Twelve Delights of Thanksgiving

We have the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Introducing the Twelve Delights of Thanksgiving (and no, I am not referring to your 12 favorite foods adorning the dining room table at your family dinner).

At Thanksgiving dinner we sit down at tables heavy laden with delectable delights for our physical bodies. Here we are setting a table heaven laden with delectable delights for our spiritual lives.

This list is an effort to aid followers of Christ in participating more in the short, five word statement of one aspect of God’s will for us: "...give thanks in all circumstances!" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Nine of the twelve are causes of thanksgiving…three are the effects of thanksgiving…all are part of us developing the attitude of gratitude…the heart of thanksgiving.

Delight #1: Salvation through the blood of Christ

• 1 Corinthians 10:16 - "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?"

Delight #2: Victory through the resurrection of Christ

• 1 Corinthians 15:57 - "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the culmination of Paul's great chapter on Christ's resurrection.

Delight #3: Christian family & friends

• Ephesians 1:16 - "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
  
• Philippians 1:3 - "I thank my God every time I remember you."

Delight #4: The peace of Christ ruling our hearts.

• Colossians 3:15 - "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

Delight #5: – Praise & worship

• 1 Chronicles 29:13 - "Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious Name."
• Psalm 100:4 - Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.

Delight # 6: The foundation of prayer

• Nehemiah 11:17 - "Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the director who led in thanksgiving and prayer..."
• Philippians 4:6 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
• Colossians 4:2 - "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."

Delight #7: – Singing & music

• Nehemiah 12:27 - "At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres."
• Psalm 95:2 - "Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Delight #8: Positive impact on others

• Overflowing - 2 Corinthians 4:15 - "All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."
• Generosity - 2 Corinthians 9:11 - "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."

Delight #9: The goodness of the Lord

• 1 Chronicles 16:34 - "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever."

Delight #10: God’s unfailing love and His wonderful deeds toward us

• Psalm 107:8 - "Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men..." This is repeated in verses 15, 21 & 31

Delight #11: Food (this has to be on our thanksgiving list!)

• 1 Timothy 4:3,4 - "They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving..."

Delight #12: Receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken

• Hebrews12:28 - "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe..."

Now that is a feast! I am so full I think that dessert will have to wait.

May thanksgiving continue to grow as a spiritual character quality in every follower of Christ.

Who Am I?

Every profound questions mankind wrestles with is found asked...and answered...in the Bible. There seems to be a concentration of these questions in the Book of Job. Another place we find quite a few probing questions is in the dialogue between God and Moses in the "Burning Bush" episode recorded in Exodus 3:1-4:17.

As the Lord places His call upon the life of Moses, the reluctant apointee registers five different reasons why, at least from his perspective, he is the wrong man for the job. The very first gets our attention here: "Who am I...?"

The Lord does not reply with some profound or esoteric philosophical gem of wisdom. Rather, He seems to ignore the question by showing Moses that he is missing the main point. It is not the identity of Moses that matters. It is the identity of God that is of great import. Here we find disclosed to Moses the Name most often used in the Old Testament: Yahweh or Jehovah. It is used almost 7000 times and is found in English Bibles as the word LORD with all capitals.

Now, add to Jehovah the Hebrew Name for God - Elohim (found 2300 times) - and His identity is even more heightened. Let's pile on one more Name. While the word is not found in this passage, the truth of its meaning is evident. Adonai - Almighty - found aboutr 450 times. Add up these numbers and you are just shy of 10,000. Place the three words together - Jehovah Elohim Adonai - and we have Lord God Almighty!

Who Moses is, who I am and who you are must be seen with the spotlight shining of Jehovah Elohim Adonai - the Lord God Almighty.

To make application of this in practical terms, we could say that the Lord God Almighty should be the First and the Last...The Beginning and the End...the Alpha and the Omega...or, in the English Alphabet, the A to Z.

Therefore "Who am I?" must be answered with Jehovah Elohim Adonai, the Lord God Almighty standing at center stage. Here is my A to Z of the person that I am and want to be becuase of the Lord God Almighty's work in and through me. I am...
...the ambassador for the Almighty
...the bringer of the Bible
...the captive of the Christ
...the disciple of the destroyer of death
...the evangelist of eternal life
...the forgiven of the Father in heaven
...the gossiper of the Gospel
...the herald of the heavenly message...the house of the Holy Spirit
...the impassioned worshipper of Immanuel
...the joy found in Jesus
...the kid of the King
...the liberated of the Lamb of God...the lame one now leaping
...the minsiter ofthe Messiah
...the namesake of the Name above all names
...the owned of the One and Only
...the property of the Prince of Peace
...the quick quoter of the Word of God
...the reprobate who is now redeemed
...the sinner who has been saved
...the traitor who has been transformed
...the united with the Unchangeable One....the utensil of the Uplifted One
...the validation of the victory in Jesus
...the witness of the Word of Life
...the yielded, so I say, Yes, Lord
...the zealot whose name is not Zephaniah

We may have the same questions that paralyzed Moses. We may have the same excuses that brought Mosos to the brink of yoin AWOL.

So, our Lord has the same words for us that He had for Moses:

• Jehovah Elohim Adonai will be with you!

• The Lord God Almighty is sending you!