Now a days it seems as though the big push for some Christians is to put Christ back in Christmas. I believe this to be a good and noble cause. If not I wouldn't have gone to see Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas which is all about that. Side note: overall it was a good movie. With that being said I think it is more important for us to worry about putting Christ back in Thanksgiving. I mean it is already a religious holiday and you are able to Go to a Christmas Eve service at most churches. It isn't hard to put Christ back in Christmas. In my opinion the hard part is making sure that we are jerks about how we put Christ back in Christmas. A large part of that movie.
If you ask people what is the point of Thanksgiving today some may try to tell you about pilgrims surviving a harsh winter. Most will simply say something simple like food and family. Instead, I would like to suggest that Thanksgiving should be just as much about Jesus as Christmas morning is about Jesus.
You may be thinking something like, "Okay that's fine and dandy, but how do I do that? We already tell each other something that we are thankful for!"
Well, below are my thoughts on what Thanksgiving with my family/extended family is going to look like this year. (Not necessarily in this order though for family reading this.)
Everyone arrives at my sisters house with their food to share and mingles until everyone arrives.
We gather together in prayer to thank God for both the blessings this year and for getting us through the hard times we have experienced.
After prayer we eat! (I mean you don't want the food to get cold,)
While eating let people talk about what they are thankful for and how God has strengthened them through trials. (See previous post.)
A little time to enjoy the friends and family God has given us. (During this time I am going to take the kids aside and read the toddlers a simple book about God and thanksgiving. Later I will read Squanto and The Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas to my niece who is in 3rd grade.)
We will gather together to recite a responsive reading and read Psalm 147.
We will then sing a few hymns together praising God for Who He is and all He has done.
The last song we will sing will be O Come, O Come, Emmanuel to help usher in the Advent Season. We will also do an ornament exchange.
Lastly, we will relax with one another and slowly leave to go to our own homes.
So those are my thoughts on Thanksgiving and Jesus. It's not elaborate. It's not shouting at people. it is about finding a way to praise and honor Christ at home with family. Now will it be okay if not everything on my list happens? Of course! As long as we keep our focus on Jesus we can't go wrong.
Instead,
I hope and pray that you have a wonderful and Christ Centered Holiday Season!
As a parent, the one prayer request that is consistently coming out of my mouth is patience. If you have to ask why, you don't have a toddler or interact with one on a regular basis. Then there are the jokes about asking God for patience because He will give you more opportunities to be patient. While this is true, I am thankful for any situation that is trying. You may find that weird, but it's Biblical.
During my morning devotionals I have been reading the book of Revelation. In both 13:10 and 14:12 it calls the believers out in a similar statement:
“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12, ESV)
The context here is that there is a lot of bad stuff about to happen to people who have faith in Christ. Some may be taken captive, while others may be executed. It is in this dire moment that the endurance of the saints (believers) is called for. But, it begs the question, how do believers build up endurance to face this type of circumstance successfully? Moreover, will all have enough endurance to make it through this suffering.
We find the answer to that question in the passage below:
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2–4, NASB95)
James clearly tells us to rejoice in the daily struggles that come our way. This is so counter cultural! We live in a society that enjoys complaining about everything. From the way our government is leading to the WiFi not being fast enough at Starbucks. The former, by the way, is not a trial in my opinion.
So what do I rejoice in? I rejoice when my arms hurt after lifting weights. I rejoice when my bodacious bride has to work long nights because of either conferences or other school events. I rejoice when our car breaks and we have to put hundreds of dollars worth of repairs on our credit card. I rejoice and praise God daily when my left knee and right ankle are hurting. I rejoice when I share the good news of Jesus and I am met with indifference or humiliation. I consider it joy when __________ happens.
How can I rejoice in those circumstances (all of which and more have been in the last month)!? I am able to rejoice because I know that God is good. I am able to rejoice in the midst of these hard times because I have read the rest of the book of Revelation: God Wins! I can rejoice because I have not suffered to the point of death on a cross. I can rejoice because I have not, nor will I ever be forsaken or abandoned by God. As a result, my faith is strengthened. So when bigger things come my way I will have the endurance to withstand the darkest day.
