A Thankful November: Ravens

Copyright © 2007, Andrew Stark.

All rights reserved.

(Click on photo for larger view.) 

 

I’m thankful for ravens because God feeds them, and that reminds me that he provides for me, too. 

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  (Luke 12:22-28 ESV)

If you live around ravens, you know that not only do they not have storehouses and barns, they eat by scavenging for garbage and carrion and other yummy things. And they don’t spend all their time working just to survive, but are one of the few birds with the time and intelligence to do things for the fun of it. It’s an interesting bird to consider in light of what Jesus is teaching in this passage.

 

I’m thankful that I can rest in the knowledge that

[Tomorrow]can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens,
No creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.¹ 

Other thankful folk:

• Connie is thankful for her husband and her two daughters.
• Elaine is thankful for where she lives.
• Carla is thankful for Kim
• Darlene thanks God for the encouragement she finds here on this blog. (I’m thankful someone finds this blog encouraging.) She adds, “since I have worn thick glasses (or contacts) since age 5 I am grateful for my glasses also.” I’ve had mine since I was eight, so mine would be very thick if I didn’t get the ultra-thin plastic lenses. Which reminds me: I’m thankful for ultra-thin plastic lenses, too.
• Candyinsierras is thankful for her

  fourth and fifth grade students. They told me today that I make History really fun because I act out the parts in the texts. Today it was the French convincing the Indians to side with them against the English before the French and Indian War.

  Yesterday I told them how special the Reformation was and we had an opportunity to discuss the Reformation a bit. My fellow teachers also didn’t know that it was Reformation Day, and they are excited about marking it as a special teaching day next year.

  She is also thankful for her glasses.

• Ontario Kim is thankful for an extra vehicle.
• Hiraeth Kim is thankful that her furnace works, and much more.

I’m inviting your participation, too. The instructions  are simple:

• Mention something you’re thankful for in the comments here, and I’ll included it in one of my thanksgiving posts, or
  
• Email me to tell me what you’re thankful for and I’ll include it in one of the thankful posts, or
• You may post your thankful thought(s) on your own blog and send me the link(s), and I’ll link to your post.

¹ William Cowper,  Sometimes A Light Surprises, Olney Hymns

A Thankful November: Specs

Every day in November I’m going to try to post something I’m thankful for. I’ve made thanksgiving the blog theme for November for the past two years and I’m repeating it this year. And just as I did in previous years, I’m inviting your participation.

 

The instructions for participation are simple:

• Mention something you’re thankful for in the comments here, and I’ll included it in one of my thanksgiving posts, or
  
• Email me to tell me what you’re thankful for and I’ll include it in one of the thankful posts, or
• You may post your thankful thought(s) on your own blog and send me the link(s), and I’ll link to your post.
  

Feel free to participate as often as you like. After all, we have a lot to be thankful for.

What am I thankful for today?

 

 

How about eyeglasses in general, and my glasses in specific? I’d be blind without them, and my whole life would have been much different if I didn’t have access to a good pair of glasses.

What are you thankful for?

•  Kim from Hiraeth is thankful for the friends she studies with. 

Theological Term of the Week

 

inspiration of scripture

A term referring to the fact that the Bible is breathed out by God; it is a divine product. God superintended the writers of scripture in such a way that the words of are not only the words of the writer, but also the words of God. 

• From scripture:
  

  And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21 ESV).

•  From The New Hampshire Baptist Confession, 1833:

  We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us; and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.

• From B. B. Warfield in The Authority and Inspiration of the Scriptures :

  When we consider the promises of supernatural guidance which Christ made to his apostles (Matt. x. 19, 20; Mark xiii. 11; Luke xxi. 14; John xiv and xvi), in connection with their claim to speak with divine authority even when writing (1 Cor. xiv. 37; 2 Thess. iii. 6), and their conjunction of their writings with the Old Testament Scriptures as equally divine with them, we cannot fail to perceive that the apostles claim to be attended in their work of giving law to God’s Church by prevailing superintending grace from the Holy Spirit. This is what is called inspiration. It does not set aside the human authorship of the books. But it puts behind the human also a divine authorship. It ascribes to the authors such an attending influence of the Spirit in the process of writing, that the words they set down become also the words of God; and the resultant writing is made not merely the expression of Paul’s or John’s or Peter’s will for the churches, but the expression of God’s will. In receiving these books from the apostles as law, therefore, the Church has always received them not only as books given by God’s agents, but as books so given by God through those agents that every word of them is God’s word.
  

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What does it mean that the Bible is inspired?
2. Blue Letter Bible: In What Sense Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God?
3. Theopedia: Inspiration of the Bible
4. A. A. Hodge: The Inspiration of the Bible
   
5. Rick Wade: The Inspiration of the Bible
6. Herman Ridderbos: The Inspiration and Authority of Holy Scripture
7. David G. Peterson: The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture
8. Bruce Ware: Biblical Inspiration (mp3)
   

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• autographs
• inerrancy of scripture
• infallibility of scripture

Filed under Scripture.

Have you come across a theological term that you don’t understand and you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.