Give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonian 5:18)
Used hundred dollar bill and one dollar bill returned to the U. S. Federal Bank to be destroyed.On their way to the shredder, they shared a conversation.The hundred dollar bill recalled his life and said, “I lived a beautiful life.I have been to Las Vegas, great restaurants of New York City, Broadway theaters, and the beaches of the Caribbean.”The dollar bill remarked in amazement.“Wow, fantastic, awesome.”Then the hundred dollar bill asked the dollar bill, “where have you been?”The dollar bill replied, “I have been to the Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Lutheran Church, and Presbyterian Church and received many blessings.”What does that mean?2 Timothy chapter 3 demonstrates the distinguishing features of the Armageddon or the end of the world.People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.It portrays the end of the days very well.Among the characters, there is “ungrateful.”Because of the ungrateful people, the dollar bill was able to go from church to church getting blessed.
Last week I told you about the story of the thirtysomething couples from my previous congregation who went to a condo in New Hampshire and performed the feet-washing ceremony.When the husbands washed the feet of their wives, the wives were moved.After that, there was a second part.There was a time for the husbands to write down 10 reasons to be thankful to their wives.I say to you that anybody can come up with three reasons right away.Thank you for marrying me, thank you for living with me, and thank you for cooking.Up to five should be easy.Thank you for having my children, and thank you for raising them.But if you are asked for ten reasons, it takes more than those conventional items.Also, because you have to write them down and read it in front of others, time for deep thought is required.Then those things that you didn’t think about and those things that you never expressed come to your mind.When the husbands wrote the reasons and read them out loud, no wives had a dry eye.It was a melting pot of emotions.Thanks can bring out people’s emotions.As such, thanks can move God emotionally.When we give thanks, God is happy and gives us blessing.Psalms 100:4 says “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”We come to God with thanks.We praise his blessings and worship.Psalms 22:3 says that God is in the praise of Israel.When we celebrate his blessing, he presides to receive his due glory.Place overflowing with thanks and praise becomes heaven.Thanks is that precious.
Then what is opposite of thanks?The opposite of thanks is discontent and resentment.When I was in college, I was part of a choir.My conductor was married when he was over 40 years old, with difficulty.His wife was someone who was previously married to a famous Korean Pastor.But my conductor was divorced within only one to 2 years.I asked him privately.Why did you get a divorce?He told me his painful story.On their way to the honeymoon in Jeju Island, inside the plane, his new wife complained and said, “my ex-husband did this when we were on our honeymoon.”At first, he didn’t know what to do.But the complaining did not stop there.She continued on and said that her ex-husband did this or that on their first night.Whatever it was, she complained about everything as she made comparisons to her ex-husband.Wasn’t she out of her mind?Why do you think she divorced her first husband?Maybe her ex-husband compared her to his ex-wife or girlfriend.Relationship filled with complaint and resentment is doomed to misfortune.
Relationship with God is the same.In Jeremiah 31:32, God tells us about the covenant he made with Israel at Mount Sinai.“It will be not like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant though I was a husband to them.”In a matter of speaking, God married the people of Israel when he made the covenant with them at Mount Sinai.But the life of the people of Israel out of Egypt in the wilderness was filled with discontent and resentment.In Exodus 15:24, they complained at the Desert of Shur that the water was bitter.In Exodus 16:2, the Israel community complained because in Egypt they sat around pots of meat and ate all the food they wanted, but they are now in the desert starving to death.They complained because in Egypt they were able to eat fish, vegetables and fruit but now they were only able to eat manna.They especially complained that they were weak due to lack of meat in their diet.What came to the people of Israel who were filled with discontent, resentment and complaints?God’s anger and judgment came to them.In Numbers 14:27-30, it is written.“How long will this wicked community grumble against me?I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very tings I heard you say:In this desert your bodies will fall - every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.No one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephuueh and Joshua son of Nun.’”Therefore Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:10 “do not grumble, as some of them did” and in Colossians 3:15 “be thankful”.
Especially in today’s scripture Paul says be thankful in all circumstances.It can also be said, in everything give thanks.Always can mean everything and we can divide this into three categories.First circumstance is the good things in life.People mostly give thanks for the good things in their lives.For example, recovering from illness, business going well, or kids getting into good schools.
