Thanksgiving doesn't get the attention it deserves.

 

Thanksgiving has become all about eating turkey and all the fixings. Family gatherings and playing games out in the yard. Or for some, it’s another day of being homeless and hungry. Thanksgiving wasn’t meant to be either.

Thanksgiving, sadly, many Americans skip over the truth of how God was faithful to lead Christians who longed to openly serve Him, leave their homelands and everything behind, and risk their lives to set sail for a New World. Historian Rod Gragg explains in The Pilgrim Chronicles how, in England around 1606, the Pilgrims began as a group of Christian separatists seeking to worship Jesus in the purity of the Gospel, based on their beliefs and understanding of the Geneva Bible.

However, what they wanted to do was illegal and prohibited, resulting in harsh persecution for the Pilgrims. So they fled to Holland around 1609. But that was short-lived, as their children were being influenced to follow worldly Dutch ways in the Netherlands, prompting the Pilgrims to seek new living options. The hearing of the Jamestown settlement, the Pilgrims set out to borrow funds and request King James’ permission to make the Mayflower voyage.

Let me stop here, and let’s focus on what exactly is happening. Here’s a group of people about to get on a ship and sail off to somewhere sight unseen. That takes incredible strength and trust in God, not to mention an inner drive that they could not give up.

Columbus had sailed in fourteen ninety-two, reaching the Americas in October. The Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower in sixteen twenty, about a hundred twenty-eight years later. Thanksgiving is about the faith of the Pilgrims. Our foundation was laid in biblical truth by the Pilgrims and led America’s Founders to establish godly principles. These biblical truths have given us the right to worship God freely.

Lincoln signed it into law on October 3, eighteen sixty-three, just before the Civil War got any worse. It set the last Thursday in November as the official day. He honored Sarah Josepha Hale’s request by proclaiming the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

So you see, Thanksgiving involves a whole lot more than whether Publix has its turkeys on sale.

Put yourself on that boat that morning. Take very few possessions with you. Unsure of whether you’ll even live through the trip. Dealing with the elements, sea sickness, and perhaps even the loss of loved ones.

Our lives stand this Thanksgiving on the shoulders of some incredible fellow human beings. Surely, we can shut down the TV noise in the background, get quiet, and bow our heads to stand in silence, thanking these brave individuals for the freedoms we have today, our lifestyles, and so much more.

Our hearts should burst with joy over this Holiday before we put the last of the dinner preparations in the refrigerator, shut off the light, and head to bed.

I hope sometime during your celebration, you will take stock of all your blessings and realize they came with a cost that other people paid for you.

I bless you. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Please hold on if you are at the brink of despair and hopelessness.

I listened to a young woman who has been furloughed from her government job, and her message hit me hard.

She was being as open and honest as a person could be. When she listed the things she has done over the years to better her life and the lives of her 4 children and husband… she broke down sobbing. She said,” I did everything right! I worked, went to school, and bettered myself after being in the army….I did everything right!”

She wasn’t asking for a handout; she was screaming out her mental, physical, and emotional pain, clearly displayed. She and others who have been the victims of this schoolyard fight between the two political parties are devastating this young woman and thousands of others.

Her next remark hit the core of this government shutdown. “All those throwing punches at one another go home to their families, not missing a beat. Their children are eating, their bills are being paid, and they are being paid. It’s the average hard-working, dedicated American individuals who are suffering.”

I’m not personally involved in this layoff, but it’s touching me anyway because it's touching my family. The big question is, what do you do when your income just STOPS? And there’s no end in sight?

I’ve been to that jumping-off spot so many times in my life. I’ve felt like this young woman who can hardly speak, let alone breathe. Hanging between where life has forced you to go and the pain of letting go is real. You find yourself dangling over what you feel is an inevitable loss.

It's hard not to hate right now. It’s hard not to want to scream in the faces you see in the news whose lives are in control of your life, and they are saying and doing nothing. It’s like a huge schoolyard fight between grown men and women who are punching the air while those around them are getting desperate.

