Giving thanks

Week 2: Share the Joy

Day 9: A Celebration of Giving

"These are the feasts of the Lord,

holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed time."

Leviticus 23:4

Situation in Leviticus 23:1--25:55

In the Old Testament, God established several holidays that symbolized the Israelites' special relationship with him. 

Observation

Special holidays remind us of the past and give us joy in the present. Feasts help renew our commitment to God. In the New Testament, the celebration of the Lord's Supper reminds us of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for our sins and calls us to renewed commitment.

Inspiration

The idea of a holiday that emphasizes giving (and giving back) is not new to Christmas. Ancient Israel was commanded to celebrate the year of Jubilee. Beginning on the Day of Atonement, all the fields were allowed to rest. No farming permitted. The fallow land could then recover from forty-nine years of planting and harvesting.

In addition, all the slaves were freed. Anyone who had been sold into slavery or who had sold himself into slavery to pay off debt was released. Bondage ended.

And as if the soil sabbatical and slave emancipation weren't enough, all property was returned to its original owners. In an agricultural society, land was capital. Families could lose their land through calamity, sickness, or even laziness. The Jubilee provision guaranteed that every family, at least twice a century, would have the opportunity to get back on its feet.

Consider the impact of this Jubilee decree. A drought destroys a farmer's crop and leaves the family impoverished. In order to survive, the farmer decides to sell his property and hire out as a day laborer. A sharp investor swoops into the region and buys the farm and also a neighbor's. Within short order the developer has a monopoly, and the farmer has nothing but a prayer.

But then comes the year of Jubilee. . . . God shakes the social Etch A Sketch, and everyone is given a clean slate. This injunction was intended to prevent a permanent underclass of poverty and slavery. People could still be rich, very rich, but they could not build their wealth on the backs of the very poor.

So far as we know, the people of Israel never regularly practiced the year of Jubilee. Still, Jesus alluded to it in his inaugural address. What does this say about God's heart? At least this: he values a level playing field. In his society the Have-a-Lots and the Have-a-Littles are never to be so far apart that they can't see each other.

We don't live in ancient Israel, and we don't celebrate the Year of Jubilee. But who says we can't incorporate some of their festivities into our holiday? Who do you know that has fewer resources than you? How might you be able to give them a little jubilation this Christmas through your generosity? You don't even have to tell them it came from you. Hey, 'tis the season--blame it on Santa.

(Adapted from Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado)

What is gratitude

Gratitude is a choice – a choice to see things differently. 

 When choosing to be grateful, you are focusing on all
 the things that are good or right in your life, as opposed
 to the things that are not.


Have a blessed Thanksgiving 
I am so thankful for all of you!

Luke 10:25-28

How easy it is to love the mind, body and heart of God, whom we have never seen. How much harder it is to love the mind, body and heart of those people that are in our everyday lives. We are without excuse and it is commanded of us to love God with every fiber of our being and to love all people as much as we do ourselves. Only then can we draw others into the love that God wants all to share.

Worship

By Max Lucado

Being kind to the poor is like lending to the Lord; he will reward you for what you have done. Proverbs 19:17

When you take food to the poor, that’s an act of worship. When you give a word of kindness to someone who needs it, that’s an act of worship. When you write someone a letter to encourage them or sit down and open your Bible with someone to teach them, that’s an act of worship.

God’s Choice

By Max Lucado

You are…God’s own possession. I Peter 2:9
God loves you simply because He has chosen to do so.

He loves you when you don’t feel lovely.

He loves you when no one else loves you.

Others may abandon you, divorce you, and ignore you, but God will love you. Always. No matter what.

Stand Strong in God’s Grace

By Max Lucado
This is the true grace of God. Stand strong in that grace. I Peter 5:12

Up the hill we trudge. Weary, wounded hearts wrestling with unresolved mistakes. Sighs of anxiety. Tears of frustration. Words of rationalization. Moans of doubt…

Jesus stands on life’s most barren hill and waits with outstretched, nail-pierced hands. A “crazy, holy grace” it has been called. A type of grace that doesn’t hold up to logic. But then… grace doesn’t have to be logical. If it did, it wouldn’t be grace.

