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Show Give Thanksgiving' to our Lord By REV. ERIC V. KAELBERER Pastor of Cross of Christ Lutheran Church Tomorrow we will celebrate as a nation the day we call "Thanksgiving." "Thanksgiv-ing." Its historic roots are important. impor-tant. The early Pilgrims offered up a day of rest and feasting in thanks to their God for His bounty, grace, and protection. These first European Euro-pean settlers had a very rough time. Yet even through the hardships they saw the grace of God. In their lack they found God's supply. They were thankful for all that He provided. Without doubt they were thankful for their physical blessings, bles-sings, their health, and their families. fami-lies. What they were most thankful for was the freedom they enjoyed to worship God freely. We must never forget the reason for their coming to this new world to worship wor-ship God, to worship the God who loved them enough to forgive them all their sins. They were thankful for God's Grace. Remember that grace is: G; God's, R: Riches, A: At, C: Christ's, E: Expense. What these early settlers were thankful for, and what we must center our hearts on is the forgiveness of our sins, for Christ Jesus' sake. Our life with the Father, both now and in heaven, is ours only because God saw fit to cover all our sins through the atoning death of His Son. John 1:18 tells us, "No one has ever seen God (the Father), but God the One and Only (Son), who is at the Father's side has made Him (the Father) known." (NIV, parenthetical remarks for clarification). clarifica-tion). We come to the Father through the Son and His work of forgiveness for the sins for which we cannot atone. Our salvation, our coming to the Father, sinless and without spot or blemish, is God's gift, not our work (see Ephesians 2:8-9). Our work is what flows out of the gift, it is never something which earns the gift. The Pilgrims realized this, so that even in the midst of their lack they saw the bounty of God's supply supp-ly the forgiveness of their sins! Give thanks this Thanksgiving for the God who, better than Hal-mark, Hal-mark, cared enough to send the "very best." A most blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours as you thank Him. |
