Month: November 2025

(1) Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.
Psalm 100:4 NLT

(2) Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1 NLT

(3) “O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!”
1 Chronicles 29:13 NLT

(4) Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:2-3 NLT

(5) Then I will praise God’s name with singing, and I will honor him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30 NLT

(6) Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3 NLT

(7) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV

Praise God for what He does

(8) I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
Psalm 9:1 NLT

(9) But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT

(10) You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever!
Psalm 30:11-12 NLT

(11) From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained.
Jeremiah 30:19 NIV

(12) The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
Psalm 28:7 NLT

(13) Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods. The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the Lord made the heavens!
1 Chronicles 16:23-26 NLT

(14) For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.
2 Corinthians 9:10-11 NLT

(15) All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
2 Corinthians 4:15 NLT

(16) Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Psalm 107:8-9 NIV

(17) “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.”
Revelation 11:17 NIV

(18) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17 NIV

Be grateful for the faith-filled changes God makes in you

(19) And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7 NLT

(20) Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Psalm 50:14 NLT

(21) Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Colossians 3:16-17 NLT

(22) And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Colossians 3:15 NLT

(23) Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV

(24) Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

(25) Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:28-29 NIV

(26) I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Cor 1:4 NLT

(27) Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:4-5 NLT

(28) But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.
2 Corinthians 2:14 NLT

(29) But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.
Jonah 2:9 NLT

(30) In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the LORD! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!
Isaiah 12:4 NLT

(31) Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2 NLT

(32) In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
Psalm 56:4 NIV

(33) Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
Hebrews 13:15 NIV

(34) I will sing of the Lord’s unfailing love forever! Young and old will hear of your faithfulness. Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.
Psalm 89:1-2 NLT

(35) Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8 NIV

Just a Thought – Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastor Scott

Sunday (11/16),  when preaching on James 3, I mentioned the Greek word prautés (v. 17), which is translated “gentleness” in NASB, which I think of as “meekness.”  I then received a question on our text line about Galatians 5:22-23, in which meekness and gentleness are used separately, at least in the  KJV.* 

As I understand it, prautés is strength under control (see below).  Think of a gentle elephant.  He could rip me in half, but he controls his strength and behaves “gently” toward me.  The other is chréstotés, often translated as “kindness” (but gentleness in KJV – also below) it is best thought of as “useful action.”   So the short answer is that the fruits don’t overlap in Greek, but with almost 600 years of various English translations they certainly seem to!  Another example of that is “patience and endurance.”  The old word for ”patience” was “longsuffering” and the old word for “endurance” was “patience.”

prautés: Gentleness; meekness

Original Word: πραΰτης
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: prautés
Pronunciation: prah-oo’-tace
Phonetic Spelling: (prah-oo’-tace)
KJV: meekness
NASB: gentleness, consideration, humility, meekness
Word Origin: [from G4239 (πραΰς – Meek)]

1. mildness
2. (by implication) humility

chréstotés: Kindness, goodness, gentleness

Original Word: χρηστότης
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: chréstotés
Pronunciation: khray-stot’-ace
Phonetic Spelling: (khray-stot’-ace)
KJV: gentleness, good(-ness), kindness
NASB: kindness, good
Word Origin: [from G5543 (χρηστός – good)]

1. usefulness, i.e. morally, excellence (in character or demeanor)

This is just a good example of Godly traits that are also fruits of the Spirit.  We should be working to cultivate all of these qualities in our daily lives.  It’s one thing to have a meek (gentle) response when someone “comes at us” it’s another thing to act kindly (gently) by serving others where there is a need!

Hope that’s helpful,

Pastor Scott

*Most of our Bible Language Tools are tied to King James

The words of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 6:19-21, provide us with a timeless and radical financial philosophy. It is an invitation to examine our priorities, not just our budgets, and to determine the true value of our investments. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” the scripture instructs, “where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This passage is a clear-eyed statement on the inherent risk of material wealth. The concepts of moth, rust, and thieves are universal symbols of loss and entropy. Moths speak of decay—the finest fabric eventually unravels. Rust speaks of corrosion—the strongest metal eventually fails. Thieves speak of sudden, uncontrollable external loss. In our modern age, these symbols translate to depreciation, obsolescence, market crashes, and the inevitable passage of time that renders our physical possessions irrelevant. To anchor our deepest sense of security and identity in things that are fundamentally temporary is, ultimately, to set ourselves up for disappointment. It is an investment guaranteed to fail.

The counter-directive, however, offers an exciting alternative: “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” This is not a call to literal poverty, but a powerful call to reallocate our most precious resources—our time, energy, attention, and compassion—toward things that cannot be destroyed.

What are heavenly treasures? They are not possessions but contributions. They are the character we build through integrity, the love we give through service, the wisdom we gain through patience, and the faith we demonstrate through action. These are the “assets” that grow stronger under pressure, cannot be stolen, and transcend our lifetime. The kindness you show to a stranger, the forgiveness you grant to an offender, the effort you put into developing a skill that serves others—these are the investments that accrue eternal returns.

The final verse serves as the absolute hinge of the passage: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This is the psychological and spiritual truth at the core of the teaching. Our heart—our emotional center, our focus, our peace, and our anxiety—is not an independent entity. It is a satellite that orbits whatever we deem most valuable. If we spend 90% of our daily thought worrying about accumulating, protecting, and maintaining earthly things, our hearts will be tethered to fear, scarcity, and the volatility of the material world. We will feel rich one day and poor the next.

But if we deliberately choose to make heavenly virtues and lasting relationships our primary investment, our hearts will find a home in a place of profound and unshakable security. When our treasure is permanent, our peace becomes permanent. This choice liberates us from the treadmill of consumerism and connects us to a purpose that is truly immortal.

Let us be wise investors. Let us re-examine how we spend the limited currency of our lives. The greatest risk is not in having too little, but in treasuring the wrong things. Today, choose to invest in the eternal, and watch your heart settle into a place of enduring freedom.

Pastor Scott

P.S. This piece came up when I was trying to Google the verses (Matt 6:19-21); it’s without attribution but rings true! Hope it’s thought provoking!