Thoughts on Thanksgiving

I'm going to try something a little different to try to explain the thing I am the MOST thankful for.  I do not assume that if you are reading this, that you must be a believer in Christ Jesus and have full knowledge of what He did for mankind.  I won't even assume that you have ever heard of Jesus, so I will begin with some background on what God did by sending His only Son Jesus to live a sinless life, die an undserved, brutal death and gain victory over the grave through His resurrection on the third day.  I believe in the power of God's Word (the Bible) so, I am going to attempt to use very few of my own words; instead I will try to use God's to express my thankfulness to Him.

Romans 5:6-8, 10

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

Galatians 4:4-7
But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law (the Ten Commandments).  God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children.  And because you Gentiles (anyone not a Jew) have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father.  Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child.  And since you are His child, everything He has belongs to you.

Romans 10:9-13

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Ephesians 4:21-24
Since you have heard all about Him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.  Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.  You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness - righteous, holy, and true.

Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I hope you can begin to see what I am thankful for.  I was a sinner, born out of sin, and before I was even a glimmer in my father's eye, Jesus came over 2,000 years ago to save me from an eternal death.  There are also some things before death that I have and will continue to be rescued from.  Being a believer doesn't automatically make one's life all better.  We are still human and subject to pain, poverty, hunger, loneliness, greed etc. and ultimately sin--not slaves, but still affected.  I want to share with you a little of what I've been through and how God rescued me and healed me from self-inflicted torment.

I know I said I would try to use less of my words, but I would like to give a little more insight into what I've been rescued from.  My childhood was not the best.  Even though my parents were married, my dad was not always there.  I was dealt a major wound through his inconsistency and each time he left my mom it spoke volumes to my heart about how I wasn't worth loving or worth fighting his own problems to be a good dad to my brother and I.  Mind you, I did not recognize this wound until very recently, but that's what drove me for a long time.

The winter of my sophomore year, my father was diagnosed with cancer and lost a very short battle with the disease.  I do need to say that my father is in Heaven--without a doubt-- a pastor who befriended my dad at the hospital gave testimony of my father's profession of faith!  I praise God often for that pastor and that my dad chose Him in the end.  Anyway, my mom got engaged 6 months later and informed my brother and I that we'd be moving to Canada so she could marry my stepdad.  At this point, I had let my wound control my actions for some time and had began what psychologists woud call "self-medicating"--in other words, in 8th grade I began experimenting with drugs.  What had started out as curiosity became a full-blown chemical dependence on illegal substances.  When I got the news of moving so soon after my dad's death--which I had not even begun to process--I freaked out and the pace of my downward spiral quickened.  I will not delve into all that happened, but I can share that I was completely addicted to drugs when we left California.

To quickly get to the point where God rescues me, allow me to summarize a little more here:
I quit doing drugs cold turkey and I got very sick.  I went through withdrawals and through God's grace, only got Mono!  It was terrible, but it could have been so much worse!  It was during this time that God was turning my heart back to Him.  A very short time later I moved back to California to live with my grandparents near where I grew up.  These two people were the BIGGEST influence on my relationship with God.  I was "required" to attend church while living with them.  That's when God REALLY got to me and I rededicated my life to serving Him and to never returning to that empty darkness from which I'd come.

Even though I had found salvation, I had done some damage to my body from 8th-11th grade.  This damage affected my daily living and I began feeling nauseous every morning and had severe reactions to anything containing caffeine or stimulants like that.  I ended up on an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication to take everyday until who-knows-when.  Knowing my struggle, a friend shared with me Philippians 4 and the following is my favorite passage:

Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, REJOICE!  Let your gentleness be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

I held onto these verses and recited them often.  One day, I decided that I did not want to be dependent on yet another chemical as I had dealt with addiction and it was HARD.  I knew that God was bigger than any physical ailment I could be dealing with.  As I was about to take my medication one morning, I prayed for God to heal me so that I wouldn't become dependent on a different chemical.  HE HEALED ME.  I dumped my medication and have not had those problems since I was 17 years old.  He took what I had done to myself and healed me of it!  Why would He do that?!?!  Because it is by GRACE... umerited favor... that He sent Jesus to bring me to salvation.

The thing that I am most thankful for is my SALVATION through CHRIST JESUS and the freedom that comes with it.  My prayer this Thanksgiving is that I would be more willing and have the boldness to share this with the people I meet.  It is truly something to be more desired than gold.  This is just a slice of what I've been through, and I know many have been through worse.  Jesus can handle it all.  Put your trust in Him.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are no seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.