Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

Psalm 107:1  Give thanks to the LORD for he is good; his love endures forever.

A Politically Incorrect History of Thanksgiving

Posted: November 17, 2007     http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=44599
By Jonathan Falwell
© 2011

It was a bitter two-month sea journey the Pilgrims endured on their passage from England to Plymouth Rock. Upon landing, they gathered for a prayer service before setting out to build shelter. They were severely unprepared for the harsh New England winter that was approaching.

After that winter of 1620 killed almost half of their population, the Pilgrims were befriended by members of the Wampanoag Tribe. The Indians taught the naive colonists about fishing, planting and hunting, thereby ensuring their survival. When the fall of 1621 began to set in, they had reaped a bountiful harvest and preserved enough food to allow them to survive the coming winter, thanks to their Indian neighbors.

As an expression of their thanks to God, the colonists hosted a three-day feast to celebrate the harvest and the transformation of their fortunes from the previous winter. This meal today is thought of as the first Thanksgiving.

In the years to come during the fall, the governor of each New England colony would declare a day of Thanksgiving so that the people could prayerfully thank God for supplying their needs.

In 1777, the Continental Congress decreed that all 13 colonies were to jointly celebrate victory over the British.

Twelve years later, the first national Thanksgiving occurred. In the Congressional Record for Sept. 25, 1789, Elias Boudinot issued a resolution stating: “Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the president of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. …”

The resolution was delivered to President George Washington who wholly concurred with the request, declaring: “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 … Now, therefore, I do appoint Thursday, the 26th day of November 1789 . . . that we may all unite to render unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection.”

Days of Thanksgiving were celebrated on varying dates throughout the nation for the next several years. It was not until 1863, following the 30-year effort of Godey’s Lady’s Book editor Sarah Joseph Hale, that a National Day of Thanksgiving was declared.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a National Day of Thanksgiving in hopes of bringing healing to a land that had suffered greatly in Civil War.

He set aside the last Thursday in November, declaring: “We often forget the Source from which the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies come. … No human wisdom hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God. … I therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States… to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

In 1941, Congress established the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to understand the Judeo-Christian history of our nation. Our forefathers were not uneasy about openly thanking God for His blessings or beseeching Him in times of trouble. Our nation is deeply rooted in Christianity and candid expressions of faith.

I urge readers across the nation to ensure that their children and grandchildren understand the Judeo-Christian heritage of our nation. There are many who wish to ignore and/or rewrite our history as our nation further embraces secularism.

I am thankful for this nation and for the God of the Bible who shed His grace on us, beginning with the landing of the colonists at Plymouth Rock.

Jonathan Falwell is the pastor of the historic Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., the church his father started in 1956

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Whether it is one task or situation or a slew of them, it is not unusual to find ourselves being confronted with anxiety.  Our situation can be so daunting we feel like the disciples in the boat in the midst of the storm:  we’re overwhelmed and Jesus is asleep.  Their focus was on the storm, the wind and the waves – rather than upon the fact that He was with them.  Then when they did cry out to Jesus, they were frantic.  How often do we do the same?

From reading today’s verse, it’s pretty clear that God knows about our tendency to become anxious.  From finances, to illness, to family issues, to jobs – our lives are ripe with opportunities for us to choose the wrong way to go when the ‘storm’ of anxiety comes.  But it’s important that we recognize that His prescription isn’t intended to be a ‘fire alarm’ – pull in case of fire – although it can still work that way.

It prescribes a way of life and the establishment of a relationship that will enable us to live in peace while in the midst of stormy situations.  We are to live the verse day by day.  Think of a college student who doesn’t really study all term and then crams like crazy for the final, versus the student who has faithfully studied day by day throughout the term. Both might do well on the final, but one has chosen wisely and the other hasn’t.

Each day, the Lord wants us to be looking to Him.  He cares about us and the situations we face and wants us to become confident of that.  A very helpful illustration comes from nature.  Waterfowl have a tiny oil-secreting gland located at the base of their tail known as the uropygial gland or ‘Preen Gland’.  When a duck is preening, as we have all seen, its head and beak are spreading this oil over its feathers. This oil helps to maintain the luster of the feathers – but more importantly it makes the outer feathers waterproof.  Without this protective barrier, a duck’s feathers would become water-logged.

Praying and presenting our requests to Him daily with thanksgiving is His wisdom for us.  Doing this develops a protective barrier for us and is an antidote to becoming ‘water-logged’ with anxiety.  Through these actions He also enables us to become so much more aware of His working in our lives.  Our confidence in Him becomes strong resulting in appreciation and gratitude.  Thankfulness becomes the reality of our lives.

