Let Us Be Thankful

LETS BE THANKFUL:

I realize that the traditional Thanksgiving Day is now past but I want to bring a few thoughts our way to do with being thankful.

EPH. 5:20 20Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Thanksgiving Day began with the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony. In 1621, Governor Bradford appointed a day of thanksgiving, a day of feasting and expressing gratitude. Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving when he issued a proclamation that the last Thursday in November be set apart as a day of prayer and thanksgiving. Congress changed this day, in 1941, to the fourth Thursday in November. But for Christians, thanksgiving should not end there, we should be thankful every day, not just once a year.

We should be thankful for the:

I. Freedom to worship.

A. Our forefathers came to this country to escape the bondage of those who would try to regulate their faith and bring them under the bondage of a state religion.

Now days it seems that we cant worship the true and living God the way this country started out doing because we might affined some infidel who says his rights have been violated, there’s many places now that prayer in Jesus name has been practically stopped. Iv always been of the opinion that freedom to worship meant, freedom to worship JEHOVAH GOD and his Only begotten Son & The One and only Savior The Lord Jesus Christ without any interference from the government.

All of this paganism that our government has allowed to come into this country is nothing more than the master plan of Satan. If the people don’t want to come to this country, and except this country’s worship of Jesus Christ as the Only Mediator between God and man then they should pack up and go back to where they came from, the planes are living every hour.

In today’s politically correct environment where you have to be careful to keep from offending anyone, we might all have to give reports like this fourth grader did that reported on the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, he said in his report; “The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. Because of them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where.”

But as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.

John 4:23 23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him

No one can worship the Father in spirit and in truth apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 8:31-32 31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The infidels are continually trying to change His word revealing the truth, that they are not His diciples.

Ephesians 2:13-1813But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

These people that are not in Christ Jesus are lost & in their sin.

LETS BE THANKFUL for:

II. Grace to Endure.

A. For the Pilgrims, the road to freedom was not easy. They would endure many hardships. The Pilgrims would not fully understand in their lifetime the reason for the suffering that would come their way.

The first official Thanksgiving Day occurred as a unique holy day in 1621 - in the fall of that year with lingering memories of the difficult & terrible winter they had just been through a few months before, in which scores and scores of babies and children and young people and adults had starved to death, and so many of the Pilgrims had gotten to a point where they were even ready to go back to England.

They had gotten into a ship and were ready to give up and go back And then they saw another ship coming from the other way, and on that ship there was a Frenchman named Delaware, and he came with some medical supplies and food, so then they had enough hope to go back and to try to live in the midst of those adverse sufferings once again.

II Corinthians 12:9 9And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness

Matthew 19:26 26But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Let me say when we read verses like these it strengthen our faith and gives us renewed courage to keep on keeping on.