November 5, 2021

Pastor’s Ponderings on Thankful Thinking

Article by Pastor Thomas Hamblen

As the leaves are changing and the air starts to become rather crisp, we look forward to many celebrations and plans during the holiday season. Celebration is a Biblical con-cept. The scriptures are loaded with details on how God’s people are to celebrate and re-member His goodness and faithfulness. For example, celebrations were utilized to remember His character—that He is holy, that He is just, that He is the provider, that He is the One who satisfies us, etc.

In fact, God commanded the people of Israel to celebrate regularly. After spending many years in the wilderness, Israel did not have a common practice of celebrating and resting because they had been slaves for several generations. But then, God commanded them to routinely remember His character through celebrations (Deuteronomy 16:1-17).
Because the United States had a godly heritage, it has been engrained in our culture to celebrate Thanksgiving once a year. What makes this holiday so important? Most would rightfully say that giving thanks is a regular command in the Scriptures for believers. Christians are right to assert that. However, there are often two precepts that people might forget when it comes to giving thanks.

The first precept is the purpose of giving thanks. A regular practice for many families is to say something that they are thankful for before stuffing themselves with mashed potatoes and turkey. We thank God for different things on this earth, but we tend not to go further to recognize the attributes of His character while thanking Him for the practical things in life. Having a balance of both the practical and the characteristics of His nature should be evident in our thanking Him. This can be seen in Psalm 136 where the psalmist gives thanks to the LORD for the things he has done and then going further in thanking Him for His character on display in what He did (“His mercy endures forever”). The ultimate direction and purpose of giving thanks should be to God for the purpose of acknowledging His character and giving Him glory. My hope and prayer is that we would make this our purpose during this season of celebrating Thanksgiving.

The second precept that we need to recognize is the consequence of failing to give thanks. Over the past two months we have been studying rocks and fossils in one of our Wednesday night classes. In this class we have been delving into scripture and seeing how holding to a Biblical worldview is extremely important in the Christian life. One of the passages that we examined during our study is Romans 1:18-23 where unbelievers willfully forget His power and divine nature that is made evident in creation. The consequence for not recognizing that He is God and for not giving thanks is that they are given up to go deeper in their sinful ways. As believers, we must take heed to the weight of this passage. When we fail to give thanks, we operate our lives as if we are like unbelievers who are destined to wrath. Thankfully, we who have trusted in Christ as the foundation of our salvation will not be given up to our sinful ways. But are we operating in the new manner of life that we have in Christ? Are we living in thanksgiving, recognizing that God is truly the Creator and Sustainer of life? We owe Him thanks for every good thing…so why not thank Him?

As we enter this season of giving thanks, let us remember that the purpose is to worship His character. And let us remember the great significance and consequence of not giving thanks to our Heavenly Father. May we be encouraged to thank our Heavenly Father for all that we have, and may we enter this season with grateful hearts for His abundant mercy through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

October 28, 2020

Which they Made for the Purpose

As the Israelites were rebuilding Jerusalem, they needed a place for the entire congregation to gather to hear the Word of the Lord. Now, unlike Western New York, the climate in Jerusalem did not necessitate an enclosed building for their meeting, but it did require a large space and the building of a platform. Nehemiah 8:4 describes this occasion, “So Ezra, the scribe, stood on a platform of wood, which they made for the purpose . . . and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people.”

In the Hebrew language there is a play on words regarding the English word that is translated, “purpose.” The purpose or the occasion was for all the people to hear the Word of the Lord. This is clearly seen in the overall context as Ezra’s purpose was to bring the “Book of the Law of Moses” (Nehemiah 8:1). Then Ezra and other men opened the book (8:5), and read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God, and gave the sense (preached). Everything about this occasion centered around the Word of the Lord. The Hebrew word translated, “purpose” is the word, “dabar”, and it can be translated occasion or purpose, but the main way it is translated over 800 times is “word.” The gathering of the congregation in Nehemiah 8 was for the purpose of the congregation hearing and understanding the Word. So, they built a platform for the purpose of the going forth of the Word.

Like those who “made the platform” in Nehemiah 8, many within our congregation, over the last several months, have been working diligently on remodeling the chapel. And the purpose for all the work on the chapel is for God to be glorified, as God’s Word goes forth from that building. On November 1st at 6:00 p.m., we will begin to fulfill that purpose in a very God-honoring way as several believers will be proclaiming the Word. They will be following the Lord in believer’s baptism. In the days to come, the Chapel will serve as a place for our congregation to meet for services, fellowship, special events and other God glorifying purposes. I believe November 1st will be the beginning of many God-glorifying opportunities for the Word to be proclaimed in the chapel. The chapel has been remodeled for this very purpose!