1 Corinthians 14:1a  Follow the way of love…

This morning I woke up thinking about one of the more important and useful concepts that I became aware of in Grad School.  God has used it ever since to give me insight and help me in my daily life.  It involves tasks and relationships – two things that fill our lives.  Each day is filled with tasks to do and many of them involve working or interacting with people.

In a class, we grad students took a test that measured our personal orientations to tasks and to relationships.  When the scores were graphed we each discovered a picture of how we functioned in such situations.  At one end of the spectrum were those whose preeminent concern was the task.  Whether big or small, it had to get done.  If it meant sacrificing relationships, so be it.  Relationships were irrelevant to getting the job done.

At the other end of the spectrum were those who placed preeminence upon relationships.  No task was so important that it would warrant sacrificing relationships.  When these individuals are confronted with situations where they have to choose between a task and a relationship(s), the task won’t get done.  They don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or create an unpleasant situation for themselves or anyone else.  They back away from tasks where they perceive a risk to relationship might exist.

Then there was everyone in between where they reflected a mix of task or relationship priorities.  The goal was to be in the middle where both tasks and relationships are important.  Such individuals find ways to get tasks done while preserving and strengthening relationships.  They don’t sacrifice the task for a relationship and they don’t sacrifice a relationship for the task.  Both are important and vital.

This seems to be the way of love that we are called to walk in.  God’s Word and the leading of His Spirit enable us to find the balance that preserves relationships while getting tasks done.  Sometimes they might be painful even when done wisely in love, but the way of love produces righteous fruit – both in us and in others.  Think of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

In all situations we want to glorify the Lord.  We want our lives to accomplish His purposes and reflect His life within us.  The way of love enables us to do that day by day and His Word tells us how to do just that.  It’s up to us to embrace it.  The way of love enables us to transform situations that seem to be ‘Lose-Lose’ or ‘Win-Lose’ into Win-Win’.  Tasks get done and relationships are strengthened.

2 Corinthians 5:7  We live by faith, not by sight.

Isn’t it amazing how different life can appear when seen through the eyes of faith?  I look back over my life and see so many situations where things happened that I struggled with at the time.  But later events would prove that those experiences were blessings not curses.  In fact, some of the greatest experiences I have ever had came about because of earlier disappointments where I was prevented from doing what I wanted to do.

In the midst of defeat, despair and disappointment comes hope because of faith.  In the midst of opportunity, blessing and prosperity comes gratitude and acknowledgment of His blessing because of faith.  When we read the Bible we see so many examples of people experiencing life – its ups and downs.  Some respond well – others don’t.  The constant is that God is at work in and around them.  The Lord wants us to understand that He does the same things with us.

He wants us to ‘see’ Him in everything.  This is not due to eyes of sight, but of eyes of faith. I find that when everything starts going wrong, I immediately know that God is somewhere in the middle of it, and begin to look for Him.  An initial negative reaction is replaced by the realization that God is there; we are not alone and things are not at all what they seem.

Faith leads to prayer and seeking Him to provide wisdom and understanding.  Faith causes us to use His word as our guide in how to respond whatever the situation.  Faith affirms our desire to trust the Lord and glorify Him in any way that we can.  Faith is not static – it is like a muscle that can be exercised.  The more we use it, the stronger it becomes.  Faith is the antidote to defeat.  Without it, we cannot please God.

Revelation 1:17-18  When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Have we ever thought of what our response would be if the Lord took us to heaven in the Spirit as He did the Apostle John?  I imagine the nature of the encounter with Jesus could take on many forms.  I wonder if John ever thought about such a thing happening – and if he did, did he think that his response upon seeing Jesus would be to fall at his feet as though dead.

Of all the apostles, he is the one identified as having a special relationship with Jesus.  He is repeatedly described as the ‘one whom Jesus loved’.  That doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t love the others; it’s just that John’s relationship with the Lord had a special love element of closeness in it.  For me, that is what makes his response in this encounter with Jesus so stirring and provocative.

We tend to think along the lines of Jesus warmly embracing someone (one of His own) who goes to heaven and encounters Him.  Sort of a welcome home, like the father greeting the prodigal son.  Joy and gladness just overflowing – and that might be the way it normally occurs.  But here we have something very different.  Does our understanding of God and the relationship that we have with Him include the aspect of what is revealed in this verse?  Can we see ourselves responding to Jesus as John did?

The fear of the Lord and the love of God are two sides of the same coin.  Jesus’ first words to John after falling at His feet as though dead were “Do not be afraid.”  It’s vital that we understand that although we are recipients of God’s love and are His children through faith in Jesus, He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.   In Revelation 5:11-12 John gives this glorious description:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹² In a loud voice they sang:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

This is our Savior and Lord.  He is the One who died for us and rose from the dead.  He is the One who loves and treasures us so; the One that we have the incredible privilege to love each and every day of our lives.  May we fully embrace His ways so that our lives do just that!

