Two for the Plate

           One form of ingratitude is doing everything for oneself. It's like the little girl who won two dollars for doing memory work and she put it in the offering plate. The preacher saw that and said, “I'm sure you'll receive a blessing for that.”

            She said, “Yeah, now maybe God will let me do something that I want to do.”             Some people are that way. They think, “Okay, God, that was a tough thing that I did for you; now, surely, you will not let anything bad happen to me.”

            Jesus suffered shame on the cross. We should do everything we can to serve him out of our gratitude toward him, not his gratitude toward us: 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place where he offers this blood for sins. But the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp.12 So Jesus also suffered outside the city to make his people holy with his own blood.13 So let us go to Jesus outside the camp, holding on as he did when we are abused (Heb. 13:11-13.)

When the Homeless Give

            Back in 2002, a New York City police officer by the name of Eduardo Delacruz received a very special Christmas gift—$3,000. What made the gift special was that it came from the homeless people.

            It seems that Officer Delacruz had refused to arrest a homeless man he had found sleeping in a parking garage. The police officer had nowhere else to go, so he decided to let him remain.

            For that decision Officer Delacruz, who had a wife and five children, was suspended for 30 days without pay. That is when the homeless community acted. Some contributed portions of their welfare checks, others recycled cans and bottles and contributed the money, still others went to passers-by in the city streets seeking change for the officer.

            When they had finished, they had raised $3000. All of this to show a man how much they appreciated him standing up for them. One of the homeless men, Joe Bostic, said this, "We just wanted to thank him by contributing however we could.”

            I think Christians have been called to cultivate that gracious spirit toward God. Reflecting on the sacrificial death of Jesus, the Preacher writing to the Hebrews says, 15 Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus (Heb. 13:15.) CEV

            That means we Christians live lives filled with gratitude toward God for what he has done for us.

Source: THE PASTOR'S WEEKLY BRIEFING

                December 28, 2002

Pushing Uphill

            An attitude of gratitude can be hard to cultivate in children. The story is told of a small boy pushing a heavily loaded car up a long, steep hill. He seemed overwhelmed.

            Fortunately, a kind passer-by assisted him. At last, they succeeded in pushing the cart all the way to the top. After getting his wind back, the adult indignantly said to the boy, “Only a scoundrel would expect a youngster to do a job like that! Your employer should have known it was too heavy for you.”

            “He did,” replied the boy, “but he said, ‘Go on, you’re sure to find some old fool who’ll help you up the hill.”

            Teaching children to be gracious starts with the parents. Surely we Christian parents, recipients of God’s grace, can teach our children to be gracious.

Source—Edmund Fuller

Thanks, Lobster

           A doctor was eating in a restaurant and ordered lobster salad. The waitress asked him, “Are you fond of lobster salad?”

            “No,” came his answer, “I’m not fond of it, but I’m grateful to it.”

You Think You’ve Got it Bad?

We still have a few folks left who remember life in the 1920s. It was tough. Most people had to heat their homes by firewood or, in the north, awake at 4:00 A.M. on frigid winter mornings to open the furnace and shovel coal. (Failure to do so meant frozen pipes.)

In 1920, the typical workweek was sixty hours minimum. Women worked even longer hours in the home. The leisure industry was non-existent because few people had time for leisure.

Fifty percent of the population eliminated their wastes in a privy in the backyard. If you were a man in the 1920s, you could expect to live fifty-four years.*

Long for the good old days?

Think we’re blessed today?

*data supplied from the book-- HUSTLING GOD by M. Craig Barnes, page 90.

Those Who Have Gone Before

Count me among the many who have appreciated David McCullough’s fine book, JOHN ADAMS, and the Tom Hanks’ produced mini-series of the same title. In one of the early episodes, I was reminded of the tremendous sacrifice members of the American Colonies offered up.

In the early 1770s, John Adams is off trying to lay the groundwork in the Continental Congress that would ultimately lead to our independence. Meanwhile, his wife, Abigail, is at home with their four children. The scourge of small pox has hit New England, where the Adams’ homestead was located.

Without input from her husband, Abigail is confronted with difficult life and death decisions. In a bold move, she decides to have a local physician inoculate herself and her children. Bear in mind, this is twenty years before Edward Jenner perfects the small pox vaccine.

In the series depiction, the physician parks his wagon outside the Adams’ door. In the wagon lies a poor, unfortunate soul carrying the disease. The physician scrapes the pustules, and taking some of the liquid, places it with a scalpel inside the wounds he has created on each of the Adams’ family members’ arms.

It worked. Although John and Abigail’s oldest daughter contracted a mild case, the family was protected against the disease.

Watching this gruesome, anxious event, I was struck by how much all members of our parental colonies surrendered in order to forge a new nation. Here is this woman who must function as a single parent for, ultimately, years while her husband is away.

I hope this weekend, those of you who are Americans have counted your blessings. Those who have gone on before us endured much. We are the beneficiaries.

Gratitude is a virtue. Let us be gracious.