President George Washington made the following Thanksgiving Day proclamation (October 3, 1789):
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. 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 previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.” …
This may have been the beginning of a time of great national reverence but it also was a time of the beginning of great slaughter, slavery and bloodshed of the African and Native American peoples. The fact remains that to this day, as they were then, we are now, all sinners, born into sin and inclined to do evil, all of us. We are all in need of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The day of thanksgiving arose from an event where the God of The Bible revealed Himself to those who were forced to set aside their differences in order to survive. Today may we do the same. The source of all life is The Lord. He is to be feared and His handiwork and provision must never be forgotten. The human body is an incrediblecreation with the 75,000 miles of blood vessels inside the average human body, made up of 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms, with a brain that if it were a computer, it could perform 38 thousand-trillion operations per second, with the production of 25 million new cells each second and one that produces differently structured tears depending on the reason we’re crying. The schools have robbed God of his credit, science robs God of his glory, the media robs God of his dignity, the churches rob God of His holiness and we all rob God of the honor He is due with our politically correct cowardice with all of our attention focused on trite, mindless,meaningless activities and pursuits.
200 plus years later, everything George Washington mentioned hangs in the balance and is taken for granted by so many. No race, creed or group of people like Americans today have ever had life so good and yet so bad at the same time. No nation has ever been blessed more than this nation. To whom much is given, much is required. God is holy and God is all powerful. He is loving but He is not mocked.
We were all bought with a price. May we never forget the true source of our blessings that we in fact DO NOT DESERVE. May we never forget that the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross paid our sin debt in full so we can approach the Throne of The Almighty with confidence to thank Him for His mercies, His forgiveness ,His provision for our lives, our very lives themselves and the many wonders and blessings that we so mistakenly take for granted. Let us look inward on this special day, examine ourselves and align our priorities with His will for our lives in hopes that they will positively affect the lives of others. Let us also never be so foolish and arrogant as to ever truly depend on the works of our own hands for in doing so will only invite His turning us over to our own devices which may fail us, or even worse, turn on us.
I have a feeling that unless we change course as a nation, that we will find ourselves in a similar situation as the Plymouth settlers did after those first few years at the mercy of The Almighty. God can always be found at the end of your rope. It is my hope that you will seek His face long before you get to that point but knowing full well, He will be there waiting nonetheless. Happy Thanksgiving from the Fullerton Informer and may The Lord open all of your eyes widely and bless you all on this special day, In Jesus name, Amen.
#1 by Barry Levinson on November 28, 2014 - 11:59 am
A Thanksgiving Day Message.
A day that we all should give thanks for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us. In order to give thanks, we must be grateful for all those blessings.
Some people erroneously think when they get that first promotion at work, or can afford that new car or house they will achieve happiness.
Well I am here to tell you that none of those material things will bring you happiness. It can not be bought or even earned by us. Happiness to come into our lives must be accepted by us. It has and always will be there for the taking. You have the power to be happy or not happy. Someone or something does not have that power over you. You can not control many things in your life but you can control how you react to those events in your life.
So this and every Thanksgiving give the gift of happiness to yourself and help show others the way to be happy as well.
Wishing all my friends a very Happy Thanksgiving Celebration.