1 Peter 1:8  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

This morning I am still overflowing with joy over the wonder and thrill of what Jesus does – and has done – in our lives.  Yesterday’s devotional seemed to just trigger an eruption of that joy.  It recounted how God used my friend Andy and me in His plan of drawing this young Muslim man to Jesus.  The experience of that flight was priceless, but then to receive his email of him finding Jesus!  It just tapped into the wellspring of gratitude and joy that I have for my own experience of finding Jesus.

I’m sitting here writing this, grinning and basking in the inexpressible and glorious joy that Peter writes of in today’s verse.   The joy for this young man and the joy for my own encounter with Jesus are still just engulfing me.  And those salvation experiences are just the beginning!

Becoming a follower of Jesus is not a one-experience life!  If our testimony is simply recounting what God did in our lives years ago, we are missing the mother lode.  Yes, my encounter with Him 55 years ago was astounding.  It’s like the rock of Gibraltar in my life – it is huge!  But that was simply the transforming invitation to ‘come in’.  It’s like the Lord saying, “If you thought that was good, that is merely the foretaste!”

We belong to Him, and as His family we get to experience the treasure of His Word, His ways, His love, His protection, His presence, His provision….  It just goes on and on.  He also surprises us, delights us, disciplines us, prunes us, tests us, comforts us, confronts us, encourages us….  Best of all, we get to experience Him.

Hopefully, this triggers joy within you and the refreshing that comes from remembering the wonder of our God.  But if it doesn’t, hopefully it will spark your active pursuit of Him.  His plan for all of us is for our lives to be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy because we belong to Him.

1 Corinthians 3:6  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

Part 2 – Yesterday I asked you to picture yourself on a jet that has just taken off for a long flight.  The person next to you is not a Christian and is searching the various religions to find the right one.  He has been reading the Bible as part of his search and is filled with questions and begins to ask you them.

This specific scenario happened to me and a young friend named Andy 18 years ago.  We were in Ukraine and were on the first leg of our trip home, flying across Europe.  The young man next to me was raised a Muslim but had concluded that it was not the answer.  In his search, he had narrowed it down to Judaism and Christianity.  He had been particularly struck by the concept of ‘loving one another’.

This Q&A and discussion of our faith went on for the entire 3 hour flight.  The more we talked the more apparent it became just how thorough his search had been.  He raised questions on specific passages throughout the Bible.  He was also very aware of the price he would pay with his family for leaving Islam but he was determined to find the truth.

He had been waiting for over a year to make this trip to come to college in America.  The Lord timed the flight so that we would have the blessing of being with him on this leg of his trip.  How I thought of this verse as we experienced the joy of responding to his questions and sharing our faith with him.  Shortly before the end of the flight we exchanged email addresses and Andy told me that the young man had said to him, “It was no accident that I sat down with you two!”

What a marvelous opportunity this was to be a part of God’s plan to bring someone to Himself.  We had been given the opportunity to water the seeds others had planted.  In the subsequent months, I wondered if this young man had completed his search.  You can imagine my joy and gratitude to the Lord when I received the following email at Christmas of that year:

“Merry Christmas Don,

I guess you don’t remember me. Well, we met in plane when we were traveling from Ukraine to Amsterdam this July.

Let me share something with you what god has done to me, it may surprise you. If you remember me then you will remember that I was on a spiritual journey. And I was not able to find god’s way or light. I was living in darkness. And when we met, I was on the point where I knew that God’s way was in Judaism or Christianity. Well, on the night of 14th Oct, when I was talking to a pastor I found a light. I was literally crying afterwards. I found Jesus. I tell you after that night, I have lived every moment as a complete life. I am thankful to him that he could come to a sinner like me.   

Well, I just wanted to share my experience with you.

2 Corinthians 3:2  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

Part 1 of 2 – Picture yourself on a jet that has just taken off for a long flight.  You begin a conversation with the person next to you and discover that he is searching the various religions to find the right one.  His background is not Christianity but he has been reading the Bible as part of his search.  He is filled with questions and begins to ask you them.

Why are you a Christian?  If you had to identify one or two aspects of your life as a Christian that were the most important to you, what would they be?  How does your daily life reflect your Christian faith?

What would your answers be to him?  Would you be experiencing excitement at the opportunity to share your faith?  Or would your experience be tempered by awareness that other ‘stuff’ has diminished the vibrancy of your relationship with Christ in your life?  If your daily life of thoughts and actions were written out, what would they reveal to him about you and your faith?  What would they reveal to those around you?

