“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are Hi people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations,” (Ps. 100:4).
Thanksgiving. What was it? The first Thanksgiving didn’t involving gorging yourself out with food. No, it actually didn’t even involve eating. It was a spiritual recognition of the goodness of God for what He had done. You see He provided the Pilgrims with everything they needed. That is hard for us to imagine in a world where you can have a full meal thrown out a window to you. Thanksgiving to the Pilgrims actually was filled with prayer and fasting. Leave it to the descendants to totally misrepresent the holiday. The first Thanksgiving didn’t have a big fat turkey. Most of the stuff we eat today wasn’t even around at the time. If they ate at all, it was likely seafood. What we call Thanksgiving is the feast that the Pilgrims and Wampanoag held in the autumn of 1621 to celebrate the first successful harvest of the colony.
George Washington was the first to proclaim November 26 “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God." Sorry to dash your visions of grandeur about this fabulous holiday. Not only will you sin, as I will by engorging your flesh with tons of food but now, you won’t be able to justify it by saying that is a celebration. If you want to celebrate correctly, you’ll have to sit at home and pray and not eat. Don’t worry! I am not going to do that either. I am even going to go one step further than most of you. I am probably going to have some good wine too.
So much for the history lesson. You can find that stuff yourself. What about really being thankful. Every year, I say that I am going to be more thankful. Just like each year at Christmas I say that I am going to focus on the real meaning of the season. But, I still continue to eat until I can’t walk and give and receive gifts under while sitting by the tree. Truth is, we miss the meaning of any spiritual holiday. Easter is just a high attendance day for churches. I bet you don’t know how Easter really came about do you? I write that one for you later. The question is “Are you thankful?”
We have way too much. When you have too much you only want more. When you have way too much you don’t recognize the source from which it came. How many of you ever stop and wonder if you’ll eat tonight? Have you ever thought about what you would do if you didn’t have a home, a family, money in your pocket? Imagine, if it’s possible, that you didn’t have an ATM card? Imagine if you had only the clothes on your back.
It’s going to be thirty-two degrees tonight. Underneath I-565 there are people who will sleep outside without a meal. I know this because we saw them. We handed some of them sleeping bags last week. I saw a man who has a son and some wives and husbands. Some people won’t eat turkey tomorrow. Some people will go to be hungry. You and I will go to be after we have almost thrown up. Others will cry themselves to sleep.
I am not trying to make you feel bad about having things. I am simply trying to help you remember that they are gifts, gifts directly from the hand of God. He has lavished Himself on you if you have anything. Maybe you will eat canned tuna tomorrow. That tuna is from Him and it is much more than having nothing. Maybe your car sucks. That P.O.S. is from Him and at least it runs. Maybe you share a car with a brother or your dad. Whatever it is it is from Him. Go ahead whine a little about it. Or, you could simply be thankful.
I doubt this will affect too many people. I just hope it helps you and me to be a little more thankful. Can you read the Psalm at the beginning of this and really mean it? Maybe we could have a real Thanksgiving this year?
Attempting True Thankfulness,
Tim
Thanksgiving. What was it? The first Thanksgiving didn’t involving gorging yourself out with food. No, it actually didn’t even involve eating. It was a spiritual recognition of the goodness of God for what He had done. You see He provided the Pilgrims with everything they needed. That is hard for us to imagine in a world where you can have a full meal thrown out a window to you. Thanksgiving to the Pilgrims actually was filled with prayer and fasting. Leave it to the descendants to totally misrepresent the holiday. The first Thanksgiving didn’t have a big fat turkey. Most of the stuff we eat today wasn’t even around at the time. If they ate at all, it was likely seafood. What we call Thanksgiving is the feast that the Pilgrims and Wampanoag held in the autumn of 1621 to celebrate the first successful harvest of the colony.
George Washington was the first to proclaim November 26 “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God." Sorry to dash your visions of grandeur about this fabulous holiday. Not only will you sin, as I will by engorging your flesh with tons of food but now, you won’t be able to justify it by saying that is a celebration. If you want to celebrate correctly, you’ll have to sit at home and pray and not eat. Don’t worry! I am not going to do that either. I am even going to go one step further than most of you. I am probably going to have some good wine too.
So much for the history lesson. You can find that stuff yourself. What about really being thankful. Every year, I say that I am going to be more thankful. Just like each year at Christmas I say that I am going to focus on the real meaning of the season. But, I still continue to eat until I can’t walk and give and receive gifts under while sitting by the tree. Truth is, we miss the meaning of any spiritual holiday. Easter is just a high attendance day for churches. I bet you don’t know how Easter really came about do you? I write that one for you later. The question is “Are you thankful?”
We have way too much. When you have too much you only want more. When you have way too much you don’t recognize the source from which it came. How many of you ever stop and wonder if you’ll eat tonight? Have you ever thought about what you would do if you didn’t have a home, a family, money in your pocket? Imagine, if it’s possible, that you didn’t have an ATM card? Imagine if you had only the clothes on your back.
It’s going to be thirty-two degrees tonight. Underneath I-565 there are people who will sleep outside without a meal. I know this because we saw them. We handed some of them sleeping bags last week. I saw a man who has a son and some wives and husbands. Some people won’t eat turkey tomorrow. Some people will go to be hungry. You and I will go to be after we have almost thrown up. Others will cry themselves to sleep.
I am not trying to make you feel bad about having things. I am simply trying to help you remember that they are gifts, gifts directly from the hand of God. He has lavished Himself on you if you have anything. Maybe you will eat canned tuna tomorrow. That tuna is from Him and it is much more than having nothing. Maybe your car sucks. That P.O.S. is from Him and at least it runs. Maybe you share a car with a brother or your dad. Whatever it is it is from Him. Go ahead whine a little about it. Or, you could simply be thankful.
I doubt this will affect too many people. I just hope it helps you and me to be a little more thankful. Can you read the Psalm at the beginning of this and really mean it? Maybe we could have a real Thanksgiving this year?
Attempting True Thankfulness,
Tim
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