Thanksgiving, 2013

Count Your Blessings, Hymn

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

This writer and world traveler has shared many events in articles, particularly about holidays in foreign countries. Thanksgiving is a very particularly-American celebration. In my lifetime, it has been overshadowed by the paganism of Halloween and the excesses of Christmas.

I was in Khartoum, Sudan, Africa. I remember it as if it were yesterday, being at the largest hotel in the city, right on the banks of the Nile. Of course every Muslim country is dreary and colorless-- you never see a flower (God's beauty). The housing, clothing, exteriors and interiors of buildings, is very drab. In fact, I do not believe, that in all the Muslim countries I have visited in my life, that I ever saw someone smile or laugh.

There were several other Americans in the hotel on Thanksgiving. Evidently, they wanted to impress us Americans by serving us a Thanksgiving meal. We Americans were all sitting together at one table, in one dining room, when they brought in some birds of some type, which they had prepared. The legs were sitting straight up, pointed at the ceiling,  and the outsides were parched. Of course I had no appetite for this food-- in fact, in most foreign countries, I would eat around the fringes of everything in an attempt to discern what I was eating. I lost much weight in my travels.

As I have stated many times, you are Christian, with everything that Christianity entails-- daily thankfulness. You are American, with everything that that entails. Not I am an American or I am a Christian.

The apostle Paul tells us about thankfulness in his letter to Colossia:

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17

We live in a profane world, in a broken culture-- in entropy, slipping and sliding towards chaos. The most difficult question I have ever been asked, in a long life of interaction with both believers and nonbelievers, is, "If God is love, why all the suffering in the world-- poverty, disability, war, criminal activity?" Particularly, the question is, "Why do good people suffer-- especially innocent children?" And we could just as easily ask, "Why did God not spare his own Son from flogging and crucifixion?", or "Why did God allow slavery-- the most inhuman activity in world history?" Think of the slave breakers, the inhuman activity in the hearts of some humans, to be able to beat a slave daily, until they were in absolute submission-- much like the mule skinner, beating a mule or horse into absolute submission. We must allow-- in our thinking, in our psyche-- harsh truth, the fact that God allows Satan, not only to tempt us, but to abuse us. Never forget, God is boss. He is in charge, and Satan can only go as far as He lets him. 

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

In this season of Thanksgiving, we should be so thankful that life is more than temptation and abuse, warfare and criminal conduct. I can still see my grandmother getting out her glasses, from a case, on which was the name, "Dr. Edward Bizzel." I knew Dr. Bizzel, and the joy he had given my grandmother through glasses, with which she could read her Bible. But, what made her more elated than her joy at being able to read her Bible, was having her own grandson be able to write her prescription. From that day, she never stopped talking about her glasses, prescribed by her oldest doctor-grandson.  At this time, we can be thankful that we are producers, not moochers. My grandmothers were thankful that they never had a child or grandchild who ended up in jail or depended on Welfare.

On one of my last visits to one aunt, who was totally crippled by arthritis, and unable to get around or do anything, she talked about her childhood, drawing water in a bucket from a well, to wash clothes. She said, "The trials of my childhood, those of my parents and grandparents, seem so trivial when, with Thanksgiving, I realize that every one of my nieces and nephews have graduated from college, have good jobs, and are responsible and productive citizens. But most of all, that they know Jesus Christ as their savior, and every one-- without exception-- are living lives that make me very proud."

Thanksgiving is more than overeating, spending at "super centers," and waiting in line to get a special deal. African American people, and even slaves, were once described as, "The happiest people on the face of the Earth." The happiest people on the face of the Earth, should be those who have productive lives-- lives of encouragement. Mark Twain said, "Politeness costs so little." One who is thankful, long-suffering, and encouraging to others, is a testimony to Thanksgiving.

Gratefulness Day

For many years Thanksgiving Day, truly the American holiday, was celebrated in this blessed country with an attitude of gratefulness. In my lifetime, I have seen Thanksgiving disappear amid the pagan decorations of Halloween and the heathen decorations of Christmas. The stores, the merchants, pay little attention to Thanksgiving, too involved with trying to make their profit for the year during the spending and spreeing of the Christmas holiday season which isn't even called Christmas anymore.

