Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year at this time our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and praise, but this year our hearts are overflowing! After three years of waiting, finally we are home for the holidays.

Last night after our service as people were busy transforming the sanctuary into a dining room, I was thinking back to the first Thanksgiving at Fairfield. It was a lot cooler than today, maybe even a little rain came our way; we had no electricity, no water, no rest rooms, and what is now a lovely Fellowship Hall was but a shell of a room. Yet there we were, sharing Thanksgiving together. Eighty-five people came for a sit-down meal and we had the best time!

The following two years we had similar experiences but the weather was nice and we were able to eat outside....with rented portable toilets and a hand washing station. There we were, happy to be together as we awaited the renovation of our building.

Today we will eat in the comfort of our new home. What a mighty God we serve!!! God has done for us what many predicted could not and would not happen. What a testimony of God's grace, mercy and power. And how humbling it is for us to be the recipients of such blessings!

Praise be to God, who brings forth blessings in spite of us and others. Today we will break bread with a number of new people who are now a part of our church as well as some of our neighbors. Today some of us will miss the people who were here last year but are now gone. Today we will do what scripture teaches in I Thessalonians 5:16-18,

"Be joyful always; pray continually;give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Last night we focused on that scripture and the little word "in". Today I want to encourage you to be thankful no matter what circumstance you are in today. It is God's will for us to give thanks in the midst of blessings and even in the midst of troubles.

In case you need some help getting started, here are some things for which we can all be thankful...some things that will remain no matter how much life and people let us down, and no matter what circumstance comes our way. F. E. Marsh has enumerated some of these blessings:

· An acceptance that can never be questioned. (Ephesians 1:6).

· An inheritance that can never be lost (1 Peter 1:3-5).

· A deliverance that can never be excelled (2 Corinthians l:10).

· A grace that can never be limited (2 Corinthians 12:9).

· A hope that can never be disappointed. (Hebrews 6:18, 19).

· A bounty that can never be withdrawn. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).

· A joy that need never be diminished (John 15:11).

· A nearness to God that can never be reversed (Ephesians 2:13).

· A peace that can never be disturbed (John 14:27).

· A righteousness that can never be tarnished (2 Corinthians 5:21).

· A salvation that can never be canceled (Hebrews 5:9). (http://www.bible.org.)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you for being a part of my life and ministry.