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MM – How Is Your Handling of Money?

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With stewardship on my mind after the morning service yesterday, I was wondering how you as a family are doing in attacking the money issue? Does the world get a picture of sacrificial giving, demonstrating a trust in God? Or is the world shown that you value money just like they do, you just have God “working” for you? As a couple, labor together to strive to be Godly stewards of what you’ve been entrusted with.

Thanksgiving…

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Related to Thanksgiving, I probably won’t be posting the next couple of days, so have an enjoyable thanksgiving and remember to transfer glory to God for all you’ve been blessed with. Ultimately it is He who has given us everything to enjoy.

You might be intrigued by this post on a part of the Thanksgiving story you possibly haven’t heard before, as well as how we can thank the Puritans on this day as well.

TCT – Theology, A Church Project

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Continuing my series on Total Church, today we turn to the subject of Theology. The authors do a great job of showing the importance of theology and how that emerges in a Word and Community centered body. They also tie its importance to Mission. The most helpful part of this chapter, though, was when they made a distinction between what they called “The Theology of the Academy and the Theology of the Church.” There is a huge distinction between what is fleshed out in the rigors of academia and what the church actually deals with. This section…

…is a critique of professional theology removed from the furnace of life and not hammered into shape on the anvil of the local church. (p.162)

This is so well-said. I remember well my seminary days when my professors who shaped me in such profound ways were waxing eloquent on problems. What I’ve found being in one local church, though, for nearly 8 1/2 years is that some of their critiques would have been better served by being forged in the anvil of a committed body. This is so helpful for me to remember. We are “doing theology” every time we gather together. This is a huge responsibility for our leadership, but also a huge responsibility for those who make up the church. You can divorce one from the other. Church and theology go together.

MM – Thankful for Your Spouse?

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What can you do this week to intentionally express to your spouse how thankful you are to them? Think! Be Creative! Labor hard to demonstrate this with action. Thankfulness is an overflow of praise from God. Let’s express the overflow of our gratitude to God by demonstrating thankfulness in intentional acts of blessing to our spouses.

HW Recap – What’s Your Motivation?

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…for your practice of your role. This was the focus of HomeWord this past Friday evening. Audio of the message Role Motivation from Colossians 3:17-19 should be available soon.

Wives are to submit as to the Lord.
Husbands are to love their wives and not be harsh with them.

What drives our hearts, though, should be motives of thankfulness, pleasing God and love. So, how goes it with you?

How Will Your Practice of Thanksgiving Be Distinct?

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This is the question my friend Brad Russell asked me on the phone a few minutes ago. He was on a good roll. It went something like this: “Picture the typical Christian family’s celebration of Thanksgiving. As this is described, ask yourself, ‘How is this any different than the world?’ We will get together with family, some of whom might be annoying. We will sit down and pray over the meal, maybe discuss some things we’re thankful for, eat until we’re stuffed. The ladies will head off to the kitchen to clean up. The men will head off to watch the game. Children will go to play. Then we will go home and be done. So, how is it any different?”

Some may object, well, the prayer will be more God-centered. Ok, but that should be happening year round. Some will say, when we give thanks for the good things God’s done, the glory goes to Him, and lost people aren’t oriented that way. Sure. Some aren’t. Lost people get stuff though and have reasons for giving thanks. What makes our celebration of this holiday distinct?

As a church, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend:

Friday Night at HomeWord, we will be discussing what should motivate our roles in marriage and one of the foundation motivations (according to Colossians 3) is thankfulness.

Sunday Morning Worship, we will be exploring Isaiah 12 and hear a call to thankfulness from God Himself. We will also celebrate thankfulness in remembering the Lord’s work on the cross for us through the Lord’s Supper.

Sunday Evening Dinner, we will join together for a meal and share what God has done in the life of our church, expressing thankfulness to God.

So, join us this weekend for this and let’s seek to make our practice of Thanksgiving distinct and utterly Christ-exalting.