A Thanksgiving Proclamation

(Thanksgiving Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, 1863)

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nation are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in their world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end or our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

THANKSGIVING

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion's fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. (Psalms 68:19)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalms 90:12)

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)

Holidays force us from our routine, force us to reflect.

Christmas, family together, gifts to loved ones, The Gift of God, His salvation,

New Years, plans, past and future, goals, progress, aspirations, purpose, His salvation

Easter, God's only begotten son, His death, His burial , His resurrection, His salvation

Memorial Day, Those departed, The price of Freedom and Liberty, Remembering His Salvation

July 4th Independence, One Nation Under God, A nation who chose God, Salvation of a Nation

Labor Day - Back to School, back to work, back to a schedule the beginning of a new work year,

Thanksgiving day, for 50 years now I have been asked to recite something I am most thankful for. His salvation.

The first Thanksgiving was observed in 1621 by Pilgrims and Indians in Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. Decreed by Gov. William Bradford, it was a day of feasting and expression of gratitude for the harvest. George Washington issued the first national proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1879, Abraham Lincoln, largely through the crusading efforts of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, in 1863 made it a national holiday and fixed the day as the last Thursday in November. Congress in 1941 set it as the forth Thursday. The turkey, a native American bird, and pumpkin pie are among the foods traditionally eaten at Thanksgiving. In Canada the day is observed on the second Monday in October. The University Society Encyclopedia@1971

For what things are you thankful. Name a few.

Who what when where why how

1) Who you are. Be Thankful!

The family I was born into.

Trying to find oneself

Trying to be someone else.

God made me me.

Psal 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

Psal 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

Psal 22:9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

Psal 22:10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Psal 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Psal 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Jere 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jere 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

2) What you are. Be Thankful!

What God enabled you to become

Not so much What you Got--- Small minds talk about things, great minds talk about ideas.

Stewards of His earth

Occupy the body He designed, built and cursed

Breath His air,

Drink His water,

Eat His food,

Psal 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Psal 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

3) When you were born. Be Thankful!

May you live in interesting times

Conveniences, My grandpa had more work in his little finger than I have in my whole body.

God's timeline

4) Where you were born. Be Thankful!

One Nation Under God.

One Nation, indivisible

Once inhabited by Savages and Pagans,

Under God and the Lord Jesus Christ our Creator

Religion today, May 2,2000 "North Korea has publicly executed 23 Christians by firing squad since October," a religious liberty group says. "All of those killed were new converts," . . . "Most had fled to China, where they became Christians, then returned to North Korea to share the Gospel with their people. New converts are more vulnerable than older Christians, who know how to survive in the hard-line communist country."

In India: Australian Baptist missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, ages ten and eight, were murdered in Orissa in January 1999. Staines and his boys were sleeping in the vehicle when a mob surrounded it, caught it on fire, and refused to let them out. . . . All Bibles were seized form a missionary in Gujarat, India and burned. More than 150 homes of Christians were burned in 1999 alone.

Aug 2, 2000 Laos: "Christians in Laos are being forced to sign an official document renouncing their faith. The penalty for refusal to sign is "an indeterminate time of harsh imprisonment under extremely difficult and squalid conditions. Laos' repressive and secretive Communist regime last year declared Christianity the 'number one enemy of the state." There are currently about 60 Christians in prison in Laos.

China: The government intensified its nationwide crackdown on unregistered churches. The state has begun to target underground house-church leaders for arrest and dole out sentences of three-years "re-education" in their labor camps. Protestant leaders report that about 40% of inmates in Henan labor camps are there for belonging to the Christian underground.

France: A law proposed by France's National Assembly would make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in prison, for "Proselytizers." The Southern Baptist Convention is among the 173 blacklisted groups.

Russia: There have been many cases of trumped up charges against believers, such as phony traffic offenses and planting of illegal drugs. Pentecostal pastor Rashid Turibayev, of the Full Gospel Church in Nukus, Uzbekistan, was arrested in February 19999 and Bile literature was confiscated from hi,. He was also charged with possessing hashish, and in June 99, he was sentenced to prison for 15 months. Two other members of Turibayev's church were also arrested and sentenced on drug charges. Both received 10 year sentences. All three were freed by presidential decree in August 99. The men were beaten on numerous occasions while in police custody and deprived of food for extended periods.

Uzbekistan: Central Asia is the world's largest area of overlap between the post-Soviet and Islamic cultures - both inhospitable to religious freedom. The region's most powerful state remains a fortress of persecution. Uzbekistan explicitly criminalizes unregistered religious activities. If believers organize worship services not licensed by the state- even Bible studies in private homes - they risk prison terms of up to five years. To register, each congregation must prove it has 100 adult citizen members and pay a fee 50 times the monthly minimum wage.

Hong Kong, Sudan, Yeman,

A Supreme Court Decision, of 1892 states, "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise' and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian... This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation... we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth... These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."

Woodrow Wilson stated, "A nation which coed not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about."

5. Why you are here.

The Bible is the only book that authoritatively answers three questions:

Where did I come from, Why am I here, Where am I going.

Reve 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Eccl 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Eccl 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

6. How you will do it.

How can I be thankful in all things?

Phil 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

ThanksGiving

2Cor 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2Cor 9:11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

Phil 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Colo 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Colo 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

1Tim 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

Reve 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.