Thanksgiving is a tradition arising from the pilgrims who settled in America.They settled in current day Plymouth, Massachusetts and William Bradford was the first governor of the Plymouth Colony.In 1623, Bradford announced a statement organizing the third thanksgiving.
To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony.
Here, if we look, topics of thanks include the harvest, health, safety and freedom of religion.The pilgrims faced many hardships but found things for which to be thankful.That was precious.
Secondly, all circumstances includes those things that are obvious and in plain view everyday.The sunlight that shines on us, the air that we breath, the water that we drink, our daily bread…, although necessary, these are ordinary everyday things that we can take for granted and forget to be thankful for.Pastor Jay Dennis said this.“If you have to pay a lot of tax, be thankful.It means that you have a stable job and an occupation.If your clothes do not fit you because you gained weight, be thankful.It means you have lived a life of plenty.If you have laundry everywhere in the house, be thankful.It means at least you have the luxury of having changes of clothes.If your house needs thorough cleaning, change of locks and windows, be thankful.It means that you have a house to protect you.If you found a parking spot far away, be thankful.It has given you a brief opportunity for exercise.If you have a president to complain about, be thankful.You live in a country that guarantees the freedom of speech.If your fellow congregation member sings out of tune at the back of the church, be thankful.It means your hearing is good.If your morning alarm rings painfully, be thankful.You have a day filled with purpose waiting for you.When the sun sets and your body is tired, be thankful.It means you lived a productive day.It is easy for us to live day to day without giving thanks.It is even easy to think that we are alive and well to be matter of course or expected.But all those things that are obvious, matter of course and plain everyday are subject of thanks as well.
Thirdly, all circumstances includes bad things in life such as sadness, suffering or misfortune.Today’s scripture is a letter to the church of Thessalonia.They were experiencing great tribulation.Chapter 3, verse 4 says, “In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.And it turned out that way, as you well know.”To the church of Thessalonia who was facing a great trial and tribulation, Paul told them to be always joyful, pray without rest and be thankful always.Paul himself while imprisoned wrote in Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4).In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten, severely flogged and they were thrown into prison.Ordinary person would have resented God or resented those who have cornered him to such situation.But what did Paul and Silas do in that predicament in prison?They prayed and sang hymns to God.When they prayed and sang in prison, miracle occurred.A violent earthquake shook the foundation of the prison and all the doors flew open and everybody’s chain came loose.Paul also spread the Gospel to the jailer.“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”All the people in the house received the word of God were baptized, and that night, the jailer took Paul and Silas into his house, washed their would and set a meal before them.The house of jailer became a church filled with ceremony and fellowship.Prayer and hymns of Paul and Silas has turned the jail into heaven.As told by a monk in the middle ages, even missionaries can become hell if filled with discontent and resentment and on contrary, even jails can become heaven if filled with thanks.
Finally, being thankful always is God’s intention towards us in Jesus Christ.God has placed us in Jesus Christ.For anyone in Jesus Christ, everything comes together to reach goodness.Therefore, we must be thankful in everything.What is the most asked question from those suffering?What is God’s intent, what is his will?People place themselves in God’s shoes and think of all the reasons.However, today’s scripture tells those in suffering what God’s will is clearly.“Be thankful.”
There is a sea called Dead Sea in Israel.It means sea of death.It is so salty that fish cannot live.No life can live in it.However, its coastline has all kinds of elements and minerals dissolved in it that it is very therapeutic to many skin diseases.Therefore, Dead Sea is crowed with people who are visiting to have their skin condition treated.Soap factories and mud pack companies are everywhere.It is said that it contains enough materials to produce plastics for consumption by the world for next 100 years.Ingredient for paint, almost quarter of world’s demand, is produced by Dead Sea.It turns out the Dead Sea is not dead at all.It is a treasure chest, medicine cabinet and sea of blessings.Therefore, those of us saved in the name of Jesus Christ should be thankful even when we are at the Dead Sea.It is the will of God that not only do we give thanks to those good events, but give thanks unconditionally, beyond condition and situation.Everyone, from now on, do not demand from God as if he owes you things that you ask of him.Instead, write down 10 things to be thankful for.Be thankful for the good, for the obvious and everyday things, and for the hardships that we experience.How happy will God be then?I pray that we all can become children of God who can be thankful in all circumstances.
