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.

Theological Term of the Week

religious persecution
hostility and ill-treatment because of religious beliefs:

• In scripture: 

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:10-13 ESV)

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19 ESV)

• From A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship by Glenn Penner (pdf):

As we witness the testimonies of courageous persecuted brothers and sisters in person or through reports, it is worthwhile to reflect on the words of Peter, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly” (1 Peter 2:19 ESV). In these words, Peter defines grace as being enabled to endure suffering due to one’s faithfulness to God. As we read the accounts of those who have suffered for the sake of Christ, we might be justified in saying that, from the world’s perspective, those who endure persecution are heroic. But from God’s perspective, Peter reminds us, they are recipients of grace. Peter stresses that enduring suffering is evidence that God is at work in one’s life. There is no glory for the sufferer. No hero worship. No merit for those who are able to endure hardship, no boasting of one’s achievements. It is evidence of God’s grace. It is all a work of God, from beginning to end. Is it any wonder that near the end of his first epistle, written especially to instruct persecuted believers to stand firm in their faith, the apostle writes, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10,11 ESV). 

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