Thanksgiving 1621

This Thanksgiving Day recalls another Thanksgiving many years ago—the happy hours I spent with my children and grandchildren. Over turkey and dressing, I decided to quiz my then 8-year-old grandson, as proud grandparents often do.

I leaned over and said, “Charlie, why did the Pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving?”

Charlie resorted to the obvious answer. He said, “They wanted to give thanks.”

“And who did the Pilgrims give thanks to?”

Charlie squirmed a little bit. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess they were thanking the Indians. That’s what we learned at school anyway.”

I was aghast. We were celebrating a major holiday with deep Christian roots, and my own grandson didn’t know its significance!

The real Thanksgiving story starts in 1621, in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. Life was hard for the Pilgrims, and through the first winter the tiny colony endured hunger and privation. Nearly all of them fell ill, and only half survived the winter.

But spring came, the crops were planted, and the first harvest proved bountiful. Governor William Bradford called a special feast to give thanks to the Creator. They celebrated for a week, along with 100 Native Americans they invited to join them.

The Pilgrims did not give thanks to the Native Americans; they invited them to join in giving thanks to God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God made known in Jesus Christ.

Days set apart for thanksgiving were a common feature of colonial life. In 1631, a Puritan colony faced starvation when a ship carrying food supplies was delayed. Governor Winthrop declared a day of prayer to God. On the appointed day, as they were praying, the ship sailed into the harbor. The day of petition was turned into a day of feasting and thanksgiving.

Other thanksgiving days were held in Florida, Maine, and Texas. Virginia colonists wrote into their charter that the day of their arrival was to be “kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Today we don’t hear much about thanking Almighty God. Instead we are urged to conjure up a generic gratefulness directed to nobody in particular.

When I realized my own grandson had lost sight of the Christian meaning of Thanksgiving, I knew I had to do some homework myself. I pulled together information about George Washington, who declared a day of national thanksgiving in 1789. I tracked down literature on Abraham Lincoln, who declared Thanksgiving an annual holiday in 1863. And I sat down for a good, long talk with Charlie.

As Christian parents, we need to make sure we are passing on our religious heritage to our children. The recent Religious Landscape survey by the Pew Forum showed that 18 percent of Protestants and 30 percent of Catholics who had some faith as a child are now unaffiliated with any religion. We’ve got to do better passing it on.

So today don’t assume everyone knows why you are gathering together over turkey and cranberry sauce. Teach your children and grandchildren that generic gratefulness isn’t enough. Thanksgiving means giving thanks to the one true God.

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Giving Thanks in Difficult Times

Giving Thanks in Difficult Times

Franklin Graham (November 26, 2009)

How do we give thanks after something like the tragedy at Fort Hood, not to mention our individual tragedies like cancer and divorce?

Some of you may have seen your life savings evaporate in the financial chaos that has brought down some of the pillars of our economy. Some may have lost your homes in a hurricane or foreclosure. Many of us have a personal stake in the battles against terrorism, and thousands of families are grieving for brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives overseas—and at home.

And that's just the national headlines—not to mention individual tragedies like cancer and divorce that overshadow many of our lives.

In times like these, when nations are desperate for someone they can trust, Christians know we can always find strength and hope in the Word of the Lord. He tells us through the Apostle Paul, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV).

Paul knew what it meant to praise God in the midst of suffering. He gave up a relatively comfortable and prestigious lifestyle to become an itinerant preacher who was repeatedly persecuted, beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned. When he prayed to God for relief from a thorn in the flesh—what he called "a messenger of Satan to buffet me"—God answered, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9, NKJV).

As the world struggles to cope with disease, famine, war, disaster and poverty, it is our responsibility as Christians to assure the world that God is still in control and that He has a plan to rescue all who repent of their sins and trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Not only has He suffered on our behalf, but He has promised to bear our burdens. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NIV).

For that, we can be eternally thankful.

This old world may be falling apart, but ultimately this is not our home. "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (Hebrews 12:28, NIV).

Article reprinted from Decision magazine

Source: BGEA

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Obama's Dinner - Where Was Oprah Winfrey?

No doubt you have heard about the Obamas' first State Dinner by now. The media has, as usual, over-covered it. There was one detail about it that interested me. Where was Oprah Winfrey?

You remember Oprah, right? The woman who always wanted to be a missionary when she was growing up and then decided Jesus Christ was not enough. She has promoted New Age (which isn't really new) ad nauseam, which resulted in a huge loss of evangelical Christian viewers.