I’ve had times when I just had to let go and let whatever my fate was going to be. Sometimes I thought I’d never see the next five minutes.

All I can offer to anyone who is suffering in that “what am I going to do” place today, might think my suggestion is lame.

It’s crying out to God, looking to Him and not the situation. Christians, you know Who your source is, and those of you who don’t know God… He’s right there with you, ready to catch you.

I’m living proof of a person coming back from the brink of despair and hopelessness. God NEVER left me nor forsook me.

I always bless my reader. This blessing is to encourage you to please reach out to the hand of God and watch him deliver you back on solid ground.

 

I bless you.

You always have something to give

It’s a clear autumn/fall Florida morning. The turkey buzzards have been circling over the river for hours. Obviously hunting breakfast. This thought led me to think about other references to God’s care for the birds.

Matthew 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

When you think about the animal kingdom, you find that they pretty much live day by day. We humans have to store vast amounts of things to ensure our future necessities are met. I’m not saying that it is a bad thing to be prepared for an emergency, but daily we should take no thought.

At this stage of my life, I have pretty much scaled down to mostly necessary daily “stuff.” I look around my apartment and am determined with this last move that all I wanted around me were things that hold a memory.

My dearest treasure is a teapot with little chubby legs wearing polka dot socks and Mary Jane shoes. The set includes two cups, a creamer, and a sugar bowl. These precious little character-laced charmers bring joy to my heart that words can’t describe. My son gave me these as a gift on Mother’s Day with the forewarning that when he saw this gift, it reminded him of me.

As the anticipation increased the day the box arrived, and I began to carefully move the tissue paper aside, the first thing I saw was a white lid to a teapot. I was pretty sure a gayly painted teapot was about to emerge. The more I uncovered the handle, spout, and finally the little round belly of the pot, it was all white!

I thought my son thinks his mother looks like a plain white teapot? Imagine how my heart filled with an unspeakable joy as my eyes overflowed when I pulled the teapot out to find its little legs and shoes!

I could hardly breathe. By the time the whole little family was unwrapped, my heart had been won over. Maybe it was my creative writer’s heart that caused me to see these new family members each having their own personality from that day on.

I shared about how hard it is sometimes to find where the sugar bowl has gotten off to. You probably have heard or said that something you’re looking for has grown legs and walked off! It gives me added joy to envision them trotting about the apartment at night while I’m sleeping.

Giving of gifts is one of the love languages. My son certainly hit a home run with this gift. He has, with many others, too, but this one has always been the best.

Which leads me to my title today. There is a gift that we always have to give to someone that is perfect. It fits every person in any walk of life. Man, woman, or child. That Gift is giving them Jesus. When Peter and John went to the temple, they ran into a lame man begging alms. They didn’t have any material thing to give this man, but they didn’t just walk away. They offered him what they did have in their possession. “Silver and gold have we not, but in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.” That day, this man was given the most precious gift anyone had ever offered to him. It was a life-changing gift. Being lame had robbed him of all the everyday life events.

What if Peter and John had simply looked at their empty coin purse and said, “Sorry, we don’t have anything to give you,” and walked off? But they knew from being with Jesus that they had been given an endless supply of what other people need in their lives. And had been told to give it freely.

Isn’t it amazing that the most costly gift we as Christians have to give to another person was free to us and is free to give away?

But the truth is, this gift wasn’t free to the One who fulfilled the gift. It cost Jesus his very life. It cost him everything he had in this world. He was sent by the Father and cared for like the birds of the air. Every day, every second, Jesus was given what he needed for his life and those who walked with them. This man Jesus never owned anything, never had a big financial bankroll, no warehouse filled with material goods, and yet in every single situation, Jesus had exactly what was needed. Sometimes it was just to hear the truth. As Christians, we carry with us the perfect gift to give away to anyone God brings into our lives. And like my son’s statement of it looking just like me, Jesus fits everyone.

If you don’t feel like you have anything to give today, but you have the Gift of salvation through Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, then you have a gift that will fill another person’s life with everything they need. And we can give it away freely!

Freely we have received, freely we are told to give.

