A S P E C T S - a monthly devotional journal [For subscription information on receiving Aspects every month via e-mail, or the laser-printed edition by mail, see NOTES, COPYRIGHT & SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION near the end of this file.] Aspects is written by David S. Lampel. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Issue #48, November 1994 (Internet Edition) E N T E R H I S G A T E S W I T H T H A N K S G I V I N G ----------------------------------------------------------------- In this issue: Perspective 1 - Getting the Right Address Perspective 2 - The Silence of One Heart Clapping Perspective 3 - Poured Out ----------------------------------------------------------------- I recall Thanksgivings past when I ended up more stuffed than the bird from which I had just partaken. I remember being utterly miserable, holding my bursting belly with both hands, loosening my ever-constricting belt beyond all standards of propriety, imagining myself surely better dead and buried than in my present horrific condition--stuffed to the gills with turkey and mashed potatoes and dressing and green beans and cranberry sauce and (oh, heaven help me) fresh, warm pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream. I recall being more thankful for the meal prior to the meal than after. And I recall ending the day being thankful that the day came upon us only once per year. After all, just how many Macy's parades can one person take! But every day should be Thanksgiving for the child of God. Every day should be a celebration of joy for having a life guided and protected by our gracious God. 2 Thes. 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. ___________________________ There is not enough thanksgiving in the body of Christ. We can spend hour after hour gathering up our woeful prayer requests, our supplications and petitions, then sending these leaden, insistent missiles heavenward. We can itemize our concerns, crafting detailed lists then handed out to the membership, carefully listing every ache and ailment, every disappointment and sad report, every home-bound, bed-ridden member needing our prayers. Yes, and we should. Valuable and comforting is the ministry of intercessory prayer. Yet, where is the joy? Where is the balance between cries for help and expressions of joyful thanksgiving? "Our thanks should be as fervent for mercies received, as our petitions sought."(1) ___________________________ Giving thanks is easy, and we all know how to do it. From our earliest memories was a parent telling us to "Say thank you." We were raised to verbally express our gratitude when nice things have been done for us. But it's not just courtesy. Thanksgiving--as with most Spiritual disciplines--pays dividends. Thanksgiving is just another form of prayer, of communion with God. Without it, we dry up; with it, we retain our vital connection with the God we worship. Henri Nouwen is a Catholic priest and author of dozens of widely acclaimed books on spirituality and ministry. He is the Pastor at Daybreak, a community for the mentally and physically handicapped near Toronto. In a recent Christianity Today article and interview, he expressed some thoughts on constant prayer--of which thanksgiving is surely a part. "As the community's pastor, Nouwen gives spiritual direction and encourages assistants to see their whole lives as opportunity for prayer: they do not just work with the handicapped during the day and pray at night. God speaks at all times and in all places, Nouwen counsels, not just in routine times of prayer. Regular disciplines are crucial, but all our lives can be prayerful. Developing this sort of consciousness, in accordance with Paul's injunction to 'pray without ceasing,' is a way of making our daily lives into a 'window' for how God works. "Indeed, Nouwen's work is a constant, repeated, and emphatic reminder of the call to prayer: 'Praying at all times means keeping our eyes always fixed on Jesus the Christ. As Peter began to sink as soon as he moved his eyes from Jesus to the restless waters on which he walked, so will we lose heart as soon as we stop praying. But as long as we keep the eyes of our hearts and minds focused on him, we can walk confidently in this world, bringing peace wherever we go.'"(2) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective 1: G E T T I N G T H E R I G H T A D D R E S S ------------- James 1:16-17 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. If everything emanates from the Lord, then all praise and thanksgiving must be rendered to Him. We give thanks to each other out of courtesy; we give thanks to God out of debt. "It is always well to trace our mercies to him who bestows them, and if we cannot give him anything else, let us at any rate give him our thanks."(3) There is a mental exercise I've established since living out in the country. It's nothing fancy or complicated, but I've found it to be a helpful--and healthful--activity. During my daily half-mile walks between the house and the mailbox, I entertain myself with two thoughts. First, when I see or hear something that brings joy to my heart--fresh green leaves budding on a spring day, the fragile beauty of Linda's gladiolus, the sound of the wind through evergreens, the surprise of new young ones in a robin's nest--I sigh and say to myself, "I am so blessed. What have I done to deserve this?" Second, and immediately, I remind myself that, indeed, I have done nothing to deserve this--that it is all the result of God's grace, not mine. I remind myself that each thing--each flower and tree and singing bird--is a free gift from the Father. My life is what it is because of His gracious love. As a result of this