that is solely ours…

we have to solidify the stance we know is right for us, dig in a bit, and take a Stand on who we are, what we believe and on what things we will not give ground.

 

I know it is a good thing to have an open mind, to respect the opinion and stance others take…

however, if you do not know in what you believe or in what you areas you would not negotiate….

then the latest thought…

the fashionable position….

becomes your latest stance

and you never really stand for anything

because you are for everything.

 

If you are for everything,

you believe in nothing.

 

Read that again and consider the thought.

 

The Man to whom I have chosen to be conformed

very seldom condemned anyone,

showed love to all but a very few,

asserted Himself only in particular situations…

allowed others their positions….

but took a STAND.

He never deviated from It….

and in so doing

changed those around Him

affected history

and is Himself, the Stand that all of creation will eventually bow to.

 

If you are for everything

you believe in nothing.

 

Is there anything that will come down the road of your existence,

to which you will put your foot down in front of, and say NO….????

 

The behavioral and cultural descent we have seen occur throughout history puts topics and actions in front of us that we cannot always simply accept as the right thing.

These things might be current and show that you have “evolved”…..

but that really means that you have simply shifted with the latest breeze.

 

There are many of these actions and topics that any thinking person must consider and then Stand against.

As well, there are topics and actions we must consider and Stand for.

 

When we become “of age”

there are those things we must Stand against

and there are things we must Stand for

even in the face of adversity and disagreement.

For when you know in what you believe

you can then know what things you are for

or against.

 

Knowing these two things….it is more important to know what you Stand for

than what you stand against.

 

Do not sit idly by and allow life and events to sail by you…..taking you astray by every wind that changes and shifts so fashionably and often.

 

There must be a rudder in the water for a vessel to stay on course.

 

Be a constant.

Be one who others know as a Lighthouse,

beaming a constant light,

standing TRUE against changing and shifting winds.

Put your rudder in the water and set a firm directed course.

 

Take a Stand.

It always does.

So many things in life flow from HOW BIG

your vision of God is.

His Role in history,

the canon of The Bible,

His Role in the writing of The Bible,

Miracles,

the validity and power of Scripture,

His Role, in not just history,

but in daily, everyday life…..

is seen by each person according to their vision

of how big and powerful,

God is.

According to The Bible I read, The Creator of all things is involved in all of History. If you read the Old Testament, you will see references to the “scarlet thread of redemption”. This is nothing other than the Hand of God consistently leading people and orchestrating events to accomplish His Plan.

The God I read about in the Old Testament did not have to be consistently at work everyday, making sure Man did not mess up His Plan.

Jehovah God could have simply spoken into existence, His Plan, at Creation…..

and Creation followed that Plan accordingly and perfectly.

The God I read about in the New Testament enters physically into History where He had been spiritually since Creation.

The Son of God, Jesus, came to fulfill promises and prophecy, not because of the failure of Man to obey The Law. Jesus was prophetically spoken of all along.

He was not a second thought by The Father.

He was coming to suffer,

He was coming to save,

He was coming to dwell among Men because of His Love for every created Man, not because any initial Plan failed.

The Holy Spirit did not come and move in people because Jesus could not move people to enough action.

Like Jesus, The Holy Spirit was not a second thought of The Father.

The Holy Spirit came to dwell in and empower the Disciples….and eventually you and me….because of one of God’s Laws.

The Law of Impenetrability says two physical objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

It’s physically impossible.

It’s not spiritually impossible.

The Holy Spirit comes to give Gifts….

those Gifts yield fruit…

and God’s initial Plan He gave to Adam is accomplished.

as He exits in us.

Occupying the spiritual space within us.

The indwelling, powerful presence of The Holy Spirit empowers us to steward the Earth, empowers us to be stewards of God’s greatest creation….Man….and reveal Jesus to other people …..because Jesus, as a Man on Earth submitted Himself to His own physical Laws and could not minister to all Men…forever.

The Holy Spirit encourages and empowers us to take God’s Word…..Jesus….to our world today.

The Spirit has done this same thing since He entered that second story room in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus ascended to Heaven.

When all of God’s Plan for this Age is accomplished….that same Jesus will return, and not submitting to the physical laws He put into place….will be seen of ALL MEN at once and do what He said He would do before He ascended.

God is not human.

God does not have to overcome earlier miscalculations and adjust His Plan.

If you feel God does not hear you….

If you think God created all things and is now absent, and leaves it up to us…

If you personify God and think of Him as you do other Men…..

you are putting human constraints on Him and you are cheating yourself out of seeing Him as He is.

You see God and His Work everyday …

because no limited being and no accident could created The Sun, could creat the order in the universe, within our own bodies and the several systems which allow our very inner and outer existence.

Just look at it all and consider it.

There is an unfathomable Mind behind all of this created universe and our created bodies.

As a two year old …

one does not possess the ability in any way to understand a parents instruction or reasoning or love.

But they can see and experience and benefit from it.

We must understand this….

we will never fully understand God.

We do not possess the ability.

He is beyond our ability to completely know and understand Him, or His reasoning or His Love.

But we can experience it and benefit from It.

He is beyond us.

We should not limit Him in any way.

It is to our detriment to do so.

And even though He is beyond us….

our saving grace is this….

we are not beyond Him.

We are not beyond His Grace.

We are not beyond His Unlimited Love.

