Title Add and Add/Colossians 2:6-7
Content This year's Thanksgiving is more meaningful than any other Thanksgiving. I thought the farm was ruined by a water riot, which was not common in previous years, but I am truly grateful to have achieved such a bountiful harvest today. Today, we must have a heart of profound gratitude to God once again.
The text says, “(Colossians 2:7) overflow with thanksgiving.” This word means "be thankful and give thanks" by using the letters "增" and "K" (加). If you look at the old translation version, it is translated like that. This phrase, if translated purely in today's expression, means "stand firm in the faith and add thanksgiving."
Originally, the word “thank you” means thank you. Gratitude is the expression of gratitude for receiving favor from anyone. When a person has received grace, he should be thankful. This is the principle that human beings can do, politeness, and the natural mind. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Sunday, we should give thanks to God with such a pure heart. Then how will you be grateful? I think it would be meaningful to be thankful like this.
1. It is an expression of gratitude.
It would be better to express gratitude than to just say it in your heart. Of course, we should also be thankful with our hearts. Giving thanks with a deep heart is also meaningful thanks. But expressing gratitude and joy is even more meaningful.
The Apostle Paul was always grateful for God's grace and lived his life. Then he said, "(1 Corinthians 15:10) But it is by the grace of God that I am what I am." It is a confession that I became who I am today, not because of my talents or my abilities, but only because of God's grace. So he lived his whole life without losing joy through evangelism, service, and devotion, giving thanks for that grace all his life.
When athletes win a game, they often see them sitting, kneeling, and praying with their hands together. In the past, you could always see a scene like that, but these days it is a scene that you can see often. It is very moving to see them simmer down and pray with their hands together when they have won a dramatic victory in a close match, not a regular match. At first, when I saw such a figure, it was a bit awkward and even awkward, but the more I see it, the more proud I am.
It was touching to see the players hugging each other, crying and praying while playing basketball with Jung-gu at the Asian Games and when they won a dramatic comeback. This is the expression of gratitude. Of course, you can give the housework even if you don't have to, but it is truly wonderful to kneel down and pray in front of everyone. Rather, it is a confession and a testimony.
We should be able to give thanks in concrete terms to God on Thanksgiving Day. You should be thankful with your heart and thank you with your mouth, but giving thanks for your precious material is even more meaningful.
2. Realizing gratitude.
Enlightenment is really important in the life of faith. The true power of faith comes from enlightenment. When a person becomes aware, strength arises, spontaneous motivation arises, adventure and progress are made.
Ten lepers were healed by Jesus. But after being healed, only one of them came to give thanks. One man was a Samaritan, whom the Jews were so reluctant to deal with. He was the Samaritan who lived with such ignorance, treated like a sinner, and treated like an animal.
However, the other nine are all Jews who acted like yangbans and lived proudly. What is a cultural person and a yangban? Who knows dory? So the Lord said. “(Luke 17:17) Where are the nine?” So, thanksgiving to understand, this is not something everyone does.
Once upon a time, there was a king named Gwangmuje in the later Han Dynasty. He has a single sister, Princess Hoyang. The king was always worried about his sister and advised him to open up. Princess Hoyang said that at least one of the palace ministers named Song Hong would open the door.
The king hid his sister in a folding screen and called Song Hong to see a doctor. “Since ancient times, people have been told to change their friends when their status is high, and to change their wives when their households get rich. That is, are you not planning to abandon the wife you got when you were lowly and go to the daughter of a powerful family in a cage?
There's no way Song Hong doesn't understand the king's intentions. So Song Hong answers. "I was taught that a friend I made when I was lowly should not change their friendship even if their status got higher, and not to abandon the wife I met when I was poor even if I got richer. Princess Hoyang, who was hiding behind the screen, heard the words and slapped her on her knees and said, “It is indeed Songhong.” Then he changed his mind and ate and moved to another place.
Song Hong said that his wife was a poor wife, because when she was studying to see the past, her wife went to someone else's house, hammered the mill, and obtained a chaff as wages, beat it with a sieve, and made offerings to her husband with the spilled raga, and made an offering for her husband with the chaff. It means that he made and ate dog-tteok and made his husband pass the manor.