November 5, 2019

Harvest is Coming

In Western New York, harvest is generally connected with the days of late Summer and early Autumn. As a church, we are looking forward to our Harvest Dinner on Sunday, November 10th at 5:00 p.m. Please feel free to invite others to join us for this wonderful meal with a celebration baptismal service to follow. Although there is no cost and tickets are not needed, we do ask that each person signs up for the Harvest Dinner via the sign-up sheet in our church foyer. As a church, we will also be taking our harvest offering on that day. The harvest offering will be used as a Christmas gift to the missionaries that our church supports.

Besides the yearly harvest season, there is another type of harvest that every person will someday receive. This harvest is not associated with fruits and vegetables, nor is it connected with a certain season of the year. Rather, this harvest is something in which all believers in Jesus Christ participate. Actually, there are two types of possible harvest. Notice what the Bible tells us in Galatians 6:7-10: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary in well doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Notice several details about the harvest. First, there is a principle determining the harvest. God established this principle, and it is the same principle that guides farmers today. When you sow green beans you harvest green beans. When you sow sweet peas, you harvest sweet peas. The harvest is marked by the characteristic of what one plants. The life of every believer is also guided by this principle. They are not sowing physical seeds, but instead actions, thoughts, and deeds that are either going to come from the ground of the Spirit or from the flesh.

This leads us to the possibilities of what we can harvest. If our lives are marked by the flesh, then we will reap the corruption that comes from the flesh. Corruption gives the idea of rottenness and decay. However, if our lives are controlled by the Spirit of Christ, then we will reap life everlasting. The word for everlasting speaks about that which endures beyond this present age. If you go back to the beginning of this book in Galatians 1:4, you will see that the only harvest a natural person can produce will be marked by this present evil age. But the good news of the Gospel frees us from our bondage to sin and in Christ we now have liberty to live according to the Spirit. Our harvest no longer needs to be marked by the corruption of this present evil age, but in can be marked by the fruit of the Spirit of God. Sadly, some believers in Christ will abuse their freedom and still produce a harvest of corruption.

This brings us to the plan to produce a good harvest. Instead of doing evil, by continuing to do that to which you were once in bondage (Galatians 1:4), now through the gospel of Jesus Christ you have been set free, so that you can now serve the Lord as you serve one another through love (Galatians 5:13). God in His mercy and grace saved us so that we could produce the fruit of the Spirit. He saved us so that in this season, we would do good to all, especially those of the household of faith.
May we believers in Christ live by faith in the one who loved us and gave Himself for us, knowing that the passions and desires of our flesh have been crucified with Christ. And as our faith works through love, may we persevere in doing good as we look forward to reaping an eternal harvest that is full of the fruit of the Spirit.

November 6, 2018

Oh Give Thanks!

Have you ever thought about the radical reasons why Christians are to be the most thankful people in all of the world? So often, Christians fall into the trap that Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate rather than a discipline to practice every day. Now there is certainly nothing wrong with setting aside the fourth Thursday of the month of November to give thanks to the God of heaven for all that He has done. But the radical reasons for why it is good and right for us as a nation to set aside a day for thanksgiving are also the reasons why thanksgiving ought to be an identifying mark of every believer in Jesus Christ. The radical roots for why we give thanks have been practiced in America, but those roots originated in the Holy Scriptures.

One radical reason for why thanksgiving should be a regular habit of the believer’s life is the character of God. Psalm 105:1 is one of the many Scriptures that pro-claim, “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures for-ever.” The verse is clear: give thanks be-cause the LORD is good! And the good character of God is seen in His mercy that endures forever. The logical result of considering and meditating on God’s goodness and mercy is thanksgiving. If you are seeking to become a more thankful person, get your eyes off of your changing circumstance and gaze on the unchanging character of God. As you delight in His goodness and mercy, your life will resound with thanksgiving to God.

This leads to another radical reason for Thanksgiving: the Son of God. You see, because God is a good and merciful God,He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to die on the cross for our sins. The cross becomes a powerful dis-play of the goodness and mercy of God! Paul wrote about this great gift of God by saying, “for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor that you through His poverty might be-come rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And then Paul concludes that section on giving with these words, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”

A final radical reason to give thanks to the Lord is the will of God. “In every-thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The word “will” gives the idea of what one wishes or what one takes pleasure in. Consider for a moment that God’s desire for the believers’ life is for them to give thanks. And if we are not giving thanks in everything, then we are not fulfilling the will of God.

But notice the last two words of the verse describing who this principle applies to; It is the believers in Christ Jesus who are to be giving thanks. You see, it is believers who know that the character of God is good and mercy.  It is believers who know that the Son of God became poor so that we might become rich. So it is believers who can give thanks no matter the circumstances that they are facing. And as a result, they can fulfill the very will and pleasure of God. To fulfill the will of God is a radical reason to give thanks to the Lord.