Any emphasis placed on Thanksgiving, which most young people simply call “Turkey Day”, involves gluttony. I get so tired of hearing people talk incessantly about gorging themselves on this one day of the year. So intent with stuffing themselves, watching a lackluster parade in New York City, and then some millionaires running up and down the athletic field in a game called football. The gratitude to God for abundance is unknown in the minds of those who look forward to government checks rather than to the gifts of God. Our forefathers knew how to be thankful for the care and abundance of divine providence. It is rare to find anyone who has any historical knowledge of the life of those who founded the country.

The Pilgrims, persecuted in England for their religious separation, finally escaped to Holland. It was from Holland that they made their way to the new world, seeking religious freedom and opportunity. I have documents of my own family who landed in the early years. They tell how many died on ship and how many died after they finally reached land. They sought opportunity. Can we even imagine what life was like for the children of these early settlers? I have the survey map of my first relatives in Morristown, NJ, dated 1766. I have, here in the room where I am dictating this, the iron fireplace cooking pot which hung in the fireplace in which they cooked all their meals. It was not until I was in the military service that I realized some people would eat a large piece of meat. My family, even until my birth, cooked all meals in a large container, meat and vegetables cooked together in one large dish, which now you call a casserole or potpie.

Of course, the younger members of my family are caught up in the same type satanic, ghoulish, gluttony with which the rest of the world is entangled. They know nothing about fasting and praying, and I'm sorry to say, most of them know nothing about the redemption and salvation of our blessed Lord. Like hogs at the trough, most young people, and the X-generation, are just rabid eaters, absorbing every pleasant life activity coming their way. Little thought is given for the gratefulness for a comfortable home, comfortable vehicles, plentiful pantries and closets, opportunities in the work force and the chance for responsibility in the rearing of children and increasing all possibilities in life. Worship is something for the fanatics, with the increase in education we play along to get along with God as with everyone else. This is my family and your family on a modern Thanksgiving day. Eating and treating, laughing and clapping, compassionless, ruthless, thankless.

Food is the last thing most Americans, and particularly members of my family, should think about. 60% of all Americans are overweight or obese. Diabetes affects about 50% of the population. Next to toxic food, the most toxic liquid you can put in your body is soft drinks especially those with aspartame. 80% of your body is water, just as 80% of the Earth is water. The water molecule is the most important nutrient of human consumption. If it were not for Medicare paying the expense, most elderly would not have the replacement joints from carrying around excess weight. The substance in plastic, which mimics estrogen, leaches out of all plastic bottles and capsule containers leading to the effeminization of most males. Just a few years ago, it was unusual to hear the words “gay” or “homosexual” anywhere. The idea of gay marriage, gay preachers, gay bishops, was as remote as a UFO landing on the lawn of the White House. Do you ever wonder why there is so much autism, ADHD, etc., in our vocabulary? From birth until the age of two, the baby gets 25 vaccinations at the very time that the baby is trying to develop an immune system. Vaccinations before the age of two are insignificant just as sight requirements before the age of five, when a child's eyes are fully developed, are a waste. With all our leaning, in most areas, we have become less enlightened, to the uninitiated, everything is obscure.

The Giver of every good and perfect gift awaits your gratefulness. You can trust in God for everything you need, can He trust in you? This is all He asks to those who are called, elected, conformed, justified and glorified (Romans 8:28-30). The greatest truth known to man is the direct relationship between you and God. A relationship of trust, provided by our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, this is gratefulness and joy beyond compare.

On many world travels, I ate Thanksgiving in several places. At Khartoum, in the Sudan, the hotel tried to make me a typical American with a typical American Thanksgiving dinner. It looked like a cooked pigeon on a bed of rice. The server said, “We know you Americans eat a bird one a day year to celebrate flight!”.

“Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” (Psalm 97:12)