two-step exercise, I return to the house each day with a heart filled with thanksgiving for the one responsible: the Lord God. The exercise helps keep things in perspective--helps keep my head screwed on straight, as my dad used to say. Admittedly, I didn't have these thoughts so often when we lived in Southern California suburbia. It didn't occur to me to thank Him for that. But I should have. Our life--no matter where we live, and no matter the conditions--we owe to Him. He is the one owed the gratitude and thanksgiving. ___________________________ Psalms of Thanksgiving These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Psalm 42:4 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Psalm 95:2 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this--those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, Psalm 107:1-2 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy. Psalm 107:21-22 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let Israel say: "His love endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say: "His love endures forever." Let those who fear the Lord say: "His love endures forever." Psalm 118:1-4 You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:28-29 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. Psalm 147:7 Into the Word ------------- 2 Chron. 29:29-33,36 When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped. Then Hezekiah said, "You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord." So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings. The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs--all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. The animals consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Digging Deeper--Moving Higher ----------------------------- O Lord of heav'n and earth and sea, To Thee all praise and glory be; How shall we show our love to Thee, Who givest all? Thou didst not spare Thine only Son, But gav'st Him for a world undone, And freely, with that Blessed One, Thou givest all. For souls redeemed, for sins forgiv'n, For means of grace and hopes of heav'n, Father, what can to Thee be giv'n, Who givest all? We lose what on ourselves we spend, We have as treasure without end Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend, Who givest all; To Thee, from whom we all derive Our life, our gifts, our power to give: O may we ever with Thee live, Who givest all! (4) ___________________________ To God be the glory, great things He hath done, So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life-gate that all may go in. Refrain: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice! O come to the Father thro' Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, To ev'ry believer the promise of God; The vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, And great our rejoicing thro' Jesus the Son; But purer, and higher, and greater will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.(5) ___________________________ "That a great many persons fail in the degree of their thankfulness we all know too well. Hardly anyone but has known remorse for his failure to express proper gratitude to father or mother or friend till it was too late. And most of us have felt the chill that comes to those who do acts of kindness for persons who receive them as matters of course without so much as a word of thanks. Even Christ appears to have suffered from such treatment, for after He had healed 10 lepers and only one returned to give Him thanks, He asked rather sadly, 'Where are the other nine?'(6) We dare not read too much into this, but it seems fair to assume that He wanted the cleansed lepers to thank Him, and was disappointed when they did not. But even here we must not conclude that these men were wholly thankless. They may quite easily have been grateful to friends and relatives, or even to total strangers who might have helped them in the past, and still have failed to express their thanks to the One who deserved it most. "This habit of thanking everyone but God is not confined to those nine lepers. Enter a plane, a train, a restaurant or any other place where modern civilized men and women meet and mingle and you will see evidences of the same spirit. You will hear thanks given and acknowledged right and left without so much as a mention of God. Somewhere I read of the Christian farm boy who went to college and who in the dining room always bowed his head to thank God before beginning to eat. When some of his fellow students ribbed him for it, he grinned and said, 'Hogs don't thank anybody either when they eat their swill.' It might have been a bit direct, but I am sure everyone got the point. "It is important that we trace our benefits back to their source and express our thanks to the One 'from whom all blessings flow,' rather than merely to feel a vague stirring of gratefulness that results in nothing real."(7) ___________________________ Sometimes we need convincing. It's very easy, in the society in which we live and move, to lose the habit of thanking God for what we have. The habit of this world--and especially the population of the United States--is self-sufficiency, boot-strap pulling. As a consequence, we come to believe that we are responsible for who we are and what we have. So we must make it a point to purposely fight this current of conceit. As you move through the coming days, make it a habit to pause and consider anything and everything--your family, your house, the trees, the flowers, your car, etc.--and work out in your own mind how that thing has been provided by God. Then thank Him. