Poignant statement: Some people complain because God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses among thorns."

Subject: Give thanks to the Lord

Scripture: Psalm 100

 Canada celebrated Thanksgiving Day on 13 of October 2008 and since we are here for few weeks we got to see some of the tradition of thanksgiving festival. People have an assortment of ideas regarding the festival called Thanksgiving Day. Some people say that the “The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America. The people in the USA have some other tradition of Thanksgiving and it is equally wonderful time of thanks to God for His grace and provision.
This taught me few precious things of life. On this day people bring great number of things to be given to poor people. The church I went to speak people mostly from city background and so the items of thanksgiving were all sorts of tin and ready made foodstuff. They had laid all produce near the altar and they looked just wonderful. The various kinds of foods reminded me that we in a local church come from various backgrounds. Now that we are saved it does not mean we have lost our distinctiveness but it means that now together we are in the service of God. We come together as one body being different parts and that is just a wonderful thing. The Bible says that in the body of Christ we are one but we have different functions. There is a temptation in the church to have people who are exactly alike as they see this as a mark of true unity. But the Bible sees church as different people coming from various backgrounds fulfilling all sorts of role in order to let the church function live and function well. Reading of I Corinthian 12 makes it very clear.

The people who came to give were people of different background. Some of them were business men, some students and some house wives and of many professions and walks of life. It was just beautiful for me to see them all come together and just lay all they brought at the feet of God. This is beautiful picture of a real church. We are people who worship God with all we are and all we have. We need people from all walks of life as they have varied abilities, talents and spiritual gifts to share with the whole body.

The people gave and gave with joy because they were thankful to God for all that he has done in their lives. This sounds very plain but being thankful to God is elemental in our Christian faith. We believe that all we have and all we hope to have are all given by the grace of God. He is the one who gives us wisdom, strength to our bodies to go out and make a living and without His grace we will not be able to move even a needle.

The Pastor announced that the food was to be taken to a central place and then distributed to the needy of the city and there are always poor among even the rich people.  God is always concern for the poor of the land and those poor could be anybody in need. The Biblical God is not only a God who is great but the One who stoop down to the poor and needy and helps them. We are God’s children and God wants to use us to help the poor people. In Nepal we live among the poor and many of our believing folks are also poor. We need to know that our faith needs to be manifested in looking after the needs of the poor and needy among us. This was one of the hallmarks of the early church as they cared for those in need.

On Monday evening we had the most sumptuous food. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday but it is quiet and family oriented. This is one the times when the families come together and just be with each other and have a wonderful time of fellowship and reunion. The traditional food was roasted turkey, sweet potato and jam with vegetables and all kinds of beverages. The table was very tastefully decorated and we had a very good time of eating. At the end of the meal everyone who sat around the table had to give thanks for the things we are thankful for. It was so good to hear how we are so thankful to God for simple but very important things to thank our God for. We all know that family is precious but we need to nurture this unit and guard against attack on family.

In our Nepali culture we do not have Thanksgiving Day and may be very few churches observe what we also call Harvest Festival. May be, we as the whole Nepali church can observe Harvest Festival some time in October and November with the same concept and thank the Lord for His goodness. All the produce collected then could be given to the poor so that they can be blessed. This way we show love and care for the needy.

For Christian each day is a time to thank the Lord. We are people of God who have new life and a firm future hope.

As we thank God for His goodness let us not forget those who are not so fortunate. We need to share the love of God and also share from our resources so that they can experience the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poignant statement: Some people complain because God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses among thorns."

• Ponder and Pray (2008/12/20)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/11/29)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/11/21)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/11/10)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/10/28)

• Ponder ans Pray (2008/10/09)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/09/27)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/09/19)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/09/05)
• Ponder and Pray (2008/08/21)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
	Add Comment