I always end with I bless you… that blessing is offering you your own walk with God.

I pray that you will receive this offer today.

I bless you!

This post is partly about something I can’t even begin to imagine.

I will ask you to go with me to the last moments of your life. I realize that it isn’t what most people want to think about, so we humans put it off for as long as we can. But it’s more than the punch line,“ the only two sure things in life are death and taxes.”

It seems that we will usually do anything to humorize the inevitable. I’ve been thinking recently of the only two outcomes of dying. First, I should clarify that no one actually dies. We only leave this world to enter into another. Everyone is going to live somewhere for eternity.

The choices are taking the Gift of God, His Son’s death on the cross as our substitute payment for sin by confessing with our mouth and believing with our hearts that the Blood of Jesus paid our ransom. A Christian’s death is a celebration, a HOME COMING!

When all of us left Heaven and our Creator, He sent our soul and spirit into a minuscule beginning of reproducing human matter that would become our dwelling place. Everything about who we would become entered that watery womb. What was being built in secret was simply a housing for our soul and spirit. During that time, we had no idea where we were going or into whose human hands we would be gifted. But God knew.

You are not a random collection of “parts” that God threw together and sent you forth. It’s nearly impossible to understand the depth of thought that the Almighty God put into creating each one of us. He set us adrift into this world, watching and anticipating our return Home to Him. Some of us have had a tremendous journey. Stumbling, getting back up, and falling again. Periods of calm and occasional peaceful days, where we breathe a sigh of relief. But even in those days, our feet are still leading us to the last moment of our life, where the decision will have already been made, either Eternal Life or eternal death. For a Christian, the grave was swallowed up and the sting taken out of it for us by Jesus. But that reality has to come to each one of us through activating our Faith before that last day comes.

Once the clock ticks forward on that day to the last moment, every decision we made or neglected to make is final. Game over! But it’s not a game; it’s been an orchestrated plan that was laid out for us to make choices. God, all the while knowing the outcome, has been cheering us on, sending things we were expected to notice as signs pointing in His direction. Sadly, and as unbelievable as it is, some people will believe that God doesn’t exist, or if He does, they choose not to believe in Him. Their human understanding of where they will go when death comes knocking, asking for that payment, they will simply cease to exist—poof, they are gone.

So here is my original thought at the beginning of this post—What does an atheist do when they step out of this world only to see that they were wrong!? There stands the Holy Son of God, Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit as their greeting committee. Will they scream, “Oh, God! I was wrong!" And shudder at the thought that they made the biggest unchangeable mistake of their life!

Someone recently asked me if God is so loving that surely he won't send a decent, good person to a tormenting hell. Their explanation to me of what they thought hell is going to be like comes from man’s replication of their imagination. It usually contains devils with pitchforks, flames leaping higher than the person’s head, and burning, unquenchable, heaping coals of fire for all eternity. I am no authority on that. No one is. God has given evidence of such things in His Word, which ought to send shivers down the spine of any nonbeliever.

This returns me to my original thought. Here stands an atheist who now knows the truth and that what they held to all their life was a lie.

Here is my personal understanding of what hell will be like for them. Knowing now that they will be eternally separated from God. Not another person will come witness to them, not another gospel hymn on a radio will be heard, not another coworker will share Jesus with them ever again. All the chances will flash before their eyes over and over, creating a suffering that I can’t begin to understand, such suffering, and it will never end. Knowing that you had a chance for a completely different outcome, and they turned it down time and time again. I have to pause here for a moment because my heart is breaking for these people.

So, now I will give you my personal belief of what will be my experience when my clock ticks forward in this world for the last time.

First and foremost, my eyes shall finally behold my Savior—Jesus Christ in all his glory! What I only knew in shadow will have now stepped out into the Light, and I will see Him face to face! I’ve carried this next part in my heart as my personal entrance into the presence of God.

Jesus will tenderly welcome me, extend His arm toward me, and gently entwine my arm around His. He will cover my hand with His and ask me a question, “Susan, are you ready?”

