My granddaughter asked me “Granddad, what is your favorite holiday?” I told her “ThanksChristmas!” I love the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. What is not to love? This Sunday is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I will miss the church-wide Thanksgiving Meal and the Community Wide Thanksgiving Service. By God’s grace and goodness, we will still have a Thanksgiving Meal and we can still see the Community Thanksgiving Service live-streamed! We will be having the Lord’s Supper this Sunday at both services. We have a lot for which to be thankful!
I hope you don’t get tired of me saying things like this: You did an outstanding job giving to James Island Outreach. In 2018 James Island Baptist gave 1,885 pounds of food plus our financial donations. In 2019 the food donations increased to 5, 408 pounds of food plus the financial donations. By the end of 2020: JIBC will donate pretty close to 10,000 pounds of groceries to help bless the under-served in our community! That is 5 TONS of food! To God be the glory and to you we give thanks! What is not to love about this kind of Thanksgiving?
I love that we will put up our Christmas decorations for the Church this Sunday and the decorations for our home! I love Christmas decorations. I have already started listening to Christmas songs and we are well on our way to planning our Advent season. By the way, we are having the Christmas Eve services. We will have one at 4:00 PM and the other at 6:00 PM. *Please note that there will be limited seating. The Christmas Eve services will be a free, but ticketed event. There will be a small number of seats reserved for those who do not have the opportunity to get tickets and there will be a very special, and I mean very special, overflow service in the fellowship hall.
I love ThanksChristmas! Just about the only thing I do not like about this time of the year is that some may feel pressured to go into debt to buy gifts. Please do not! Live within your budget and be creative. I put on our tree every year some of the handmade Christmas ornaments we were given as gifts. Made with love and filled with memories! Let’s say it loud and often…CHRISTMAS IS NOT CANCELLED! We are celebrating ThanksChristmas!
See you Sunday, good Lord willing!
Pastor Tom
