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Give Thanks |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 11/20/2007 9:46 AM | Greetings on this beautiful day!
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite times of the year. Growing up in Michigan it meant that it was growing increasingly colder and that winter – and skiing and sledding and skating – would soon be firmly entrenched. It meant that we would gather with cousins and grandparents and catch up and celebrate all that we had been given. It was a day when someone would always ask the question: “What are you thankful for?” It is a question I think we should ask often.
This Thanksgiving day, I hope you will take some time to really contemplate that question. The answer will be different for each of us, but at the heart of all the things that I can imagine we might be thankful for, one leaps to the top of the list: I am thankful for the witness of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that has given me every good thing in my life. Carol and our wonderful partnership in marriage, my family and their love, my friends and their companionship, my church and it’s faithful witness to the world. Every good thing in my life – EVERY good thing – comes because of the actions of our Creator God, and for that, I give thanks and seek to discover how my life can be a life of continual thanksgiving. I hope you will join me in that seeking as we band together as Christ’s church to share all our good gifts with a world that desperately needs continual doses of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
As we gather for our Thanksgiving celebrations this week, please take the time to pray for those who do without: those who do without food and shelter, those who do without adequate health care, those who do without friends, those who do without family. May they know God’s presence and may we become the people who fill in the gaps so that they will never do without again. In particular please pray for Ray Miles, our regional minister, as he prepares to continue his earthly journey without his mother, Jean Miles Howard. Jean died yesterday and Ray and Wendy were able to be with her in Canada when she did. In this time of loss, please pray for Ray and Wendy and their family that they might be able to celebrate Jean’s life with thanksgiving, and that they might know that they have companions on the journey to help share their grief.
For an updated schedule and prayer list, go to www.brookhavenchristian.org
Announcements;
Thanks to all those who set up the Christmas tree lot, and thanks to all of you who signed up to help on the Christmas tree lot in the next couple of weeks. They arrive tomorrow and we can use help unloading them in the morning. And then, the fun really begins! It is a great time of fellowship and service as we greet our neighbors in this 17 year tradition of BCC. We still need more help…please go to www.brookhavenchristian.org and click on the Christmas Tree article under announcements and pick 2 or 3 shifts that you can help out. We also need folks to provide food for the workers in the evenings – soup, chili, casseroles, would all be welcomed, so please sign up.
I hope that wherever you are this Sunday you will have a chance to celebrate the Lord’s Day in worship. Here at BCC, Rev. Jennifer Heinz will be preaching a sermon entitled “Looking Toward the Future” and the scriptures are Deuteronomy 32:45-47 and 34:1-12.
May each and every one of your Thanksgiving celebrations be full of joy and gratitude! We are truly a blessed people.
Be peaceful,
Brad
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