The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving by Nike Chillemi
The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving by Nike Chillemi
The Bible talks about “the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” Most of us don’t like to sacrifice anything. We think: suffering, forfeiting, losing, renouncing, and/or kiss it goodbye. Simply pondering “the sacrifice of thanksgiving” turns our thinking around on the notion of “sacrifice”.
The Bible tells us to “enter into His gates with thanksgiving.” We are allowed to enter into His holy space, into the gates of His abode with by giving Him thanksgiving. We’re offering up thanks to Him. We are kissing something goodbye and that something is self. When we offer Him thanksgiving we’re acknowledging that He is the One who bestowed blessing upon us. We didn’t do it ourselves.
Psalm 100:3-5King James Version (KJV) ~ 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
It might be just me, but I think thanksgiving is the beginning of reverence. Reverence for this awesome God is so necessary. I’m totally in awe that the sacrifice of thanksgiving allows me entrance through the gates of God’s habitation.
I’ve heard secularists say if God is God He should do thus-and-so…He should be nice, according to their definition of nice. God the Creator of the universe has many names in the Bible, but “nice” isn’t one of them. If we were to stand on the sun and look down on the earth, man would be a speck of dust. Who is this speck of dust to tell God what He should be?
When I offer thanksgiving unto God from my heart, the core of my being, I find that peace follows. I’m at peace in my spirit. When I offer thanksgiving, I’m not reminding God about what He’s given me, what good He’s bestowed upon me. He hasn’t forgotten. I’m reminding myself and it gives me pause. It gives me peace.
In the just released second book in my detective series, DEADLY DESIGNS, heroine Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels is having a problem with God. She’d had no peace where God is concerned since the first novel in the series, HARMFUL INTENT. She believes in the supernatural, even believes in God, but she’s mad at him. Her earthly father deserted her and her mother, so Ronnie is taking it out on her heavenly father. As DEADLY DESIGNS opens, Ronnie sees very little reason to be thankful to God. Deputy sheriff Lt. Dawson Hughes, who is a good deal more than merely attracted to Ronnie, once believed deeply in God and often wishes he could get that faith back again.
Blurb:
Private investigator Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels teams up with Deputy Dawson Hughes to find a geeky radio broadcaster’s missing wife and young daughter. They fear the woman and child were taken by Islamic terrorists as revenge against the husband’s pro-Israel, conspiracy theory broadcasts. The investigation takes Ronnie and Hughes from a manicured Connecticut estate, to interviews with an elitist A-List society crowd, and run-ins with cranky local police detectives. Then they plunge deep into the seamy, drug-riddled underbelly of the fashion world, with the specter of international terrorism hovering.
Hughes has recently been promoted to lieutenant in the Taylor County, Texas Sheriff’s Department. He’s on leave on a special assignment with Authorized Operations (AO), a clandestine, quasi-government agency operating out of a sea-side mansion in Hither Hills, NY. The only thing is, many powerful politicians, and government big-wigs claim Authorized Operations doesn’t exist.
Ronnie is furious at both Hughes and the broadcaster for waiting thirty-six hours to start the search. She knows the longer it takes, the less chance there is of finding the child alive. The problem is, radio talk-show host Ed Harper has been hoping-against-hope that his pot-smoking, model wife is on one of her ‘esoteric experiences’ and has simply taken the child while she romps for a few days. He doesn’t want to seriously consider the other, more hazardous possibility… that his radio broadcasts have angered some very dangerous people.
Bio:
Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.
Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chair, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series, set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. HARMFUL INTENT released under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press, won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense/Historic Suspense category. Her new release is DEADLY DESIGNS. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network. http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
Thanks for having me. I’m so looking forward to Thanksgiving Day this year. Thanksgving is such a wonderful thing to have in our lives.