Not too long ago I was watching the movie Pollyanna. I have to admit the ending always is sad but there are some classic scenes throughout the movie.

I love the scene of the minister coming into the service to preach. He climbs up a flight of stairs into the pulpit and then hammers the congregation with a sermon entitled, “Death comes unexpectedly.” The message is full of hell fire and brimstone. Then he comes back down the stairs and walks out. Latter in the movie, Pollyanna tells him that there is an abundance of verses on the goodness of God and we are encouraged to be thankful as well as reverent of God.

This is the time of year we celebrate Thanksgiving. We may be going through various things but scripture encourages us to be thankful. As we read in 1Thes 5:18, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” We also read in Heb 13:15, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Thankfulness is worship. We can worship the Lord by having an attitude of thankfulness. Pollyanna was not denying that scripture speaks of judgment but she was reminding the pastor in the movie that it also speaks of the goodness of God and we are encouraged to praise him. We cannot deny that life has challenges and some of them unfair. But God still deserves our praise and thanksgiving.

During this thanksgiving season make choices to be grateful. Make the choice to be thankful. Have a great thanksgiving!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Announcements, Blog, Pastor Phil. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.