주원열
Give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonian 5:18)
Used hundred dollar bill and one dollar bill returned to the U. S. Federal Bank to be destroyed. On their way to the shredder, they shared a conversation. The hundred dollar bill recalled his life and said, “I lived a beautiful life. I have been to Las Vegas, great restaurants of New York City, Broadway theaters, and the beaches of the Caribbean.” The dollar bill remarked in amazement. “Wow, fantastic, awesome.” Then the hundred dollar bill asked the dollar bill, “where have you been?” The dollar bill replied, “I have been to the Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Lutheran Church, and Presbyterian Church and received many blessings.” What does that mean? 2 Timothy chapter 3 demonstrates the distinguishing features of the Armageddon or the end of the world. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. It portrays the end of the days very well. Among the characters, there is “ungrateful.” Because of the ungrateful people, the dollar bill was able to go from church to church getting blessed.
Last week I told you about the story of the thirtysomething couples from my previous congregation who went to a condo in New Hampshire and performed the feet-washing ceremony. When the husbands washed the feet of their wives, the wives were moved. After that, there was a second part. There was a time for the husbands to write down 10 reasons to be thankful to their wives. I say to you that anybody can come up with three reasons right away. Thank you for marrying me, thank you for living with me, and thank you for cooking. Up to five should be easy. Thank you for having my children, and thank you for raising them. But if you are asked for ten reasons, it takes more than those conventional items. Also, because you have to write them down and read it in front of others, time for deep thought is required. Then those things that you didn’t think about and those things that you never expressed come to your mind. When the husbands wrote the reasons and read them out loud, no wives had a dry eye. It was a melting pot of emotions. Thanks can bring out people’s emotions. As such, thanks can move God emotionally. When we give thanks, God is happy and gives us blessing. Psalms 100:4 says “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” We come to God with thanks. We praise his blessings and worship. Psalms 22:3 says that God is in the praise of Israel. When we celebrate his blessing, he presides to receive his due glory. Place overflowing with thanks and praise becomes heaven. Thanks is that precious.
Then what is opposite of thanks? The opposite of thanks is discontent and resentment. When I was in college, I was part of a choir. My conductor was married when he was over 40 years old, with difficulty. His wife was someone who was previously married to a famous Korean Pastor. But my conductor was divorced within only one to 2 years. I asked him privately. Why did you get a divorce? He told me his painful story. On their way to the honeymoon in Jeju Island, inside the plane, his new wife complained and said, “my ex-husband did this when we were on our honeymoon.” At first, he didn’t know what to do. But the complaining did not stop there. She continued on and said that her ex-husband did this or that on their first night. Whatever it was, she complained about everything as she made comparisons to her ex-husband. Wasn’t she out of her mind? Why do you think she divorced her first husband? Maybe her ex-husband compared her to his ex-wife or girlfriend. Relationship filled with complaint and resentment is doomed to misfortune.
Relationship with God is the same. In Jeremiah 31:32, God tells us about the covenant he made with Israel at Mount Sinai. “It will be not like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant though I was a husband to them.” In a matter of speaking, God married the people of Israel when he made the covenant with them at Mount Sinai. But the life of the people of Israel out of Egypt in the wilderness was filled with discontent and resentment. In Exodus 15:24, they complained at the Desert of Shur that the water was bitter. In Exodus 16:2, the Israel community complained because in Egypt they sat around pots of meat and ate all the food they wanted, but they are now in the desert starving to death. They complained because in Egypt they were able to eat fish, vegetables and fruit but now they were only able to eat manna. They especially complained that they were weak due to lack of meat in their diet. What came to the people of Israel who were filled with discontent, resentment and complaints? God’s anger and judgment came to them. In Numbers 14:27-30, it is written. “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very tings I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall - every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. No one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephuueh and Joshua son of Nun.’” Therefore Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:10 “do not grumble, as some of them did” and in Colossians 3:15 “be thankful”.
Especially in today’s scripture Paul says be thankful in all circumstances. It can also be said, in everything give thanks. Always can mean everything and we can divide this into three categories. First circumstance is the good things in life. People mostly give thanks for the good things in their lives. For example, recovering from illness, business going well, or kids getting into good schools.
