Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The very idea of saying "Thank you!" is not pagan. Animals don't know how to say "Thank you!" Give them some food, and they proceed immediately to gobble it up. Some of us who have traveled in undeveloped lands (that's what we call them!) which are heathen or pagan have observed that pagan children also grab food you give them and rush off to gobble it up without so much as a glance, let alone a word, not even a smile, indicating thanks.
How do you and I appear before the throne of God? Do we grab all the blessings the Lord has already given us, gobble up our food, enjoy the pleasure of life, without expressing genuine thanksgiving?
The truth is that it's impossible for anyone, Christian or heathen, to feel genuine thanksgiving unless he has at least some appreciation of what it cost the giver to give. For example, I have observed pagan children gather around us while we were having a picnic; they saw us as being virtually multimillionaires in contrast to their poverty, so whatever we gave them cost us nothing, they felt. So, why say thanks for something that didn't cost the giver anything to give you?
And that precisely is our spiritual problem. We don't realize what it cost the Giver to give us the gift of eternal life. So, why FEEL very deep thanksgiving? If a billionaire gives you a dime, do you get ecstatic in expressing thanks?
Actually, we are very much like those pagan children watching us eat our picnic lunch; we have only a childish concept of what it cost the Son of God to rescue us from hell itself. To understand what it cost Him, to appreciate the dimensions of His sacrifice--this is what the New Testament means by the word "believe." And not to believe in that sense is what the Bible calls "unbelief." And that ... turns out to be the sin of sins. The remedy? Contemplate that cross where the Son of God died for you.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 27, 1997.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
