Sunday was a message about thanksgiving called More Than a Thankful Heart, taken from Psalm 35:18. Here is a brief outline of the message:

I. The presence of your testimony
   – Job 13:15; Matthew 12:34; Colossians 2:7; James 1:17

II. The purpose of your testimony
   A. Your testimony affirms the truth for yourself
      – Romans 10:9; Acts 16:31
   B. Your testimony encourages others
      – Romans 1:8, 12:15; 2 Corinthians 1:4; 3 John 4
   C. Your testimony brings glory to God
      – Psalm 35:18

III. The power of your testimony
   – Psalm 105:1-3; Romans 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 1:8

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.
 

Our church is sponsoring a great program to help those in need this Thanksgiving season. For just a $20 donation, Live, Love and Give will provide $40 worth of food items (including rice, pasta, canned goods, etc.) to someone in need.

If you would like to participate, click here to visit the website and make an online donation: Live, Love and Give

Our church is sponsoring a great program to help those in need this Thanksgiving season. For just a $20 donation, Live, Love and Give will provide $40 worth of food items (including rice, pasta, canned goods, etc.) to someone in need.

If you would like to participate, click here to visit the website and make an online donation: Live, Love and Give

• Thanksgiving Responsive Reading – Psalm 107
• Matthew Henry’s Thanksgiving Testimony
• John Milton – A Thanksgiving Prayer
• Garfield’s Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)

Now I just need to find a picture of a pig holding an “Eat turkey!” sign.

Related post: Another Garfield Monday – November
Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

I found this letter of thanksgiving from a Methodist minister particularly encouraging. I pray you find it encouraging, too! (The letter was actually written several weeks ago, but it is very appropriate for today.)

What a Great Day This Is! This morning, as I was driving to work, I heard that the market had gone down another 500 points. It has now dropped from a high of over 14,000 to 9,000. This is not good news. It has messed with my retirement plan and made my net worth go from pride to hide. It has turned easy street into a mean street. The bottom line is that I do not have nearly as much money or assets as I had just a short while ago. Let me share with you what I also discovered this morning:

1. I was breathing and, in general, feeling pretty healthy.
2. My wife gave me a kiss and told me she loved me.
3. I was driving to WORK! I have a job.
4. All of my children have jobs and are safe and well.
5. My two grandchildren still light up my life and give wonderful hugs and sugars.
6. I am a citizen of the greatest nation on the face of the earth and I will get to vote soon on how to make it better.
7. A good friend called and wants to go out to dinner and a show. (I have a friend.)
8. I am still a United Methodist minister.
9. My home is safe, warm, secure and nearly paid for.
10. I got an e-mail that told me my new book was changing their church for the better (someone is reading it).
11. I ate breakfast and lunch and will have dinner later. (Many won’t get three meals today.)
12. I am actually sitting down in a building I own, at a desk I bought, typing on a $2,000 machine I can barely use.
13. I have a big huge bottle of wonderful fresh clean water right down the hall or I could choose to drink right from the tap all I can hold.
14. I am wearing clean clothes today, and tomorrow I will wear something different. In fact, I could wear something different every day this month if I wanted to.
15. I HAVE A SAVIOR WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE ME.

It is a shame that it took losing so much money for me to realize how rich I really am! This week may be one of the best weeks of my life.

Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

You know it’s Monday when …

the tag says, “No turkeys were destroyed to make this product.”

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John Milton wrote the following poem when he was only fifteen years old. (He would later go on to write the epic poem, “Paradise Lost.”) The poem is based on Psalm 136 and was later made into a hymn by church organist John Bernard Wilkes.

“ALL PRAISE TO GOD” – by John Milton

Let us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind:

For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,
For of gods he is the God:

He, with all-commanding might,
Filled the new-made world with light:

All things living he doth feed,
His full hand supplies their need:

He his chosen race did bless
In the wasteful wilderness:

Let us then with gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind.

 
This is just a selection of verses from the poem. The actual poem is much longer, repeating the lines “For his mercies aye endure / Ever faithful, ever sure” as part of each stanza.

Note: Click here to learn about The Bible Memory Version, a new tool developed especially for Bible memory.

ChristianAudio.com has a special Thanksgiving offer. From November 17th to November 24th choose any one of ten audiobooks for a free download. You must use the coupon code THANKS2007 during checkout in order to get the download for free.

I just downloaded The Legend of Squanto for my boys for Thanksgiving. (Focus on the Family Radio Theatre Dramatic Production. Including a complete cast, cinema-quality sound, and original music. Run time 1.8 hours; normally $12.98)

Here is the description from the website:

This audio drama brings to light the story of one of America’s early legends — “Squanto.” History remembers Tisquantum as the Native American who taught early settlers to fish and farm. He’s even credited with the first Thanksgiving. But few hear the story of the condemnation that dragged him outside America to a life in chains and what he discovered after his exile. It’s an inspiring true story of this little-known early American that triumphed over injustice and changed what would become the United States.

Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

Bible commentator Matthew Henry made the following entry in his journal the night he was robbed. This is a great example of “giving thanks in all circumstances.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

“Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.” (Matthew Henry)

Note: Click here to learn about The Bible Memory Version, a new tool developed especially for Bible memory.

A couple years ago I arranged Psalm 107 as a responsive reading for one of our Thanksgiving services. It is clear that some of the Psalms in the Bible were meant to be read responsively in worship. Perhaps Psalm 107 is one of these Psalms.

This reading alternates between two readers and the whole congregation.

• READER 1 reads those parts of the Psalm which describe the distress of the Lord’s redeemed before they cried out to the Lord.
• READER 2 reads those parts which describe how the Lord saved the redeemed out of their distress.
• The PEOPLE read those parts which encourage the redeemed to give thanks to the Lord for his love and deliverance.

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