The First Thanksgiving

In 1969 three men left planet Earth and two of them became the first to ever walk on the Moon. However, even that trip, although longer than that which the Puritans took, was not as difficult. They had heat and sanitation, were not overcrowded, a complete mission written out, had constant contact with experts, and the best equipment of the time. The pilgrims were crammed into a small ship, endured horrible below deck conditions, fought disease,  and no plans other than to survive as best they might. When they got there, they would have to build houses from nothing, grow crops from nothing, build a nation from nothing, and oh yes, they were surrounded by hostile Indians.

In the early sixteen hundreds the tyrant King James I was persecuting the Christians of England who refused to bow to his rule in the church. The Separatists fled this persecution to Holland, where they lived for some time before they realized that their children were being corrupted by the culture and were becoming lax in the beliefs of their parents, throwing of the reins of Separatist theology. The men had then to make a choice, go to the New World, and brave death in a thousand forums, or watch their children walk away from the faith. They decided to take a trip more difficult then the Moon landings rather than watch their children fall.

The story of the first thanksgiving is a story of friendship between such Indians as Squanto and the Pilgrims, as well as the story of endurance, but is is much more than that, it is the story of men who were not going to see their children go the way of all the world, and were willing to go three thousand miles across treacherous oceans and brave death by a thousand means to stop it. God, in His Providence, allowed the Pilgrims not only to survive storms, starvation and disease, but also hostile Indians, wild animals and famine so that His purpose and mission could be fulfilled.

"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation." William Bradford

The light they kindles still shines on in millions of descendants, the document they wrote, the mayflower compact, was to become, in a manner of speaking, the framework of ideas that would eventually lead to  what we now know as the American Constitution.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Thanksgiving

In the current generation of Americans we have most likely, the most thankless generation in all of history. We are born as little tyrants, asking everything giving nothing. The nanny state caters to us, giving us free schools, food, clothing, and more nannies for the children that we did not kill with their free preventative measures. If you do not want to work you do not have to work, and you can still eat. We have become lazy and sloppy as a society, and we longer give thanks because everything is owed to us.

And, in the modern mindset why should we give thanks? All of life revolves around us, our needs, our wants, our demands. We never thank, we only complain when MacDonald's ruins our order or when our TV signal is down or our Smart Phone is having problems loading its applications.

One of the main reasons for this unthankfulness is the humanistic idea that we are god, and no matter how hard even the best of Christians try, they cannot escape all vestiges of this mentality, not only because we live in a culture permeated with it, but also because the ideas behind it spring from our own depraved hearts.
(Romans 1:21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The chapter goes onto say what happens to these people in that God turn them over to vile affections. Here however, we see it beginning with, in part, unthankfulness. A young man or woman who is unthankful of either the sacrifices that their parents and forefathers have made for them, the place where God has put them, or the purpose God has given them, will, in all probability, cast these things aside, run from the will of God, and become like those in Romans one, who turned the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped the creature more than the creator.

Col_3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Reformation

The effects of many men’s lives upon the river of life are that of a pebble, the ripples from which appear for a little time and are then forgotten. But let your effect on that same river for the glory of Christ be that of a dam, which will change its entire course.

The Paradox Of Our Age

 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense;

more knowledge but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines but less healthiness.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,

But have less real communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall men but short characters;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window

But nothing in the room.

-author unknown-

Cultural Manifestations

"Cultural manifestations are not salvation." Doug Phillips.

I have been asked to expound on the above quote that I posted in an earlier post on my website.

In the earlier days of America there were such things as the blue code laws, which made it against the law to do business on Sunday. In English parishes there were laws making people to go to church or to be faithful to their wife. These law are, for the most part, good laws, but they are not salvation. In Victorian England it was fashionable to have pieces of Egyptian pottery about, but that did not make the English Egyptian, so, in Pagan America it is fashionable to have pieces of Christianity lying about, but that does not make us Christian.

Praying for your food at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, going to church on Christmas, and not watching the worst films that come out of the socialist agenda of Hollywood does not make one a Christian. It makes one a classical American with hot dogs, baseball games and cowboys.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Great Commission

About two thousand years ago, just before our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, he gave us a Great Commission.

“Mat 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Nowhere in this passage does Christ tell us to “go and get every creature on this earth saved” because we cannot. No man can save another man, nor can any man save himself. There are some that go about and attempt to “get others saved” but this is not possible. When Christ wishes a man to come to himself he will give them an effectual calling (I Thess 2:13).

The Great Commission is to give the gospel of Christ to all people. The gospel of Christ encompasses “all things whatsoever he commanded us.” This includes government, and reforming the nation we are in. This includes changing the philosophy of the family. This embodies bringing the redeeming power of the sufficiency of Scriptures to all people in every aspect of their lives. The Scripture is sufficient for everything, and this is what we must teach, that it must be the Scriptures that is the thing which we look to for our ultimate truth.

Thus, if we are to fulfill this we must, now only preach from our pulpits the redeeming power of Christ, but also live it out in our lives, until the knowledge of God covers the land as the waters cover the earth.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

The following is Kipling's greatest poem, he got a lot of things wrong in his imperfect life, but when he wrote this, what I have been told was his last poem, he got everything right.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Rudyard Kipling