When I was 11 years old a group of us were playing as the sun set and darkness began to slowly settle on the day.

Our parents were all gathered in the driveway of one house, talking and socializing.

My group of friends and I were running around and having a great, safe and seemingly unending time, with the parents nearby.

I realized, as the evening took away the day, 

even as I was enjoying it all…..

that I did not want it to end.

Even at 11, I said to myself…

“This is a moment which might not take place again.”

I wanted to stay in that moment.

There are times such as this in everyone’s life.

I have had more times such as this.

In 1996, I attended a football game where the team I was pulling for drove about 90 yards with a minute or so left, scored with a few seconds remaining and beat their biggest rival.

EUPHORIA.

Did not want that moment to disappear.

Not a quiet or magnetic atmosphere…

but one of not wanting to leave the moment.

In 2009, a young minister from Florida conducted a week of meetings at my Church.

After several of those evening services there was almost an afterglow from the sermon and worship music. 

A peace was present.

There was a tangible presence of quiet Joy.

A real sense of not wanting to leave the moment.

It was not manufactured.

But it was real.

Recently, at this same Church, there was a moment like this.

A young lady sang a song near the conclusion of a service….which brought about a Moment that extended the time.

It changed the atmosphere.

You could feel it in your chest….

You could see it with your eyes in the response of the gathered group of people.

It drew everyone toward a Center of Commonality.

As it waned down after an extended time….

no one wanted to leave.

Many people from the gathered group just stayed in their seats..

Many simply stood at the Altar or in their row.

The atmosphere felt in a way, 

magnetic,

It drew you towards itself.

Among everyone, and in the Sanctuary itself….

there was a peace 

and that sense of being drawn in 

to where you did not want to leave that common bond….

you did not want It to end or go away.

In the movie, “Leap of Faith”, there was a tent service where people experienced an extended worship and saw a young boy who was crippled…get up and walk, unencumbered.

It took the group of people into an atmosphere of Joy and then a sense of wanting to prolong the moment. Many stayed and sat around the outside of the tent because what they saw and witnessed inside the tent continued to draw them.

When I was a senior in high school the Church I attended had a series of services that some call a revival.

Toward the end of the very first of those services…

something happened.

One of the leaders stood and spoke.

It was as if time stopped and the group of people there entered into a Presence which drew everyone together…

some were emotional,

some were reverential.

It continued for two and one half hours.

These times are similar in that some events cause us to want extended time.

There is a realization that the moment is special,
I can try to define the moments 

I have experienced these feelings and that Presence of bonding and the quiet magnetic pull toward What made the moment unique.

But I will fail.

Unless you have experienced these moments it is difficult to grasp.

It is similar to intimacy.

After the moments of culminated intimacy…

for many people there is a peace which draws you toward a center which both people experience.

It’s the fulfillment of physical love and we experience it physically and emotionally.

In the moments which occur in a worship service…

there is absolute intimacy…..

of a different type.

It is the experience of being in The Presence of God.

It can be overwhelming.

It can be emotional.

It can be physical.

It IS spiritual.

It is sometimes unexplainable.

But you know it is there and you have been in The Presence of Love, Power, Peace.

Not physical love.

Deeper than that.

Not physical power….

Nor is it peace that’s momentarily quiet.

It’s beneath the skin….

under the muscle of simple power and strength 

and it’s a peace that passes usual comprehension and definition.

However, it is as real as the earth your feet are planted on.

It is difficult to define with dictionary words….

it can maybe be explained in the language of long lasting love which can be communicated by a look.

When we experience the Presence of God….

it stretches the ability to fully define it.

In its fullest sense…….It’s beyond words.
I did my best to explain this.

But I can assure you with conviction….

I know it and have experienced it.

And if you have experienced it… you have an unworded definition as well.

In The Fellowship of The Ring,
Tolkien has the wizard, GANDALPH,
say many unique things.

He says once to Frodo…
“It’s is not ours to decide the time we are in…. it is up to us to decide what to do with the time given us”.

In The Two Towers
GANDALPH says this …
of their adversaries,

“ They have the power of their
Master in them…
and they will stand or fall in him”.

Let that phrase sit in your ear and on your mind a minute.

The Power of their Master.

The Master who walked in Israel and ministered throughout that land, told His followers that,

“All Power has been given unto me”.

He told them in John’s Gospel that whosoever followed Him would be indwelt with and possess that same Power.

He even told them that they could do greater works than He had, because of that indwelling power,
which He bestowed upon them when He breathed upon them and told them to …. “ receive ye The Holy Ghost”.

Jesus followers have His Power in them…

to appropriate and put to full use.

Gandalph’s  words, while not prophetic about our stance today, ring true because of what Christ gave us.

He gave us….through those who walked with and followed Him

HIS  WORDS.

He gave us 

and breathed into those who follow Him…

His Spirit.

That same Spirit brings Jesus’ Words to those who seek Him and brings Jesus’ Power to those He calls and commissions.

Jesus followers have
The Power of their Master in them…
and will stand or fall IN HIM.
The Scripture says ….

“ in Him we live and move
and have our being”.

He spoke His Words to us saying…
“The things I do, ye shall do,
and greater things than these
shalt thou do
because I go to The Father.”

Know this….

Believe this…

Live this…

We have The Power of our Master
in us…
and we shall stand or fall In HIM.