From the Senior Pastor

A Heart of Thanksgiving
"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the lands! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100:1-5

The month of November is always a time of gladness for me because it is the beginning of the holiday season. I love Thanksgiving and the time shared with friends and family around the table with great food and joyful stories. My heart is warmed with all of the wonderful gifts of life the Lord has blessed me with. I can’t help to notice each year that the most precious of these gifts are things that all the money in the world could never buy. Things like the love I receive from my wife, children, family and God. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the same kind of gratitude that the psalmist was expressing in the 100^th Psalm. Thanksgiving is truly a time of the year when people everywhere around our nation take time to show our gratitude to God for all of the blessings of life that He has given us. The psalmist calls us to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving” and to “Give thanks to him” each and every day of our lives. Wouldn’t it be glorious if everyday could be a day of thanksgiving.

One of the ways that we might show our gratitude to God for all his blessings is to “Come into his presence with singing!” We can do this by being in a worship service each Sunday and “Serve the Lord with gladness!” Each member of First Naples pledged to serve the Lord with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, and their service when they join the church. This is an act of praise and gratitude towards God for his faithfulness to his children. This act of praise comes from the heart and is the same kind of gratitude and thanksgiving that the psalmist expressed in the 100^th Psalm.

May this Thanksgiving be a blessing to you and your families as you give God thanks for all his blessings. My prayer for you is that you will discover the same joy and gratitude in your heart in these days as the psalmist proclaimed “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the lands!”

Love in Christ, Pastor Doug