Christian Reflection and Prayer

LET US REMEMBER

As you prepare to spend Thanksgiving
with your loved ones this week, please
remember the 1 billion people throughout
the world suffering every day from chronic
hunger.25,000 women, men and children
die from malnutrition and hunger-related
causes every single day. This tragedy
will be repeated again on Thanksgiving Day.


THE STORY OF THANKSGIVING

The story of Thanksgiving is basically
the story of the Pilgrims and their thankful
community feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims, who set sail from Plymouth,
England on a ship called the Mayflower on
September 6, 1620, were fortune hunters,
bound for the resourceful 'New World'. The
Mayflower was a small ship crowded with
men, women and children, besides the
sailors on board. Aboard were passengers
comprising the 'separatists', who called
themselves the "Saints", and others,
whom the separatists called the "Strangers".
After land was sighted in November following
66 days of a lethal voyage, a meeting was
held and an agreement of truce was worked
out. It was called the Mayflower Compact.
The agreement guaranteed equality among
the members of the two groups. They
merged together to be recognized as the
"Pilgrims." They elected John Carver as
their first governor.

historyAlthough Pilgrims had first sighted
the land off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they
did not settle until they arrived at a place
called Plymouth. It was Captain John Smith
who named the place after the English port-city
in 1614 and had already settled there for over
five years. And it was there that the Pilgrims
finally decided to settle. Plymouth offered an
excellent harbor and plenty of resources. The l
ocal Indians were also non-hostile.

But their happiness was short-lived. Ill-equipped
to face the winter on this estranged place they
were ravaged thoroughly.


history

Somehow they were saved by a group of
local Native Americans who befriended them
and helped them with food. Soon the natives
taught the settlers the technique to cultivate
corns and grow native vegetables, and store
them for hard days. By the next winter they
had raised enough crops to keep them alive.
The winter came and passed by without much
harm. The settlers knew they had beaten the
odds and it was time to celebrate.

They celebrated it with a grand community feast
wherein the friendly native Americans were also
invited. It was kind of a harvest feast, the Pilgrims
used to have in England. The recipes entail "corn"
(wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian
corn, barley, pumpkins and peas, "fowl" (specially
"waterfowl"), deer, fish. And yes, of course the
yummy wild turkey.

However, the third year was real bad when the
corns got damaged. Pilgrim Governor William
Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer,
and rain happened to follow soon. To celebrate -
November 29th of that year was proclaimed a
day of thanksgiving. This date is believed to be
the real beginning of the present Thanksgiving Day.

Though the Thanksgiving Day is presently
celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November.
This date was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt i
n 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Earlier it was
the last Thursday in November as was designated by
the former President Abraham Lincoln. But sometimes
the last Thursday would turn out to be the fifth Thursday
of the month. This falls too close to the Christmas,
leaving the businesses even less than a month's time
to cope up with the two big festivals. Hence the change

QUESTION:

"If Jesus is the only way to God,
what about those who have never
heard of Him?"

ANSWER:

God's good, trustworthy character
assures us that He will do what's
right for every person He has created
and deeply loves.  Also, God makes
Himself known in many ways to
people, prompting them to seek Him,
and He has promised to reveal Himself
to those who seek Him with their whole
hearts.  God won't condemn people simply
because they haven't heard the Gospel. 
God will judge people who have not been
evangelized based on their responses to
natural revelation (such as creation,
conscience, reason, and experience),
which His Spirit can use to bring them
to salvation.  Also, God often uses the
world's natural revelation about Himself to
prepare people to respond to the Gospel
once they do hear its message.

Adapted from True for You but Not for Me:
Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith,
copyright 2009 by Paul Copan. Published
by Bethany House, a division of Baker
Publishing Group, Bloomington, Mn.,
www.bethanyhouse.com.
Paul Copan (PhD, Marquette University)
is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy
and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University
in Florida. He lives with his wife and five
children in Florida.

Original publication date: September 17, 2009

What Remembering the Persecuted Church Looks Like

Scripture:

Remember those in prison as if you
were their fellow prisoners, and those
who are mistreated as if you yourselves
were suffering - Hebrews 13:3

Reflection:

Researchers guess that about 176,000
Christians worldwide may have been killed
for their faith between mid-2008 and mid-2009.
Many of those believers died in secrecy, as
in the North Korean prison camps, and were
cut off from other believers at the end. Now,
consider that we have a daily opportunity to
partner with these men and women in prayer.
I have to think that's what the author of Hebrews
really meant when he encouraged us to
"remember" imprisoned believers. 

I'll be the first to admit it: I'm guilty of not
remembering my brothers and sisters in Christ.
My unfaithfulness to them reflects a heart that
hasn't quite grasped the enormity of the power
of prayer. And yet there James is, telling me
that the Christian's prayers have more impact
than perhaps we'll ever know. So - how about it?

What if we all pick a country and pray for the
believers living there in the coming month? I'll
be praying for North Korea, and believe me, there
are plenty of places to go around. Let's remember
that we serve a God who delights to use our prayers i
n ways we can't even imagine. Let's remember
the persecuted church.

Katherine Britton

crosswalk.com