By Brenda Black
“We often forget the Source from which the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies come...No human wisdom hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God...I therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States...to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” – Abraham Lincoln
Political correctness will tolerate a “God bless you” for there are many adherents to generic gods categorized and defined by the men who claim them. But the God of the universe to whom Abraham Lincoln gives credit is more than a man made entity worshiped when convenient. This God of our nation's history and this God of our very existence is the Father of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. The Source of our salvation and the giver of all things. He is Christ the Lord and Redeemer. This God that answers to no other is Almighty and omniscient. He is holy and just, righteous and perfect. The “Source from which the blessings...come” is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This God of blessing is Jesus.
“No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'
“And he says in another place, 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'
“During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:4-10)
Though perfected in human form through suffering, Jesus already existed in the beginning. You see, God took His only Son, the second slice of His own identity and rendered a flesh-covered offering of Himself for the sake of humanity.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it...He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husbands' will, but born of God.
“The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14)
As Lincoln said, “No human wisdom hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.” And as the 16th President of the United States implored the citizens of this great nation to give thanks, I exhort this generation to do the same. Go back to the Source! Remember the Savior! Give Thanks to the Father!
Thanksgiving is not a generic holiday to celebrate false gods and acknowledge all religions. It is a day set apart to worship and revere the One True God who created all we have, provides all we need and loved us to death on the cross by giving up all of Himself. We worship One who conquered enemies in the spiritual realm and enemies on the earth that we might be blessed.
God alone deserves our thanks.
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