Thanksgiving has always been a pretty big deal in our family. This year’s menu included turkey, ham, Laurie’s amazing cheese potatoes, green bean casserole, a spinach casserole that even spinach haters would like, deviled eggs, black olives, jellied cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and a broccoli–cauliflower–bacon salad that is sweet enough to almost qualify as a dessert. Speaking of dessert, Sarah made pumpkin and toll house pies, both of which were perfect!

But every year, the highlight of the day remains the same. We get to celebrate and enjoy the day with family and friends. Yesterday I posted on Facebook that I have so much for which to be thankful, and that Jesus, family and friends top the list.

Of course the other family tradition that accompanies this holiday is hunting! I’ve had a blast being in the woods with my Dad and brother. In fact, I spent Thanksgiving morning cutting up a deer that I had gotten the day before. For those who are NOT squeamish and faint of heart, here’s a pic of me skinning him out (be warned: graphic picture around the corner, click at your own risk – Deer being Processed).

Along with hunting, the other pleasure that comes from being in the woods is getting some extra time to read. I always have a book or my little New Testament with me in the stand. Yesterday afternoon, along with listening for rustling in the leaves, I finished up Jared Wilson’s excellent book, Your Jesus Is Too Safe. He concluded the book with a statement that almost knocked me out of my tree stand! Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but it summed up everything that I have been recently thinking through, and I don’t know that it could be stated any better. My only response is simply, “Amen!, Amen! and AMEN!”

My prayer is that more and more churches in Western evangelicalism will repent of their relegating of the gospel to a place inside the Trojan Horse of attractive programing and performance-driven worship services and self-help sermons, and once again herald it boldly as the only and supreme hope of a dying world.

In light of this, this, and this, as well as the plethora of other passages which emphasize the pastoral responsibility of feeding and equipping the flock, I thought Jared’s insightful quote connected squarely in the center of the head of the proverbial nail.