HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The picture above was made by my 21 year old daughter, a college junior at Oklahoma University. She told me that she felt deprived from her youth having not ever made a hand turkey for her parents on Thanksgiving. Of course she had to add the political commentary on her very first attempt. She is not an animal rights freak, she just has a good sense of humor.

I wanted to wish all who may read this blog and especially all of you whom I love dearly a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am grateful for each of you. My life is what it is because of the people who God has sent to be a part of it. Thank you. Below is an essay from a newsletter that I receive; The Spurgeon Baptist Association Of Churches, newsletter. Weekly Update ~ November 20, 2007 Volume 3, Issue 46.

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It is time for Thanksgiving. What that means to many people is
time off from work and the opportunity to go spend time with
family or simply go play games as they wish. To some people it
is a time in history that some superstitious people thought that
God helped some ancient people to survive some harsh conditions
in a new land. To a few people Thanksgiving is a religious
holiday. In Scripture giving thanks comes from a heart of gratitude
that is expressed in words and lives intended to glorify the
living God and it is to happen on a constant basis.
On the one hand not giving thanks is a sign of a person or a
people under the judgment of God: “For even though they knew
God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened” (Romans 1:21). A people not giving thanks are a
people that have suppressed the truth about God and are being
given over to a hardened heart. Giving thanks does God no
good at all since no man can do any good for God and cannot
serve Him with his hands. When a person gives thanks in reality
it is a sign of a heart that God has softened and enlightened and
so the person with gratitude in the heart expresses praise to the
sovereign God of this universe. But let us not be deluded to
thinking that God needs our thanksgiving.

Hebrews 12:28 teaches us that without gratitude (which is necessary
to give thanks) there is no acceptable service to God:
“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be
shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an
acceptable service with reverence and awe.” We can see from
Hebrews 13:15 that the sacrifice of praise to God is the fruit of
lips that give thanks to His name: “Through Him then, let us
continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit
of lips that give thanks to His name.” In other words, without
gratitude and the giving of thanks there is no true worship or
praise.

We must also not make the mistake of simply thinking that we
should give God thanks because He has given us food and
physical blessings. We must also be careful not just to say
words of thanks to God for spiritual blessings. This would turn
the giving of thanks into something of a mercenary activity.
God gives us something and so we simply say “thank you” or
something like that. We must understand that giving of thanks
with gratitude is a heart that sees that God is the sovereign
Creator and that humanity consists of nothing but sinful creatures.
God only shows mercy and grace because of who He is.
When God grants physical or spiritual mercies it is because He
decides to do so based on His great name. Psalm 26:7 gives the
heart of the issue: “That I may proclaim with the voice of
thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders.” It is with thanksgiving
that His wonders are declared. We should not simply
recite a few things that God has done that we think is to our
benefit, but in thanksgiving declare the wonders and glories of
our God and King.

Colossians 3:16 tells us that our praise should be done with
thanksgiving: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,
with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness
in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:17 continues the
thought and tells us that “Whatever you do in word or deed, do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to
God the Father.” This teaches us a couple of things that are
missing in our present “worship” services. Larger congregations
hire the finest of musicians and purchase the finest arrangements
of music. But money cannot buy thankfulness of heart
and there is no true worship apart from that. Psalm 42:4 has
another insight which we tend to have backwards in our day:
“For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession
to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.” True thanksgiving is with joy
in and to God, not self.

If we are to have a time true thanksgiving this Thanksgiving, we
must look to Scripture for instruction. If we are not truly thankful,
it means that we have a hardened heart and are suppressing
the truth about God. If we don’t have true gratitude in our heart,
we are not truly thankful. If we are not declaring the wonders of
God from that gratitude, it is a self-centered thanksgiving. If we
don’t give thanks to the Father through Christ and that with joy,
we are not offering biblical thanks. As with all other things that
traditions have gobbled up, we must look in our hearts and realize
that Thanksgiving can become nothing more than a time of
idolatry of keeping certain practices with God’s name tacked
on. But then again, the “worship” services at the local church
can be the same way. Our whole lives can be the same way.
Perhaps we should spend time this Thanksgiving examining our
hearts to see if we are truly giving thanks. Then we should
spend time examining our hearts to see if we have thankful
hearts. If we give true thanks, then we truly have something to
be thankful about. It is the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

Richard Smith
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