PUBLIC NOTICE OF GOOD CHEER AND CELEBRATION
TO THE LIMITS OF FLORIDA LAW
Temple Church Holiday Celebration – 28 December 11AM-3PM!
Dixie Crossroads, Titusville.
Please RSVP soon! Another announcement will be sent ASAP. Please plan to bring your more than extraordinary good time plans with you and unpack them immediately on arrival!
In our mostly pagan culture, I am amused by the number of times I see the word “FAITH” tossed out as an empty aphorism, or a commercial product expressed as a standalone token – the “feeling” of “FAITH” just represented as the single word FAITH. Period.
At best it is poor grammar. At worst, it reveals an empty word representing our culture bereft of that power-driven, active faith that actually accomplishes something by the supernatural power of the authentic faith’s Objective Agent. For faith without its Object and Agent is merely a meaningless sentence fragment.
The word THANKSGIVING represents precisely the same grammar faux pas. One cannot imply the act of giving THANKS, and thereby receiving the satisfaction of a returned response – unless – the Object of the gift to which those thanks are given is identified and then to Him it explicitly directed. In our culture, which is enthusiastically shedding any claim to our past Christian identity – and even declaring its meaning to be offensive and illegal – any mention of the Object of our thankfulness has become Persona non grata.
Thus, as my wife is quick to remind me, if it makes no sense, then it is an obvious example of the powerful spiritual warfare that is energetically engulfing the Republic. We are deliberately no longer reminded of the very public statements that accompanied the first seasons of national Thanksgiving, or the legislation that enshrined the holiday as a national day of prayer, or even that those prayers of thanksgiving are directed to the Object of our thanks – the God for Whom the Republic was founded.
The first national Thanksgiving proclamation was delivered by President George Washington. Our first President was a brilliant communicator who knew well that Thanksgiving had an Object and was delighted to complete his sentences clearly acknowledging and articulating this reality without equivocation, five times in his introductory comment alone. It stated, in part:
“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 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…” (Circa. Thursday, 26 November 1789)
President Lincoln made the day of Thanksgiving a permanent national holiday on 3 October 1863, when he said,
“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.“
Today, as faithful Christians and Templars, it is inevitable that we are reminded by the Holy Spirit of the Living God who indwells each of us that the Object of our redeeming faith, and the Object of our thanks, is defined in scripture writ millennia before the United States even existed.
Says the Word of God, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
In these 20 words made elegant and altogether perfect by its Genius, the command to celebrate Thanksgiving has always been with all Christ Followers not by a proclamation by a mere president, but by our Eternal King.
Happy Thanksgiving! May your day be filled with the joy of worship, fellowship with family and friends, and the spirit of thanksgiving expressed to its Object with a spirit and power of holy Love.
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“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things (that have made our nation extraordinary). They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they 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 next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” President Abraham Lincoln