For That I Am Especially Thankful

During a harvest festival in India, an old widow arrived at her church with an extraordinarily large offering of rice - far more than the poor woman could be expected to afford. The itinerant pastor of the church did not know the widow well. But he did know that she was very poor and so he asked her if she were making the offering in gratitude for some unusual blessing. "Yes," replied the woman. "My son was sick and I promised a large gift to God if he got well." "And your son has recovered?" asked the pastor. The widow paused. "No," she said. "He died last week. But I know that he is in God's care; for that I am especially thankful."

Traditional

With Heart and Hand and Voices

Martin Rinkert was a minister in the little town of Eilenburg in Germany some 350 years ago. He was the son of a poor coppersmith, but somehow, he managed to work his way through an education. Finally, in the year 1617, he was offered the post of Archdeacon in his hometown parish. A year later, what has come to be known as the Thirty-Years-War broke out. His town was caught right in the middle. In 1637, the massive plague that swept across the continent hit Eilenburg... people died at the rate of fifty a day and the man called upon to bury most of them was Martin Rinkert. In all, over 8,000 people died, including Martin's own wife. His labors finally came to an end about 11 years later, just one year after the conclusion of the war. His ministry spanned 32 years, all but the first and the last overwhelmed by the great conflict that engulfed his town. Tough circumstances in which to be thankful. But he managed. And he wrote these words:

Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his world rejoices.

It takes a magnificent spirit to come through such hardship and express gratitude. Here is a great lesson. Surrounded by tremendous adversity, thanksgiving will deliver you...with heart and hand and voices.

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com

Thanksgiving

Ephesians 5:

Back during the dark days of 1929, a group of ministers in the Northeast, all graduates of the Boston School of Theology, gathered to discuss how they should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services. Things were about as bad as they could get, with no sign of relief. The bread lines were depressingly long, the stock market had plummeted, and the term Great Depression seemed an apt description for the mood of the country. The ministers thought they should only lightly touch upon the subject Thanksgiving in deference to the human misery all about them. After all, there was to be thankful for. But it was Dr. William L. Stiger, pastor of a large congregation in the city that rallied the group. This was not the time, he suggested, to give mere passing mention to Thanksgiving, just the opposite. This was the time for the nation to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always present, but perhaps suppressed due to intense hardship.

I suggest to you the ministers struck upon something. The most intense moments of thankfulness are not found in times of plenty, but when difficulties abound. Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, men without a country, but still there was thanksgiving to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. It was that same sense of gratitude that lead Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the first Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the butcher’s list of casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for survival.

Perhaps in your own life, right now, intense hardship. You are experiencing your own personal Great Depression. Why should you be thankful this day? May I suggest three things?

1. We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.
2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.
3. We must learn to be thankful or we will grow arrogant and self-satisfied.

My Army Experience

It's Chinese New Year again and that means book out time.
It's the time that I always look forward to.

A time to relax.
A time to chill.
A time away from army life.
A time back to family, friends and loved ones.
A time to talk, laugh and catch up.
A time to go out, hang around and have fun.

The past few weeks have flown past.
Things seem to have zoomed past.
Change has occurred.
Losing touch.
Drifting apart.
Communication gets lesser.
Relationships seem further.
Friends looks like strangers.

Yet, it's time like this when I learn so much.
I realised the importance of my family.
I learn to appreciate the people around me.
I want to spend time with my family.
They mean so much to me.
It's time to start treasuring them more.
It's time to spend more time with them.

Time management is vital.
Balancing it with different people sometimes seem hard.
But thank God for everything.
Friends who stood by me.
I want to spend more time with each of you.
Well, you get to see who's there and who's not.
Sometimes it takes two to clap.

Well, I guess two things I've learnt in camp is to trust and thank God.

Trusting in God is the sweetest thing I've learnt.
Learning to depend on Him to see me through everything is pure joy.
Reading His Word and hearing Him speak gives me rest.
Praying and committing things to Him keeps me in perfect peace.
I can see God in everything that happens.
God, show me your majesty and glory.

'Thank you' is something we often take for granted.
'Thank You God' is hardly heard.
When good things come, we think we did it.
When bad things happen, we blame God.
We are a bunch of ungrateful, unthankful people.
But I've learnt that we should thank God for all that comes our way.
There's just so much to thank God for.

Start thanking God and you will be a happier person.


My God is real
And to me it's a big deal

To see Him revealed in creation
To know His promises through revelation

Allows me to see His majesty
And His glory
And His power


Poem about army life

Each day in camp
Doing 5bx, IPPT or SOC
Running, pulling, and jumping off ramp
Your hand I can see

I shall continue the next time when I get more inspiration. :)