Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I LOVE Thanksgiving!  Why?  Well for a couple of reasons:

1. There will be food.  Lots of food.
2. We close the church for two days.  (Even though I still have to prepare for Sunday!)
3. My boys are out of school, so we get to hang out.
4. My son Chandler is back from school for a week.  We get to hang out and play music together on Sunday!
5. Mom is cooking some really scrumptious stuff (as I write this I'm eating her sausage balls, mmmm!)
6. Tomorrow we get to host a huge Community Thanksgiving meal at church.  We'll have 20 turkeys, tons of side dishes, and a lot of people will break bread together!

I wanted to take a moment to tell everyone who is a part of our life, or a part of our church - I am so blessed to have you part of my life!  Thank you for being our friends, thank you for your love, your support, and your friendship.

I also want to thank my God, who has given my family and I an opportunity to be part of so many lives.  I thank Him for my family, the ministry He has given me, but even more so - for giving me peace with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

This Sunday I'll be teaching from Romans 5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Romans 5:1-2

There is no greater blessing than to know that I have peace with my Creator, access to His grace, and the hope of glory through Jesus Christ.

From my family, and from the leaders and staff at Calvary of Wilmington, we pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving day.  (and, if you don't have anywhere to go, you're welcome to join us at Calvary of Wilmington for Thanksgiving meal! CLICK HERE for info)

Give Thanks...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and people everywhere are busy preparing, traveling, cleaning, and getting ready for company.  Things are no different here at CCW, as we are preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow, where we expect to feed over 200 people (CLICK HERE for more info). 

But before we get too busy, let’s take time to remember why we are thankful.  Sure we are thankful for having a place to live, food to eat, family, these are not small things.  But as Christians we have so much more reason to be thankful, because we have been given a kingdom which cannot be shaken (Heb 12:28), we have been given eternal life (John 3:15), we have been given abundant life (John 10:10), all through the person of Jesus Christ! 

O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. -- Psalm 95:1-6

This Sunday will be normal service times, 9 & 11 am, and we’ll be finishing up the account of David and Goliath: Rally in the Valley Part 2!

… till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay

A Sacrifice of Praise

Greetings CCW!

I am writing my column a little early this week, so that our faithful office staff can shut down early and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and not have to work on the Calvary Connection!

This week the topic is thanks – obviously as the holiday is Thanksgiving! But rather than hand out the standard “Let’s give God thanks for ___ and ___ (just fill in the blanks), I have been thinking recently; “What does it mean to be thankful?” Is thankfulness a state of being, an emotion, or is there something more to it?

Several dictionary sources describe it as an adjective, and give the definition as:
“feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative” “Aware and appreciative of a benefit; grateful”

I personally like Webster’s version: “Impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it.” I I especially like the “ready to acknowledge it” part. I believe that is the sentiment expressed in Hebrews 13:15:
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.

To me, being thankful must be more than a feeling, or a state of mind. To have true meaning, our thankfulness must be a catalyst to a response; a proper response to the grace and kindness received. What is that proper response? The writer of Hebrews states it as “a sacrifice of praise.” In other words, praise that has value, or praise that actually costs me something.

If God opened to door for you, you might say “thanks, God.” But God has done so much more than open a door for us, He has offered us a lifeline out of hell, eternal separation from His presence. He has become involved in our lives by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, giving us the most powerful force known in existence. He has freed us from the chains of sin, in that through Him we can find victory over the sins that plague the human race. And He has promised us entrance into the eternal kingdom of heaven, where we will exist for eternity free from sin, pain, death, and sorrow.

This thanksgiving, let’s continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, worship of God with every part of our being: Our hearts, our minds, our body, our gifts and talents, our resources. Give Him praise, worship the King!


...till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay