Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus...

 

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus, by the Chrystal Cathedral Choir

“Rejoice always pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; 

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NRSV)

 

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

    

It is already November and we have only two pages left in this year’s calendar. “Wow! Time flies! But where did it go? Can we find it?” Actually, no one will find the lost time because we ate them all, I mean, we consumed all of it. Every second, we eat time and leave nothing! Even now, we are eating it without ceasing if we think we are breathing. In other words, we are getting older. However, it means we are growing! Is that true for us?

 

Since last Advent, we walked with Jesus. And now, we are waiting for the last day of our liturgical calendar year to celebrate Christ’s coming back and reigning over us as a king. It made me ponder about my own spiritual growing with Jesus, “Am I growing well with him?” How can we measure our spiritual growing? It is through our life attitude!

 

Two thousand years ago, Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the the church in Thessaloniki to encourage those struggling believers to grow continually whatever the situation brought them through “just doing the will of God!” Obviously, in that letter, the will of God is rejoicing and giving thanks to God always! It is a Christian’s life attitude!

 

Have we done the will of God fighting with COVID 19 this year keeping our life attitude? And are we filled with joy and thanksgiving as we prepare to celebrate Christ the King in a few weeks? If so, we are eating our time well; however, if we are not satisfied with our level of joy and thanksgiving in our life now, our Christian attitude, we still have time to prepare for Christ’s coming back to us. But how can we prepare?   

 

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged,

thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will

surprised you  what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one; 

count your blessings, see what God hath done..”

 

This is one of my favorite hymns that changes my life attitude instantly when I sing! Edwin Excell wrote the melody line, and a Methodist Lay Preacher, Johnson Oatman Jr. wrote the poem. They put those together making wonderful song for us. So, from time to time I intentionally move my mouth and sing this song because the melody and its words energize me so much and change my whole attitude about the world and life right away. This song reminds me, “Christian gratitude is our life attitude and it is the will of God!”

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in November, a month of thanksgiving, we will take a few more steps to the kingdom of God eternal together, especially, for the Christian attitude of spiritual growing. We are not far from it! 

 

Join me,

 

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor Kyochul