Tag Archives: God is my Salvation

Things to be Thankful For

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Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise !
Psalm 95:1-2

Once again Thanksgiving is upon us, and I’m not ready for it.  For me as a Pastor, Thanksgiving tends to get overlooked.  The fall is so busy in the church with the start of all the new programs and classes.  Even in October I start looking ahead to Advent, Christmas, and the start of a new year.  If it wasn’t for Thanksgiving, I don’t know if I’d ever stop to think about the things that I am really thankful for.  Just for tomorrow’s big day I thought I’d share some things for which I am truly thankful.

  • My Family – I know it sounds cliché, but I am very thankful for my family. 
    • I have four wonderful children.  They can try my nerves, they’ve given me gray hairs, and sometimes I wonder how much I could get for them on eBay.  But the joy they bring and the pride I have in them far outweigh anything else.  I love watching them grow and learn, to see their unique personalities emerge.  Thank you God for these wonderful blessings.
    • I have a wife who knows me and still loves me, and for that I am eternally grateful.  She gets me, and that’s quite a miracle.  I wake up every morning and she’s still there – and I’m the luckiest guy on earth.  I know I don’t deserve her, I often take her for granted, but I do thank God for bringing us together and giving us the love we share.
  • My Job – I have the opportunity to do what I love for a living, and that’s something rare.  I am blessed to be called to the ministry; I get to share on a daily basis the Good News of God’s love; I get to witness the grace of God changing lives; I’m called Pastor and I am trusted and respected as a teacher of God’s Word.  Some days I am overwhelmed by the calling, but I am thankful that God has led me here to serve Him and His congregation.
  • My Nation and those who defend her.
    • I thank God that I get to live in a nation where Liberty and Justice are the foundation of our society.  Some might say that those great ideals are being eroded, but the fact that we can say that without threat of violence or repercussion is evidence that we are still a free nation.
    • I am truly grateful for those men and women who volunteer to serve this nation in the Armed Forces.  Every day they offer themselves in defense of our freedoms, they fight to protect our way of life.  They don’t hear it enough, so I’ll say it again, “Thank You!”
  • My Salvation in Christ – Most importantly, I give thanks to God for the gift of Salvation He has given in Jesus Christ.  I am constantly aware of how little I deserve God’s love and favor, how far from Him I strayed.  Left to my own ways, I would never earn God’s forgiveness, nor would I even care.  But God, who is rich in mercy and love in Jesus Christ, has made me alive with Him, has washed me of my sin, has called me to walk with Him, and has filled my heart with hope.  Thank you, Father, for your love for me in Jesus my Lord!

Have a great Thanksgiving, and may you find many things for which to be truly thankful!

SDG

Through the Sifting

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“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”  Psalm 62:1-2

Do you feel like you are being sifted? On the night he was arrested Jesus said to Peter, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). Jesus was referring to Peter’s betrayal and his crisis of faith as a sifting process, and He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail.

I read up on the process of sifting wheat. It’s an ancient two step process consisting of threshing the wheat by spreading the wheat onto a hard floor and beating it with a flail. Once this was done, the wheat would be winnowed, where the loosened chaff is removed from the grain. The old fashioned way of doing this was to throw the grain in the air, where the lighter chaff would be blown off by even a decent breeze. The heavier grains would fall back to the ground below where they were thrown.

I think we all know what that’s like to varying degrees. We get beaten down and blown around, we feel we’ve gone through the thresher. For some, a tragic loss turns their world upside down. For others, the guilt of the past continually haunts them ‘till they feel there is no hope for freedom or redemption. Maybe it’s just the stress and busyness of life that makes us feel as though we’re sinking in the shifting sand. It’s almost as though we can see Satan tossing us up in the air, and we wonder if we’ll ever come down.

It’s times like these we need to remember to still our soul, to wait upon the Lord. The psalmist reminds us: He is our salvation. He is the rock upon which we stand. He is our fortress, the strong tower we run too. When we find our hope, our strength, our salvation in Him, we will find peace in the midst of the sifting.

We will, like Peter, be sifted. When we stand up to be identified as God’s people, we become targets for the enemy. We will be shaken, but not “greatly” shaken. The apostle puts it this way, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9). For Paul, the source of hope in the midst of the sifting rested in the understanding that this “momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).

If today you find yourself being sifted, rest in this truth, that your salvation is secure in the steadfast and unchanging love of God who has the power to transform your sifting into righteousness and joy.

Grace and peace,

SDG