What are your thoughts on Thanksgiving? Is it a holiday of time gone by or a holiday for today?
Like to hear how others celebrate this legal holiday?
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
What are your thoughts on Thanksgiving? Is it a holiday of time gone by or a holiday for today?
Like to hear how others celebrate this legal holiday?
thedailylily.com 
Needles, now more than ever mankind needs this day to reflect on the blessings that the Lord God has bestowed upon us, His earth and His people all over the globe. Many nations celebrate a day of thanks as a national holiday
In my classroom I read to my students a brief history of Thanksgiving; how Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863. The children have heard and know that name, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. They also have heard the name of GOD, but some do not know much about HIM. We discuss that the first Thanksgiving was observed, not so much to give thanks to the Indians, as most of the little children have been taught. But we speak about their celebrating for having survived the austere winter, for the harvest and for giving thanks to God for having made it through. And so for the few hundred children I teach each year, I so desire to inform them of the truth of Thanksgiving and what it is truly about.
But for the God’s people every day is a day of Thanksgiving and praise and gratitude for Jesus Christ the Son and all God’s provisions. We are most blessed from among peoples of the earth. Thank You God, for Your unspeakable mercy, compassion and love.
Dictionary says, ( Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day) (in North America) an annual national holiday marked by religious observances and a traditional meal including turkey.
Sorry to say my ‘religious observances’ have been deducted to shopping if I can find a store open. Way to much food with to much overstuff pain to want to give thanks. And, football galore!Maybe the government should take this holiday away. Might help with the overweight factor in our Nation.
Holiday of time gone by I believe….or at least of the way I understood it to be.
The Thanksgiving focus seems to be on what to eat, where to eat, who to eat with, and the who part can be stressful for ‘family’ relationships that are strained or dysfunctional and for some reason feel compelled on this day to eat together. Doesn’t seem to be much emphasis on thanks or the meaning of the holiday. Not sure, from my experience anyway, that this ‘Holiday’ of time gone by was much different, though.
For many years I tried to involve myself and family in ‘community church celebrate services for Thanksgiving.’ Times have changed, people have changed and I still like the idea of community gatherings to honor God with our thanks and giving back into community.
As we know now the airways and highways are part of the Thanksgiving Celebration as people travel worldwide to get a little vacation in before Winter break which was Christmas and then the New Year. We surely live in a different, diverse society with opportunities galore at every turn.
If families can meet together and work on relationships, friendships and fellowships, how wonderful. I know their will be many families that would so wish their family member be home from wars, hospitals, prisons and other sad occasions.
I am praying for the ones of us with opportunity of freedom and plenty to allow the Holy Spirit to direct us to reach out and touch the community in a special way as we give Thanks to Almighty God, the maker of Heaven and Earth….The Apostles’ Creed is so often part of our religious celebrate as community of believers. Let our voices be heard in our homes as we share this creed together around our tables if this is our faith. Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/apostles.htm
Debi,
Sadly, you are right, it does seem that the focus of Thanksgiving is what to eat, where to eat, and who to eat with. I pray God forgives our self-centered selves.
Thank you, Lord for the many blessings you have blessed my family and I with.
OH!! that our hearts would overflow with attitudes of gratitude and thanks on Thanksgiving Day and every day of our lives. I am so very grateful for my church which teaches the Word of God without compromise….(promise!!). I am grateful for a wonderful profession, teaching music to little children and watching them perform and helping them develop their gifts and talents. I am grateful for my extended family most of whom know the Lord Jesus Christ and through whom I came to know the Lord. I am grateful for friends who love the Lord Jesus Christ and serve and worship Him.
And my heart goes out to those who don’t have enough; hungry children; homeless moms; dads without jobs. There is so much we can do and do try to do to alleviate some of the pain of need in our communities. Donating to the food banks and church pantries; donating clothing; contributing to the Salvation Army….Franklin Graham’s Shoe Box Ministry to needy children all over the globe. But the greatest dearth is lack of the preaching of the Word of God to those who do not know Him.
Only God’s people can meet that need. The communities can and do provide soup kitchens and clothing banks but only WE CAN PROVIDE the WORD of GOD to those who are perishing.
Dear Lord, this Thanksgiving put us in the path of those to whom we can speak the Word and to share the glorious salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That will be a truly thankful THANKSGIVING DAY>
In their latest issue of HOMECOMING Bill and Gloria Gaither make this statement. “The longer we live the more we believe that THANKSGIVING is not just a season or a holiday but a way of life; the result of seeing how God brings us through the tough times to a new discovery of His sufferings. This is how we learn how really blessed we are.”
Yes, MG, it looks like from I Thess 5:18 that God wants us to live this way and that it must be possible or He wouldn’t have written it to us.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (NLT)
And Psalm 95:2-3 “Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.”
With Abraham Lincoln, he declared Thanksgiving in the midst of Civil War where so many families had lost someone dear to them. The Pilgrims celebrated after losing so many of their group to disease. We today are at war, financial troubles everywhere. When I think upon this I think of Psalms 23. I will quote it from the Message Bible with a prayer in parentheses. This psalm is really a psalm of hope in the midst of the trials of life. Let us give thanks to the one who watches over us and truly loves us this Thanksgiving.
God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.
(Dear God, I give you thanks for walking with me everyday of my life.
From the time the sun rises and all through the night you surround me with your love, peace, joy. You give me waters that satisfy from your scripture and give me the hope to go forward for there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is YOU!
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
(Lord we give you thanks that you are true to your word. You will never leave or forsake your children. I thank you that I can breath and not be stressed as you have me covered. If we call upon you will lead and guide us in the right direction.)
Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.
