Peace Presbyterian Church

“A Life Full of Praise and of Gratitude”

One of the things that God has recently put on my heart is the importance of gratitude. How can I be truly grateful for the gift of each day and for the gift of life? I know that at times I get distracted by life and by being busy and so I fail to fully appreciate the gift of each moment. As my family is moving into a new stage of life, a stage where we are focused on the present and looking with hope to the future (twins!), I want to be a more grateful person. I also want to express my gratitude by being a person of praise and worship. I want to praise God for who He is, and for what He has graciously done for me in giving me a new life, a new hope and a future. Thus, I am prayerfully pondering how I can be more grateful and how I can faithfully praise God each day.

A phrase from Psalm 28 has been on my heart. In Psalm 28:7, David says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.” I love this idea of leaping for joy. The goodness and the grace of God should lead us to exuberantly and unreservedly praise and thank God. We can leap for joy as we reflect and ponder on the presence, character and acts of God. As we leap for joy, we do so because our hearts are full of praise and gratitude. God wants us to be filled and overflowing with a passion and joy for and in Him. In fact, joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit and thus a sign and manifestation of God’s presence in our lives and our hearts (Galatians 5:23). Joy is a gift from God and leads us to praise and to be grateful to God. I am sure we all lack joy at times, and in those times, we must go directly to the source, directly to Jesus to find and to have joy. May God lavishly bless with you joy in Christ!

October 2 is World Communion Sunday and during our service, we will celebrate how our God is a God who loves our whole world, and who has given us Jesus, so that we might believe in Jesus and receive eternal life (John 3:16). We will hear testimonies from fellow church members and believers of how they have lived out their faith while living in different countries around the world and of what the Lord’s Supper means to them. Together, we will praise God for His gift of Jesus to us and to our world. As David says in Psalm 100:1-2, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.” All of our earth and all peoples of the earth are called to joyfully worship Jesus for the gifts of new life, hope and salvation. On World Communion Sunday, let us join with our brothers and sisters from all around the world in praising and thanking God for how He is gracious and loving, for how He saves us, and for how God has given Jesus to us and to our world.

Let us recommit ourselves to living lives of worship, in praise and in gratitude to God, for the gift of life and for the gift of Jesus. Let us be grateful for the gift of life, the gift of each day and for the gift of relationship with God and with one another.

Love in Christ
Pastor Brian

Sermons for October 2005
A Life of Worship

October 2: Psalm 100:1-5
Shout for Joy All the Earth.
On World Communion Sunday we celebrate how the cross is a gift for our entire world.

October 9: Psalm 62: 1-2, 5-8; 130:1-8
Waiting and Hoping!
Praise involves waiting and hoping in the Lord.

October 16: Luke 1:46-56; Luke 1:67-80
My Sould Glorifies the Lord.
As we worship, we seek to glorify the Lord.

October 23: John 17:1-26.
That All May Be One.
The prayer of Jesus is for us to live in unity.

October 30: Philippians 2:1-11; Psalm 95:1-7
May Every Tongue Confess.
As we worship, we pray for every tongue to confess the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior.