We are to be thankful.
Scripture provides us with excellent examples.
Before Jesus fed the five thousand He gave thanks.
Matthew 14:19 (NET) - Then He instructed the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. He gave them to His disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gives thanks twice.
Matthew 26:26-28 (NET) - While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks, He broke it, gave it to His disciples, and said, "Take, eat, this is my body." And after, taking the cup and giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
In the book of John, Jesus gives thanks to the Father before raising Lazarus from the dead.
John 11:41-42 (NET) - So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank You that You have listened to Me. I knew that You always listen to Me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that You sent Me."
Paul’s letters also provide many examples of why we should be grateful.
1 Corinthians 15:57 (NET) - But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
His letters are also replete with gratitude for those to whom he wrote.
Ephesians 1:6 (NET) - I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers.
So, Biblically speaking, we are to be thankful.
To be thankful for some things come very naturally.
Giving thanks to God before a meal is one thing that comes very naturally.
Sometimes we require a reminder to give thanks.
When the weather turns harsh, we find it easier to remember to give thanks for shelter.
Our safety is another thing for which we often forget to express gratitude.
How much easier it becomes to remember when we narrowly escape that accident on the road.
We are also to be thankful for difficult circumstances and difficult people in our lives.
God places them there in order to help us grow spiritually.
I would venture we almost never give thanks for these.
Finally, there are those things for which we almost never give thanks.
Those blessings from God of which we are completely oblivious.
Matthew 6:8 (NET) - Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
God knows what we need even before we recognize the need ourselves.
That means many of our needs are filled without our knowledge.
Why not take time to thank God for all that He has done for you,
Give Him thanks for His blessings, even those you did not see,
Give Him thanks for circumstances and people that challenge you.
Give Him thanks for keeping you safe and sound.
Above all, give Him thanks for His most precious blessing of all.
Give Him thanks for His one and only Son.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, March 2, 2012.
Schedule subject to change.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Master Designer
Genesis 1:1 (NET) - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Since I was a small child, I have always had a fascination with clocks, watches, calendars, sundials and anything else that has the capacity to track the passage of time.
Of these, I have a particular fondness for watches.
I appreciate the mechanics involved, the interplay of the various gears, the gear ratios, the springs, the tiny screws that hold the assembly together and so on.
In fact, had I been born with better eyesight, my fascination could possibly have turned into a different career.
As it stands, I have a career I enjoy and timepieces have turned into a hobby.
What has this all this to do with faith? For me, the answer is a great many things.
In the early nineteenth century, William Paley made a theological argument for the existence of God in what has come to be known as the watchmaker analogy.
In this analogy, Paley stated that if you found a watch, you would have to conclude that it had been designed because it is "complex". In other words, for the watch to exist, there has to be a watch maker.
It then follows that because the universe is s complex, it too must have a designer, namely God.
When I look at the complexity of the universe, I agree with Paley’s analogy.
Isaiah 45:12 (NET) - I made the earth, I created the people who live on it. It was me - my hands stretched out the sky, I give orders to all the heavenly lights.
There are some additional lessons in faith I have picked up from watches along the way.
For example, the first thing people usually notice about a watch is its face.
These faces range from black to white and include every color in between.
Each color is beautiful.
The same is true of human faces as well, as all are made in the image of God.
Genesis 1:26 (NET) - Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth."
Another feature easily noticed has also been given a human identity.
The hands.
Like their human counterparts, the simplest watches have two hands. One to track the hours and one to track the minutes.
Those that track other things require more hands to do so.
Some have a third hand to track the seconds.
Others require even more hands to track the month, the day, the date and so on.
Others have built in stop watches and require yet more hands.
Interestingly, each of these extra features have come to be known as complications.
I find this to be a remarkable coincidence because often our lives become "complicated" and when they do, a helping "hand" from a friend is always welcome.
Proverbs 3:27 (NET) - Do no withhold good from those who need it, when you have the ability to help.
