November in my mind gets to thinking about Thanksgiving.  As I get older I find Thanksgiving to be a favorite holiday.  The theme of Thanksgiving is very Biblical so it is always appropriate to focus on it.  When we usually ask what someone is thankful for we get the usual and appropriate, answers like family, health etc.  I want us to focus on some other things we may not usually think of first.  The sermon today is about being thankful that in Jesus our suffering will be redeemed.  If we suffer as a Christian we can find joy in that.  Pick your battles in life and if you choose them well then the struggle and fight will be worth it.  Promise!  Dustin will be leading our singing Sunday and he has selected these songs and an explanation as to why they were selected.

The phrase Jesus uses about passing from death to life by believing is interesting.  We still will die but we have moved from death to life?  With other things in John, there is a deeper meaning than the surface one.  Could be that we now have eternal life and that is what is meant.  Could also be that we move from a dead way of living to a way of living that is fully alive.  Eternal life starts now and because of what we have it changes everything about how we live now.  The future determines the present for Christians.  We often like to say that we are not guaranteed tomorrow and there is a sense in which this is true.  But in Christ, we are promised tomorrow, an eternity of them!

It is good to be strong and to persist in something.  I admore who people who are persistent.  However, there is also a great strength in learning when to let go of something.  If it is something you need to let go of it's really going to hurt when god finally rips it from your hand.

Fear and faith with start with an “F” but with faith we should not fear.  That slogan sounds good but fear is with us all the time.  Maybe it is not so much about ever getting rid of fear as it is realizing that if your faith is in what is stronger than your fear then you should overcome your fear.  Maybe think not so much in terms of feelings, but action.  If we make fear about how we feel, then we will always be fearful.  But of we think of courage as moving ahead in spite of our fears there we are not “fearful” but faithful.

The question has come to me about charging interest.  Is it right or not.  Let's take a look.

It seems like all can agree that the world is a mess.  We are like the prodigal son who told his father to give him what he has coming and he will do things his own way.  Didn't work out well for the prodigal and it's not working out well for us either.  It's time to come to our senses and return to the father.

The question was brought to me about why we meet on Sunday and what about churches that meet on Saturday evening.  Is that all right.  Take a listen.

Why is contentment so hard?  Ecclesiastes chaper 6 has some insight as to why.

What does it take to get heard?  It seems like to really get attention you have to be over the top these days.  That should have an effect on how we listen and judge others as they speak in this day and age when pretty much anyone can pick up a mike and potentially broadcast their ideas to millions.

Jesus asks us to daily take up our cross and follow him.  Maybe to understand this cross should not be understood as a burden, but as a mission.  The cross is not a problem but a purpose.