As I write this, it is Thursday, Thanksgiving Thursday. Kathy and I are preparing a pretty non-traditional Thanksgiving meal - ribs not turkey - and I am thankful we get to "color outside the lines". LOL

One of our traditions during our Thanksgiving meal is to go around the table and share at least one thing we are thankful for. I hope each of you have that opportunity this Thanksgiving 2024.

So today I share a few items of Thanksgiving but also want to share some things from others...do you have your own list? Has God opened your heart to being grateful today?

My list:
1. My relationship with Jesus Christ. Without His hope I would be lost.
2. My wife. She has been a gift from God being an anchor in the storms of life and a partner in my walk with God.
3 My family - despite challenges this year in some of the extended family, God has been generous in showing His love, drawing me not only into a closer relationship with Him but also with my sons and their children.
4. God's call on my life for teaching about Him as a retirement avocation, blessing me with new understandings of His Word.

My friend who publishes a daily devotional email, Arlin, shared this from one of his connections:

A Word from the Word

by Bill Long

We all know the drill. November is Thanksgiving month; let’s crank up the gratitude, even if it hurts, and turn it on for the family. Of course, there usually is sincerity in the gratitude, but in my experience it is one of the Biblical virtues most easily faked. I was mulling the dilemma of its centrality to life but the difficulty in making it a genuine part of our daily lives when I happened upon a list of several virtues in Colossians 3:13-16.

What struck me was that gratitude was the only one that got its own sentence. The rest are in a long list: be merciful, kind, long-suffering, etc., but gratitude stands by itself in its own three-word sentence in 3:15. It is almost as if the author knew that it was difficult for us to get a correct perspective on gratitude, and so decided to pause and tell us of its unique importance.

But what particularly struck me about the three Greek words making up the sentence in 3:15 is that it really doesn’t say what most of our translations have. Most of our versions read: “And be grateful.” Yet, at the risk of being a bit technical the verb is a “becoming” rather than a “being” verb. A “becoming” verb emphasizes process; a being verb emphasizes one’s state of existence. 

So, rereading the last three words of Colossians 3:15 yields, “And become grateful.” Now THAT is something I can really embrace.


I love how it speaks to the journey we are on for those who are followers of Jesus - the idea of becoming resonates with me. Maybe you as well? We are not all at the same place in our journey with Christ but are being sanctified by Him (that alone should bring some gratitude into our lives) and that journey is not always easy. Paul shares in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 " give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

To get to the point Paul is referring to we need God to do heart work on us. And that takes time. So I am grateful that here in America we have a holiday that focuses us and our hearts on work God has been doing in our lives over the last year. It is a deep and invaluable blessing we receive when we pause and see the work of God in our lives - even through the hard things.

WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR THIS THANKSGIVING?

Lord Jesus, my prayer as we go into this upcoming weekend, we focus on Your sanctifying work over the last year and that pause to lift up Your praise in deep gratitude for how you have drawn us nearer to You and Your beautiful loving presence! Amen.

Enjoy this weekend knowing the truth of the work, the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus,

​Patrick Engesser

This Sunday, the class I have been teaching will be wrapping up. It will have been a 10 week journey focused on the foundation of a Biblical worldview, understanding how that can apply to daily living in the context of God's more complete story starting at the beginning (Genesis and ending in Revelation)- creation --> fall --> redemption --> restoration.

As a part of that final class on Sunday we will be covering some final thoughts on the material we have covered the previous weeks. So today I  thought I  would share some of thoughts I have as I wrap up this class...

