Why Do Thanksgiving by Pastor Poppie Paul

 





Over the past few years I have watched Thanksgiving devolve from a special and wonderful time with family and friends into a national day of shopping.  I was almost ready to capitulate and brand myself a crabby old fart when I rediscovered the proclamation, by President Lincoln, which brought our National Day of Thanksgiving into being.  The Proclamation reminds us whose day this is, and what our posture should be.  It is worth remembering why we do what we do on Thanksgiving.

Sadly, we have removed God from our National discourse.
That has changed our Nation.

We have replaced Holy gratitude, repentance, and Thanksgiving for what God has given us,
with a rampaging lust to go buy what we do not have!  

I pray that each of us will reflect upon the words of President Lincoln, 
and remember what Thanksgiving is all about! 

Have a happy, Holy, restful, special, and blessed day
with your beloved family and friends!
Paul

By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.   [Details of gratitude and civil war have been edited for length.]

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

The Most Ancient Blessing--by Linden Malki

God's heartfelt desire is to bless His people!  We are coming up to our celebration of Thanksgiving,  which echoes the ancient fall harvest festival of Sukkoth, the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles.  God created a world that blesses us each year with harvests of food for our bodies and celebrations of worship for our souls.

 As Moses was preparing to dedicate God's Tabernacle, the very first house of worship,   "The LORD said to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons,this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:  Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make his face shine upon you , and be gracious to you;  Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:22-26; YHWH is the Name told in Exodus 3:14)

Ketef Hinnom is a series of rock-hewn burial chambers based on natural caverns, SW of the Old City of Jerusalem, adjacent to St Andrews Church.  It was thought to be previously emptied of artifacts, but in excavations in 1979, a  13-year old assistant to University of Tel Aviv archeology professor Gabriel Barkay dug out a collapsed ceiling and found over a thousand objects from the time of the end of the First Temple period, about 650BC. Among these objects were two small rolled silver scrolls,  amulets probably worn on a chain.  It took three years to unroll them, and they were found to be inscribed with ancient Hebrew lettering.  In 2004, a team of researchers at USC using  advanced photographic and computer enhancement techniques has confirmed the 600BC dating and translation.  What they found is the oldest known quotation of a Bible passage:
..May be blessed by YHWH the warrior/helper and the rebuker of evil : May bless you
YHWH keep you. Make shine YHWH his face [upon] you and grant you peace.

As we thank God for the world He created, and prepare to celebrate the coming of His Son for our salvation,  let us open our hearts to receive and accept His Blessing!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/science/28scro.html?ex=1097474721&ei=1&en=21605add0f9cbea9&_r=0

Bring On the Children! by Linden Malki

One of the most memorable stories about Jesus is His welcoming of children when His disciples wanted to "save" Him from their bother. The Roman and Greek cultures which surrounded them did not value children; however, we see even in the earliest Scriptures an ideal of parental love. We see Jacob's love for Joseph and Benjamin; Moses' parents hiding him and being willing to having him raised by strangers to save his life; Samuel dedicated to the service of God; Joash being hidden by his aunt and uncle from a murderous grandmother. We even see God Himself describing His love for His people as a father loving His children. Although Moses commanded the Israelites to teach their children the story of what God required and had done for His people, we read of too many parents whose children were not raised wisely.

Jesus not only welcomed the company of children, but set a child front and center and said, "Whoever shall receive this child in My name receives me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent Me, for he that is least among you shall be great." On another occasion He said about children, that "of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

We often think of the character of a child as innocent, but anyone who has raised a child knows that they are self-willed from the beginning. Fortunately, innocence is not the requirement for salvation. Even small children are also surprisingly capable of cutting to the heart of the Gospel. The majority of adult Christians originally accepted Jesus as children. The evangelist D.L.Moody once described a meeting where there had been "two and a half conversions." The response was "Two adults and a child, I suppose?" "No," said Moody, "two children and an adult. The children gave their whole lives. The adult had only half of his left to give."

We are given the awesome responsibility of nurturing children wisely; of being kind of people that show our relationship with God in ways that encourage others to learn from us as individuals and as families, both in blood and in faith. Jesus also said that anyone who causes a "these little ones" harm is subject to judgment. Again, we are responsible for each other!

Remember--What??-by Linden Malki

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" (a)

Jesus was talking to people who were well-educated scholars of Torah, who had grown up with the yearly observance of Passover. Their ancestors had been told by Moses to "Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten." (b) They did remember that only unleavened bread be eaten during the festival, but Jesus had often pointed out that they were experts at the small stuff of the Law but missed the main points. They had apparently forgotten that yes, they had been slaves in Egypt, and were delivered by the strength of God's hand. They didn't seem to realize that without the saving hand of God, they were still in slavery to sin. 

We find all through Scripture the command to "Remember!" God repeatedly promised to remember the covenants made first with Noah, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then Moses. In turn: "In days to come, when your son asks you 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With His mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.'" (c) "You shall remember all the way which the LORD thy God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments, or not." (d)  We find the call to remembrance throughout the Psalms and the prophets. 

Jesus called his followers to remember something even more important than what God had done in the past--what He was preparing to do: sacrifice His own body and blood to so that our sins and failures could be forgotten. The writer of Hebrews remembers the promise to Jeremiah: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and wil I write them on their minds...Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (e) And he adds "And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." (f)

And this is what we are to remember: "Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way, He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you." (g) We are to remember not just the bread and the cup themselves, but that we were once slaves to sin but through a new covenant have been made His redeemed sons and daughters. 

(a)John 8:31-32    (b)Exodus 13:3  (c)Exodus 13:14   (d) Deuteronomy 8:2  (e)Jeremiah 31:33-34  (f)Hebrews 10:18   (g)Luke 22:19-20