Posts Tagged ‘Thanksgiving’
A Song Of Thanksgiving
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
Colossians 2:6-7 KJV
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
According to Wikipedia, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is an English Christian harvest festival hymn written in 1844 by Henry Alford, who was rector of Aston Sandford in Buckinghamshire, England. The full song is listed below.
I was a member of an Anglican (Episcopal here in the U.S.)/Church in the 1950’s and 60’s. I really enjoyed that church and the services, before they turned liberal and embraced worldly ways, and one of the songs we sang every year at Thanksgiving was this song. It is a beautiful song full of good theology, if you to take time to read and study the lyrics.
You can hear the song sung by a choir, if you click on the link below.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5FqdCskC0QE
Hope you enjoy listening to this wonderful song of Thanksgiving.
- Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home! - We ourselves are God’s own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
Grant, O harvest Lord, that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be. - For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take the harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In the garner evermore. - Then, thou Church triumphant come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All be safely gathered in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In God’s garner to abide;
Come, ten thousand angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home!
Happy Thanksgiving!
A Psalm Of Thanksgiving…
Psalm 100:1-5 KJV
1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
All things that God gives to His children come as a blessing and should be received with praise and thanksgiving.
Read the rest of this entry »Giving Thanks To A Great God
When it comes to eating a most wonderful meal, November is the month for me.
This is a month for giving thanks and nothing says giving thanks more than Thanksgiving. The meals at this time of the year are fantastic. Especially the ones I remember as a kid from the late 1940’s to the early 1960’s.
From my Mom to my Grandmothers they all knew how to cook from scratch and using nothing but fresh – never frozen – meats and vegetables, mostly from their garden.
The fresh Turkey was always nicely brown, fork tender and juicy. Filled with wonderful stuffing that was moist and tasty. The “smashed”, yes smashed, potatoes were nothing like today’s “whipped” smooth and wimpy potatoes. Those potatoes, which I still make myself, where hardy, full of russet flavor, buttery and so wonderfully stiff with a thickness that it would hold up to any homemade gravy from the pan drippings of the Turkey. Add a side of corn and you have a fantastic meal. Except…
Except, it was even better when you had a side of homemade cranberry relish, made with real cranberries, apples and oranges with sugar for added sweetness.
We ran everything through an old style hand cranked food processor (grinder). Beginning with the cranberries dumped into the intake funnel, as you turned the hand crank to crush the berries out came the ground up berries and juice. Then the apples were added, peeling and all, along with the oranges just sliced with the rind still on, all through the same manual food processor.
Once the right amounts of fruits were added, all the ingredients were mixed with a big spoon while adding sugar to the mixture for the sweetness one wanted. Then it was finished… ummm, not quite.
For best results, the mixture was best made about two weeks before Thanksgiving so that it could sit and marinate, and the results were an added measure of taste that was out of this world. Not to mention, that whoever made this relish always filled a quart-canning jar with the relish, seal it with paraffin wax and a lid, and set it in the back of the refrigerator until…
Until Christmas!
At this point, after having sat for so long in a cold environment the result from the fermenting process gave the relish an extra added boost of extravagant flavor and a taste that no canned relish or sauce could ever duplicate. Can you say “ambrosia”?
Not to be outdone by the meal there was one last thing to have; either a big slice of homemade pumpkin pie topped with homemade whipped cream, or a big hunk of homemade thick apple pie topped with real homemade ice cream. What a way to finish a scrumptious meal.
However, before the meal, one thing was always done before any eating took place, and that was the saying of grace.
Now this was something that the kids always took turns in saying and it was very appropriate for little children to say as it was also the way Jesus wanted people to be in following Him – with the faith of a little child.
Our version went like this…
“God is great, God is good and we thank Him for our food. By His hands, we all are fed. Thank you Lord, for our daily bread. Amen.”
You see, food is a blessing. We do not need to ask God to bless it. It already is blessed because God has given it to us. All we need to do is to be grateful to God for our daily bread and just give Him heartfelt thanks in return.
Even Jesus gave thanks for food as He did at the last supper:
Luk_22:19 (KJV) And he took the bread, gave “thanks”, and gave it unto His disciples…
The food is the blessing…
“God is great, God is good and we thank Him for our food. Amen.”
