Welcome To Basic Christian BasicChristian.org - The-Jesus-Realm.com The Basics of Christianity ... and then some ... A Christian center with FREE Resources, Information and Links Testifying of God, Heaven and of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ the Savior both now and yet to come!

Happy Thanksgiving

# The Thanksgiving Holiday

> 2 Corinthians 4:13-18 We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present (in heaven) us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the Thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

> For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man (soul) is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Worthy Devotions - Daily Christian Devotion (Thanksgiving) - Live like a king! - "I thank God" said the homeless man, "I am never unhappy" - Yes, we can have nothing, yet have it all - So often, we focus on what we have and forget who we are! The two are not related at all - what we have (or don’t have) has nothing to do with who we are!
Revelation 1:5-6 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. -- One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said "God bless you, my friend". "I thank God," said the homeless man, "I am never unhappy." "What do you mean?" the passerby asked. "Well," he said, "when the sun is out, I thank God - when it rains, I thank God. When I am full, I thank God and when I am hungry, I thank God. And, since God’s will is my will, and whatever pleases Him pleases me, why should I say I am unhappy when I am not?" The man looked at him in astonishment and asked, "Who are you?" "I am a King," said he. "Where, then, is your Kingdom?" asked the man. "In my heart." The homeless man replied. -- Yes, we can have nothing, yet have it all. So often, we focus on what we have and forget who we are! The two are not related at all - what we have or don’t have has nothing to do with who we are! The Word says that we are kings and priests and so it is! Let’s give all our concerns to the Lord and see ourselves as He does - Kings and Priests! Thank God in every circumstance and there, we will find our victory. [article link]

The Fall Feasts of Israel - The Feast of Tabernacles comes five days after Yom Kippur - It was a harvest celebration and is the inspiration for the American Thanksgiving Day
Happy Thanksgiving: The Feast of Tabernacles comes five days after Yom Kippur. It was a harvest celebration and is the inspiration for the American Thanksgiving Day. It began as a seven-day feast, later expanded to eight, when all the tithes the Israelites had set aside during the year were brought to Jerusalem for a joyous time of national celebration and thanksgiving for the Lord’s bountiful provision. The aroma of delicious foods cooking over open fires permeated the whole city. For seven days where ever you went there was an air of joy and festivity as the people remembered their Provider and gave thanks. (Deut. 14:22-26). [article link]

## List of Topics

  The Thanksgiving Holiday, Nov. 1997
  Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation the First Thanksgiving, July 30, 1623
  George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789
  Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863
  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Thanksgiving Proclamation, November 26, 1942

## The Thanksgiving Holiday, Nov. 1997

By Betty Miller
Christians look forward to the time of the year when we celebrate two important holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These holidays have their beginnings and roots in Christian celebrations. The word holiday actually means "holy day"; hence these events should be remembered and celebrated in a holy manner. We have strayed from that purpose over the years as we have embraced many unholy practices and worldly customs and added them to our "holy days."

### COMPROMISING AS CHRISTIANS

Thanksgiving is one of our main national holidays here in the U.S.A. A good question to ask is "Are we as Christians celebrating it the way the Lord would have us celebrate, or have we compromised with the world?" Have we lost the emphasis on thanksgiving and prayer and shifted it to a gluttonous feast of food, drink and games like those in the world have done? More and more the media is referring to this holiday as "turkey day" instead of Thanksgiving Day. They also eliminate the object of who we are to offer our thanks. We are just to be "thankful" we are told. Who should our thanks be directed to? The object of our thanks for our many blessings, should be directed to the Lord God. It should not just be a general "thanks."

The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated less than a year after the Christian Plymouth colonists had settled in the new land of America. The first Thanksgiving Day, set aside for the special purpose of prayer as well as celebration, was decreed by Governor William Bradford in July 30, 1623. There were harvest festivals, or days of thanking God for plentiful crops. During the Revolutionary War, eight special days of thanks were observed for victories and for being saved from dangers. On November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a general proclamation for a day of thanks. Our national day of thanksgiving was proclaimed by President Lincoln in 1863 with these words, "a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father."

Today we still celebrate this national and legal holiday, but are we celebrating in the right manner as Christians? Are we forgetting the main purpose of this day is prayer and thanksgiving as we feast and fellowship? The Lord is not opposed to our feasting and our gathering of friends and family to dine, but if our only prayer is to ask God to bless our food are we not forgetting the real meaning of this day? God delights in blessing us as His children. However, do we, as His children delight in blessing Him with our prayers and thanks? Do our celebrations revolve more around the meal and the football game that follows, than around the discussion of the things we should be thankful for? Many are worshipping the idol of ball games on holidays instead of focusing on the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Let us ask God to forgive us and truly celebrate this day in real thanksgiving and prayer.

Psalm 75:1, "Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare."

Psalm 107:1, "O Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Article is from the Overcoming Life Digest (Nov./Dec. 1997 Issue)

Source: http://www.bible.com

List of Topics

## From Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation on the first Thanksgiving of the Pilgrims in July 30, 1623

"But here I cannot but make a pause and stand half amazed at this poor people’s present condition; and so I think will the reader, too, when he considers it well. Having thus passed the vast ocean, and that sea of troubles before while they were making their preparations, they now had no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain and refresh their weather beaten bodies, nor houses, much less towns, to repair to.

As for the season, it was winter, and those who have experienced the winters of the country know them to be sharp and severe, and subject to fierce storms, Besides, what could they see but a desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men; and what multitude there might be of them they knew not! Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the Heavens!) they could gain little solace from any outward objects. Summer being done, all things turned upon them a weather-beaten face; and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, presented a wild and savage view.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed and was now a gulf separating them from all civilized parts of the world.

What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His grace? Ought not the children of their fathers rightly to say: Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them that have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men.

Source: www.cwfa.org

List of Topics

## George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789

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; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd day of October, A.D. 1789

List of Topics

#### *Note in 1863 America was in the midst of the American Civil War which started in 1861 and lasted until 1865.

## Abraham Lincoln's October 3, 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

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 nations are blessed whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12). We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this 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 of 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.

List of Topics

## Franklin D. Roosevelt's Thanksgiving Proclamation November 26, 1942

#### In 1942 America is now in the midst of WWII which started on December 7, 1941 and lasted until 1945.

["]It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord." Across the uncertain ways of space and time our hearts echo those words, for the days are with us again when, at the gathering of the harvest, we solemnly express our dependence upon Almighty God.

The final months of this year, now almost spent, find our Republic and the Nations joined with it waging a battle on many fronts for the preservation of liberty.

In giving thanks for the greatest harvest in the history of our Nation, we who plant and reap can well resolve that in the year to come we will do all in our power to pass that milestone; for by our labors in the fields we can share some part of the sacrifice with our brothers and sons who wear the uniform of the United States.

It is fitting that we recall now the reverent words of George Washington, "Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy Protection," and that every American in his own way lift his voice to heaven. I recommend that all of us bear in mind this great Psalm:

> Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (worry). He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Inspired with faith and courage by these words, let us turn again to the work that confronts us in this time of national emergency: in the armed services and the merchant marine; in factories and offices; on farms and in the mines; on highways, railways, and airways; in other places of public service to the Nation; and in our homes.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby invite the attention of the people to the joint resolution of Congress approved December 26, 1941, which designates the fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day; and I request that both Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1942, and New Year’s Day, January 1, 1943, be observed in prayer, publicly and privately.

Source: http://www.gtbe.org/resources/resource_articles/a_thanksgiving_franklin_roosevelt.htm

List of Topics

Source: www.BasicChristian.info

Top of Page