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Happy Thanksgiving 2014!  I thank God for you my readers.

Bible commentator Matthew Henry was robbed once.  As he gave account of what happened he said something close to, “I thank God that I am the one who was robbed and not the one doing the robbing…”  This man really knew how to give thanks.

Today is Thanksgiving 2014.  What are you thankful for?  I have learned to be more thankful.  I hope you do not think I am bragging; because, I am not.  As you walk with Jesus farther and farther down the road you learn things.  Something you learn is what is truly important and what is not important.

We often have such a hard time being thankful when things are not going the way we think.  If things are going according to what we like then things are good.  If things are not going the way we had planned then we think God is out to get us.  Look at what the Bible says in I Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  The word “in” is huge here.  I mean we are commanded to be thankful even in the midst of dark trials and tribulations.  Just like Matthew Henry I can learn to be thankful for those things like he was.  Sometimes it is hard to be thankful in the midst of trials and tribulations; but, since God commanded it then we know it can be done.  Oh; by the way, it is a command.

So, how are you doing?

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Well, today is the day that strikes fear in the heart of many turkeys.  This could very well be their last day on this earth and then they become the centerpiece of somebody’s Thanksgiving meal.  That makes me happy!

Tomorrow is the official Thanksgiving holiday.  Many of us will gather around the table with family.  Some will even take time to say one thing they are thankful for before starting the meal.  I like this as a tradition.  The problem is that I have such a hard time coming up with just one thing to say that I am thankful for.  I am blessed beyond measure!

I was thinking.  If a person is an atheist to who is he thankful?  I mean, really.  Are they thankful to “Mother Earth”?  This makes we want to vomit.  As a Christian we are to be thankful to God Almighty.  He is the Creator and Sustainer of life.  He is the Object of our Thanksgiving.

Look at Colossians 1:3, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,”  I am thankful to God for so many things.  Most importantly I am thankful that He love me so much that He died for my sin.

As you sit down to the Thanksgiving table tomorrow I hope you can genuinely offer Thanksgiving to God Almighty for what He has done for you.

So, how are you doing?

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Happy Thanksgiving!  I am sharing an article from “The Legal Alert” November 2013 issue Written by David C. Gibbs Jr., which is a publication of the Christian Law Association.  It goes as follows:

“God’s Provision and the First Thanksgiving”

“God was obviously helping the Pilgrims in many ways, but one of the most surprising forms of assistance was a man – an Indian who spoke perfect English.  In the spring of 1621, after barely surviving their first long and severe winter, God sent the weary settlers an Indian named Squanto who could speak their own language.  Squanto offered to teach the Pilgrims how to survive in this strange land.  God had perfectly prepared this Indiana to be a helper for the settlers.

As a young man, Squanto, a native of the area, had been captured and taken to England.  While there as a slave, he had mastered the English language. He had been freed shortly before the Pilgrims’ voyage and had returned to America to find virtually all of his tribe wiped out by the plague.  Despite his former treatment at the hands of the Europeans, Squanto was willing to help the Pilgrims learn to survive in the New World, teaching them where and how to fish and stalk game and which berries were safe to eat.  While these skills were important, probably the most important thing Squanto taught the Pilgrims was ‘how to plant the Indians’ winter staple, corn, which Europeans had known nothing about.’

The Pilgrims knew the value of Squanto’s assistance and were careful to give God the glory for sending him to help them.  William Bradford writes:  ‘Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation.’  The Pilgrims, in turn, shared with Squanto the most valueable treasure they had brought with them from England – the Gospel.  Cotton Mather reports that Squanto died within a year or two after to the aid of the Pilgrims, ‘but before his death, desired them to pray for him.  That he might go to the Englishman’s God in Heaven.’

Mather tells us that other Indians who assisted the Pilgrims were also impressed with their God.  During the summer of 1621, when it appeared the year’s corn harvest would not survive a severe drought, the Pilgrims called for a day of fasting and prayer.  By the end of the day, it was raining.  The  rain saved the corn, which miraculously sprang back to life.  One of the Indians who observed this miracle remarked:

Now I see that the Englishman’s God is a good God; for he hath heard you, and sent you rain, and that without such tempest and thunder as we used to have with our rain; which after our Powawing for it, breaks down the corn; whereas your corn stands whole and good still; surely, your God is a good God.

That miraculous corn harvest provided the basis for the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving, a tradition Americans continue to celebrate.  Today, however, our public schools sometimes teach that Thanksgiving signifies the thanks the Pilgrims offered to their Indian neighbors who had helped them; but history demonstrates that, on that first Thanksgiving Day, the thanks of both Pilgrims and Indians went to God for His great goodness toward them.”

So, how are you doing?

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Last night I had the opportunity of going to the mission and preaching their chapel service.  I do this on the forth Friday of each month.  It is such a pleasure.  These men are so appreciative of the snacks and that we take time to go and minister to them.  I normally do not pick out songs prior to going because I let them request their favorite songs.  They sing at the top of their lungs.  Some sing off key; but, I don’t care.  They are singing from their heart.

We go each month because we are motivated by love.  Look at I Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”  The word “charity” is the Greek word agape which means love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast (Taken from the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).

Charity is basically love in work clothes.  If I love the men at the shelter then I will do my best to teach them God’s Word and to win them to Christ.  What a privilege!  I can honestly say that I love those men and they respond in love to us.  I am so thankful that God has put His Love in me in so many different ways.  I am thankful for the love of Christ which constrains me to go each month and share with these men.

So, how are you doing?