Before We Get Gathered
Number 3: November 20, 2005
It is Sunday morning and as I review my teaching for this morning, which sometimes leads to complete revisions, I am thankful. The holiday of Thanksgiving is only a few days away. This holiday tends to get one to think about being more thankful and the act of thanksgiving itself.
Thankfulness is an attitude that we are to cultivate, while thanksgiving is an action that we are to perform in everything. Just voicing the thanks without a thankful heart, like those who work at cash registers who don’t mean “thank you” but rather “next,” would be hypocritical. If you have a thankful heart, the expression of gratitude to God will be genuine.
The Bible is full of places where we are told to be thankful to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us and for others who are sharing the Gospel of deliverance.
Philippians 4:6:
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 1:3-5:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
As I prepare for fellowship this morning, I am thankful for the many Bible fellowships that will go on this morning throughout the city and county and state and country and world. I am extremely grateful that we still have a free enough country in which we can worship as we please without having to worship at a state-approved church or have to go underground like Christians in many countries have been forced to do.
In recent articles about China, it is stated that more than twice as many Christians worship in underground churches as state-approved churches; many in home churches like the first century Church had to utilize.
I Corinthians 16:19:
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
This is the true heart of separation of church and state; that there is not one officially sanctioned church that the government authorizes and then chooses its leadership. Our country was founded by men who had suffered persecution at the hands of the government-sanctioned church of England. Religious liberty on how the individual could freely worship was written into the constitution and is a protected right by the first amendment. May it remain so.