House-to-House
Family of Hope House Church November 2021
Counting The Right Blessings
At Thanksgiving we are often encouraged to list all of the blessings we enjoy, including material blessings such as plentiful food, comfortable homes, expansive wardrobes and all the many conveniences we take for granted.
We are certainly to be grateful for every good gift “that comes from above,” granted us by a gracious God. But it’s hard to find any examples of ists of material things to be grateful for in the Bible. In other words, there’s no mention of Jacob thanking God for all the sheep and cattle he’d gained while in the employ of his relative Laban, or of Joseph thanking God for his many colored coat, or of Solomon gratefully listing such “blessings” as a lavish palace, 700 wives, 300 concubines and countless numbers of exotic gifts from neighboring monarchs.
Nor can we imagine Jesus telling a story about a rich man thanking God that he is able to “fare sumptuously every day,” unlike the desperately poor Lazarus who lived on whatever table scraps the man had left over.
Bottom line, none of our things are really ours. We’re just tenants placed on God’s earth with the responsibility of taking care of and distributing them in the way God intended. “The cattle on a thousand hills are mine,” God says. “The earth is the Lord’s.” We are to till, take care of, enjoy and share thee fruits of it as God’s tenant farmers and caretakers.
So let’s be careful about thanking God that we’re not like the millions of people who go to bed hungry every night while we indulge in annual feasts of turkey, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes, gravy and tossed salad with pumpkin pie and ice cream for dessert. There is precedent in the Bible for having special feasts, but let’s make sure we also invite Jesus, Lazarus and some of the rest of their friends to join us.
-Harvey Yoder
Notes, Prayers and Praises
KAREN CAMPBELL has been moved to Sentara RMH Medical Center, Room 5175, 2021 Health Campus Drive, Harrisonburg, VA 22801. She had for surgery to remove an infected small toe on her left foot. Her cell number is 540,209-2675.
NOVEMBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Neal Nelson 11/2, Paul Swarr 11/10 and Guy Vlasits 11/21. Neal and Elly Nelson’s anniversary is November 26!
ALMA JEAN AND HARVEY YODER will travel to Rochester to see their daughter and family November 4-8, and ELLY NELSON plans to be with her son and wife in New Jersey for Thanksgiving.
November Lectionary Texts
7 Elijah at Horeb I Kings 19:1-18 (John 12:27-28)
14 Amos Calls for Justice Amos 1:1-2; 5:14-15, 21-24 (John 7:37-38)
21 Isaiah: Reign of Christ Sunday Isaiah 9:1-7 (John 8:12)
28 Jeremiah: First Sunday of Advent Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14 (John 14:27)
November Services, 4-5:30 pm
7 Location: on line
Worship and sharing: Lois Wenger
Bible Study: Kent Palmer
14 Location: on line
Worship and Sharing: Elly Nelson
Bible Study: Harvey Yoder
21 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399 Caverns Drive, Keezletown
Worship and Sharing: Lewis Overholt
Bible Study: Dick Dumas
28 Location: on line
Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder
Bible Study: Elly Nelson
No comments:
Post a Comment