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective 2: T H E S I L E N C E O F ------------- O N E H E A R T C L A P P I N G The apostle Paul makes a remarkable point in his first letter to the church in Corinth. He is contrasting the two gifts of speaking in tongues and prophecy, making the point that of the two, prophecy is the superior gift. 1 Corinthians 14:1-2 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. Speaking in a tongue that is not interpreted or praying in the Spirit are both profitable activities, but they are private, and do nothing for the person sitting next to you. 1 Corinthians 14:15-17 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. ___________________________ So our thanksgiving should be. We talk about being thankful and we say we are--in our heart. But that does nothing for the body of Christ. We need to be constantly reminding each other how good it is to belong to Christ. We should be jumping at every opportunity to share the blessings and joys that come from this singular relationship. Tozer says that thankfulness is healthy: "Thanksgiving has great curative power. The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many religious persons. A thankful heart cannot be cynical."(8) Before we can express our thanksgiving, we should determine just what it is we're thankful for. In the space below, list all (or as many as come to you) those things (including people) for which you are thankful. Take your time; don't try to do it in one sitting. I am thankful for . . . ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ After you've made your list, begin practicing the habit of making sure others know you are thankful for these things. If you have written the name of a person on your list, be sure to tell that person that you are thankful for them. Share your thanksgiving with others; in so doing you will not only edify your brother or sister, but you will also remind them of their need to be thankful. Into the Word ------------- 1 Cor. 14:16-17 If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. 1 Chron. 16:7-8 That day David first committed to Asaph and his associates this psalm of thanks to the Lord: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Digging Deeper--Moving Higher ----------------------------- We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; He chastens and hastens His will to make known; The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing, Sing praises to His name: He forgets not His own. Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine; So from the beginning the fight we were winning: Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be Thine! We all do extol Thee. Thou Leader triumphant, And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be, Let Thy congregation escape tribulation: Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!(9) ___________________________ We are so blessed by the gifts of Your hand, I just can't understand why You've loved us so much. We are so blessed, we just can't find a way or the words that can say, thank you Lord, for Your touch. When we're empty You fill us `til we overflow, When we're hungry You feed us and cause us to know; We are so blessed, take what we have to bring; Take it all, ev'rything, Lord, we love You so much.(10) ___________________________ Psalm 106:1 Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. "It is not meet for a few to praise and the rest to be silent; but all should join. If David were present in churches where quartettes and choirs carry on all the singing, he would turn to the congregation and say, 'Praise the Lord!' Our meditation dwells upon human sin; but on all occasions and in all occupations it is seasonable and profitable to praise the Lord. To us needy creatures the goodness of God is the first attribute which excites praise, and that praise takes the form of gratitude. We praise the Lord truly when we give Him thanks for what we have received from His goodness. Let us never be slow to return unto the Lord our praise; to thank Him is the least we can do--let us not neglect it."(11) Making It Personal ------------------ How easy was it for you to make your "thanksgiving list" on the previous page? Did it take awhile, or did the items come easily to you? If you had a hard time thinking of things, why do you think that is? There are two types of thanksgiving to express. We can tell others that we are thankful for God's blessings, and we can tell others that we are thankful for them. Within these two types, what different ways can you express your thanksgiving to people? Which way seems the most comfortable for you? What can you do--right now--to express your thanksgiving to someone else? Into the Word ------------- Psalm 104:1,24,31-35 Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works--he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective 3: P O U R E D O U T ------------- If you want to read about people who were truly thankful, read the book of Nehemiah. What a wonderful story of a dispossessed people finally rejoicing in the presence of God. I recently happened upon an interesting verse buried in the middle of this book. The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and also Mattaniah, who, together with his associates, was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. Neh. 12:8 They actually had people officially in charge of the "songs of thanksgiving." That tells me it was something important in the congregation. Thanksgiving was something worthy of leadership. 1 Cor. 8:6 . . . yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. Thanksgiving is important when it is owed the Lord. ___________________________ Many associate thanksgiving with words, but it is far more than that. 2 Samuel 23:15-17 David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the Lord. "Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it. "What has been like 'water from the well of Bethlehem' to you recently--love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out 'to the Lord.' You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God--something that your common sense says is an absurd waste. "How can I pour out 'to the Lord' natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way--I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out 'to the Lord.' Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as 'rivers of living water' all around me.(12) And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. "If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything 'to the Lord,' other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you."(13) ___________________________ The Activity of Thanksgiving Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 1 Cor. 10:16 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 2 Cor. 2:14 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 2 Cor. 9:11-12 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col. 3:17 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thes. 5:16-18 Into the Word ------------- What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord Now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord Now in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the Lord's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! Psalm 116:12-19 NKJV ----------------------------------------------------------------- Digging Deeper--Moving Higher ----------------------------- With thankful hearts, O Lord, we come, To praise Thy name in grateful song; Accept the offering, Lord, we bring, And help us loud Thy praises sing. We thank Thee, Lord, for daily food, For plenteous store of earthly good; For life, and health, we still possess, With house and home so richly blest. We thank Thee for this goodly land, Where freedom reigns on every hand; Do Thou, O Lord, our country bless, With heavenly peace and righteousness. We thank Thee for Thy blessed Word, That to our souls doth life afford; Help us its message to receive, And from the heart its truth believe. Amen.(14) ___________________________ Great God, we sing that mighty hand By which supported still we stand; The opening year Thy mercy shows; That mercy crowns it till it close. By day, by night, at home, abroad, Still are we guarded by our God; By His incessant bounty fed, By His unerring counsel led. With grateful hearts the past we own; The future, all to us unknown, We to Thy guardian care commit, And, peaceful, leave before Thy feet. In scenes exalted or depressed Thou art our joy, and Thou our rest; Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise, Adored thro' all our changing days. Amen.(15) Making It Personal ------------------ How can you translate your heart-felt thanksgiving into tangible action? In what ways are the following different? Worship Praise Thanksgiving Service In what ways are they similar, or the same? Into the Word ------------- You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 2 Cor. 9:11-12 Spend some time this month meditating on this verse. What application does it have in your own life? ======================================================================== NOTES, COPYRIGHT & SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Notes ----- 1 Charles Simmons. 2 From CT10/3/94 ARTICLE: What Henri Nouwen Found at Daybreak: Experiments in Spiritual living in a secular world, by Arthur Boers; Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY magazine. Arthur Boers is the author of Lord, Teach Us to Pray (Herald) and Justice That Heals (Faith and Life). 3 The Treasury of David, C.H. Spurgeon on Psalm 118:1. 4 Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885). 5 Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915). 6 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:12-19 7 A.W. Tozer in The Size of the Soul (Christian Publications, 1984), p171f. 8 A.W. Tozer in The Root of the Righteous (Christian Publications, 1986), p123. 9 Netherlands Folk hymn; translated by Theodore Baker. 10 William J. Gaither, Gloria Gaither, Greg Nelson. 11 The Treasury of David, C.H. Spurgeon on Psalm 106:1. 12 John 7:38. 13 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest (Discovery House, 1992; original edition published in 1935). 14 J.S. Mohler (19th Century). 15 Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). Copyright Information --------------------- All original material in Aspects is Copyright (C) 1995 David S. Lampel. This data file is the sole property of David S. Lampel. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright (C) 1995 David S. Lampel."). This data file may not be used without the permission of David S. Lampel for resale or the enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its content. Brief quotations not to exceed more than 500 words may be used, with the appropriate copyright notice, to enhance or supplement personal or church devotions, newsletters, journals, or spoken messages. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture is from the New International Version. NIV quotations are from the Holy Bible: New International Version, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission. NASB quotations are from the New American Standard Bible (C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Subscription Information ------------------------ Aspects is published monthly. There are two preferred methods of receiving it on a regular basis: 1) You may subscribe to the laser-printed (hard copy) edition, which is sent out via regular mail. 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