I honestly don’t know if I will be able to get the words out to answer Him—yes. Then, as the Bride, I have become He, and I will begin that slow, purposeful walk down the aisle leading to the Throne of God the Father. My eyes will be fixed on the Person I have waited a lifetime to behold.

The closer we get, the more I’ll hardly be able to take another step, but the strong arm of Jesus will steady me. When we take that last step ending at the Throne, Jesus will turn to the Father and say, “Father, Susan is home.”

I’ve never written this out; I’ve only verbally shared with others that this is the welcoming Home scene that I play in my mind. My tears come every time because it’s the very core of what I believe when I became a Christian. I want to see God—I WILL see God at last.

I don’t know what or if your last moment here contains either of these possibilities. I pray that some form of your entrance into eternity has for you something similar to mine.

Because my spirit and heart are so emotional right now, the contrast at the beginning of this post begs a moment of prayer. Who can afford that? Who can come to the end of their life and realize that life isn’t really over, but the chances of doing differently are.

Because God is Merciful and Righteous, he will have given that person numerous times to change their minds. My other thought about all this is that God didn’t create one soul with the intention of sending them to hell. He gave us all a foolproof solution. A Gift of His own Son suffering and dying an unimaginable, tormented death on a cross, stripped bare before the world so that we would be saved. Who turns that down? What possible reason could they give for doing such a thing, yet some will do that very thing.

So I end this post torn between my eyes, seeing my promised entrance into the Throne Room of God and my precious Escort. And that picture of the moment or realization dawning on an atheist who now knows the truth, but it’s too late.

If only one person reads this and it gives them pause to reconsider where they will spend eternity, then I have given them thought.

I bless you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not… It’s never too late

 

I started my day with a devotional about regrets. The writer listed several regrets she, as a nurse, had heard people who were near death state.

I read the question at the end to fill in the blank of what I regretted, and I had to stop and think. I’m ashamed to say that I wasted so much of my life by putting off things I should have gotten up and started.

Now, at my age, that habit hasn’t grown easier but harder. I have this long conversation telling myself that once I get up and get started, it will get done. (The elves have never come in overnight and done any of my projects.)

It's strange that when I was younger, I remember saying to myself, “Sue, take it easy, or you’ll burn yourself out and have nothing left when you get old.”

I should have listened. You wouldn’t believe what I could do in one day when I was younger. I didn’t know how to pace myself. I thought I had to get it all done in one day.

Now I spend so much time trying to convince myself to just get up. Now that I’ve confessed, the thought came to me as I contemplated my regrets, when the Holy Spirit clearly said, “Sue, no matter what you regret having not done, you can start right now.”

I thought about that. Today is the day that the Lord has made to rejoice and be glad in. Even if today is the very last day I see this side of heaven, that thing that I kept putting off, I can start today.

When I moved here to Florida, I wanted a new beginning. The main thing I prayed for was that my faith in the Lord would be the same on the outside of me as it is on the inside. I wanted God to be more important to me than anyone or anything else. I thought at seventy-six it was surely time.

God has been answering that prayer, but not in the way I thought. Several things took a turn I wasn’t expecting. It threw me. But once He loved and comforted me and got me quiet, I began to see that He really was answering my prayer. Nothing is like having your schedule wiped out along with things you thought were going to happen.

I had no choice but to draw close to the Holy Spirit. I was so discouraged and hurt. But if the things I had been planning once I got here had happened, I wouldn’t have drawn nearer to the Lord. We think we are going to do something when, in fact, if you are like me, you end up every night telling the Lord I promise I’ll start tomorrow.

Don’t let the lie of it being too late overwhelm your mind. The other thing that the Holy Spirit whispered to me was, “Why not start now?”

No matter how much time any of us has left here, we can use it wisely. We can start with rejoicing and being glad in this day. We can focus on the goodness of God. We can tell Him how thankful we are for another day. Then let that lead to listing the blessings we have. Before I knew it, I was sitting here writing this post that I had been putting off.

Whatever you regret in your life, if you are physically or mentally able to do it, start right now. Begin by telling the Lord, Thank you for this day and see where it goes.

 

I bless you.