Thanking The Lord For All Things!
As the Thanksgiving weekend passes, we look forward to celebrating once again the birth of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! We are thankful for the ministry God has given us here in biblicalthought and are thankful for our readers that are being strengthened and encouraged in the faith. We look forward to the great things the Lord is going to do as 2009 approaches.
In Colossians chapter 3 verses 15-17 Paul writes, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Understanding God is sovereign, we fight on in the ministry with confidence. As soldiers of the Lord’s Army, we do not retreat and we do not surrender! We are compelled to take the kingdom by force. We are those men and women who take the Kingdom by force according to Matthew 11:12. We know it will not be easy, we know and understand that there are those who hate us. There are those who cannot stand us and make it their mission to fight against the Lord’s work, but what else can we expect? The Lord himself told us that we should expect this opposition. We are thankful for this opposition and thankful for whatever the Lord brings our way! The adversities and opposition serve to strengthen us, mold us, and shape us into what God would have us to be! To be sure, we are not perfect, we have not arrived, but we forget what is behind and we press on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus! He is our shield and refuge.
So, we thank God for our brothers and sisters standing firm in the faith! We can do no other but be thankful that the Lord has counted us worthy because of Christ, to fight the good fight. For this reason we quoted the Scripture above that exhorts us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts! Paul also writes in the preceding passages, “But now, you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.” Col 3:5-9
Paul further declares, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Col 3:12-14
In this we strive, as we contend earnestly for the faith. Our goal is to follow and finish God’s will! We will therefore, as Paul further exhorts in chapter 4, “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
God is building His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it! We are thankful to God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God, the Holy Spirit; the Triune God of scripture! To Him belongs all the glory, honor, majesty, and dominion, both now and forevermore! Amen
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Glen
AMEN!!! We should be truely thankful that we have been counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. My pastor just preached a very good sermon on this (suffering) topic on Sunday out of Rev 3. Christ spoke to the Church at Phillidelphia about how they were faithful. We must remain faithful through whatever comes our way good or bad.
We are promised that tough times will come.
You must realize, however, that in the last days difficult times will come. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unfeeling, uncooperative, slanderous, degenerate, brutal, hateful of what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will hold to an outward form of godliness but deny its power. Stay away from such people. For some of these men go into homes and deceive foolish women who are burdened with sins and swayed by all kinds of desires. These women are always studying but are never able to arrive at a full knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and their faith is a counterfeit. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those two men, their stupidity will be plain to everyone. (2 Tim 3:1-9)
Dec 1st, 2008
Mario Herrera
Glen,
Great encouragement! We thank God for the fellow soldiers God unites us with as we press forward looking toward His coming one day! With this in view, we can be thankful every day in Christ Jesus!
Dec 1st, 2008
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