All posts tagged: thanks

Glory in Our (Not So?) Failure

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God’s timing is funny. I meet weekly with 3 other ladies to talk about our relationships with Christ. We discuss the assigned Bible reading, recite the memory verse to each other, share our struggles, and confess our sins. The week of Thanksgiving Offering, we read about Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the promised land. As they crossed, each tribe was to pick-up a large stone. Joshua explained to the people: We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, “What do these stones mean?” Then you can tell them, “They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.” These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever. – Joshua 4:6-7 Shannon mentioned this story during our Thanksgiving Offering services and then we dropped our rocks into our own memorial. God was the one who months ago gave me the idea of rocks and creating a visual reminder of how far …

Have You Limited Your Generosity?

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I remember the first time I saw him put a check in the offering plate. I was sitting next to him in the choir. He didn’t make a big deal about it; just quietly took the check out of his pocket and dropped it in the plate. I have no idea what the amount was. But I wanted so badly to be able to do it, too. I was only 15 at the time; not old enough to work a regular job like he did. I cut grass for $1.20 per yard. In my mind, my twelve cents didn’t match up to a hand-written check. To me, the amount was more important than the spirit behind it. I turned 16, got a job, and opened a checking account. Each week I wrote a check and dropped it in the offering plate on Sunday morning. I can’t say I tithed every week, but I was pretty consistent. After all, we are to be good stewards. Right? Right. But tithing was about the extent of my idea …

How to Write A Thank You Note to God

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-written by Jean Daniel If my mother gave you something, she expected to receive a thank you note! It might be a wooden nutcracker for Christmas that she got on sale dirt cheap, or maybe just two dollars stuck in a birthday card. No matter how expensive or cheap the gift was, she would be looking for a handwritten “thank you” note in the mail. If she didn’t get one, she would say, “Well, I guess you didn’t appreciate what I gave you since you didn’t bother to write a thank you note!” The next year you might not receive a gift at all!  My children learned to write thank you notes very quickly. In this age of technology, when was the last time that you received a handwritten thank you note for a gift or thoughtful deed? Showers, weddings, birthdays, graduations. We zip off a text or email to the giver, if we bother to thank them at all.  Just last week, I received a note by snail mail from a friend thanking me for …

Giving Thanks in a God-sized Way

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When Nicole first scheduled me for this blog I thought, “Crap, I have to write a blog that’s worth $500,000.” As Thanksgiving approaches, so does our annual Thanksgiving Offering. Our goal is $500,000, which for me comes with a little vomit-in-the-mouth feeling when I say it. For a chicken-farm church, this goal may seem astronomical or insurmountable or insert your own adjective, but pretty much everything that comes from God seems like that to us. God’s vision for us, for His church, is far greater than any one of us could ever think of. No one in Carroll County would have predicted a church out on Highway 113 would set out to build a community center at the other end of the bypass. No one at SoHills would have expected our 2017 Thanksgiving Offering goal to be double what it was last year. But that’s because we didn’t come up it. This vision we are walking out daily has been entrusted to us by God to show Carrollton and the nation what it truly means to love …

Be Thankful for the Little Things

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Jim was one of the most optimistic, joy-filled, inspiring friends I have ever had. Always smiling—even when he didn’t feel well. One of the highlights of my Sunday morning was to soak up the sunshine of his greeting.  Jim had his regular spot in the back of the church where Linda and I served. If he was not there, I counted it a pleasure to visit his house on Sunday evening and, after a lengthy conversation, serve him the Lord’s Supper. He was always grateful. And I was always a better man because Jim brushed up against me. The signature above was on a letter Jim sent me after we moved to Chattanooga, TN. I cherish it, because it is the last communication I had with him before he went to be with the Lord. Hard to read his handwriting, isn’t it? That’s because Jim couldn’t hold a pen in his hand. He signed his correspondence by holding a pen in his teeth while someone held the paper up to his face. Jim could’t scratch …

This Week For Sunday

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Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two favorite holidays. It feels like a holimonth instead of two holidays. However, if we aren’t careful, we get caught up in the culture of Christmas and it becomes busy, stressful, and draining. Black Friday starts on Thursday now. Consumer America wants us to forget about Thanksgiving by 4pm so we can be in line for the best deals that start at 5pm. I believe every year we need to be reminded to relax and remember the true meaning of this holiday season. Are you thankful? Are you thankful for who you have? What you have? Was Thanksgiving a time of thanksgiving for you or the kickstart to your search for the best, most perfect, overpriced Christmas gift? I want to encourage you to take time and remember what Christmas is about. All of us were without hope. Living in darkness. We were dead. Then light came into the world. Jesus, the Son of God, became a man. Emmanuel. God with us. The greatest gift ever! Slow down. Breathe. Remember. …

Thanks-giving Begins with Thanks-living

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The aroma of golden-brown turkey wafting through the rooms of the house. The shrills of children startling anything still asleep. The caws of the crows piercing the fog that lies like gossamer on the outstretched arms of the trees. The occasional thunder of a gun in a young boy’s hands, fingers crossed, hoping for that first deer. Little girls playing hopscotch on the sidewalk while their brothers are pounding the pavement with basketballs. Football—inside on TV and outside in the yard. And, of course, jolly old Santa Claus—bigger than life—the grand finale of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But what if the stuff of which good Thanksgivings are made are just not there this year? I just received word that a friend of almost 45 years died. Try to imagine what his family’s Thanksgiving will be like. What about you? What about me? If we were to draw pictures of our lives right now, what would we draw? Would you draw a temple—stately, overwhelming, majestic? Or would you be more inclined to draw a picture resembling …