Thankful Thursday

Di Lehman from the Champaign Vineyard gave a really powerful powerful sermon at our church using Colossians. I had forgotten how much I love Colossians, so I picked it back up as the text I've been studying in depth. How rich it is! So Colossians 1:3-8 is the basis for my Thankful Thursday this week..

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—
Thanks for the prayer warriors who are out there, praying for me and I don't even know it. Thanks that faith and love go together--if we truly have faith, we will show it in our actions. And thanks for the friends who show this in amazing ways in our everyday lives--loving our kids like their own and being just awesome friends. The most amazing thing that's happened since we've been back from sabbatical is that we have friends--something we would have had a hard time saying five years ago, and especially ten years ago when we first moved here.

the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.
Thanks that you give us hope, and thanks for the amazing renewal of my spirit that has happened over the last three weeks. Thanks for pastors that speak your truth in love, proclaiming the gospel in ways we can understand. Thanks for Christian radio stations that enrich our travels and our days, and the Christian artists who dedicate their lives to praising you and leading us into worship.

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[c] behalf, 8and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Thanks for the persecuted Church, and I pray for their protection tonight. Thanks that the darkness will not overcome your light. May seeds that have been sown be watered and take root in fertile soil. Thanks especially for our friends who are missionaries, both here and abroad, especially Carol, who was so instrumental in my learning to study the Word for myself and who is now in the Ukraine.

This week I am also especially thankful that school has started and I am back in the classroom! I had forgotten how much I love, love, love teaching--it is definitely a ministry, not a job, whereas the research I was doing last semester is not something I'm called to do (which God is making more and more obvious to me).

And thanks to Lynn at Spiritually Unequal Marriage for hosting this week! Please visit her to share your own thankfulness and to read other's.