Thanksgiving and Fairness

The only truly American holiday, Thanksgiving. This day smothered by the pagan decorations of Halloween and Christmas. God's word did not instruct us to celebrate Christ's birthday... only memorial instructions, His sacrifice for us on the Cross, celebrated at the Lord's table.

Forgotten, but must be remembered, “Good news”, the gospel has two sides... what God did for us and a history of what Saints of God have done in return.

Here in the room where this is dictated, a cast iron fireplace, cooking pot brought over from England by my family who landed on New Jersey shores. (Morristown farm survey, 1766) Just as most Americans do not realize that 75% of the world's children have never tasted ice cream or slept on a mattress. Premier, primitive Americans eaked out a bare existence, thankful for shelter, fire in a chimney, just any method of preparing food.

But, they took time to be thankful for the goodness of God. There is a difference in the mind of God and the mind of man. Providing for us is always in the mind of God, and thanking Him for provisions should always be in our mind.

The word fair is not found in God's word, even Bill Gates, America’s richest man, unbeliever, in his 10 rules for success in business, tells us that there is no such concept as fair.

From the first time I heard President Obama speak, I knew he was anti-Christ, proven time and time again, in speaking of fair share. The serpent, in the garden of Eden, introduced fairness to Eve... the beginning of all sin, the downfall of man. The concept of fairness was foreign to early Americans. Food from a tortured east coast soil, as they buried their dead from horrendous winters, THEY THANKED GOD FOR OPPORTUNITY.

The Jewish faith of the old testament, a chosen people seeking to live under God's law, observed feast of Thanksgiving. The feast of tabernacles, seven days of living in a temporary “booth” or shelter outside their home in memorial of their life in the desert. During that week, they made 203 sacrificial offerings to God in thanksgiving for His abundance. This practice of living in a temporary shelter is still observed by some Orthodox Jews, until this day.

Some Americans, even the disabled, those who did not win life's lottery as far as possessions, good health, good looks, good brain power, take time for Thanksgiving. Thankful, to the giver of life, for life, eternal life, and it's blessings.

There have always been those who felt they have been left out. Recently, the beginning of the 20^th century, the progressive movement and even the veterans of WWI. Then, mid 20^th century hippies, now, occupiers, much like Baghdad Bob, giving a ridiculous excuse for their plight in society. This totally blind, 100% disabled veteran, who was never been able to even get a white cane or talking watch from his government can understand the “young folks” resentment toward stretch limousines, life in penthouses-beach chalets. From one side of the world to the other, and I have observed it all, whether a political tyrant, or one who inherits great wealth, and much of it is just plain luck, there has always been and will always be great inequality in our very short life here on earth. (when you get my age you realize how short it is and you look back at blessings, not fairness) It is at the Cross of Jesus Christ that we obtain equality... the greatest equality beyond imagination, a joint heir with God, the One who threw the stars into space. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)

Now this is a reason for thanksgiving, with Christ, we own all the gold in the earth, the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:10)

The occupiers, welfare moochers, dependence on entitlements, the slow but certain drift to communism. Who needs God when you have government? Christian joy, the fount of everlasting pleasure, like plugging a cord into an electric socket, like electricity, always available and dependable. “Young folks”, thinking science and technology is their god, thinking that life is just pushing computer buttons, know nothing of the ugliness of war, hardships that made this country great. We can give without loving but we cannot love without giving. Love of country, Love of God, results in thanksgiving. Pushing aside any thoughts of fairness, because God delights in blessing us, whether we deserve it or not.

It was Judas (betrayer of our Lord for the price of a hog) who resented the “waste” of Mary Magdalene's worship of our Lord, her thanksgiving with the Alabaster box. (Jesus had cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9)) and she showed her thankfulness by pouring onto Him all her wealth. Jesus said, that what she had done should be told wherever the gospel is preached. There is nothing cheap about real thankfulness, and God knows.

Count Your Blessings (Repost)

#12

Addition by Dr. Morris: My parents were reared in homes that had survived the Civil war, just two miles form one another. Both houses are still standing today, still in the family, old, beautiful wood framed houses painted white, in groves of big trees.

The church, built in 1874, both sides: great grandparents, grandparents, parents, all raised in the same church. I have been blind for a long time, but I can still hear the singing at that old church, “Count your blessings”. There were years in which the crops dried up in the fields, others they drowned in the fields, old folks died, young people died of disease or accidents. There were wars, hard times, but they still sang, “Count Your Blessings, named them one by one.”

I am convinced that God wanted me to see as much of the world as possible before I became totally blind. He did not want me to complain about my blindness, the poverty in which I was reared, the bad start my relatives and so many other people had in life. We are not stuck where we start. God wanted me to see the real poverty of the world, poverty not only in things, but in ideas, and efforts in spiritual expression. He wanted me to see the pyramids, not only in Egypt, but in Mexico and South America...wanted me to see temples, cathedrals, mosques, brush arbors, the museums in communist countries which had once been churches, the areas in the holy lands where Christ actually walked.

One can never understand blindness, I tell people to not even try it. I honestly believe that most people I know think that there times that I can see. Because I am able to take care of myself: food, clothing, business, etc. Believe me, nothing about blindness is easy...nor deafness, nor crippled body, nor crippled mind.

We do not have much record of Christ dealing with perfect people, rather the blind, the lame, sinners, and those making an effort to follow Him. He preached himself, He was either the world's greatest fraud, or He was who He said He was: the Way, the Truth, the Life. In spite of everything, God wants us to trust Him, as did His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will do the rest.

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.