Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

November 21, 2021 · 10:00

Give Thanks

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Beginning around the middle of September, stores started putting out displays for Halloween – candy, costumes, and yard decorations. Not long after that Christmas displays started appearing right alongside the Halloween displays.

My wife likes watching cooking and baking shows on TV. All during this time, the baking competitions were about making Halloween cakes and cookies with “scary” themes. Once Halloween passed, the same shows switched over to Christmas baking competitions.

During all of this time, Thanksgiving Day got little or no attention. It seems to me that the two most self-indulgent holidays received all the glory and the one day dedicated to the idea of giving thanks to God for all His blessings to us went largely ignored.

However, that is to be expected considering the self-centered nature of fallen man. From the beginning,[1] man succumbed to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.[2]

God’s Word teaches that we should redirect our inward focus and turn it to God “from whom all blessings flow” in an attitude of thanksgiving. Indeed, our beginning verse teaches “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

“Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name” (2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18:49). This is the first appearance of the phrase “give thanks” in the Bible. King David had just won victory over all of Israel’s enemies, including his own son Absalom. This passages is found in 2 Samuel 22, which is one entire psalm. In it, David focuses on his dependance on God. Never is his focus inward or in his own accomplishments, but rather, he gives all the glory to God because of all that God had done, “Therefore” David gives thanks to the Lord. Not only does he give thanks to God personally, but he will give his thanks “among the heathen.” He does not keep his gratitude to God as a “private” matter, but he will let the world know the greatness God.

“Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” (Psalm 30:4). God’s greatest attribute is His holiness. “Holiness” means to be “set apart.” God is far above and beyond us. In theological terms, God is wholly “other.” In other words, God is unlike anything we can know or understand. Yet, we are created in His image.[3] And He has made Himself known to us through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we can know God. When we remember this, we can give thanks that Holy God cares enough about us to send His Son to save us from our sins

“Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare” (Psalm 75:1). The psalmist twice repeats the phrase “we give thanks” to emphasis the importance of giving thanks. Why? Because His name is near, i.e., He is near to us. “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…” (James 4:8) How can we know? His “wonderous works declare” it. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). We live in a cursed world, and even so, it is a beautiful creation. When we consider all that God has created, we can be thankful for all that He has made.

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Note the obligation: “We are bound … always.” We should give thanks to God for our brothers and sisters in Christ, “beloved of God.” We share a common bond. We are “beloved of the Lord, chosen to salvation, sanctified by the Holy Spirit,” and we share the “belief of “the truth.”[4]

It is God’s desire that we have a heart of gratitude and be thankful for the blessings He bestows on us, but He does not “demand” it of us. “And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will. (Leviticus 22:29). The psalmist says, “That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Psalm 26:7). “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High” (Psalm 50:14). “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms” (Psalm 95:2). “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psalm 100:4). And the Apostle Paul writes, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2).

Christmas is coming. The TV and internet commercials, store displays, and all forms of attention getters have been reminding us since before Halloween. Maybe we should take time and offer Thanksgiving to God for His gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His free gift of salvation “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Entering the Christmas season with a heart of thanksgiving will give us the right perspective.

Notes:

[1]  Genesis 3:6

[2]  1 John 2:16

[3]  Genesis 1:26-27

[4]   John 14:6

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November 22, 2020 · 10:00

Four Hundred Years

And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will. (Leviticus 22:29)

November 11, 2020 commemorated the landing of the merchant ship Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. She left port at Southampton on September 16, 1620 with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew members onboard and arrived in the “Promised Land” about three months later.

Before setting foot on the new land, and because Plymouth was not their intended destination, the Pilgrims convened to establish an agreement for self-governance of the colony. That document, known as the Mayflower Compact, served as a model for the founding documents of our nation. The first sentence of that document, following all the legal formal language, stated the purpose of the colony, i.e., “Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith…”

The small band arrived in the harshest of New England winters. They were unable to build suitable shelters, so they spent the winter onboard the Mayflower. By the time they finally disembarked at the end of March 1621, almost half of their company had died of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

Once on land and with the help of some Indians, they planted crops and built houses for themselves. At harvest time (the date is not recorded), they joined together with the Indian tribes that helped them to offer thanksgiving to God for providing for them even through extremely difficult times.