(Even when all seems so troublesome and the time of unrest seems to
endure for much too long, I choose to hold your hand and walk through these troubled times that seem like a valley of death. I thank you God for pulling me to yourself that I may not be entangled in sin and that you will bandage me up and set my feet on the right path.)
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
(Lord we thank you that even though we are walking through troubled
times you are directing us to look upwards to you who gives us HOPE
and provides all that we have need of and even more than we asked. You
keep blessing me even in these troubled times and I thank you.)
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.
(Lord God all we have to do is look around us and thank you for all the
beauty that surrounds us – trees standing tall, birds of every kind, and friends
who reach out and call our names because you have called them to help as our circumstances our dire and you care so much to call on others to help. I’m surely in the house of God even on this earth with such caring Christians. It seems there is no greater gift that a friend who follows you in obedience, thanksgiving, and praise. With Jesus we stand as the day we bent our knee to accept him as Lord and Savior truly is the rest of my life with HIM forever. )
Holding on to Jesus we truly can give thanks for He is a friend for eternity.
Amen! This is true Thanksgiving!
Yes, Rena, the table He sets before us is the table in the desert of our greatest need. Not so much turkey and dressing…although we are grateful for that…but the table that ministers to us in our darkest times of testing and trials. That is the Communion table…the immortalized memorial to Jesus Christ and His sufferings and death until He comes again to take us home. Meanwhile, He has set the table of holy Communion. sitting together with Him and with the Body of Christ at that blessed ‘table”; with our brothers and sisters who follow and serve Jesus Christ, in the bond of unity in the Spirit with the beloved ones, that to which you alluded above.
Thank You Jesus for that “table’ of remembrance that fortifies us in the twists and turns and savagery of times and lives. Thank You that that is our greatest THANKSGIVING TABLE and some day we will sit at that wedding feast table in Heaven with our Bridegroom. And You, dearest Lord, “will wipe away all tears.”
“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” NLT
Is this what everybody does on Thanksgiving? Quote scriptures to one another… I know all of you have blessed families with these prayers and communications around your table of turkey…. Whoa, cool! I can take some lessons from all of you.
The Thanksgiving Hymn, WE GATHER TOGETHER TO ASK THE LORD BLESSINGS of (1626) gives us pause to think of the ‘what and why’ of Thanksgiving and what we should be thinking of and speaking of:
WE GATHER TOGETHER TO ASK THE LORD’S BLESSING ( Hebrews 10:25)
When we sit at table our first thought should be, to bless the Lord and ask His blessings on our table, our family, our home and the Body of Christ. “forsake not the assembling of yourselves”
HE CHASTENS AND HASTENS HIS WILL TO MAKE KNOWN: (Hebrews 12:6) (Is. 46:10)
The Lord says ‘whom I love I chasten and correct that all may come in order that MY will be known and be done in the earth. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,’ My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure’
THE WICKED OPPRESSING NOW CEASE FROM DISTRESSING (Ps. 17:9)
Help us in our fight against the enemy, dear Lord, Deliver us from the extreme pressure the foe puts
upon our lives in coming against us causing great distress “Protect me from wicked people who attack me, from murderous enemies who surround me”
SING PRAISES TO HIS NAME O LORD MAKE US FREE (Gal. 5:1)
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. “
Todd Smith writes” Thanksgiving Day Long Ago
“For 66 days a sailing vessel called the Mayflower carried 102 pilgrims across the stormy Atlantic Ocean and landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts on December 11, 1620. During that first cold winter, 46 pilgrims died. In the spring of 1621, the Wampanoag Indians taught the pilgrims how to cultivate the land—growing corn, beans, and pumpkins which helped them survive. At harvest time the colonists were so grateful for their bountiful crops that Governor William Bradford organized the first Thanksgiving feast, inviting their neighbors—Wampanoag Indians. With joy and thanksgiving, they expressed their gratitude and appreciation to God for their bountiful harvest.
Many years later, in 1789, President George Washington wrote a proclamation, recommending to the “people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God . . . Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November . . . that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country . . .”
Thanksgiving Day Today message:
“So it has been that for over two centuries. Thanksgiving Day has become a joyous festival celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm. People have gathered together to thank God for His past blessings and to enjoy the warm fellowship of family and friends.
However, over the last 50 years Thanksgiving Day has lost its original significance. For many people, it has simply become a time when families come together to eat turkey and watch football.”….”
I love Thanksgiving. Getting together with family for a wonderful meal. I am afraid that we have lost the true meaning of Thanksgiving with over eatting, football and shopping. We have changed the holiday to fit our lives. We have done the same thing to Christmas. We are a society that takes so much for grantited. I pray this Thanksgiving as we sit around the table with family and friends we stop and take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Thanksgiving. I pray that God blesses each one this Thanksgiving. May we all be Thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Thanksgiving. I give thanks for God being and working in our lives to grow us into the people of God that He wishes us to become. With all the enjoyment of food, football, and such we have to be careful with our tongues. In James 1 it says to lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” Really listen and don’t let self get in the way. In other words be a good role model of Christ, not compromising yourself with the world but being a light at the table of thanksgiving this year. Bringing hope through life lessons learned (stories) and edification to those around you. In other words, be like the song of our childhood, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine (through my conversation, through my attitude, and through my principles God has taught me up to this point), I’ll not let them be hidden under a bushel (under the table), I will let (God) shine in and through me.
Happy Thanksgiving – Be the Light at the Table of Thanksgiving giving God the praise through YOUR conversation!
Ephesians 5: 20 says: “And give thanks for EVERYTHING to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Hum, “EVERYTHING”! (even the difficult times too)