The Beginning of Thanksgiving

During the month of November we celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  Have you ever wondered where the tradition of giving thanks began?  Throughout history many groups, including the people of Israel, have celebrated a bountiful harvest with a thanksgiving ceremony.  One of the festivals the Israelites celebrated had three different names.  It was called the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Ingathering.  This feast marked the completion of the harvest and commemorated the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness.  Along with other feasts, this feast did several things.

• It preserved the religious faith of the nation and the unity among the people.
• It was a constant reminder of the way God had delivered them from difficulties in the past.
• It promoted gratitude to God among the people and acknowledged their trust in Him as their wonderful Provider.
• It gave an opportunity for the Children of Israel to show reverence for God.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let’s be reminded of the opportunity we have in this great country of ours to exercise our faith and worship God.  Let’s thank God for the way He constantly delivers us and preserves us, even through difficulties.  And let’s commit ourselves to exercise our trust in God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.  Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th President of the United States, said the following in one of his Thanksgiving proclamations.  “We have been a favored people; we ought to be a grateful people.  We have been a most blessed people; we ought to be a most thankful people.”

Psalm 100 was written as a psalm for giving thanks.  As you participate in Thanksgiving activities this season, let this psalm be the expression of your heart to God: “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the LORD is God.   It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Ps 100:1-5)

Doubly Free

Independence Day is an annual holiday commemorating the formal adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.  At the first holiday the Declaration of Independence was read aloud, city bells rang, and bands played.  Although July Fourth was a bit different this year, it is traditionally celebrated publicly with parades, pageants, patriotic speeches, organized firing of guns and cannons, displays of fireworks, and family picnics.

So, what exactly do we celebrate on the Fourth?  Our celebration is one of independence of the United States from Britain.  As a country we are free to govern our own affairs and to act in responsible ways in our society.  Wars and events, like September 11, 2001, remind us that there is a price to be paid for the freedom and independence that we enjoy.  Here are some things that recap from a biblical perspective what we should know about bondage, freedom, and life.  The Bible tells us:

(1)   Everyone is in bondage because of sin.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

(2)   Spiritual freedom is made available to us through Jesus Christ.  He paid a high cost for us when He died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins..  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness: by his wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24).

(3)   Through the sacrifice that Jesus made, you and I can participate in spiritual freedom.  St. John puts it this way, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

(4)   By personally receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord we enter a life-sharing union with God and are promised eternal life.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

(5)   Jesus provides a blessed life for us which only comes through Him.  Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  John goes on to say, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (I john 5:12).

Let us be thankful and grateful to God for the freedom and independence that we enjoy as a country.  And may those who by faith, have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, be thankful and grateful to God for the spiritual freedom they have.  With these two freedoms, a person who is a Christian and lives in the United States might say that he or she is doubly free.

Thanks be to God

It is almost impossible to come to the month of November without thinking about Thanksgiving.  Of course, Thanksgiving is a national holiday and it is used for everything from food to sports events to family get-togethers.  All these things are fun, but the real reason for Thanksgiving is to set aside a special time to give thanks to God for His bountiful provisions for us.

When the Apostle Paul’s heart was full of thanksgiving he expressed his thanks to God.  He thanked God for Jesus, who was God’s love gift to mankind.  “Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57).  Paul also gave thanks to God for the privilege of spreading the Good News of the Gospel.  “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him” (II Corinthians 2:14).

What about your response during this Thanksgiving season?  Is your heart full of thanksgiving to God?  Are you ready and open to give thanks to your Heavenly Father?  I encourage you to personally thank God, but I also encourage you to share your thanks to God with someone else.  Let them know of your gratefulness to God for Christ, for the victory that you have in Him, and for the opportunity to let the light of God’s love be spread from you to other people.