Being Thankful on November 4

Grace by EnstromI’m thankful for blue skies…finally. It’s been a dreary last few months sky-wise; any sunshine is welcome and so it a shoveling free day.

• Julana is thankful for food, a roof, years of life and more.
  
• Tulipgirl has another list of things for which to be thankful, including free and democratic elections.
• Dorothy is thankful for God’s sovereignty.
• Kim in Ontario is thankful the big window above her desk.
• Suzanne is thankful for telephones.
• Connie is thankful that she “can rest in the fact that even our political system is subject to God, and God alone!”
• Ann is thankful for God’s word.

Updates

• Kim from Hireath is thankful for many things, including full bags of leaves.
• Willow thanks God for good parents.

What are you thankful for?

I’m celebrating good gifts from God during the month of November and hoping you’ll be thankful for your good gifts, too. Here’s how you can join in the thanksgiving and even, perhaps, get something material from it.

Being Thankful on November 3

I just had a pleasant phone conversation with youngest son who is living in Edmonton, so I’m very thankful for cheap long distance phone calls. This afternoon’s call will cost me less than a dollar and and that means I can talk to him several times a week without adding much to my phone bill.

When we first moved here to the Yukon in 1977, it cost us about $1.00 per minute to call home to Minnesota. You do the math and figure out how often we called home.

• Sally Apokedak is thankful for the sermon she heard yesterday.
• Tulipgirl continues her thanksgiving list.
• Dorothy is thankful for her little dog Charlie and his continued health.
• Suzanne thanks God for the ability to homeschool.

Updates

• Connie is thankful for God’s sovereign control.
• Ann is thankful for an incorruptable inheritance.
• Kim of Hiraeth is thankful for many things.
• Willow is thankful for acorn squash. Me too. I love squash, any kind.

What are you thankful for?

I’m celebrating good gifts from God during the month of November and hoping you’ll be thankful for your good gifts, too. Here’s how you can join in the thanksgiving and even, perhaps, get something material from it.

Sunday's Hymn

I’m still on my Reformation kick, so I’m posting Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress as the hymn for today.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

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I think it’s appropriate to hear it sung by a choir of Lutherans, don’t you? This is the St. Olaf Choir, using the translation from the Lutheran Book of Worship, which is a different one than I’ve used. On verse three, they sing Luther’s very interesting original rhythm.

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Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing at Hiraeth
• Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands at Field Stone Cottage
• Lord’s Day 44, 2008 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Once to Every Man and Nation at joythruChrist
• Lo! What a Cloud of Witnesses at Conjubilant with Song
• Sweet Is the Work, My God, My King at Whatever Things…
• Jesus, My Only Hope at The Happy Wonderer
• The Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trintiy at Nova Scotia Scott

Have you posted a hymn today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.