Some Thanksgiving Thoughts

I woke this morning and helped my Beloved Rib ready the turkey and potatoes. Turkey is in the oven; potatoes are waiting to be cooked closer to noon. Then I began to muse on Thanksgiving.

The number of things I could list as worthy of being thankful for is higher than I can count. I have to start with the graciousness of the Eternal God who not only provided the means of my redemption through His sacrifice on the cross paying the debt for my sin, but also for calling me to a realization of my need to be redeemed and granting me the faith to believe that it was true. That is a precious privilege. My thankfulness can only be expressed in a totally inadequate way by striving to follow His instructions for life.

Then I thought of the heritage which I have through my family; my parents and the generations that went before. My knowledge of who they were and what they did spans barely a century. Without a doubt, within my genealogy there are not only devout people of faith with kind hearts who blessed their communities through their love for Jesus, but knowing the history of Europe, it is impossible to deny that among them would have been idolaters, murderers, rapists, thieves, adulterers, and scoundrels of every sort. Yet despite what they may have done, or perhaps because of it, I am their descendant, and their actions, through the ages, have brought me to where I am. I am thankful for their lives, and owe them, whether they seemed evil or good, honor by being the best person I can be, and instructing my own descendants, to my dying day, in the ways of righteousness.

I am also thankful for my church fellowship. It is a microcosm of The Church Universal. While individual brothers and sisters may have different understandings regarding practices within the framework of their own cultures and times, the love of the Body of Christ reaches out to condemned sinners everywhere, not only expounding the message that salvation from eternal separation from a Holy God is possible through grace by faith in the completed work of Jesus, but expressing the Gospel message that because Jesus rose from the dead, we can also live sacrificially in love, even toward our enemies, because we, too, have that same hope of resurrection with Him. My thankfulness to my church can be expressed by tolerance of the believers who are weak in faith, carefully living so as to not cause any of them to sin, and stating the facts regarding sin and salvation without shying from the truth and yet without being contentious.

The land in which I live also provides a reason for thanksgiving. Within the framework of our government is one of the greatest gifts men have bestowed upon other men -- a Constitution, which not only provides a legal basis for the operation of government, but also limits that government as to its powers. Appreciation for that document requires that I be vigilant, examining my own actions as to whether they express respect for the hard-won freedoms protected by it. It may not be a perfect solution to the problems of life, but one of its stated purposes is the establishment of Justice, and the doing of Justice is one of the requirements the Eternal God has placed upon mankind.

True thankfulness for these gifts seems to be rare. We have a holiday called Thanksgiving, but it is overshadowed by a commercial event known as Black Friday (which, to maximize the love of money, has been extended into Blighted Thursday). Today will be a day of gluttony and drunkenness, and will culminate in an orgy of covetousness. Little consideration will be paid to the cost of the gifts which we take for granted.

I remember sitting through afternoon services in our old North Akron church, listening to Bro. Fred Kalman preach. Attendance was sparse; the morning folk always seemed to have better things to do than listen to an old man with a quavery voice expound on the blessings of God. Bro. Fred had an interesting life. As a young Believer, during the Great War, he was drafted and willingly went off to serve his country, but with a conscientious objection to killing people. In the early part of the 20th Century, the United States imprisoned men who were willing to serve but objected to killing.

Bro. Fred served time in a U.S. military prison for his beliefs, and I remember his voice breaking as he would describe the deaths of his fellow prisoners from the Great Influenza Epidemic. He stood for his convictions, and when the Second Great War came about, the sacrifices of the Believers in the first one bore fruit; our young brothers bravely served, as unarmed medics, on battlefields around the world, caring for the wounded and dying. Fred was a patriot; he was thankful for the Constitution which allowed the brethren to freely exercise their beliefs, and he was thankful that he had been used in that struggle to guarantee freedom. He preached it. He believed that as Christians in America, we had not only the right but the obligation to make sacrifices for justice, and for the future generations. Too bad that so many had no time to listen.

Our forebears (and even many now among us) fled Europe for America because here we could live out our beliefs under the protection of the Constitution. Sadly, the part in the Preamble about "secur[ing] the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" seems to have been forgotten in the importance of securing what we can for ourselves while the opportunity exists. Gone is the sense that personal sacrifice is needed to keep our descendants free, much less to adequately show thankfulness to the Eternal for what He has allowed us.

The recent election was said to be about "the economy", or a myriad of other "what's in it for me" items. America has forgotten that it is the blessing of God that makes a person rich (whether deserving or not -- that really irritates some people, that God would not consult them first!) and that it is God who sets up kings (OK - wannabe kings) and takes them down. Christians, both individually and collectively as The Church, have been sidetracked by the lure of materialism, and the encouragement of contentious behavior by the Adversary.

Take a quiz, Christian. First, read through the Ten Commandments (and don't give me any blowback about not being under the Law; such nonsense is the refuge of people who still think the Law is for justification rather than the definition of Sin). Then answer the following questions:

1. Is it Just to steal from the rich to give to the poor? Is it ever right to take something from someone else? (#8)
2. Is it Right to defy legally constituted authority based on our own comfort or convenience? (You may need to do some digging on this one, since it falls under #5 in the matter of loving God.)
3. Is it Just to kill unborn babies or the disabled and aged (mercy killing). Is it Just to kill anyone (friend or foe) without an unbiased trial? (The Law makes a strong case for capital punishment of certain offenses, with definite conditions.) Is it Just to kill anyone who has not been proven guilty? (#6).
4. Is it Right to engage in non-exclusive sexual relations outside the joining of a man and woman as one flesh until death separates them? (#7)
5. Is it Just to deceive (whether on a tax form or any other place where an advantage can be obtained) under any conditions? Do the ends ever justify the means, or has the Imitation of God some sort of exemption for being truthful? (#9)
6. Is it Right to be envious of what someone else has, insisting that we be treated exactly the way they are, or do we acknowledge that God is Sovereign and provides us with what we need, and that if we feel the need for more of anything, we should ask Him and not trust in Other People? (#10)

I'm guessing you don't like the answers. I am also stating that the failure of The Church to teach people to adhere to God's standards and take a stand for what is right is the primary reason for the erosion of American society. Christians are to be Salt and Light. They are called to be witnesses [Gr. μάρτυρ, Eng. martyr] , examples of how to love God and their neighbors. They are called to state the truth, live the truth, and not be contentious about it. They are not called to pass laws prohibiting or allowing any particular behavior. The Church has failed miserably, because those who would preach and teach such things fear that to do so would diminish the size of the congregation and the attending collection. The love of money is the root of all evil, especially in The Church.

Fred Kalman, and many other Believers like him, sacrificially stood for what was right in the face of persecution. He was thankful for his freedoms, understanding the First Amendment even when the authorities did not, and he was even more thankful for the grace of God that had led him to salvation.

Thanksgiving, 2012. Have another drumstick, and race out to the midnight sale. What are you thankful for, and how will you express it?