Thankful Thursday

So … it was 9ºC (48ºF) here this afternoon. I left my window open last night and listened to the sound of dripping melted snow as I slept. Almost as peaceful as the sound of raindrops. We’re having yet another January thaw. I’m thankful for it all: the warm weather, the open window, the drips. I’m also thankful for sunshine and noticeably longer days. And a morning walk in the woods with my youngest granddaughter.

I’m thankful for bottom kitchen cupboards installed and a perfect mitre on the butcher block counter tops. Yes, the kitchen project is coming along, and I’m thankful for this.

I’m thankful that God upheld me through a very busy week—a week with so much on my agenda that I couldn’t bear to think about everything I needed to do. So far, I’ve kept the pace and slept well at night, and for that, I’m very thankful.

I’m thankful that God’s revelation to us is enough. It’s everything we need to know about him, and everything we can know about him.

Linked Together: Five

Things
A list of five criteria we can use to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (Joseph Rodriquez at 9Marks).

Ways
From Erik Raymond, five things to ask when you pray for your own church family: 

1. Pray for a hunger for the Bible.
2. Pray for thankfulness.
3. Pray for gospel growth.
4. Pray for holiness.
5. Pray for unity.

Read an explanation of each request at Ligonier Ministries Blog.

Theological Term of the Week

preaching
“God speaking in the power of His Spirit about His Son from His word through a man”;1 “[t]he proclamation and explanation of the Word of God in Scripture with relevance to particular communities and their context.”2

• From scripture:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV)

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