• Worldview matters. A Biblical Worldview answers these questions the best –
  • Origin (where did we come from)
  • Identity (who are we and whose are we)
  • Meaning/purpose (why do we exist)
  • Morality (where does moral authority sit - with whom)
  • Destiny (what does this mean for us and the world ultimately)
• Without God’s Word anchoring our Worldview we are buffeted by the world and culture unhinged from God while a Christian Worldview provides a firm foundation for our daily lives – as God has placed us here in this place, time and moment.
• Our lives should point to God, His glory which means we need to use the gifts he has given us here and now, even as Jesus is making all things new.
• The “Gospel” is not a different story than the story of creation – it is how God fixes the story of creation.
• The story started this way (before anything was created) and will end this way: God creating a people for Himself – who say YES to Him.
• In the end all is restored.
• God loves when within His broken world, something in it, is restored
• We need to see the fullness – end to end – of God’s story:
  • In Genesis – creation – good / very good. Command, not rescinded, to fill and have dominion over God’s creation – we are given the reigns to use our gifts
  • Fall – broke the good and very good, yet the command still stands, even now
  • Redemption – salvation through faith – but not just to share Christ or just idle and wait for Jesus to return – but to build His kingdom now, share the Good News, which includes the fact we will be physically resurrected into a restored world. In James – we see our faith should lead to action (works for which we have been made and which become rewards in eternity) as a demonstration and motivated by the fact we where first loved by God and Jesus demonstrated that for us.
  • Restoration – our kingdom building carries (our crowns are representative of the glory we brought to God in our current lives to be given back to Him in the new earth, new heaven and new Jerusalem acknowledging His Lordship and that all belongs to Him) then into eternity when we are physically resurrected at the second coming of Jesus. We will be whole again including our physical beings.
• The Truth about our world is told in the story of Scripture – Creation -> Fall -> Redemption -> Restoration (4 Chapters) – and the truth about ourselves and our identity as seen in the 4 Relationships (created by God for us - relationships with God, ourselves, others and creation) – and the 4 Truths (Christ is Risen, Christ is Lord, Jesus is making all things new and we are created for this moment and place) that give us an anchor in a chaotic cultural moment like ours, giving us and pointing us to our Hope (Jesus Christ), including having been called to this place and moment – not by accident – which leads to now what – we are called to be faithful to our calling in Jesus Christ – we should be answering the 4 Questions (what is good that we can celebrate and protect?, what is missing that we can innovate or contribute?, what is evil we can oppose and resist?, and what is broken that we can restore?) – living out the answers as a part of living out our faith by being God’s ambassadors to share the Good News and engage in Kingdom building God charged us with in the beginning.

Do you have any thoughts on how we as Christians live out our faith on a daily basis and do it well?

Finally, I would ask - are you asking God often what He wants you to be doing?

Lord Jesus, my prayer as we go into this upcoming weekend is that we focus glorifying You in all that we do by making sure our walk with you is founded upon Your work on the Cross and in Your Resurrection! Amen.

Enjoy this weekend knowing the truth of the work, the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus,

​Patrick Engesser

As I wake up each day often times my initial thought is about walking with Jesus. How do I do that? What does that mean. In the brokenness of my life what does that look like? In the brokenness of the world what does this look like.

In Ephesians 2:10, God shares that he has prepared works for us (not works of to save ourselves but rather works He prepared for us to glorify Him). This verse reads "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Also, we know from James that real faith creates the motivation to demonstrate our love of God through our day to day work and efforts - these being fruit of that faith. See James 2:14-26.

We know Paul shared in Romans to look to the example of Christ and in Philippians 3 Paul suggest we imitate him and his walk with Christ. There are other places in scripture that point to examples for how we might live out our faith and walk well with Jesus.

In the sermon on the mount we see Jesus calling us to lives of humility and certain attitudes and ways of living with others. We are also told by Jesus that we should not keep our lights under a basket but rather let it shine into the world. And we should not lose our saltiness which implies we should "taste" (or look) different than the world or the culture around us.

We are also told to weight the cost, to be prepared to die to self, and to be willing to pick up our cross and deny ourselves. This implies the denying glorifies God.

Finally, in Matthew 28:18-20, we are told to share the Good News to the ends of the earth. That would represent another way to walk as Jesus commanded us to walk.

As I prepare to teach this Sunday, I will be talking about four questions, we as Christians can ask ourselves and answer for ourselves that help frame what a Christian life might look like in the time and place we have been placed that actively allows us to participate in the work of Jesus (who is making all things new - Rev 21:5) as He is Kingdom building before His second coming. 

Although I cannot give you an exact answer as to what it looks like to walk with Jesus, I would leave you with these four questions to consider as you wrestle with what it means and looks like to walk with Jesus:

A. What is good that we can celebrate and protect?
B. What is missing that we can contribute?
C. What is evil that we can oppose and resist?
D. What is broken that we can restore?

How might you answer these questions?

Lord Jesus, my prayer as we go into this upcoming weekend, we focus on understanding what our walk with you should look like and that we then take steps to start walking that way with You! Amen.

Enjoy this weekend knowing the truth of the work, the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus,

​Patrick Engesser