Wrapping Up a Month of Thanksgiving

Grace by Eric Enstrom

I posted at Out of the Ordinary this morning about the small gifts God gives us.

God’s purpose in the ordinary gifts is our joy: joy in the gifts, but even more, joy in the One who gives them. One hair on a head, one wildflower in a field, one bird in a tree—or a bowl of oatmeal and a loaf of bread—assure us that God is constantly caring for us and working for our good. 

Read the rest.

Thankful Thursday

I thought about skipping the Thankful Thursday post today, but how could I? It’s American Thanksgiving Day! Here are a few things I’m thankful for right now.

• my furnace, a full tank of furnace oil, and the resources to pay for this morning’s oil delivery.  
  
  
• my daughter-in-law, who is a week away from delivering my fourth grandchild, but who still has the energy and patience to care for her two other children—my grandchildren—who are three and 21 months. 
  
  
• fresh raspberries and blackberries on special in the supermarket. When I was a child, the fresh fruit section in the grocery store had just apples, bananas, and maybe oranges in late November. 
  
  
• God’s preservation of his own, assuring me that although my faith waxes and wanes, God will keep me by his power “for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).

Also thankful today:

• Kim Shay at Out of the Ordinary

What are you thankful for? Leave a comment with your thanksgiving, post your thanksgiving on your blog, or tweet it. Give me the link by email or in a comment and I’ll add your thanksgiving to the list in the post.

No, Not the Same

In response to the argument that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, D. A. Carson makes this point.

[W]hen Jesus is asked, “Show us the Father” (John 14:8), he replies, “Don”t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (14:9) It appears, then, at this point in redemptive history, that not to recognize who Jesus is, is not to know God.”1

In the verses quoted from John 14, Jesus is asserting his own deity. If those who have seen Jesus have seen the Father, then he is God just like the Father is God. Now, after his coming, those who do not recognize Jesus as God do not actually know or worship the God he came to reveal.

Christians and Muslims may both claim to worship the God of Abraham, but anyone who doesn’t acknowledge the deity of Jesus is actually worshipping another god, and not the same God Christians worship.

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1] D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance, page 119.