This year I’m thankful for several things.

• I’m thankful that Layna Houser has joined our family as my new daughter-in-law. She’ll be good for Adam.
• I’m thankful that Ruby Diehl’s adoption was just finalized, giving us a new granddaughter.
• I’m thankful that God is giving us responders to our new emphasis upon making disciples. That’s a cultural shift that’s just beginning.
• I’m thankful that Anita and I will get to spend Thanksgiving Day with our daughter and family in Nashville, Tennessee. This is a first.
• I’m thankful for faithful supporters in the church who do not run from their responsibilities.
• I’m thankful for new leaders Christ is bringing in from other churches. They have a foundation already laid that we can build upon.
• I’m thankful for five new converts that just made decisions for Christ this past weekend.
• I’m thankful for the five believers who were just baptized last weekend.

What are you thankful for this year?

Tags: thanksgiving

The first annual day of thanksgiving was instituted in England long before the Pilgrims called for their Thanksgiving Day. On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was captured standing guard over 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in a vault under the House of Lords. He and his accomplices planned to blow up Parliament on its opening day, with the king, the royal family, the House of Lords, and the Commons in attendance. The leadership of England would be destroyed in one massive explosion. In this way the Catholic conspirators hoped to rid England of the disease of Protestantism! Does that sound like something we would read in today’s newspapers?

That the conspirators were discovered before any harm was done was certainly cause for thanksgiving. The traitors were arrested and executed, and parliament ordered November 5 to be kept as a “public thanksgiving to Almighty God.” This was to be an annual day of thanksgiving, “that unfeigned thankfulness may never be forgotten, and that all ages to come may yield praises to God’s divine majesty for the same.” Guy Fawkes Day continues to be celebrated in England.

If you could start your own national holiday, what would be the occasion and when?

Tags: thanksgiving

When George W. Bush was President, he made a surprise visit to serve Thanksgiving Day dinner to soldiers deployed to Iraq during the heat of that war. One reporter covering the story thought that some might save their meal as a souvenir, explaining, “Its not often that anyone is served by the President.”

Wait a minute, I thought elected officials were public servants. It is their job to serve their people. Yet, we rarely think of what they do as serving us. So, should one act of service been one of the biggest new items of the day?

Remember the words of Jesus: “Those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. Whoever of you desires to be first shall be servant of all. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 1042-45). Let’s find someone to serve today.

Tags: Bush, Iraq, serve, thanksgiving

Yesterday I came home for lunch. Anita was running errands, so I was “home alone”. I was walking around the house, eating my sandwich, when I noticed something black emerging from some weeds in the bean field behind me. At first I thought it was a buzzard. But the size caught my eye. As he strolled out into the clear snowy field, I saw was too big for a buzzard. Soon he turned to the side and I noticed it was a full grown turkey.

Soon another strolled out behind him, then another, then another. Soon I counted twelve toms and hens roaming about the field in search of some seeds to eat. Against the new fallen snow, they looked beautiful. I smiled as I watched them, until I remembered I was eating a shaved turkey sandwich. So, I hid my sandwich behind my back.

So, how do I prove this experience if no one else was here to see it with me? I guess this will be my story alone. It was the day I found a wild turkey and made myself a turkey sandwich.

Tags: thanksgiving, turkey

Today is Thanksgiving Day! And I am truly thankful to God for His provision in my life.

I have a memory branded into my memory of Thanksgiving. It was Thanksgiving Day, 1967. I was serving in the US Army stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, working in the basement of Post Headquarters with a lot of brass around. I had a 4-day holiday pass, so I bought a Greyhound Bus ticket to the old bus station in Fort Wayne. I left base about 4PM and arrived in Fort Wayne about 2AM. Dad drove down there to pick me up.

After Thanksgiving dinner, Dad and I took our shotguns and went rabbit hunting together. The rabbits all survived that day, but what a memory I still have of my Dad mentoring me. Whenever I think of Thanksgiving I recall that time I had with my Dad.

What’s a memory etched in your mind when you think of Thanksgiving Day?

Tags: thanksgiving

Imagine what a heavy schedule of appointments President Abraham Lincoln had to keep day after day. Yet when an elderly woman with no official business in mind asked to see him, he graciously consented.

As she entered Lincoln’s office, he rose to greet her and asked how he might be of service. She replied that she had not come to ask a favor. She had heard that the President liked a certain kind of cookie, so she had baked some for him and brought them to his office.

With tears in his eyes, Lincoln responded, “You are the very first person who has ever come into my office asking not, expecting not, but rather bringing me a gift. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

When coming into God’s presence, once in a while it may be good to refrain from asking Him for something. Instead, let’s simply bring Him the gift of gratitude and love. We can be sure nothing pleases our Father more than our sincere thanksgiving.

Tags: cookies, Lincoln, prayer, thanksgiving