The Pilgrims did not celebrate a particular day of thanksgiving; rather, they made a practice of thanking God daily for His care and provision – a practice we all should follow. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15)

We should offer God our sacrifice of thanksgiving daily, not just on the fourth Thursday of November.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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May 31, 2020 · 10:00

How Soon They Forget!

Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: (Deuteronomy 8:11)

Forgetfulness gets us in trouble many times, like when you forget some special someone’s birthday or anniversary. Forgetfulness can be annoying, like when you walk into a room and wonder why you entered. Someone once said that “The only thing faster than the speed of thought is the speed of forgetfulness. Good thing we have other people to help us remember.”[1] Some kinds of forgetfulness are worse than others. When you forget a special day, you can always make it up and get forgiveness. When you walk into a room and forget why you entered, you can always walk back out and remember when you get busy doing something else. However, forgetting God and the blessings He has bestowed on us, well, that just makes us ingrates, but worse, it raises up a barrier to our relationship with Him.

Reading through the biblical history of Israel, the characteristic that stands out above all others is forgetfulness, which often manifests in the spirit of ingratitude. When God led them out of Egypt, they soon forgot the hardship of their bondage and started complaining about the manna God provided for them in the desert. After God audibly spoke to them at Mount Sinai and gave them His Ten Commandments, they soon forgot the first one and built a golden calf to worship.

That pattern followed them throughout their history until God finally had enough and sent the Assyrians first to punish Israel (the northern kingdom) then, 100 years later, He sent the Babylonians to punish Judah. The northern kingdom, Israel, was deported to the region that we know today as northeastern Iraq,[2] and they assimilated with the Assyrian culture gaining the moniker of the “Ten Lost Tribes.” Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews[3] in three waves, 597 BC, 586 BC, and finally 581 BC, but the Judah Jews retained their identity throughout their captivity (as they have to this day).

The Babylonian captivity for the Jews lasted only 70 years as God had determined for them.[4] Daniel records the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC[5] by Cyrus as predicted by Isaiah the prophet.[6] After conquering Babylon, Cyrus issued a decree[7] that allowed the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem and their Temple. It took the Jews about 23 years to rebuild the Temple razed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. “And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king” (Ezra 6:15).[8]

Fifty-six years (by my calculations) after the completion of the Temple, Ezra, priest and scribe,[9] left Babylon to assess the Temple situation. This was during the seventh year of Artaxerxes I’s (465-425 BC) reign; this would have been around 458 BC. In the interim, between the completion of the Temple and Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem, the enemies of the Jerusalem Jews had been carrying on a letter-writing campaign with the Persian kings to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem.[10] Therefore, all building (except for the Temple which was completed) had ceased.

At about this same time, (20th year of Artaxerxes I, 445 BC) Nehemiah heard about the battered condition of Jerusalem and how the city walls were broken down. This caused him great grief and from his position as the “king’s cupbearer,” he requested permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. Ezra was already in Jerusalem. So Nehemiah took charge, and against much opposition, rebuilt the walls in just 52 days.[11]

I have a reason for providing all that detail. I began by reciting Israel’s forgetfulness and unfaithfulness to the LORD their God. Finally, after 70 years of captivity, God worked through pagan kings to allow them to return to their homeland. With the blessing of the Persian kings, beginning with Cyrus, God provided the way and the resources for them to rebuild their Temple and the walls of the city in record time. All of this was God’s doing, and God’s hand can be clearly seen over all of it. One would think that after all of that, they would remember their God.

They did, briefly. Once the walls were completed and Ezra had the priests and Levites all organized, they had a dedication for the Temple and the City walls. The scene recorded in Nehemiah 8 and 9 harkens back to a similar gathering when King Josiah read the Book of the Law that had been found in Solomon’s Temple.[12] On this occasion, Ezra stood on a “pulpit” and read Scripture from morning until noon. And the people stood and listened, and the Levites “taught the people” and they “read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8, emphasis mine). The clarity given to God’s word was necessary because the people had been speaking Aramaic in their captivity and probably lost a lot of their use and understanding of Hebrew – the language of the Scripture.