Then she angered many of her viewers when she decided to openly support (and campaign for) Obama in this last election. As a result, her viewership has taken a dive.

The average viewership for The Oprah Winfrey Show slipped under 7 million last season, down 7 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen Media Research. One week during the July rerun season, the show had its lowest ratings since its 1985 debut!

Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, has been out there since Oprah announced she is ending her show, doing public relations for Oprah. I almost choked when she said, "Oprah wants to end her show while she's still on top." On top?

Now this really intrigues me. Oprah, the woman who put her own career on the line for Mr. Obama, was not invited to this highly-publicized State Dinner. But who was there, posing like a star? Gayle King! What did Gayle put on the line for Obama?

As I'm sure you've figured out by now, I am not an Oprah fan. I quit watching her show when the New Age evangelism began. But the woman risked all of her years of success for this man, and she's snubbed? That is not right!

2009 April's Perspective

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Lost Tribes of Jews From India and China Arrive in Israel!

Old Testament prophets told of a day when Jews would return to Israel from the four corners of the earth. Some Jews are now returning from the world's two most populous nations: China and India.

Recently, friends greeted seven Chinese Jewish men at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. They flew from Beijing. Their journey marked the end of a nearly four-year bureaucratic struggle to get to Israel, but also marked the fulfillment of a biblical promise several thousand years old.

"We are witnessing the ingathering of the exiles from the four corners of the world. It's taking place before our very eyes," Michael Freund said.

Michael Freund of Shavei Israel -- a group committed to bringing Jews back to Israel -- says their arrival was prophetic.

"The prophet Zechariah in chapter 8 tells us that God promises that He will save His people from the East, from the countries of the East and from the countries of the West," Freund said.

Home video of the Jewish community shows these men came from in Kaifeng, China. This community began more than 1,000 years ago when historians believe Jews from Persia or Iraq settled in China.





It is an awesome experience for Christians worldwide to see prophecy coming to fruition right before our eyes! What a time we live in!

References: Chris Mitchell, CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

2009 April Lorier Perspective

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The Manhattan Declaration

Today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., I [Chuck Colson] and a dozen evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox leaders face the microphones to announce the release of an historic document—one of the most important documents produced by the American church, at least in my lifetime.

It is called the Manhattan Declaration, and signed by over 140 leaders representing every branch of American Christianity.

The Manhattan Declaration is a wake-up call—a call to conscience—for the church. It is also crystal-clear message to civil authorities that we will not, under any circumstances, stand idly by as our religious freedom comes under assault.

The Declaration begins by reminding readers that for 2,000 years, Christians have borne witness to the truths of their faith. This witness has taken various forms—proclamation, seeking justice, resisting tyranny, and reaching out to the poor, oppressed, and suffering.

Having reminded readers about why and how Christians have spoken out in the past, the Declaration then turns to what especially troubles us today—the threats to the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and religious freedom.

The Declaration notes with sadness that although “public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction,” pro-abortion ideology “prevails today in our government.” Both in the administration and in Congress, there are many “who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and...provide abortions at taxpayer expense.”

The Declaration isn’t a partisan statement. It acknowledges that since Roe v. Wade, “elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to the ‘Culture of Death.’”

The result of this bipartisan complicity is an increasingly prevalent belief that “lives that are imperfect, immature, or inconvenient are discardable.” This lethal logic produces such evils as euthanasia and the “industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed” for their stem cells.

The response to this kind of assault on the sanctity of human life requires what the Manhattan Declaration calls the “gospel of costly grace.” This starts with the willingness to put aside our comfort and serve those whom the broader culture would deem outside the scope of its concern and legal protection.

The cost may be higher. Christians may have to choose between the demands of what St. Augustine called the “City of Man” and the “City of God”—which, for the Christian, is really no choice at all.

This kind of principled non-cooperation with evil won’t be easy—there are signs of a reduced tolerance for that most basic of American values, religious freedom. As we’ve discussed many times on BreakPoint, Christian organizations are losing tax-exempt status for refusing to buy in to homosexual “marriage.” Some are going out of business rather than cave into immoral demands—such as placing children for adoption with homosexual couples. Conscientious medical personnel are being sued or being fired for obeying their consciences.

I say, enough is enough. The Church must take a stand. And with the release of the Manhattan Declaration, that’s exactly what we are doing.

I am asking Christians by the thousands to come to ColsonCenter.org, where you’ll be able to read and sign the document.

Please stand with us today. Tell the world you stand for the sanctity of life and traditional marriage—and that you cherish your God-given freedom.

click here for more information

First published by BreakPoint.org

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