Pinnacle

Thanksgiving

I’m thankful for Northside Drive Baptist Church.
I’m thankful for my loving wife, Heather.
I’m thankful for my wonderful- each in their own unique way- kids.
I’m thankful for a church family that loves me and loves my family.
I’m thankful for the ability to travel back and forth from church to my family.
I’m thankful for church members that brought me chicken soup when I was sick.
I’m thankful for those who gather on Wednesday mornings to wrestle together with the Bible.
I’m thankful for times of drinking beer and sharing our stories.
I’m thankful for the (lifetime) supply of toilet paper that I received when I moved to Atlanta.
I’m thankful for the moments of worship, prayer and service that we share together.
I’m thankful for you.

—Scott

Gratitude is our Connection

Saying ‘thank you’ is among our most basic lessons for children. 

And truly it is important to show gratitude- if for no other reason than we would like others to show gratitude to us. But thankfulness is more than mere nicety. Thankfulness drills down to the core of who we are. The one who needs to offer no thanks is the one who has no need of others. And that’s not me, I assume that is not you, either.

Thankfulness reminds us that we cannot do it alone. 

We depend on each other. 

We help each other out. 

And we are grateful to God for the simple reason that we cannot save ourselves (we’ll talk more about this on Sunday). At our most honest, we are all a combination of what we (passively) receive and how we (actively) respond. We know we can’t take responsibility for the best things we have and the best parts of who we are. For those things we are grateful- for those things we give thanks.

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving consider the parts of our lives for which we cannot take credit. Recognize how much we have been given (by God and by others). 

May our gratitude to be our connection with those around us.

The End is Near

The End is Near… the end of the church year, that is.

The Christian calendar begins a new year on the first Sunday of Advent. This year it lands on Sunday, November 27. This means that we are currently in the last few weeks of the year. While the world busies itself with holiday preparation, we’ve a bit of work to do first. We are wrapping up an ending year.

The Christian study of end times is called eschatology. It is often the purview of prognosticators with a book to sell. But crazy end-time conspiracies aside, the Bible does challenge us to consider the end. The next two Sundays will be a chance to wrestle with the end (especially, Nov 20, Reign of Christ Sunday). Do we believe there will be an end? Even if we do, what good does it do us today?

Jürgen Moltmann is considered the theologian of eschatology. His magnum opus is Theology of Hope. Here is his conclusion: “As a result of this hope in God’s future, this present world becomes free in believing eyes from all attempts at self-redemption or self-production through labor, and it becomes open for loving, ministering self-expenditure in the interests of the realization of justice in the light of the coming justice of God.”

In other words, the end determines the present. As we long for God’s love and justice, may we engage in love and justice today.

Welcome to the end.