The outward appearance of the watch is not the only thing that is important to those who appreciate them.
We also care about the what is inside as well, in particular, the movement.
What is inside says a tremendous amount about the watch.
Likewise, what is inside a person says a lot about the person.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NET) - But the LORD said to Samuel, "Don’t be impressed by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do, People look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Finally, sometimes watches stop running or stop running well.
When that happens, they do not operate at the level at which they were designed to operate.
Sometimes this happens as the result of a fall.
At that point, a watchmaker or a highly skilled watch repairman must be consulted in order to get the watch operating in the way in which it was designed to operate.
It is very similar with people.
We do not operate at the level at which we were designed to operate.
This happened as the result of another and more serious kind of Fall.
God, the master designer, can always be counted on to fix even the most broken of us.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, February 17, 2012.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Schedule subject to change.
Since I was a small child, I have always had a fascination with clocks, watches, calendars, sundials and anything else that has the capacity to track the passage of time.
Of these, I have a particular fondness for watches.
I appreciate the mechanics involved, the interplay of the various gears, the gear ratios, the springs, the tiny screws that hold the assembly together and so on.
In fact, had I been born with better eyesight, my fascination could possibly have turned into a different career.
As it stands, I have a career I enjoy and timepieces have turned into a hobby.
What has this all this to do with faith? For me, the answer is a great many things.
In the early nineteenth century, William Paley made a theological argument for the existence of God in what has come to be known as the watchmaker analogy.
In this analogy, Paley stated that if you found a watch, you would have to conclude that it had been designed because it is "complex". In other words, for the watch to exist, there has to be a watch maker.
It then follows that because the universe is s complex, it too must have a designer, namely God.
When I look at the complexity of the universe, I agree with Paley’s analogy.
Isaiah 45:12 (NET) - I made the earth, I created the people who live on it. It was me - my hands stretched out the sky, I give orders to all the heavenly lights.
There are some additional lessons in faith I have picked up from watches along the way.
For example, the first thing people usually notice about a watch is its face.
These faces range from black to white and include every color in between.
Each color is beautiful.
The same is true of human faces as well, as all are made in the image of God.
Genesis 1:26 (NET) - Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth."
Another feature easily noticed has also been given a human identity.
The hands.
Like their human counterparts, the simplest watches have two hands. One to track the hours and one to track the minutes.
Those that track other things require more hands to do so.
Some have a third hand to track the seconds.
Others require even more hands to track the month, the day, the date and so on.
Others have built in stop watches and require yet more hands.
Interestingly, each of these extra features have come to be known as complications.
I find this to be a remarkable coincidence because often our lives become "complicated" and when they do, a helping "hand" from a friend is always welcome.
Proverbs 3:27 (NET) - Do no withhold good from those who need it, when you have the ability to help.
The outward appearance of the watch is not the only thing that is important to those who appreciate them.
We also care about the what is inside as well, in particular, the movement.
What is inside says a tremendous amount about the watch.
Likewise, what is inside a person says a lot about the person.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NET) - But the LORD said to Samuel, "Don’t be impressed by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do, People look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Finally, sometimes watches stop running or stop running well.
When that happens, they do not operate at the level at which they were designed to operate.
Sometimes this happens as the result of a fall.
At that point, a watchmaker or a highly skilled watch repairman must be consulted in order to get the watch operating in the way in which it was designed to operate.
It is very similar with people.
We do not operate at the level at which we were designed to operate.
This happened as the result of another and more serious kind of Fall.
God, the master designer, can always be counted on to fix even the most broken of us.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, February 17, 2012.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Schedule subject to change.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
No Greater Love
John 15:13-14 (NET) - No one has greater love than this - that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I have often heard people quote verse thirteen.
Yet many people do not fully comprehend it.
That is why I chose to include verse fourteen as well.
To put things in proper context we must look at the surrounding text and determine to whom Jesus was speaking.
