Here is Pastor Karen's devotion from the Ebenezer page today:
Good morning!
I will be visiting some of our elderly members this afternoon who live at RenVilla, a nursing home, and the Meadows, an assisted living facility. And I will stay for our church-sponsored barbecue at the Meadows at 5:30 p.m. for all the residents. We will serve plenty of good eats, including root beer floats for dessert. ...I haven’t had one of those in a long time! Everyone from our wider church family is invited, but we are especially hoping that some of our youth will join us as we eat and fellowship with our senior neighbors, bringing them Christ’s joy and peace.
I want to thank Deb Hinderks, Dave Ahrens, Joy Fischer, Melvin Bakker and all the other volunteers who are involved in this very special ministry of Christian care and outreach. God bless you for your compassion and generosity!
Giving thanks to those who serve the Lord is just one of the things I enjoy about being a pastor. I try to find creative ways to say thank you, using email, Facebook messages and posts, text messages, phone calls, and notes in church mailboxes. But the way of saying thanks I like best is the good, old-fashioned thank you card mailed to their home. I will be writing some of those today, too.
Saying “thank you” with a note or card is something I learned as a child. When you receive a gift or someone does something special for you, you write her or him a note. Even when you thank them in person or call them to tell them you received her gift, you still send a note.
We do this to show our affection and gratitude—and not out of some formula for good manners for gift giving and receiving. The thank you comes from the heart. And it is in the intimate heart-revealing process of giving thanks that we are brought closer to that person and are blessed with even more gratitude and a sense of peace or well-being.
This was the purpose of the sacrifice of peace or well-being in the Old Testament—to bring us closer to the recipient—God—to show our love and gratitude, and to be filled with more gratitude and peace as we submit to Him.
Joshua, in today’s reading, leads God’s people to build an altar, just as Moses did before Him, when they are in their new land. They offer up an animal sacrifice of “well-being” or “peace” as all the people stand on both sides of the ark of the covenant. Then Joshua reads aloud a copy of the law of Moses, which Joshua has written on stones. And, “there was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.”
And all the people are blessed as they give thanks and submit their lives to the Lord’s ways and His Will for them. They are brought closer to God.
We can never say thank you enough to the Lord—for what He has done for us in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who brought all humanity closer to God, removing all sin that separated us from Him. And we can never say thank you enough to those who serve God and demonstrate the love of Christ in their daily living.
Is there someone in your life that God has been placing on your heart lately? Someone you need to thank for their kindness, generosity, or friendship? Someone in your family, perhaps, who is always loving and giving? A spouse. A child. A parent. A brother or sister, aunt or uncle.
May the Lord fill you with gratitude and peace when you make it a habit to say thank you every day to Him—and to those whom He has placed in your life to be a blessing to you!
Thank you, my friends, for being a blessing to me!
Prayer: Loving God, you did not spare your Son when we needed a savior. Thank you for your love and your commitment to caring for us as Your own children, forgiven of our sins and made right with You. Thank you for your blessings and for your discipline in our lives—keeping us from harm and from straying from Your Will. Give us hearts of gratitude for You and for all those who serve You. Move us to loving words and deeds for those who continue to be a blessing in our lives, encouraging us to be what You want us to be and walking beside us in love when we struggle through hard times. With thanksgiving and joy, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Today’s readings are Joshua 8:30-35; Romans 14:13-23; Matthew 26:57-68 and Psalms 119:49-72.
Blessings in Christ!
Pastor Karen
Good morning!
I will be visiting some of our elderly members this afternoon who live at RenVilla, a nursing home, and the Meadows, an assisted living facility. And I will stay for our church-sponsored barbecue at the Meadows at 5:30 p.m. for all the residents. We will serve plenty of good eats, including root beer floats for dessert. ...I haven’t had one of those in a long time! Everyone from our wider church family is invited, but we are especially hoping that some of our youth will join us as we eat and fellowship with our senior neighbors, bringing them Christ’s joy and peace.
I want to thank Deb Hinderks, Dave Ahrens, Joy Fischer, Melvin Bakker and all the other volunteers who are involved in this very special ministry of Christian care and outreach. God bless you for your compassion and generosity!
Giving thanks to those who serve the Lord is just one of the things I enjoy about being a pastor. I try to find creative ways to say thank you, using email, Facebook messages and posts, text messages, phone calls, and notes in church mailboxes. But the way of saying thanks I like best is the good, old-fashioned thank you card mailed to their home. I will be writing some of those today, too.
Saying “thank you” with a note or card is something I learned as a child. When you receive a gift or someone does something special for you, you write her or him a note. Even when you thank them in person or call them to tell them you received her gift, you still send a note.
We do this to show our affection and gratitude—and not out of some formula for good manners for gift giving and receiving. The thank you comes from the heart. And it is in the intimate heart-revealing process of giving thanks that we are brought closer to that person and are blessed with even more gratitude and a sense of peace or well-being.
This was the purpose of the sacrifice of peace or well-being in the Old Testament—to bring us closer to the recipient—God—to show our love and gratitude, and to be filled with more gratitude and peace as we submit to Him.
Joshua, in today’s reading, leads God’s people to build an altar, just as Moses did before Him, when they are in their new land. They offer up an animal sacrifice of “well-being” or “peace” as all the people stand on both sides of the ark of the covenant. Then Joshua reads aloud a copy of the law of Moses, which Joshua has written on stones. And, “there was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.”
And all the people are blessed as they give thanks and submit their lives to the Lord’s ways and His Will for them. They are brought closer to God.
We can never say thank you enough to the Lord—for what He has done for us in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who brought all humanity closer to God, removing all sin that separated us from Him. And we can never say thank you enough to those who serve God and demonstrate the love of Christ in their daily living.
Is there someone in your life that God has been placing on your heart lately? Someone you need to thank for their kindness, generosity, or friendship? Someone in your family, perhaps, who is always loving and giving? A spouse. A child. A parent. A brother or sister, aunt or uncle.
May the Lord fill you with gratitude and peace when you make it a habit to say thank you every day to Him—and to those whom He has placed in your life to be a blessing to you!
Thank you, my friends, for being a blessing to me!
Prayer: Loving God, you did not spare your Son when we needed a savior. Thank you for your love and your commitment to caring for us as Your own children, forgiven of our sins and made right with You. Thank you for your blessings and for your discipline in our lives—keeping us from harm and from straying from Your Will. Give us hearts of gratitude for You and for all those who serve You. Move us to loving words and deeds for those who continue to be a blessing in our lives, encouraging us to be what You want us to be and walking beside us in love when we struggle through hard times. With thanksgiving and joy, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Today’s readings are Joshua 8:30-35; Romans 14:13-23; Matthew 26:57-68 and Psalms 119:49-72.
Blessings in Christ!
Pastor Karen
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