As a result, there was a great “revival” among the people. They discovered that it displeased God for them to intermarry with pagans, so all those who married pagan wives divorced them. They committed to follow God completely. So, for the twelve years that Nehemiah governed,[13] they were faithful to their commitment. However, Nehemiah had to return to his post at the side of Artaxerxes[14] and was there for “certain days.” In his brief absence, things (spiritually) fell into disarray once again. Eliashib, the priest, arranged an apartment inside the Temple for Tobia the Ammonite, the mortal enemy of Nehemiah, violating the Law of God.[15] Nehemiah observed many Jews violating the Sabbath and foreign merchants peddling their goods inside the city gates on the Sabbath. All these things from which they “repented” were taking place as normal. They also started marrying pagan wives again. How soon they forget!

It is no wonder that God stopped speaking to them after this for the next 400 years. Then Jesus came, and they failed to recognize Him because they forgot what Scripture foretold about Him. We should not be too critical, though. We have the complete canon of God’s Word, and we still forget.

I have stated before, when I read the history of Israel, I see a striking parallel with our nation, the U.S.A. We have forgotten God too, and if God stopped dealing with His “chosen people” what makes us think that we should get preferential treatment? I think we have gone too far in our forgetfulness.

There is hope for the U.S.A., for Israel, and for the whole world. Soon, and very soon, Jesus will return and set up His kingdom on Earth, and all things will be made right. Are you prepared to meet Him? See my page on “Securing Eternal Life.”

Notes:

[1]  Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration, (Norilana Books, http://www.norilana.com/, 2010).

[2]  2 Kings 17:6

[3]  Name derived from “Judah”

[4]  Jeremiah 25:11-12

[5]  Daniel 5:30

[6]  Isaiah 44:28; 45:1

[7]  Ezra 5:13

[8]  Darius reigned between 522-486 BC

[9]  Ezra 7:6

[10] Ezra 4:8-22 (is a “sample” letter that is out of sequence with the narrative)

[11] Nehemiah 6:15

[12]  “Too Good, Too Late” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2020/05/17/too-good-too-late/

[13]  Nehemiah 5:14-15

[14]  Nehemiah 13:6

[15]  Deuteronomy 23:3

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November 24, 2019 · 10:00

Give Thanks

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Without question, we live in the richest nation in the world. In terms of material possessions, even our poor own more stuff than many of the “well-off” in the world. Poverty, in the rest of the world, means that people have only one meal a day if that. They have no clean water to drink, no shoes to wear, and perhaps only one change of clothes. Their children are diseased and dying with little or no hope for medical care. That is real poverty.

America knows no such poverty. During my time as a bilingual elementary school teacher in Dallas and Garland, I visited in the homes of some of my students. All of them, as far as I know (it was not my place to ask), were children of illegal immigrant parents. All of them were considered “poor” and usually received assistance for their normal school supplies. I do not recall a single home I visited that did not have large flat-screen TVs, usually more than one, and the children had some kind of electronic devices including video games. The parents drove late-model cars often decked out with expensive custom wheels (“rims”). I do not say this to criticize, but only to point out that our “poor” are not really poor compared to the poor in the rest of the world. This explains why millions attempt to breach our borders to leave the poverty of their countries for the “poverty” in ours.

