My Thanksgiving for His Giving : A Forty-Day Lenten Devotional of Thanksgiving

By Philip Dunston

My Thanksgiving for His Giving is a forty-day Lenten journal, commencing with Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Eve. The reader takes a forty-day journey in the word of God, reliving the season and thanking God for the tremendous sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on our behalf. The journal highlights the significance of the Lenten season for Christians, and reminds us of how thankful we should be for God's love and the opportunity we have to give thanks to God and to share that love with others. I believe the reader will leave this work with a renewed gratitude and appreciation for what God has done in their lives. I am thankful for His giving. After immersing myself in Dr. Dunston's reflections on his Lenten journey to Calvary, I am convinced that the spiritual guidance and insight you will gain during this journey is truly inspiring, encouraging and impactful. The reader will relish this journey to Calvary with Dr. Dunston. His words are refreshing, reflective and relevant for current times. I encourage you to read and reflect in this journal. You will be blessed, inspired and encouraged as you make your way personally to the experience of Calvary and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Gregory D. Taylor Pastor, First Baptist Church Bladenboro, North Carolina

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635755787

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My Thanksgiving

for His Giving

A Forty-Day Lenten Devotional of Thanksgiving

Dr. Philip Dunston

ISBN 978-1-63575-577-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63575-578-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Philip Dunston

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Foreword

The late Reverend Dr. Gardener Taylor, quoting one of his contemporaries, once said, On Sunday mornings the preacher ought to as soon as possible, make his way across the terrain of the biblical text and head to Calvary. With this 40-Day Lenten Journal of Thanksgiving, Reverend Dr. Philip Dunston has done just that. He has, with pragmatism and scholarship, helped us move with dispatch from the season of Advent across the liturgical terrain towards the Lenten Season. Because Calvary is the watershed event of the New Testament, it is timely and additionally refreshing to have this Lenten journal available during this time of indifference and alternative facts that continually polarizes our nation. My friend and colleague of more than twenty-eights years has contributed with this work an absolutely wonderful addition of inspiration and personal testimony woven onto the fabric of the Lord's Truth. It is my extreme privilege to recommend it to every Apostle, Evangelist, Prophet, Pastor and Teacher and Lay Persons in the Kingdom work of our Christ.

Grace and Peace,

Reverend Alfred Walker

Senior Pastor, Bonnie View Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Pastor and Chaplain, Baylor Scott & White Health

Dallas, Texas

Acknowledgements

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW

I thank you Lord for the grace to complete this endeavor. Thanks to my beautiful family for their love and support. A special thanks to my parents, my mom Ida for her unconditional love and my dad Philip Sr. for his example of true fatherhood.

Thanks to three of my friends and co-laborers in this spiritual work: Pastor Gregory Taylor, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Bladenboro, NC, Pastor Alfred Walker, Pastor of the Bonnie View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas and Pastor Wendel Dandridge, Pastor of The Worship Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thanks to my spiritual mother Dr. Anne E. Streaty Wimberly for her inspiration and commitment to the body of Christ as Professor Emerita and Director of the Youth Hope Builders Academy at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thanks to my spirit family, the Friendship Baptist Church in Appling Georgia, where I have been serving as Pastor/Teacher for more than twenty-three years. You all are the greatest inspiration in my life.

Thanks to all my colleagues and professors at Clark Atlanta University, the ITC and North Carolina Central University for the finest education and training in the world.

EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT COMES FROM GOD

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, and it ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Lent is the season of penance and prayer. The forty-day Lenten season is typically a time when we choose to abstain from an indulgence or we practice some measure of sacrificial devotion. Whether you choose to give up something or take something on, what is most important is to ensure that your heart is attentive to the gifts of grace that Jesus has provided by way of his sacrifice on the cross. His act of devotion provided for us forgiveness for sins, the ability to live a full and fruitful life, and a forever home waiting in heaven.

This Lenten devotional will be a unique thanksgiving experience for forty days leading up to the celebration of Easter. At the conclusion of this experience, you will marvel at how often God showed his unconditional love to us, even while he was preparing to go to