A Psalm For Thanksgiving
When I was just a youngster, I was a CINO. That is, I was a “Christian In Name Only”. Oh, but I was a very good CINO. I attended Sunday School every week. I went to Vacation Bible School every Summer. I was a member of our church youth group. And I served on the alter with the Pastor during church services.
One Summer at VBS we were given the task of memorizing a Psalm by the end of the week, and that Psalm was Psalm 100. I did it. I memorized it and I was very proud of myself for having done so. However, I did not get into what it was actually saying. It was not until I became a true “born again” disciple of Jesus that this Psalm came alive and made sense in its message.
Psalm 100 is a very good Psalm to use for giving praise and thanks at Thanksgiving. As you read it, take notice of whether or not you see Jesus in its words. If you do not, maybe you should heed Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1: 10 when he said, “give diligence to make your calling and election sure. “ Just to give evidence to that fact that you, too, are a true “born again” disciple of Jesus.
Psalm 100 – A Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving
1. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
To Whom Do You Give Thanks?
When something good happens and you want to give thanks for what it is, who is it to whom you give thanks?
All that we have has not come from our own doing, nor has it come from what ever riches – though little or much – we may have at any given moment in our lives. If, then, what we have that is counted as something for which we give thanks, has not come from our own abilities or wealth, from where has it come? In 1 Timothy 6:17 we read:
“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.”
In this verse, the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us that anything that we have that is considered good and is something in which we can enjoy has not come from anything we have done but from God. Even the wealth, no matter what level of wealth it is, also comes from God through what ever means that He chooses. In Deuteronomy 8: 11-14 & 17-18 we read this:
11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God…
17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…
It is not by your might or power by which you have all that you do. It is by God’s hand that you have what you do for it is from Him that we receive all things to enjoy. And since we receive these gifts from God is it not right to give Him thanks for what we have? In prayers always should we give thanks because it is pleasing to God so to do.
In 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 we read:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
So, give thanks with a grateful heart, for all good things come from God and it is to God to Whom we should give thanks. Even if you are not a child of God, that is a disciple of Jesus – one who is called a Christian – you should also give thanks for God brings good on all people. However, if you want to feel the full “love” of God, to understand, know and be given forgiveness for our sins so that we can experience the love of God personally then you must become a child of God. Otherwise, you may receive from God but, without becoming a child of God, you will never know the why of God through His love.
In 1 John 3: 1 we read:
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
You may not be a child of God and you still may want to give God thanks, but what good is it to do so without knowing the love of God? As a child of God you can give thanks with love to the one who loves you as being one of His children. One who has believed in His Son Jesus and has submitted to Him not only as Lord but has received Him as Savior; being forgiven for your sins and given welcome access to knowing the love of God. Only then will you be able to know what manner of love God has bestowed upon you.
This then is the answer to the question of “To Whom Do You Give Thanks?” It is to God to whom we should give thanks. To God be the glory…
To Whom Do We Give Thanks?
In 1621 the Pilgrims gave Thanks for their first harvest in the New World. The Thanksgiving celebration lasted 3 days and was attended by both the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. It was a time of thanksgiving, prayer and for praising God for making it through the first Winter and for the bounty of the harvest.
Then, in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
It is plain to see that it is to God that we are to give thanks for the many blessings that we have received over the past year. A good way of showing how to give thanks is shown in Psalm 100, as read from the 1599 Geneva Bible which was one of at least two translations that came over on the Mayflower with the Pilgrims. Psalm 100 reads as follows:
A Psalm of praise.
1 Sing ye loud unto the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyfulness.
3 Know ye that even the Lord is God; he hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with praise, and into his courts with rejoicing: praise him and bless his Name.
5 For the Lord is good: his mercy is everlasting, and his truth is from generation to generation.
Of course, unless you are a Christian, none of this will have any meaning for you. You are not named among His people and you are not a sheep in His flock. Only by believing on Jesus and bowing before Him, and confessing that He is Lord, will God accept your thanksgiving and praise. For only a Christian can enter into the gates of Heaven with praise and into the courts of God with rejoicing. Only from His children will God accept praise and thanksgiving.
Won’t you become a child of God today? If you will but confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead will you have been saved by the hand of the Almighty God. Only then will your praise and thanksgiving be meaningful to God.
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