Today

In 2005, April and I came to Kitchener fresh out of Bible college. Over the years the Lord let me serve here as children’s director, bus director, deacon, and assistant pastor under Pastor Philip Clayton. Then in 2011, I became the senior pastor.

When I look back on those years, I see that none of it started with me. Everything I have had to give, God gave me first: my Bible training, this church family, and a pastor who went before me. It was all seed, and God did not put it in my hands so I could keep it.

That is what Paul is teaching the Corinthians. They were asked to give to poor saints in Jerusalem they had never met. Just before our verse, Paul calls God the one “that ministereth seed to the sower.” God enriches His people “to all bountifulness,” a word that means simple, open-handed giving with no hidden motive. It is the same word translated “simplicity” in Romans 12:8.

A farmer does not lock his seed in the barn. He scatters it. Now look where this harvest comes up. The gift leaves Corinth, and thanksgiving rises to God in Jerusalem. It happens “through us,” Paul says.

Our flesh would rather count what we lack. But if you belong to Jesus, you have salvation, the Word of God, His presence, a church family, and daily bread from His hand. Even in a lean season, He still gives you seed to sow.

Thanksgiving is not only something you say to God. It is something you sow, so others will say it too.