A BIG meal of little thanks in a long season of thanklessness.

Giving Thanks to the LORD

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

1 Chronicles 16: KJV – v.34

16:34 הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה

We know the concept well — yāḏâ Yᵊhōvâ, from the Hebrew. This instance from a Psalm of David given to the priest for worship before the Ark of the Covenant. It is sometimes translated as ‘confess‘ (rather than ‘thank‘) the LORD.

“THANK GOD,” we might proclaim as a call to worship, at the table of sacrifice or in the place of the feast.

We also find Biblical lessons of thanks where God is involved but the ‘thanks‘ points to another or some provision by God.

The New English Translation uses a negative application of thanks referring to original sin.

But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:17 NET

What has fallen away from the grace of God on YOUR account?

‘When He had given thanks..’

Our New Testament images of ‘thanks-giving’ mostly recall meals and feasts.

And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.

Mark 8:6 KJV

Some will recognize the Greek root from which we derive this:

εὐχαριστέω – eucharisteō

from G2170; to be grateful, i.e. (actively) to express gratitude (towards); specially, to say grace at a meal:

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:

.. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

Gospel of Luke 17:19-20 KJV

Don't miss that feasts of the Lord God (by various names and in every season) ought to glorify God as WE give thanks for His provision, salvation and mercy.

Recent Thanksgivings of the Common Era

Any who have READ my Thanks-giving posts of previous years may observe that occasionally I am haunted by ghosts of holidays past. Indeed most recently I have chosen to neglect Thanksgiving more than Christmas.

Dr. Seuss
Scrooge, Santa & the Grinch in days of sadness

“Watch for the coming ‘blitzchris’ of ads and marketing this week leading with holiday headlines of Thanksgiving and Christmas. From television to social media, mega-marketing messages will be unavoidable and ruthlessly relentless.

Thanks-taking

What is YOUR take away from the Thanksgiving and Christmas ‘holidays‘ of the Common Era?

It all started when the ‘back to school’ specials came off the shelf.

BLACK FRIDAY and beyond…

Guess who I found on my own site when I searched for Santa?

Thanks-giving in the days of our Lord by the ghosts of our Christmases past were long-ago lured into hurried holidays of Thanks-TAKING easily consumed in a ‘joy OF the world.’

Taking it all in with OUR own spin

In order not to offend the inner-human insensitivities of the pagan purveyors of nature-ruled consumers seated at our 'Thanksgiving' table, 
perhaps tolerance of our fleshly excesses must rule over traditional manners of this Thanks-taking family feast. 

(Just for a day, of course, NO thanks-giving to God AND especially NO glory to JESUS Christ, even by acknowledgement of God's only Son in OUR prayer of 'thanks.' 

Thanks-taking in 2023 of the Common Era

Christ Jesus (of the former years of our Lord) after all, has no place at the table of sinners here briefly today to give thanks for all of our taking. AND

Every American at the table this Thanksgiving must seek freedom FROM religion (rather than becoming a Pilgrim fleeing persecution for the faith of our forefathers).

Please note intended ironic contrast of Thanksgivings ‘in the years of our Lord’ AND in the ‘Common Era’ of these recent years.

WE are no Dickens or Spurgeon of the A.D. 19th century observing the hopeless tide of poor children begging blessing just beyond the churches of London.

WE are no A.D. 18th c. Washington (an Anglican), Adams (a Congregationalist), Witherspoon (a Presbyterian signer of the Declaration of Independence) or Jonathon Edwards, President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) who famously preached “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”

Source above: The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity

SINNERS IN THE HANDS
OF AN ANGRY GOD
“Their foot shall slide in due time” (Deut. xxxii. 35)

AND certainly WE no longer reside in the New World of our forefathers but thank each other for our forefathers of REASON and idolic mother NATURE for the feast of this day.

Shall WE thank God for our Thanksgiving?

Common Era culture including many 'christians' have eliminated our previous acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ as the center-line of our world's history. 

Before Christ NOW becomes B.C.E. (meaning INSTEAD of Christ). 

Before Thanksgiving became 'Thanks-taking' Before Christmas 
(Make that: Before the holiday crowds).

Yet B.C.E. perhaps most appropriately refers to the centuries of these last days when Christians could thank God at Thanksgiving, that is:
+ IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD = centuries A.D. 1- A.D. 20.

A previous Thanksgiving

Was it A.D. 2014 or 2014 C.E.?

You decide from the link above or brief excerpts below.

• Who does the heathen, the unbeliever, thank?
  • Do you thank yourself for what you have given yourself this past year… for your successes in this brief moment of your mortal time in human flesh? … Why would you have gratitude to any, if you have not gratitude to God?
• 2 Samuel 22
  • Is there any question who David is thanking for his life – for his deliverance from Saul? David thanks God. David praises the Lord for saving him. David takes refuge in God. Do you?

Today, on this Thanks-giving of the Common Era, I praise our Lord God; the Father, Son and Holy Sprit Who IS, and Was and Will BE worthy of our continual THANKS and praise.

And I thank YOU, dear reader and student of Scripture, for sharing your thanks with others of this Common Era in these Thanks-taking last days of 2023.

Roger

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel