I awoke this morning with thanksgiving in my heart. My early morning prayer quickly turned to a lengthy list of blessings for which I am grateful. I knew the list was incomplete–there was no way to enumerate all I have received from the God who blesses his people.
I determined that I would go through today noticing life more carefully than normal, noticing blessings both great and small, and that I would be aware that all are a gift from God. Already the list is growing to include things I seldom include in my “blessings list”.
Perhaps you would like to identify a “Gratitude Day” and notice the blessings in your life that are often overlooked. If you adopt this idea, I would enjoy hearing from you to know how it went.
I think it’s important to be relevant while being faithful to the Lord Christ. And I think both are possible. We have to remember that the NT is not prescriptive about tools and methods but only descriptive (of course there are the basics of prayer and fasting and….). As much as people say they want to get back to the NT church I hope they are not referring to the NT methods of ministry but rather the NT anointing of God. If we want to get back to the NT methods, there would be a LOT of things that would change and while it would be really funny to watch someone try to do that, I doubt any of us really want to go there. It’s been a long time since I have been down to the local synagogue to try to reason with them. Why? Because methods have changed. Going to the synagogue was relevant to the culture in the first century. It worked. I very much doubt it would work in my home town….I know some pretty cool and hyper-advanced and provocative churches who are very faithful to seeking God’s face, bathing everything in prayer, meeting in small groups, and bringing God’s Kingdom to earth. I believe there are lots of God-loving church leaders out there who pray, seek, preach etc. who will be held accountable for speaking Irrelevant to a culture who speaks Relevant. It would be like me speaking English to a man who only speaks Chinese. I may have very pure intentions and love Jesus well enough, but unless I have the gift of tongues, he isn’t understanding me. Let’s keep our heads here. Peace.