A woman leaving the worship service said to the minister, “I enjoyed the sermon”. “Don’t thank me, Thank the Lord”, said the minister. “It wasn’t that good”, the lady replied.
I want to Thank the Lord for the good things He is doing in our midst. Would you join me in pausing for a few minutes and give meditated thought to some of the things God has been doing recently among us. HE HAS:
– Blessed us with Rev. Ray O’Ferrell as our Minister of Visitation and Evangelism [MOVE]
– Blessed us with a great Tent Revival in April
– Blessed us by leading more members and guests to be involved in Sunday School.
– Blessed us with a smooth transition in Matt Jackson leaving as our Director of Youth. Soon after that parting the Lord opened up a promising opportunity for Matt to minister in a church much closer to his home and more in line with his church background.
– Blessed us by raising up Graham Honeycutt as our Director of Music and Family Ministries. In his first two months we have seen the Lord at work.
– Blessed us with an opportunity to minister to a Haitian orphanage destroyed in the January earthquake. Thus far we’ve sent two members and $11,000 there. And we will soon have the opportunity to send 100 shoe boxes of love to the orphans there.
– Blessed us by opening up monthly ministry opportunities for our Melody Bells to play
– Blessed us with a Wednesday night contemporary service that has grown and is producing fruit for the Lord. To host that, God has brought together a wonderful praise band and additional instruments.
– Blessed us by leading us to choose to sell and have the Morgan house removed from our property. We are trusting God to complete that task
– Blessed us with youth who are willing to reach out in ministry beyond the walls of our church.
– Blessed us with a second round of small groups
– Blessed us with the opportunity to have an updated sound system in our sanctuary
– Blessed us with a once-a-month Sunday morning contemporary service.
Did you know that every day your heart beats 103,000 times, your blood travels 168,000 miles, you breathe 23,040 times, you move 750 muscles, and you exercise 7,000,000 brain cells? Of course you do not see any of those things happening. But if they ever stopped, you would be the first to know! Life is like that…and so is the church. Whenever a great accomplishment is celebrated, a handful of people are usually given the credit. But behind the scenes are dozens and dozens of individuals without whose effort the success would never have been attained.
Let’s Thank God for all that is being accomplished here. YET, in addition let’s thank all of those blood vessels and muscles and brain cells who make things happen but rarely get credit.
I tell you what, let’s make November THANKS MONTH. Here are a couple of commitments I want to make and I ask you to join me.
- Pause at least 5 times each day and thank God for something – this should be in addition to the blessing I’m assuming you say at each meal.
- Say thank you with meaning to 3 separate people each day. This can be a family member, a work or school mate, the cashier at the store, the mail person, county/city servants, or a stranger.
- Write to or e-mail one member of the church each week this month to say thanks for what they are doing. Let them know that you have noticed and be specific about how they have been a blessing to you or our church.
- Write to 1 of our shut-ins this month and tell them you appreciate their service for the Lord over the years and for their present prayers for our church.
And by the way – I’m grateful to God and to you for your service to Him –
Fellow blood vessel – Pastor Steve