Be Hungry

Man I love Thanksgiving!  I love to eat, so one of the best holidays for eating is Thanksgiving.  I am kind of like Jerry Clower who said "I don't know what cholesterol is, but if you can deep fry it or put gravy on it then it will probably be pretty good".  I love dressing and gravy for starters but there are so many good things that go with the traditional Thanksgiving meal that I can't just stop with those two.  Just writing these couple of sentences has made me hungry so I think I will stop now and go eat some lunch!

45 min later:  Okay I'm back now and I feel much better.  I know that many of you are looking forward to the special meals that will take place over the coming weeks and you are thinking about your favorite dishes that you can't wait to dive into.  Do we ever "hunger" for the things of God in that same way?  We should!   I'm afraid that most of us would have to answer in the negative that we don't hunger that much for the things of God.  Lord I pray that you give us a hunger for Godly things.

In September of 1620, 102 Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower to head to the New World that would later become America.  They headed to this New World so that they could have freedom to worship God.  Five of those on board died during the journey and never saw the New World when land was spotted in November, and before the first winter was over 45 colonist had lost their lives.  These people were hungry to worship God, they were so hungry that they headed out to the unknown and almost half died in their pursuit.  During this Thanksgiving we should be thankful that almost 400 years ago people saw a need to leave everything behind in pursuit of religious freedom.  I could go off now on another topic of how America has become a nation striving for "Freedom from Religion" rather than "Freedom of Religion" but I will save that for another day.

Here at MPBC we recently went through a sermon series on the Beatitudes and were challenged to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  My hope is that we will be hungry and that this hunger will lead us to worship Jesus through our singing, praying, reading the word or hearing a good sermon.   Psalm 63:4-5 says "I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you."   Just as a rich meal of dressing and gravy satisfies us so should we be satisfied as we praise God for all of his wonderful blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Geoff