In this particular case, Jesus was speaking to His disciples.
Next, we next must determine at what point in time this conversation took place.
Jesus made these and additional statements before His death on the cross. This was but a part of His way of preparing them for what was to come.
Those whom He chose to follow Him had other professions first.
They began as His acquaintances.
Once they followed Him, they became His students.
As time went by, the relationship between teacher and student transformed into something deeper.
Those that followed His commands, became His friends.
And He was about to prove His love for them by laying down His life for them...
and for us.
In today’s world, there are some who willingly risk their lives in order to save others.
There is the soldier who risks his life to save a civilian on foreign soil.
There is the fire fighter who risks his life by entering a burning building in order to save someone from the inferno.
There is the police officer who risks his life by putting himself in harm’s way in order to protect a victim of crime.
Though noble, such sacrifices are made by a sense of duty and responsibility.
These professionals also willingly risk their lives when one of their own, often times a friend, is in distress.
When a soldier witnesses his brother in arms go down in an exposed area, he will willingly risk his life in order to move his friend to safety.
Fire fighters are equipped with an alarm that alerts their fellow fire fighters when they have gone down inside of a burning structure. A fellow fire fighter will enter into an even riskier situation in order to save his friend.
In law enforcement, the words a police officer never wants to hear are "Officer Down." When this occurs, all officer nearby will converge on the scene in order to render assistance to their friend on the force despite the additional personal risk.
In these situations, there is a heightened level of urgency that these professionals feel because a friend is at risk.
I believe Jesus felt a sense of urgency and devotion that far exceeded even mankind’s most noble intentions.
Jesus was not merely trying to preserve the physical lives of His friends, but their eternal lives as well.
That preservation came with a tremendous price... it required His death on the cross.
He willingly paid that price for His friends back then.
He willingly paid that same price for His friends of today.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, February 10, 2012.
Schedule subject to change.
I have often heard people quote verse thirteen.
Yet many people do not fully comprehend it.
That is why I chose to include verse fourteen as well.
To put things in proper context we must look at the surrounding text and determine to whom Jesus was speaking.
In this particular case, Jesus was speaking to His disciples.
Next, we next must determine at what point in time this conversation took place.
Jesus made these and additional statements before His death on the cross. This was but a part of His way of preparing them for what was to come.
Those whom He chose to follow Him had other professions first.
They began as His acquaintances.
Once they followed Him, they became His students.
As time went by, the relationship between teacher and student transformed into something deeper.
Those that followed His commands, became His friends.
And He was about to prove His love for them by laying down His life for them...
and for us.
In today’s world, there are some who willingly risk their lives in order to save others.
There is the soldier who risks his life to save a civilian on foreign soil.
There is the fire fighter who risks his life by entering a burning building in order to save someone from the inferno.
There is the police officer who risks his life by putting himself in harm’s way in order to protect a victim of crime.
Though noble, such sacrifices are made by a sense of duty and responsibility.
These professionals also willingly risk their lives when one of their own, often times a friend, is in distress.
When a soldier witnesses his brother in arms go down in an exposed area, he will willingly risk his life in order to move his friend to safety.
Fire fighters are equipped with an alarm that alerts their fellow fire fighters when they have gone down inside of a burning structure. A fellow fire fighter will enter into an even riskier situation in order to save his friend.
In law enforcement, the words a police officer never wants to hear are "Officer Down." When this occurs, all officer nearby will converge on the scene in order to render assistance to their friend on the force despite the additional personal risk.
In these situations, there is a heightened level of urgency that these professionals feel because a friend is at risk.
I believe Jesus felt a sense of urgency and devotion that far exceeded even mankind’s most noble intentions.
Jesus was not merely trying to preserve the physical lives of His friends, but their eternal lives as well.
That preservation came with a tremendous price... it required His death on the cross.
He willingly paid that price for His friends back then.
He willingly paid that same price for His friends of today.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, February 10, 2012.
Schedule subject to change.
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