Offering our praise, worship and thanksgiving

"Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him." Luke 17:15-16

Dear friends and partners in the Gospel of Christ,

This past week, we listened to the story of Jesus healing ten men of a skin disease that kept them cut off and isolated from the fellowship of God's people. They cry out for mercy, and Jesus responds by telling them to show themselves to the priests. This is a way of promising them that are healed of their affliction. To re-enter the community, the priests must verify that the disease is gone. The healing happens, however, on the way. They are healed by God's gracious mercy and love for them. They are healed by God's grace. Only one of them, however, on seeing that he is healed returns to Jesus, praising God, worshiping and giving thanks for what has been so freely given.

Each week, we embody this story when we turn around from our busy schedules and daily life and return, praising God, falling at Jesus' feet in worship and giving thanks for the new life God has given us through the cleansing waters of our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection. And, throughout our worship, we hear Jesus tell us, "Your faith has made you well." Faith comes as a gift to see and recognize God's grace in our life and expresses itself in praise, worship and thanksgiving.

When we give and gather our offering each week we praise, worship and thank God for all that God has given us. We express and exercise our faith when we worship God through generously giving a portion of what God has given us. When we give freely, trusting that God will provide for us and that God will use our gifts for God's purposes, we trust the gift of faith that God has deposited in us.

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