Ephesians 4:25-32

Be honest with tact, it is OK to be angry BUT let it go forgiving others so that you can be forgiven; get a job and work hard so that you can help others who couldn’t find a job or who are unable to work; if you are going to say something let it be decent, without hatred or prejudice letting it lift up others in the process; be nice and in a world that sometimes only cares about itself love others and yourself!

Ciarnan's 3rd Birthday

Ciarnan's Birthday Party

What a marvelous time we had! The dinosaurs were everywhere and the food delicious as always. Today is your birthday sweet Ciarnan may God bless you richly all the days of your life!

3

Women of Winter

by Max Lucado

I

THE MOURNERS DIDN’T CAUSE HIM TO STOP. Nor did the large crowd, or even the body of the dead man on the stretcher. It was the woman—the look on her face and the redness in her eyes. He knew immediately what was happening. It was her son who was being carried out, her only son. And if anyone knows the pain that comes from losing your only son, God does…. (Luke 7:11-17)

II

His plan was to catch a few winks while the boys went to town for food. And what better place to rest than a well at noon. No one comes for water at this hour. So he sat down, stretched his arms, and leaned against the wall of the well. But his nap was soon interrupted. He opened one eye just wide enough to see her trudging up the trail with a heavy jar on her shoulder. Behind her came half a dozen kids, each one looking like a different daddy… (John 4:1-42)

III

By the time she got to Jesus, she had nothing left. The doctors had taken her last dime. The diagnosis had stolen her last hope. And the hemorrhage had robbed her of her last drop of energy. She had no more money, no more friends, and no more options. With the end of her rope in one hand and a wing and a prayer in her heart, she shoved her way through the crowd….Luke 8:43-47)
Three women. One bereaved. One rejected. One dying. All alone.
Alone in the winter of life.
Though we don’t know what they looked like, it would be fair to assume they had passed the peak of their desirability. The only heads that turned as they walked down the street were heads shaking with pity. One of the three was widowed and childless; another had lost her innocence six bedrooms back; and the third was broke, desperate, and dying.
Had Jesus ignored them, who would have noticed? In a culture where women were only a grade or two above farm animals no one would’ve thought any less had he walked silently past the funeral or closed his eyes and leaned back against the well or ignored the tug on his robe. After all, they were only women!
Worn,
wrinkled,
weary women.
Winter women.
Let them alone, Jesus, one could reason. Find someone with a bit of springtime about them.
By the world’s standards these three could give nothing in return. They’d served their purpose: borne their children, fed their families, pleased their men. Now it was time to push them out into the cold until they died, making room for the young and spotless.
That’s where Jesus found them. Shivering in the icy sleet of uselessness.
The raw winter of life.
Sound familiar? Sure it does. We have our own people of winter. People who for the lack of good looks or sufficient earning power wander around like porcupines at a picnic, unwanted and unapproachable.
Hard to believe?
Visit a high school sometime and look for the teenagers already feeling the chilly winds of rejection.
Or try Miami Beach. I don’t mean the north beach where tourists pay $150 a day to get sunburned. I mean the south beach, a city deliberately built for the exhausted. Watch them shuffle aged feet down the sidewalk. They have come to their burial ground. They fill their nights with dreams of the granddaughter who might come next Christmas. And though the Gold Coast is warm, in their souls blow the winds of winter.
Or consider the unborn. Every twenty seconds one is taken from the warmth of the womb and cast into the cold lake of selfishness..
The paragraphs could go on and on. Paragraphs about quadriplegics, AIDS victims, or the terminally ill. Single parents. Alcoholics. Divorcées. The blind. All are social outcasts. Lepers, mutations. All, to one degree or another, shunned by the “normal world.”
Society doesn’t know what to do with them. And, sadly, even the Church doesn’t know what to do with them. They often would find a warmer reception at the corner bar than in a Sunday school class.
But Jesus would find a place for them. He would find a place for them because he cares. And he cares unconditionally.
No, no one would have blamed Jesus for ignoring the three women. To have turned his head would have been much easier, less controversial, and not nearly as risky. But God, who made them, couldn’t do that. And we, who follow him, can’t either.

From the newly released
God Came Near: Deluxe Edition
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1987) Max Lucado