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We see if we look into that recording that Abraham was called by God for a purpose in his life. He was told that he had to leave the house of his father and the nation in which he was living. The reason for that was that his father worshipped false gods and idols, and that land worshipped all those idols along with his father and his family. We see that the calling of Abraham was that he should leave this worshipping of idols and idolatry what was going on in that land, and God would take him to a better place. We see the first thing that we in our lives should be giving thanksgiving for as Abraham did, and that is that we have been called out of a world that worships idols and a world that does not recognise the true God. Many of us would not even know if we went back through our generations when this happened in our lives. It would have happened many years ago when some of our forebears also received the calling of God and left their pagan ways and began to worship God, and through that it was then passed on. The importance of this to Abraham we have already heard, that each step of his life where God gave him another promise he made an altar and made a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Almighty God, from place to place, wherever a blessing was given. That is the very first that we in the church should be giving thanksgiving for, that we have been called out of the ways of the world by our Lord into this wonderful way of salvation, and we should never stop giving thanks and praise. The message to the churches in the Book of Revelation spelt that out very clearly, that God still had something against them even though they were doing all the good deeds, and that is that they had left their first true love. Our first true love is when we have been called into this wonderful blessing. The Prophet Isaiah taught that we need then to establish a rock on which we place our faith, and that rock of course is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We should give thanksgiving to Christ that He has brought righteousness into the world, that He has overcome so many things.
The prophet said that He has taken away the worry of the pit, meaning the worry of the grave. Through His resurrection and through His great promise of leaving grace within the world we now should have no fear of death, for it is just a passing over for each and everyone of us. He speaks of eternal life and that can come through Christ. All of these blessings have been granted unto us. He then tells us of an obligation that we need to do. He said that all the families look for this salvation. He even said the islands of the world wait patiently for this message, and they must have wondered what he was speaking about because they would have had no idea of the enormity of the world, and the islands like Australia for instance that had to wait patiently for this. It would not just happen. It had to come through the words that He would put within their mouths so that they could pass this good message on, and the final part of that blessing was that God declared that He was the God, He was the Creator, and therein begins the first test of faith. If we do not believe in the creation, that God created everything we see around us, then it is very difficult to believe in Christ as the Son of God. We renew over this period of time our thanksgiving to God as the Creator. We look to His blessings which He will shower upon us, which He always showers after thanksgiving, and God declared that wonderful word through the prophet that – Thou shalt be My people. We now have this wonderful opportunity to express our thanksgiving and we do it in prayer, we do it in song, we do it in word, we do it in a special offering that comes forth so that others can also receive this blessing.
We read 2 Corinthians 4:15 ‘For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redouned to the glory of God.’ This helps us understand John 1:16 “and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.’