Thanksgiving is a tradition arising from the pilgrims who settled in America. They settled in current day Plymouth, Massachusetts and William Bradford was the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. In 1623, Bradford announced a statement organizing the third thanksgiving.
To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony.
Here, if we look, topics of thanks include the harvest, health, safety and freedom of religion. The pilgrims faced many hardships but found things for which to be thankful. That was precious.
Secondly, all circumstances includes those things that are obvious and in plain view everyday. The sunlight that shines on us, the air that we breath, the water that we drink, our daily bread…, although necessary, these are ordinary everyday things that we can take for granted and forget to be thankful for. Pastor Jay Dennis said this. “If you have to pay a lot of tax, be thankful. It means that you have a stable job and an occupation. If your clothes do not fit you because you gained weight, be thankful. It means you have lived a life of plenty. If you have laundry everywhere in the house, be thankful. It means at least you have the luxury of having changes of clothes. If your house needs thorough cleaning, change of locks and windows, be thankful. It means that you have a house to protect you. If you found a parking spot far away, be thankful. It has given you a brief opportunity for exercise. If you have a president to complain about, be thankful. You live in a country that guarantees the freedom of speech. If your fellow congregation member sings out of tune at the back of the church, be thankful. It means your hearing is good. If your morning alarm rings painfully, be thankful. You have a day filled with purpose waiting for you. When the sun sets and your body is tired, be thankful. It means you lived a productive day. It is easy for us to live day to day without giving thanks. It is even easy to think that we are alive and well to be matter of course or expected. But all those things that are obvious, matter of course and plain everyday are subject of thanks as well.
Thirdly, all circumstances includes bad things in life such as sadness, suffering or misfortune. Today’s scripture is a letter to the church of Thessalonia. They were experiencing great tribulation. Chapter 3, verse 4 says, “In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.” To the church of Thessalonia who was facing a great trial and tribulation, Paul told them to be always joyful, pray without rest and be thankful always. Paul himself while imprisoned wrote in Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten, severely flogged and they were thrown into prison. Ordinary person would have resented God or resented those who have cornered him to such situation. But what did Paul and Silas do in that predicament in prison? They prayed and sang hymns to God. When they prayed and sang in prison, miracle occurred. A violent earthquake shook the foundation of the prison and all the doors flew open and everybody’s chain came loose. Paul also spread the Gospel to the jailer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” All the people in the house received the word of God were baptized, and that night, the jailer took Paul and Silas into his house, washed their would and set a meal before them. The house of jailer became a church filled with ceremony and fellowship. Prayer and hymns of Paul and Silas has turned the jail into heaven. As told by a monk in the middle ages, even missionaries can become hell if filled with discontent and resentment and on contrary, even jails can become heaven if filled with thanks.
Finally, being thankful always is God’s intention towards us in Jesus Christ. God has placed us in Jesus Christ. For anyone in Jesus Christ, everything comes together to reach goodness. Therefore, we must be thankful in everything. What is the most asked question from those suffering? What is God’s intent, what is his will? People place themselves in God’s shoes and think of all the reasons. However, today’s scripture tells those in suffering what God’s will is clearly. “Be thankful.”
There is a sea called Dead Sea in Israel. It means sea of death. It is so salty that fish cannot live. No life can live in it. However, its coastline has all kinds of elements and minerals dissolved in it that it is very therapeutic to many skin diseases. Therefore, Dead Sea is crowed with people who are visiting to have their skin condition treated. Soap factories and mud pack companies are everywhere. It is said that it contains enough materials to produce plastics for consumption by the world for next 100 years. Ingredient for paint, almost quarter of world’s demand, is produced by Dead Sea. It turns out the Dead Sea is not dead at all. It is a treasure chest, medicine cabinet and sea of blessings. Therefore, those of us saved in the name of Jesus Christ should be thankful even when we are at the Dead Sea. It is the will of God that not only do we give thanks to those good events, but give thanks unconditionally, beyond condition and situation. Everyone, from now on, do not demand from God as if he owes you things that you ask of him. Instead, write down 10 things to be thankful for. Be thankful for the good, for the obvious and everyday things, and for the hardships that we experience. How happy will God be then? I pray that we all can become children of God who can be thankful in all circumstances.