Maineville Lighthouse Church

 

I was thinking…Pastor Steve

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“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all

your wonderful deeds.”  Psalm 9: 1  (NIV)

 

          I was thinking about this month of November and the events that it holds.  Of course, we have the Turkey Dinner.  From what you have told me, this will be a blowout!  I'm not talented in the food cooking arena (don't get me wrong, I can use a microwave like nobody's business), but I'm sure you will find ways to use my limited talents.  I've seen a few of the crafts that will be for sale, and I'm sure people will go home satisfied by the food, the article they have purchased, and the conversations they have had.

 

          We also have Thanksgiving Day.  Don't believe all the historical revisionist versions of this holiday you may hear these last few years.  There really was a good relationship between the Pilgrims and the Indians (sorry, indigenous people group).  In fact, if it wasn't for Squanto, things could have turned out very differently.  But Squanto already knew English and had already become a Christian before the Pilgrims arrived!  Talk about a Divine Appointment. 

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          If you have an internet connection, let me suggest a YouTube video, “What's the Truth About the First Thanksgiving?” by Michael Medved for Prager University.  Prager makes short, five minute videos that give pretty good overviews of various topics, and this is a good one.  Here is part of it...The Pilgrims had been taken off course by a storm.  They took a scouting boat to check out the new location, and a huge wave picked up the small boat.  “The turbulent sea then deposited them safely—miraculously—on a little island within sight of the ideal location for their settlement. It was a deserted Indian village with cleared land, stored supplies of corn, and a reliable source of fresh water.  No, these supposedly cruel conquerors never actually invaded that village. Instead, they expressed a fervent desire to pay the natives for the dried corn they found, if only they could find someone to pay. But the former inhabitants had perished during three years of plague—probably smallpox—that immediately preceded the Pilgrims’ arrival.”  History truly is fascinating.

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         Then we have Veteran's Day.  (You know, this is also Armistice Day.  Coincidentally, this year is the 100th anniversary of the signing of that peace agreement between Germany and the Allies of WWI that took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.)  I can't begin to tell you how much I have appreciated our veterans.  My oldest brother and two of his friends enlisted, volunteered, for the Marines in 1968.  They went through boot camp together, and then they each went their own way, by decision of the Marines.  One served a year and ended up with a medical discharge.  Another served doing clerical work in California.  And the third ended up going to Viet Nam and got injured.  I remember his younger brother telling me that his brother had taken a walk outside of the hospital in Chicago, and someone tried to rob him.  He took his cane and started wailing on him.  (I know, it's not very Christian to get glee out of that, but I was 15 years old and thought it was great!  The guy shouldn't have been trying to rob someone anyway, much less a wounded soldier.)  So, if you are a Veteran, my humble thanks to you.  Whether you were drafted, served behind the desk, had an early medical discharge, or served in a fighting capacity, you deserve our respect.  It is people like you, who protect our country and serve away from home and family, that make America what it is, number one in the world.  I'm sure there were moments you would just have soon been back in the community you left.

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          Thanks.  That may not say enough, but it's all I have sometimes.  Thanks to the Veterans, thanks to the Pilgrims and Indians for beginning a tradition we still follow today, thanks to those who serve this fellowship so faithfully, and thanks to God for His Son, who has given us salvation and life everlasting.  To God, be the Glory.  God bless.