A day of thanksgiving and harvest is not limited to an American
tradition, or to the confines of earth. The twenty-four elders fell on their
faces and worshiped God saying, “We give
thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have
taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were
angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for
rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your
name, both small and great--” (Rev 11:17-18 NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----For most of my life I’ve felt a problematic angle to giving thanks and being thankful. Until recently I couldn’t get my finger on it. I know that when the Word says something, it can be believed: “...always and for everything giving thanks...” (Eph 5:20a) It’s one thing that God is good and works all things together to benefit those who love Him. I know that He stands in the only place qualified for receiving the ultimate thanks. But to thank Him for evil and deceit entrenching its way even deeper into a people who are much of our surroundings, to thank Him for a President whose very being president denies truth, to thank Him for cover-ups playing throughout our news, entertainment, and educational institutions which rise to the level of socio-cognitive brainwashing so effective that the few who know the truth must remain silent for the threat of vicious, personal attack by the most who don‘t? I know God is worthy to receive thanks, but what is so thankful about smiley fascism, as Jonah Goldberg and others are coming to call it?
-----If before a mirror every cell of your body disappeared, the mirror would yet reflect a perfectly accurate image of your form. We are that covered and infested by bacteria. In fact, if we were sterilized of all bacteria we would die. We need even the E. coli which lives within our bowels! The delicate little pimpernel is no different. Even the good we do is bad, as the Bible tells us that our righteousness is like dirty rags. God made this world to be a shake-bag of good and evil, a place so mixed up even evil will eventually fall to serving God’s ultimately righteous purpose. And His righteousness is not a bit bad. By the nature of His expression to the Laodicean Church, I doubt if there is even any neutrality in it. Every bit of it, beyond the last drop, effects benefit only. At least that's what I see the Bible say. So, He will squeeze benefit from evil as well, for those who love Him, by the time all these things of our evil age are finished.
-----Then it behooves me to realize that before thanksgiving can be from me there must have first been humility within me. Something rotten happening to me can only be the topic of my thanksgiving if it is valuable to me (love makes something valuable to someone else to be valuable to me as well.) And the only way to see the value in something apparently running counter to my value system is to measure it by what actually can detect its value. (God's value system.) The shift from my system to that one is done by humility.
-----So I have finally found the solvent for that problematic angle plaguing my thanksgiving. Even if the value in something can not be presently detected, my thanksgiving for its reality is yet owed to the Lord. Even for simply knowing that my system of measuring value has come due for another upgrade I can be thankful, because in measuring value more accurately there is knowing truth more fully. Christ being the truth, and all, makes that kind of valuable.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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