Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of my absolute favorite time of the year. Time to get out the fall decorations, time to rake the leaves and jump in them, time for the temperature to drop below 90 :) and time to bring out the winter clothes (just in case it gets below 80).

One day last month I was at Hobby Lobby and I decided I would make a cornucopia this year to add to our fall decor at home. The night I made it, I was talking to a friend of mine and she didn't know what a cornucopia was. So I went to webster.com.

Cornucopia:

Main Entry: cor·nu·co·pia
Pronunciation: \ˌkȯr-nə-ˈkō-pē-ə, -nyə-ˈ\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Latin cornu copiae horn of plenty
Date: 1508
1 : a curved goat's horn overflowing with fruit and ears of grain that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance

2 : an inexhaustible store : abundance

So, a cornucopia is emblematic of abundance, or an inexhaustible store. If you know me, you know that was enough for me to write a whole Sunday School lesson around. I'll spare you a link to it. :) But I wanted to share what the Lord is teaching me about His inexhaustible grace, His overabundant riches, and His eternal kindness to us. I came across this excerpt from a sermon by John Piper as I was 'studying the gospel' as C.J. Mahaney urged me to do in his book The Cross Centered Life. Check this out, it will give you something to be thankful for -- with every new day and with every breath:

1. Kindness in the Place of Wrath
First, notice what God gives in the place of wrath.
In verse 3 at the end it says that "We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind." By nature we were so rebellious against the law of God that we were suitable objects of God's wrath.

Jesus' Merciful Warnings of Hell
Every Christmas when I sit in front of our living room fire, and watch it consume paper cups and marshmallow bags and hot dog wrappers, I cannot help but think of hell. It isn't fire and brimstone preachers who put these images in my mind. It is Jesus Christ.
He's the one who warned the church most vividly to cut off your sinning hand rather than go with two hands to hell (Matthew 5:30); that all evildoers will be thrown into a furnace of fire (Matthew 13:42); that the goats on his left hand will go into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46); that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). Again and again he warned that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:37). And these are not the hostile harpings of a country preacher. They are all mercy—just like the glass doors on the front of our fire place are mercy to little Barnabas.

God's Merciful Promise
But now, in typical biblical fashion, after the merciful warning comes the merciful promise in verse 7. For those who trust Christ, God commits himself to the following purpose:
. . . that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Notice how Paul piles up words to make a deep and lasting impression on our hearts. God's settled purpose is to be gracious to those who are in Christ Jesus. And lest we miss the sweetness and gentleness and gladness of the word "grace," he adds the words, "in kindness toward us." Now ask yourself this question: If there were one person in all the universe the benefits of whose kindness you could choose, who would it be? Would it not be God? You might be able to think of a thousand things that would be kindness to you. But then your imagination would run out. But God's imagination will never run out.

Help for Faltering Imaginations
And to make this clear Paul uses the word "riches." God's purpose is to spend the "riches of his grace in kindness on us." And then to assist our faltering imagination he adds the word "immeasurable" or "surpassing" or "incomparable." How rich is God? I read in the paper recently that Queen Elizabeth is worth about four billion dollars. Now if you got a letter in the mail from Queen Elizabeth which said that she had taken an oath by the blood of her son to spend her riches to show you as much kindness as she could for the rest of your life, wouldn't you get excited? And her wealth compares to God's like a grain of sand to the Sahara Desert.
But that's not all. She could only show you kindness for a few years—ten, thirty, sixty maybe. But look what Paul says God intends to do for you? "That in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." How long is an age? And how many ages are coming? Well, the answer is simple: all of them that lie in the future are coming. So it doesn't matter how long one of them is.
Do you know why Paul had to say it this way? Because that's how long it will take God to run out of fresh ideas about how to show you kindness. When eternity ends, God will have run out of ways to show you kindness. Now tell me, when does eternity end?

The Meaning of Christmas
This is the meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who would value the riches of his kindness forever. Are you one of those? How can you not be one of those, when you compare the wealth of God with the wealth of Queen Elizabeth?
We were by nature children of wrath, BUT GOD has promised us eternal kindness instead.

SO, I think I will take a break from studying Ephesians in Sunday School this 'holiday season.' I have this idea to do a study called "From the Manger to the Cross." If I do it justice, I will be studying every waking moment between now and New Year's Day! All you budding theologians, I welcome your input! :)