Today’s scripture presents the reality that our lives are being read by those around us. Their lives are being read by us.  That is simply the reality of life.  It is not an issue of being judgmental, it’s a matter of people being cognizant of the encounters they have.  Think of the incredible opportunity this provides us with, repeatedly every day, to have His love and life shine forth from us!

Is faith reflected in the story, or letter, of our lives?  Do our lives consistently reflect more of our Lord than the worldliness of our culture?   The Holy Spirit is leading each of us to make Jesus the true love of our life.  Hopefully, each chapter of our lives will reflect us coming closer to achieving this goal.

Tomorrow – an amazingly wonderful experience I will never forget!

Romans 2:4b  …not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

Have you ever had a friend or someone in your life that believed in you and was for you, no matter what?  Have you ever been that person for someone you know?  The relationship is so strong and motivation so right that difficult things can be communicated because the trust is there.

Many years ago when we were involved in ministry, we moved back to an area we had lived in before.  When we arrived we heard very negative things about two individuals we knew – Bill and Erik.  Bill had been a very good friend and Erik was more of an acquaintance. Erik was a newer Christian and bit more radical.  He had also been the recipient of some good things that I thought (at that time) should have come to me.

Although I am forgiven, I am still humbled by my very different responses to these two brothers.  I was so troubled by what I heard that I met with Bill at our center late one night.  I shared with him what I had become aware of and reaffirmed my love for him and our friendship.  I let him know that I would help him in anyway that I could.  We shared, wept and prayed with each other.

With Erik, the troubling things I heard fit with my perception of him.  I simply wrote him off.  Sometime later after we had moved away, the Lord confronted me with the question of why my responses to these two brothers were so different.  As I pondered the question, the answer became so embarrassingly obvious:  I loved Bill and didn’t love Erik!

When the Lord showed me this, it wasn’t like a trip to the woodshed or the Principal’s office.  It was like a treasured friend taking me aside and sitting down with me for a talk.  Although painful to hear, the relationship we had enabled me to hear Him and receive the truth about myself.  Instead of experiencing rejection, my Lord had His arm around my shoulders – affirming me.

Because of God’s kindness, I was lovingly being offered insight into my own misbehavior so that I might repent and learn.  Isn’t that one of the most marvelous realities of our life with Him?  He will regularly show us where we need to change – and enable us to change – so that our lives will be a continuous, ongoing transformation into the image of Christ.  May we all see that this is our daily way of life with Him and recognize His kindness.

Acts 16:34  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

Have you experienced a time of when you thought you were following God and everything seemed to go wrong?  You struggled with thoughts that you missed what He wanted you to do.  Then in the midst of some of the worst difficulties, things happened that only He could have arranged and you saw that He was orchestrating the events the whole time.

The 16^th chapter of Acts contains such a story and it is one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible.  It details the events leading up to and including this jailer and his family coming to believe in the Lord Jesus through the ministry of Paul and Silas.  These events are rather extraordinary and not exactly what we think of when we discuss God providing us with opportunities to share our faith and lead others to the Lord.

It started with a vision.  Paul wanted to go elsewhere but God used it to direct them to Macedonia.  Things seemed to be going well until Paul cast a fortune-telling spirit out of a slave girl.  Her owners became upset because this meant that they ceased to earn a great deal of money from the girl.  Due to the owners’ efforts Paul and Silas became ‘public enemies 1 & 2’.  They were seized, with the crowd joining in; dragged into the marketplace before the authorities; stripped, beaten, severely flogged and thrown into prison.  Just to get where God wanted them to be!

The jailer, having been warned, placed them in an inner cell with their feet in stocks.  At midnight, instead of sleeping or grumbling or being distressed over their fate – they were praying and singing hymns to God, with all the others listening!  Then a violent earthquake struck that set everyone free – but no one tried to escape.  The jailer was about to kill himself, but Paul shouted out and stopped him from harming himself.

What a blessing that Paul and Silas were more concerned about the jailer than their freedom.  What a blessing that they were glorifying God.  The jailer came and fell trembling before Paul and Silas – asking what he must do to be saved!  He and his whole household responded to their instructions and experienced the joy of salvation.

The next morning, the authorities wanted to release them as though nothing had happened!  I have no difficulty believing that God orchestrated all these events, simply to reach the jailer and his household.  Yes, a group of believers was established there in that city.  But the series of supernatural events led to the conversion of this jailer and his family.  Paul and Silas were faithful in spite of the unjust suffering and abuse they endured.  Do we understand that the Lord will do similar things with us today?  Are we willing?