Thoughts for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day in which we set aside time to reflect upon the many blessings that God has given to us this past year.  Really our list should be quite long and our time of praise should be quite long as well.  But I have found that it is easy to give thanks for the "stuff" of life, you know, food - and what abundance we have, clothing - our closets are filled and our biggest problems is determining what to wear, health - too often we take this for granted, but, having just lost a brother to cancer a few weeks ago, I know that health is a precious gift to us, as is family. 

And how can we forget to thank our wonderful God of our salvation.  I have been reminded of this as I have been working on a Communion Meditation that I will be sharing Sunday from the story of Hosea.  What an amazing love Hosea had for his wayward, unfaithful bride Gomer.  Then God reminds Hosea that his love for Gomer is a portrait of God's love for His wayward, unfaithful people.  In order to set Gomer free, Hosea had to step out of his comfort zone and enter into the messy world of prostitution.  As one reads his story one can almost feel the shame that Hosea experienced and the humiliation as everyone knew that Gomer was the wife of the prophet.  Yet, drawn by his love, Hosea went forward, paid the required price to set his wife free.  I believe that  until her dying day, Gomer probably never fully understood that amazing love.  But is that not what God did for us.  We enter into this Advent Season where we celebrate God's love.  Yes, God stepped out of His "comfort zone" - the glories of heaven - and came here to this messy world to rescue us from the bondage to sin.  He, too, paid the price for our redemption.  So, with David in Psalm 103, I want to praise God for the blessings of redemption, of my salvation, of having received God's amazing love.

I have just finished reading Ben Carson's newest book titled, "A More Perfect Union."  It is one of the clearest explanations of the United States Constitution that I have ever read.  I highly recommend it to you.  After reading that book, I want to add another item to my Thanksgiving list: that I live in the United States of America.  And I want to thank those Founding Fathers for their vision of what America could be.  Those men had a knowledge of the Scriptures.  They understood the sinful condition of the human heart.  And they understood the character of a just God and that the country they were creating should be a reflection of that justice upon a sinful man.  And they did it well. 

My heart is saddened as I read of a generation of young people who are growing up and not fully understanding the freedoms that they have received.  I was just reading an article this morning written by Ben Shapiro.  You can find the article at: www.townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2015/11/25/four-in-10-young-americans-have-no-idea-what-America-is,  Let me just share a few quotes from the article: "Four in 10 young Americans have no idea what America is.  That's the takeaway from a new Pew Research poll showing that 40 percent of Americans aged 18-34 say that the government should be able to prevent people from making 'statements that are offensive to minority groups.'  This same group of young people has granted broad awareness to the culture of 'microaggression' - unintended slights taken as grave insults by their victims; they've also called for 'trigger warnings,' alerts that certain communications may dredge up unpleasant past memories or ideas.  With such ghoulish cruelties haunting the most privileged generation in human history, naturally we'd want to toss out the bedrock of Western civilization: The right to debate, to express unpopular opinions.  We wouldn't want to offend."  Friends, what this younger generation seems to have not learned - perhaps it was because they were not taught it - is that debate, the arguments of thought was the foundation upon which our nation was built.  I remember reading with fascination Joseph Ellis' book titled, "An American Creation," which is the account of the writing of the Constitution.  Yes, feelings were hurt.  Yes, tempers flared.  Yes, words were said that were later regretted.  But ideas were exchanged.  Compromise was done.  And the world has been blessed because of those agonizing weeks in 1787 in Philadelphia. 

It seems that today we want to shield everyone from anything that might be offensive.  But let's be honest: that can only happen if a person crawls into a cave and pushes the rock to close the entrance.  Life is full of ideas and differences of opinions.  Just look at Jesus: His world certainly was filled with those who differed from Him.  But Jesus entered into dialogue with them.  He freely shared His ideas and truths with them.  And the continuation of that debate over truths and ideas was central to the success of the early Church - example of Paul in Athens in Acts 17,  What is happening on the campuses across our nation is the suppression of ideas, the suppression of debate, the suppression of truth.  When such debate is stifled and quenched, intellectual growth ceases.  For it is in the presence of debate of ideas that our own intellect matures.  I remember a famous preacher once shared with a group of us young pastors these words, "Men, every year I read one or two books that I know I will strongly disagree with.  I do that to strengthen my own understanding of truth." 

So, I am grateful that I live in a nation that still grants me that freedom to express my thoughts and ideas.  I know that, if the present conditions prevail, that freedom will soon be a freedom in the past.

Finally, I want to just share a word about what is happening in the Middle East.  As you know, yesterday a Russian fighter jet was shot down as it crossed over into Turkish air space.  Tensions, already strained have now become even more heightened.  And I read this morning that it was reported that IAF (Israel Air Force) planes bombed Syrian units inside Syria - although this report has yet to be confirmed.  Yesterday our President met with the French President in the White House and promised America help in destroying ISIS, yet the very fact that ISIS was able to do what it did in Paris and shut down the city of Brussels indicate that its destruction will take a new type of warfare that the world has not prepared for.  The world grows even darker.  Yet I was encouraged with these words from Marvin Olasky, the editor of "World" magazine (which by the way I highly endorse): "We play checkers, but God plays chess, as His billions of moves bring the world toward its culmination." 

So, at this Thanksgiving Season I am grateful that God is in control.  Aren't you?