As a preach\u00ader I have a lot to be thank\u00adful for. First, of course, I have the sorts of things every\u00adone should be thank\u00adful for. I\u2019m thank\u00adful for pup\u00adpies and kit\u00adtens and stars. I\u2019m thank\u00adful for my health and for my fam\u00adi\u00adly. I\u2019m thank\u00adful that I live in a peace\u00adful place in this war-torn and vio\u00adlent world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are some addi\u00adtion\u00adal things that I as a min\u00adis\u00adter ought to be grate\u00adful for, and three are on my mind today. I am grate\u00adful for those I min\u00adis\u00adter to, I am grate\u00adful for those I used to min\u00adis\u00adter to, and I am grate\u00adful for those who make it pos\u00adsi\u00adble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, I am grate\u00adful for those I min\u00adis\u00adter to. <\/strong>So often in his let\u00adters Paul express\u00ades thanks to God for the peo\u00adple he min\u00adis\u00adters to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Thess 3:9 may be the most pow\u00ader\u00adful of these vers\u00ades:<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the pres\u00adence of our God because of you? (NIV)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I can relate to Paul \u2014 the stu\u00addents in Chi Alpha bring me joy. Actu\u00adal delight. Words fail me at times. And this isn\u2019t a one-off sen\u00adti\u00adment Paul express\u00ades:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul knew that when you\u2019re a min\u00adis\u00adter, you should real\u00adize that the peo\u00adple God has giv\u00aden you are a gift. More ful\u00adly, you are a gift to them and they are a gift to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some\u00adone like me should be grate\u00adful that any\u00adone shows up to hear me preach. I min\u00adis\u00adter to busy Stan\u00adford stu\u00addents. These peo\u00adple have been work\u00ading all week. They\u2019ve got home\u00adwork to get done. They have text\u00adbooks to read. And they\u2019ve got cute peo\u00adple to woo. And they\u2019re gonna take time every Wednes\u00adday night to walk across cam\u00adpus and lis\u00adten to me talk about the Bible? And then they\u2019re going to find me through\u00adout the week to ask me ques\u00adtions about God and how to fol\u00adlow Him more ful\u00adly and wise\u00adly? That\u2019s wild!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am grate\u00adful to them, and I am grate\u00adful to God for them. My stu\u00addents are amaz\u00ading and I love them so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sec\u00adond, I am grate\u00adful for those I min\u00adis\u00adtered to years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 3 John 1:4 the apos\u00adtle tells us<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have no greater joy than to hear that my chil\u00addren are walk\u00ading in the truth. (NIV)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Paula and I recent\u00adly took a trip to DC, New York, and Boston to vis\u00adit some of our alum\u00adni. It was so excit\u00ading to catch up with every\u00adone, but one of the things that made the biggest impres\u00adsion on me was meet\u00ading chil\u00addren who only exist because God called Paula and me to min\u00adis\u00adter at Stan\u00adford over two decades ago. Their par\u00adents met in Chi Alpha, and like\u00adly would not have begun to date had we not pro\u00advid\u00aded the envi\u00adron\u00adment in which their rela\u00adtion\u00adship grew. And now there are kids. Actu\u00adal adorable humans of infi\u00adnite worth who exist as a direct result of our min\u00adistry. It\u2019s won\u00adder\u00adful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See\u00ading our alum\u00adni filled me with inex\u00adpress\u00adible joy, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when I spoke to so many of them about the church\u00ades they attend and how their faith has grown through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our alum\u00adni are extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary peo\u00adple and I am always touched when they have time to meet with their old col\u00adlege pas\u00adtor, and even more when they have kind words to share and fond mem\u00ado\u00adries to rem\u00adi\u00adnisce over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, I am grate\u00adful for those who make it pos\u00adsi\u00adble. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Philip\u00adpi\u00adans 1:3\u20135, Paul says<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3<\/sup> Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4<\/sup> When\u00adev\u00ader I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, 5<\/sup> for you have been my part\u00adners in spread\u00ading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. (NLT)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Paul is so thank\u00adful for the Philip\u00adpi\u00adans that he thanks God for them every time he prays because they are his \u201cpart\u00adners in spread\u00ading the Good News about Christ.\u201d What that means is unclear until you come to the end of the let\u00adter. In Philip\u00adpi\u00adans 4:15\u201316 he explains<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15 <\/sup>As you know, you Philip\u00adpi\u00adans were the only ones who gave me finan\u00adcial help when I first brought you the Good News and then trav\u00adeled on from Mace\u00addo\u00adnia. No oth\u00ader church did this. 16 <\/sup>Even when I was in Thes\u00adsa\u00adloni\u00adca you sent help more than once.(NLT)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Philip\u00adpi\u00adans part\u00adnered with Paul by send\u00ading him mon\u00adey to help him do min\u00adistry. And Paul was grate\u00adful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So am I. Our min\u00adistry is only pos\u00adsi\u00adble because of a whole lot of peo\u00adple like the Philip\u00adpi\u00adans. They give us finan\u00adcial help and Paula and I are so very thank\u00adful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I\u2019m grate\u00adful. <\/strong>And if you\u2019re a stu\u00addent in Chi Alpha now, or if you were a stu\u00addent in Chi Alpha years ago, or if you are one of our finan\u00adcial part\u00adners, know this: I am espe\u00adcial\u00adly grate\u00adful for you this Thanks\u00adgiv\u00ading. May you be blessed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a preach\u00ader I have a lot to be thank\u00adful for. First, of course, I have the sorts of things every\u00adone should be thank\u00adful for. I\u2019m thank\u00adful for pup\u00adpies and kit\u00adtens and stars. I\u2019m thank\u00adful for my health and for my fam\u00adi\u00adly. I\u2019m thank\u00adful that I live in a peace\u00adful place in this war-torn and \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Grat\u00adi\u00adtude of a Preach\u00ader\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,22,4],"tags":[220,115,305],"class_list":["post-7553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-news","category-spiritual-growth","category-stanfordministry-news","tag-bible","tag-missions","tag-thanksgiving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1XP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7553"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7563,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions\/7563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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