Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving, my dear Beloved Family!
As you all likely know, I struggle with “holidays.” Not because I do not want to celebrate people, momentous occasions, or special occurrences… but, because when there is external pressure to do so, it becomes disingenuous. If one is commanded to celebrate the value and appreciation for their spouse being birthed decades ago by a Hallmark commercial… it very likely is not an authentic appreciation of the soul. Real, authentic, and genuine expressions of the heart are of great value to God, and should also be to us. We should abhor hypocrisy and love the truth.
That was just the preemptive strike to lay the ground work for my next expression.
I am truly grateful for YOU, my Beloved peeps. In my vast array of ministry activities and experience, there is often a legitimate interconnection shared with other pastors and ministers across the nation and world. Some of these folks are, “more successful,” bigger, and, “wealthier,” than I am. But, I have yet to meet one who is more deeply appreciative for the people in their life and ministry than I am. Some of my favorite people on the planet are reading this message right now… that is an enormous part of my Thanksgiving Day Celebration.
The older I get (can I refer to it as maturing yet, or not…), the more awareness for gratitude becomes a strikingly obvious difference between broken, miserable people and the happily content who embody the attitude of real Christians. The Great American Pastime was once baseball, but has been fully replaced by stadiums of ingrates who complain professionally. You can hear it in nearly every conversation of our culture. It is visible in the lemon-sucking misery of folks all over society. It is literally popular to start an interaction with some type of complaint… and people are drawn to gossip, bad news, and failure stories more than testimonies. Misery loves company, and in today’s progressive, modernized, American “church-i-anity,” misery has found a massive host of “company.”
A Psalm of thanksgiving.
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD with gladness; come into His presence with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name.
For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.
Psalm 100 BSB
That is the entire writing… five verses of this Centenary Psalm is the totality of the expression in the heart of this author. Writer unknown, time period vague, details hidden, reasons unexpressed, circumstances unknowable, and personal situation of the writer impossible to ascertain. Think of the impact of this Psalm being, “generic writer to generic reader.” One of the intents of our Father in-so-doing is that no reader can do the comparative thing we are all-too-famous for. “Well, if my life was as ______ (good, successful, healthy, fun, et cetera) as THAT guy’s… THEN I could be thankful…” Nope. Cannot do it without making stuff up about the author. Which is what we tend to do when someone challenges our bad attitudes as well… make up reasons, or better yet, excuses.
Statistically, this writer had WAY less wealth and privilege than us. If you have $20 in your pocket, you are wealthier than 90% of the living population today. People in America on welfare and in public housing eat better, live better, have more assets, have more disposable finances, have more utilities (running water, sewer systems, electricity, internet, phone, public transportation), more and better clothing, cleaner air than MOST people on the planet. Yet, we would likely be ranked in the whiniest as well. Not to mention the fact that nearly all people in 2022 live better than all people in 1022, or 0022.
The point being: this writer made a decision, regardless of situation or personal experience, to have a more divine perspective on life which produced these eternal words made sacred by the God to whom they were expressed. What this author had, that many today lack, is true clarity in his life with his Lord.
Please note the, “actions,” of this Psalm by looking at the first verb in each verse:
1. Make
* We all have a Divine gift of creative power that is reflective of the image of God bestowed uniquely upon humanity. A large portion of this creative power lies in the tongue. Sadly, what most create with their words is the exact misery they wallow in and then implicate The Creator with their tongue or attitude for their self-induced swamp. Your words frame your world and create your life (or death) with intricate, experiential detail.
2. Serve
* There is this radical thing that happens to a person who takes the focus off themselves… life gets better. Much better. Way better. When our central objective is to serve, minister, unto our Lord and His people, everything gets simpler, easier, and more rewarding. When you are all wrapped-up in yourself, you make a terrible and tiny package. A self-centered person is an emotionally defeated and complaint-ridden person. If all you did was wash Jesus’ feet, you would overflow with passionate appreciation for just one nail-scarred moment.
3. Know
* Yada, yada, yada. That is the Hebrew word here. This is a deep, expansive, and infinitely diverse word in usage and application. Something to glean from is part of our intimacy with God is dependent upon, or based in, His firm placement in our life and heart as God… not a god, but LORD GOD. This is why I harp on, “Lordship,” so incessantly, or why my language is, “all in,” or why holiness, “set-apart,” and sacred lives is the thrust of nearly everything I preach, teach, and breathe. Our loving and good Creator said, “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge…” No yada, no production, only destruction.
4. Enter
* Choice and direction are revealed here. You cannot be pushed into His gates and forced into His courts. Slavery is such an engrained way of life for us today that, unless we are, “pressured,” into something, we tend to ignore it. We answer the screaming brat, not the still small voice. We lubricate the squeaky wheel, not refresh our soul with the oil of gladness. It is easy to not gather together with the saints because of stuff and things. But, when you come through the gates under the thrust of expressive gratitude and choose to go all the way into the inner sanctum of His courts by fervent praise, you find yourself surrounded by a double-layer of the presence of God. There is no better place in existence. None.
5. For
* That’s not a verb! Yep, it is a why. It is the energy behind our verb. Specifically, it is a triune source of power available to our mental faculty, generated by the character and nature of the One Who is worthy of all our thanksgiving. Just mediate on these three: (1) our Lord is GOOD; (2) His loving devotion to YOU endures forever (God word); and (3) His faithfulness is as dependable to our generation as any people ever. Our thanksgiving has access to a bottomless well from which to draw endless gallons of reason.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we learn that a king of Judah (Jehoshaphat), who just failed miserably in leadership, gets his heart and life right through deep repentance. This newly revived, and grateful, ruler is then faced with a massive invading army that greatly outnumbers his military’s ability in the rational realm. So, under direction of the Spirit of God through a minister, he humbly sends his troops into battle… BUT, they are led by the praise-team who sing a very simple song, “Give thanks to the LORD, for His loving devotion endures forever.”
They do not even need to draw a sword or shed one drop of sweat in this supernatural victory. ALL of their enemies became corpses because they were led into battle by hearts and mouths filled with sincere thanksgiving. They entered their Great Awakening through gratitude and praise.
Can you smell the scent of a divine victory… or just a broasting turkey?
Have a piece of punkin’ pie for me. I will be thinking about you as well.
Great Love,
Steve
