It is a special time of the year! How often does the collective American culture pause to say “thank you” or send cards en masse? Our stores are filled with lights and our homes overflow with the warmth of family. This is a time to celebrate and cherish what we love!
We are blessed people, yet how often we become forgetful and self-centered. The holiday season is supposed to be a time of generosity, when we live the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
I hope you’ll spend some time with your family this season talking about the great gifts given by God. If anyone has the right to claim it is better to give than receive, it would certainly be the one who gave his only son, that whoever believes in him wouldn’t die! (John 3:16)
This winter at Burns we want to focus on being thankful people who live devoted lives because of the love of the Great Giver and Sustainer of life. We’ve dedicated the month of November to studying the “Big God” we serve. We’ll focus on Jesus, the greatest gift, in the month of December. On Wednesday, November 26 at 7pm, we’ll have a special service of thanksgiving to God. We’ll also have special mid-week services on Christmas Eve as well as New Year’s Eve at 7pm. We’re studying the letters Paul wrote from prison on Sunday nights at 6pm. In them we can see the power of God over anything that happens to us. We invite you to join us as we spend time in prayer, study, and song to express our gratitude to God!
This has been a great year for the church at Burns. We’ve been represented in mission work on three continents. We have grown in number. We have a class of almost twenty who are reading the Bible all the way through for the first time ever. We have grown as a family in the grace and peace of God. We want to share what we’ve experienced with you!
Let’s take time together to follow Paul’s instructions from 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In all things, give thanks!”