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.

I really enjoyed the service this past Sunday! Damaris, Cameron and Robert did a terrific job leading us in worship. I’m very proud of them! And then the video of all the children sharing what they were thankful for was both laugh out loud funny AND quite serious. I appreciated all the effort Tim and Tonya put into pulling it together. Great job!

Equally encouraging was the Scripture reading and testimonies that were shared by Brad, Cameron and Lynn. What a meaningful reminder that God is a God of life, and that He answers prayer – amen!

And then how about the message from Pastor Tim! He unpacked the central message of Job within the context of the sovereignty of God - wow! It was outstanding! Among the notes I made, here are some of the highlights:

• Do we love God for who He is, or for only what He’s given us?
• Satan loves it when we get caught up in the religious performance cycle.
• Satan’s voice was silenced through Job’s faith. We do not hear Satan’s voice after chapter two because Job relentlessly trusted God.
• “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25)
• “Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” (Psalm 73:25)
• “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss, not prosperity.” (John Piper)

(I also couldn’t help but think about the fact that it took me almost 11 months to work through the six chapters of Ephesians, while Tim nailed all 42 chapters of the book of Job in about 45 minutes! You ‘da bomb diggity!)

Mark, then, brought everything together and led us into communion and our response/ministry time.

Of course, I haven’t even mentioned our awesome team of Children’s ministry teachers, nursery workers, or all the volunteers who faithfully serve on our various ministry teams EVERY Sunday. I love our church! God has been, and continues to be, so faithful to us!

Thank You.

Check out these Church look-a-likes.

HT: Justin Taylor

I thought this was a terrific follow-up to my previous post. I especially appreciated this paragraph:

Brothers, may I humbly remind us of two things: one, we are strangers in a strange land and preaching Christ and his grace is for both believer and non-believer. Be careful you are not simply talking “Christianese” to Christians. But secondly, it’s the gospel of grace. It really is all about Jesus Christ and the radical nature of his love and grace. The way you get in to a relationship with Jesus is by grace through faith and repentance and the way you live in grace is through ongoing faith and repentance, not by the rules. Jesus didn’t die so he could give your congregation an easier list of rules to live by. He died to set them free.

I'm back from my brief hiatus from blogging. I wish I could I say that it was a planned break, but I've just gotten behind. Several friends have been trying to get me to start twittering, but between blogging, Facebooking, and emailing, my technological dance card is full enough.

In Sunday's message I referenced a quote from John Calvin (poorly from memory) that I said I would post on the blog. It was from an interview with Michael Horton in this month's Christianity Today magazine, in which Horton contends that we need to once again let our lives and churches be driven by the gospel. Here's the quote with a little bit of context:

Paul calls the gospel "the power of God unto salvation," and I don't think he meant the power of God just unto conversion. The gospel remains the power of God unto salvation until we are glorified. Calvin once said we need the gospel preached to us every week, and the Lord's Supper to ratify that promise, because are partly unbelievers until we die.

Amen! Well said indeed. Hence, the point I was trying to make at the end of the message on Sunday when I said that I have failed you as a teacher if you leave thinking, "This is what I need to DO..." (in terms of earning and/or keeping my salvation through my performance), rather than the emphasis being on what Jesus has DONE. Aren't you glad that along with being saved by grace, we're also kept by grace. . . with all of it being accomplished by Christ in spite of us, not because of us?

I certainly am.