From that time on, the term “Jogang Ji-cheo” was coined. Zhao is Jaegang 糟, and Kang is a mustard 糠 character. In other words, the word “cookang” means liquor residue and rice bran. A wife who shared hardships when she was in need and poverty while eating alcohol dregs and rice bran is called Jogang Jicheo. It was because I had a wife like this until I became who I am today, so how can I abandon her?
There is nothing that cannot be thrown away if it is thrown away in that era when the masculine and feminine ideology was drenched. If he abandons his ignorant wife and marries Princess Hoyang, the king's sister, his future will be open. How many men in the world would refuse such an opportunity? But Song Hong refused the king's offer in a word, saying, "How can you abandon Jo Kang Ji-soo?"
This is a person who knows grace. That's why there is a Hebrew proverb that says, "If a man does not know the grace of man, he cannot even think of the grace of God." It is certainly a blessing from God to say that people know grace and live with a grateful heart.
We must give thanks to God with an understanding heart. The heart that gives thanks with an understanding heart is more valuable.
3. Improving appreciation.
In the text, it is said to “add and add” to giving thanks by standing firm in the faith. Just as everything grows and improves when a person grows up, as our faith grows, our gratitude grows as well. So today should be a day to give thanks more mature than last year's. If the attitude of gratitude 10 years ago and the attitude of gratitude today are not very different, it is not an improvement in gratitude. It is a retreat and retrograde appreciation.
So we have to live with the will to grow. A person must have a mindset to grow. Only then will your life improve, your faith will mature, and your thoughts will mature. However, if a person's thoughts and hearts are outdated, they will not grow.
When the business is small and the monthly salary is small, there are people who are good at tithing offering, but are reluctant to donate because the size of the business grows and the income increases. As the amount of tithing increases, there are people who cut it in half, but masturbate that it is still more than before.
It is worth heeding the concerns of a certain mother. "My son is good at tithing when his salary is low, but he doesn't do well because his salary is high. Perhaps he is a child who will do well in tithing only if his salary is low."
Ladies and gentlemen, do you need to be in a low position and earn a small monthly salary to do well in tithing? If your status rises and your income is higher than before, will you do it in moderation? For such people, there is one way. That's how God cuts your salary. These are people who cannot improve beyond that.
We must be able to live an improved life. And you have to live with the desire to improve, the courage, and the dream. If Hana Nam improves your life, your faith should improve, your gratitude, and your thinking should improve. That way, your life will not stop and improve.
4. It is the thanksgiving of faith.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. That's why he said, "Stand steadfast in the faith, abounding in thanksgiving." So, gratitude is a measure of faith. Those who say they have good faith can tell if that faith is true faith by looking at the life of gratitude. However, when speaking of thanksgiving for faith, it would be best to refer to the Puritans who had crossed over to the North American continent.
In 1607, King James of England created a new religion by combining Catholicism and Protestantism and declared it the official religion of England. That is the religion of today's Anglican Church. All Britons were proclaimed to be Anglicans, and those who persisted in Protestantism persecuted.
At that time, the Protestants fled to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to escape the persecution. I lived there for 11 years, but there was no real freedom there either. So, on December 21st, a 180-ton ship with 102 people sailed 3,400 miles for 63 days, arriving on the east coast of the United States today. That winter, 44 people froze to death. The area they arrived in was where the Indians were wiped out by a plague four years ago.
There, they sow seeds and nurture them, and harvest them in October of that year, despite the harsh cold and agonizing lives of half dying. They offer thanksgiving services with that little grain. There is no fish, and the people who went to hunt birds did not catch the birds and instead caught turkeys, which is the reason why turkeys appeared on Thanksgiving today. On that cold day, they shed tears as they thought of the dead souls of about 60 people and offered thanks to God. This is the thanksgiving of faith. This same tradition is deeply rooted in the consciousness of Americans today.
In our people, when new rice is produced, they serve steamed rice and offer rites to demons, but Westerners worship God first and give thanks for His grace. How contrasting are the two sides of the mind? As we celebrate Thanksgiving Sunday, we should sincerely thank God.