However, if you don't learn how to rejoice in the day to day hard things that go on in life, how can you hope to be able to stand (endure) when your faith is truly blindsided? The is answer is you can't! If you fail to take joy in the difficulties of strengthening your faith, than you will fail to stand when great hardship hits you. I have experienced some hardships this year and have come out stronger. I praise God for it! If you want to talk more about this or could use some prayer regarding this please contact me.
Lastly, remember that we can't start to compare 'hard times' that we are experiencing with that of friends and family. The reason is that we all go through different seasons and because not everyone expresses pain the same way publicly. Also, we have this great promise from God:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (1 Cor.10:13) One of these temptations is to leave God behind when oppression strikes. However, the only way to endure tragedy is to embrace God's help even when you feel like He abandoned you in your hour of need. Just because He didn't intervene, doesn't mean He left you.
So remember this Thanksgiving to “give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, ESV)
This is the song that Christian Hip-Hop artist Tedashii wrote after losing his one year old son Chase. Listen and learn about endurance better than I could ever write about it.
I haven't written anything in awhile. So before I get back into the swing of things I would like to take a moment to get back to the whole point of why I write. The name of this Blog is "It's All About The Relationship." The reason for that is it envelops the ideas of the two greatest commandments: Love God and Love Others. Most of the stuff that I write in this blog I hope fits under that category somehow.
(Disclaimer: I am still and always will be learning the lessons mentioned below...so please don't take it that I've got it figured out.)
Now while I believe that the Church in America does a decent job at teaching these commandments, I'm not sure how well Evangelical Churches as a whole are doing when it comes to teaching how to live these commandments/how far reaching into our everyday lives they are. I mean Jesus did say that these two commands sum up the entire Old Testament/TANAK (Jewish name for it)!
We fail to teach how God is using our relationships with other people--whether it be parent, spouse, sibling, enemy, friend, coworker, or neighbor--to shape us into His Son's likeness. I know so many that want to be a better parent, but don't know how to be one. They look at the plethora of parenting books in the store, but have no idea which of the many conflicting voices to listen too!
Instead, why don't we stream line it for them. Get someone to teach them about the greatest parenting methods of all time: Those of our heavenly Father! Gary Thomas says that, "The Bible doesn't give many direct commandments of how to parent. Instead, it shows us how our Heavenly Father relates to His difficult children (a paraphrase form Sacred Parenting)." We can learn a lot about patience, consequences, love, appropriate boundaries/rules, and more if we just remembered that God reveled Himself as Father for a reason,
The same goes for spouses! Jesus revealed Himself as the Bridegroom and the Church as the bride! Again, we can learn so much about what these relationships should look like if we would remember simple points like this. People would see large sections of scripture in a whole new light.
God made us to be relational beings because that is what His essence within the Trinity is! In the end all any of us has is our relationships with God and others. If we tried to parent like our Heavenly Father and be a spouse like Christ and even understand what it is to be a Child (Son) from Him, there wouldn't be as many conflicting voices pointing the true way.
So when you are preaching, teaching, or doing your daily devotionals ask this question: What relationships are addressed here and how can I become more Christ like to those in my life?
It will be difficult, strenuous, even painful at times if you decide to embark on this adventure...but you will be able to say that it was worth it! If you would like someone to walk with on this journey, please let me know and I would love to have walk along side me as I also continue to learn these lessons and/or I can point you in the direction of someone else who can walk with you.
Next Up: Putting Christ Back In Thanksgiving!
Until next time enjoy "Loving God, Loving Each Other" by The Gaither Vocal Band
So those are my thoughts on Thanksgiving and Jesus. It's not elaborate. It's not shouting at people. it is about finding a way to praise and honor Christ at home with family. Now will it be okay if not everything on my list happens? Of course! As long as we keep our focus on Jesus we can't go wrong. 