America has been richly blessed by God, yet the voices from the left grow louder by the day denigrating America as evil, intolerant, and bigoted. What God has blessed, they curse. Paul warned that these days would come (2 Timothy 3:1-7), so we should not be surprised by this. Rather than succumb to the venomous rhetoric of the loud left by retreating into a shell of depression, we should cast our light on the darkness though our proclamation of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day comes once a year, but our attitude of thanksgiving should be voiced daily. We have much for which to be thankful, and the Bible says much about giving thanks to God. “Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence” (Psalm 140:13). The “righteous” are those who have been made righteous by the blood of Christ forever; therefore our thanksgiving should be forever. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30). I have much for which to be thankful. Every breath I take and every beat of my heart is a gift from God. I thank God for all those He orchestrated in my lineage, going all the way back to Adam so that I might have life. God has blessed me with good health for which I am thankful. I thank God for Jesus Christ who shed His blood on the cross so that I might receive His righteousness. I thank God for Jesus rising from the dead so that I might also have eternal life with Him. I thank God for my first wife through whom God gave me my two sons, their wives, and my four grandchildren. I thank God for June my wife of almost 32 years, with whom I have shared the best years of my life, and I thank God for her family who in every way has become my family. I thank God for my siblings and their families and the double bond we share in Christ. I thank God for my church family and the fellowship we share that will last throughout eternity. I thank God for my work and the talents and abilities God has given me with which I can make a living. I thank God for my job at the Institute for Creation Research and the privilege I have to work among fellow believers; they too are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Through my work – all the skills and talents God has given me – God has provided a home, “stuff” to fill our home, food, clothing, vehicles for going to work, church, and anywhere we want to go. God provides more than just our basic needs so that we are able to bless others from the overflow.

My list is short. If I were to provide an itemized list of everything with which God has blessed me, it would fill a book. I am sure my readers could say the same. The hypocrites on the left want to stir up envy against the “rich” one percent by making the rest of us feel deprived because we do not have what they have. Such envy stirs up hate and is divisive for our nation. Nowhere does the Bible promote the kind of egalitarianism promoted by the left. It is a lie of the devil and the only way to combat that perverse philosophy is by adopting an attitude of gratitude. “In everything, give thanks.”

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May 30, 2017 · 16:09

Thank You, Lord Jesus!

Thank You, Lord Jesus!

You have preserved my life for 67 years and You have blessed me with a good, strong body and excellent health. And even though I have not escaped “the curse,” I still do pretty well, for an “old man.”

A couple of months ago I thought I was fit enough to run, and, while You kept whispering to me not to do it, I thought I could, and did. The next day, my right knee loudly complained that I should have listened to You.

Thank You for a good physical trainer that understands the anatomy that You designed and assembled enough to take it easy on my whining knee, and who encouraged me to have a doctor take a closer look. This time I listened, and I went to see my familiar orthopedist, Dr. Medlock. Thank You for the knowledge You have revealed to men and women in the medical field. Thank You for the desire You have instilled in them to devote their lives to the care of others.

Dr. Medlock started with conservative means – a cortisone shot to the knee. That did not help, so he ordered an MRI. Thank You for such wonderful technology You have allowed humans to develop that see inside the human body to help doctors pinpoint physical injuries. Dr. Medlock saw that I had, for the second time in one year, torn the medial meniscus in my right knee, and it would require surgery to repair.

Last Friday, May 26, 2017, I went to the Ambulatory Surgery Center at Medical City, Dallas to get the work done. Thank You, Jesus that You have allowed me to live in the United States of America where we have an abundance of good public and private hospitals staffed with talented and well-trained medical personnel that are efficiently run without oppressive government meddling. Dr. Medlock is an excellent doctor.  With the use of an arthroscope (again, thank You for technology) and the skill of an excellent surgeon (thank You for Dr. Medlock), I was out of the operating room in less than an hour.

Thank You for my wonderful wife, June, who drove me home in the car You gave us. Thank You for an abundance of food at every corner. June bought me a double-double Whataburger for my first meal with money You have provided through the ability You have given us and by the good employment You have provided. You have even provided the insurance to cover most of the medical expenses through the employment You have provided.

Lord Jesus, Thank You for a church family, and a choir and Sunday school family and all the many Christian brothers and sisters You have blessed us with that care for us, and pray for us, and encourage us as we go through the down parts of life. You have not left us alone!

Today, I am four days out of surgery. So far, You have given me the strength to walk eight blocks around the neighborhood, and I plan to walk at least four more before the day is done. Tomorrow, I will drive the pickup You gave me to the place of service You have provided for me.

Thank You, my Lord Jesus, most of all because I am Yours.

Lord, I feel sorry for all those who are so richly blessed by You, and they do not even realize from Whom their blessings flow. Open their eyes, Lord. All things come from Your hand, dear Lord Jesus. Thank You.

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