By Liaf
I hope that our readers stumbled across this message by the time Thanksgiving comes. We know this message is out on the late side since Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday. Even if not, the message is relevant for all times of the year and focuses on the real source of our blessings. This will be short, but weighty in truth.
We oftentimes go to church and are told to remember our blessings, both material and spiritual, even in the midst of hard times. If you are familiar with this site, you already know why we have these great sources of physical and spiritual blessings. The reason is that we are the children of Abraham and as such, 1. God had promises to keep to Abraham's posterity for the sake of his faith, and 2. God later promised to the Israelites that in keeping of His Law they would be richly blessed by the following example verses in parts of Deuteronomy 28:
"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth..... The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them...."
Now there are some (so-called) Christians who believed I was overly materialistic and proud in our 2003 message "Being Overly Blessed." I stand by what I said, for to lend to many nations and not borrow at least presupposes that the nation as a whole is rich and mighty. By extension, the people themselves, at least a good portion, must also be that way given that in order to lend it comes out of the pockets of each and every one of us. Do we agree on that much? If so, then it stands to reason that God wants us individually blessed with each of us to possess a land allotment of our own if we are partakers with Israel. Makes logical sense to me. Otherwise, if we are all poor, then how can we as a nation lend to others? It makes no sense. And these promises are the core foundation that is the true thanksgiving even when "hard times" befalls many of us. I held onto my belief that God richly blessed us and will continue to do so, both physically and spiritually, even when hard times fell on me. Believe me, it is no fun to work twice as hard for half the pay (especially when you are getting old like me). I want to share a private passage from my "CLOG" (computer log) that I use to express my feelings. You are all privileged today as I rarely do this. But it will drive my point home. The setting is the Memorial Day picnic I had here at my residence. The children in our family played on the spacious land while the adults enjoyed our cookout (Here's an excerpt):
It was nice watching the children play in the sun on our spacious land--- this place is like Eden with fields, a newly planted cornfield next to ours, our garden and many trees in the background.(Ezekiel 36:35) But that's another heresy of mine, I guess. That fact that I too am part of the birthright clan and as such my good fortune is prophesied in the Bible. Christians hate me for preaching this, and non-Christian (cheap employer types) probably do not think I deserve this or should have it, and paranoid government can't for the life of themselves figure how a common guy could get so rich. They must be thinking that I deserve an investigation (just because they are not smart enough to have it all, I must not be either). But ALL THREE have one serious defect in common. They believe, even subconsciously, that they had something to do with why they have what they have. If they are "better" than me, then why do I have so much more? they probably are thinking. I, on the other hand, believe it's God's grace and promises--- not myself. Yet when I preach this and praise God, they call me "proud" and I should be humble! The gall! A person can't judge something that they themselves are not. Therefore, since I give God the glory, but yet they call me "proud" and are totally turning deliberate deaf ears to the praise I give, I can only come to one conclusion---- they must be projecting their anger, hatred and pride into my words of praise and twisting them to be corrupt. But God says the children should play. We ate plentifully of Glen's good burgers and others' buffet style contributions.
If you notice, there is a bittersweet tone to my personal CLOG entry. There were hard times, and I was feeling the sting, but I REFUSED to believe that God would not bless us just because of the apparent circumstances. That's why I said in the second last sentence, "God says the children should play." That is an openly defiant statement and challenge to all the powers that say I am wrong. The last sentence showed our nonchalance as we ate without a care.
And that's the true spirit of Thanksgiving: to praise God even in hard times and when there are hard times to DARE to believe that God will keep you going in spite of what others feel you should or should not have. Don't let those hell-bound types discourage you! Keep up the faith. And oh, if things are good now, just wait until the Kingdom comes!