Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is next week.  I love Thanksgiving because it's the one time a year I see a lot of my family; plus the food is awesome.  I want to use this blog post to take a quick look at what Thanksgiving is to a Christian, and I'm not talking about the American tradition necessarily.

Psalm 100
"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his,
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

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."

This psalm is awesome!  It teaches us about thanksgiving and the phrase "Know that the Lord is God" is the lynchpin of the psalm.

Also, when Christians have Thanksgiving they remember the good God has done for them.  Remember the hymn "Count Your Many Blessings".  Do that.  List and see what God has done; "and it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

I have so many to list that this blog would get ridiculously long if I did, so I wont do it in a blog.  But if you are reading this you are most likely one of those blessings.

Finally, when a Christian celebrates Thanksgiving he/she should look at Deuteronomy chapter 16.  Here Moses writes down God's decrees for certain parties the Jews will have.  These parties sound lavish and awesome, but I don't want to overlook a key ingredient.

During these feast God says, "No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you."

This means we should present a gift to God at these celebrations.  So I challenge you to do this.  This can mean donating food to a food bank, giving more than your tithe in the offering, etc.  Do something to thank God for blessing you.

I personally packed a shoe-box for Operation Christmas Child.  This is a fun, easy, creative way to give your gift to God and give the gift of God to someone else.  You see Christian living is all about loving God and loving people.  I feel this tradition is an awesome tradition for a Christian Thanksgiving.

So count you many blessings, know the Lord is God and don't appear before the Lord empty-handed.  Love Jesus today.