The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
For a long time it has been the custom of our nation, following the harvest season, to turn to God and observe a day of thanksgiving; to set aside a day to give thanks to the one from whom all our blessings and benefits are derived. The blessings of His grace are as numerous as the sands of the sea and His mercy endureth forever. We need to be faithful to offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Following the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Governor Bradford originated the first Thanksgiving Day. On that desolate shore, shivering from the icy winds with sleet and rain pelting them they gave thanks to God who guided them to this land of their choice. With the weather-beaten vessel left behind, they knelt and thanked God for bringing them to a land where they would have freedom to worship in their own way without fear of intimidation. In spite of all their struggles and suffering they paused to give thanks to God.
How we need to follow the example of our ancestors and give thanks to God even in the midst of this tumultuous day.
We are living in perilous times. Alarming conditions seems to abound on every hand. War, violence, hunger, strife, political upheaval, economic woes and many other distressing conditions are signs that man has lost his way. Civilization seems to be on the verge of committing suicide as its leaders have lost all respect for human rights and lives. Christians are to be the salt and light of this paganistic world but it seems as though the salt has lost its savor and the light is hidden under a bushel. As a result we are witnessing a dark age that is decaying and putrifying before our very eyes. Modern liberalism and worldliness in the ranks of the church are weakening its foundation.
In reading God’s Word one finds that some of the most precious statements of praise and thanksgiving voiced by the saints of God occurred in the midst of great trials and tribulations. They are examples for us to follow today. As we face days of uncertainty, darkness and change, it is comforting to know that God changes not, that He ever is the same. The plan also, that He designed for this moral universe will be carried out to its final fulfillment. “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him..” (Ephesians 1: 9-10) The changeless and consummate will of God will come to final fruition in spite of all the enemies that war against it.
Faith in the changeless Christ gives us courage and confidence as we face the unknown future with an assurance that righteousness will ultimately prevail. As we are faithful to walk with Christ nothing can assail us because his principles and plans are the enduring qualities of life. They are as eternal and changeless as Christ. Long ago Jesus disclosed a great truth to John while in the isle called Patmos. He said, “fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.” He is not only the first cause and the fixed center, He will be the final conclusion of everything. The last word will not be coming forth from any potentate, dignitary, dictator, or politician. Jesus spoke the first word and He will speak the final word in this universe. He, one day, will fold this world up like an out-moded garment and preach its funeral oration. He’ll grab the pendulum of the clock of time and time will be no more but “thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” (Hebrews 1: 10-12) As I once heard Dr. T. W. Willingham say, “that gives me great calm as we face the coming crisis.”
For this we should not only take heart but give thanks. As the Psalmist said, O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever……I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”………The Psalmist further wrote, “I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live…” Then with great joy for His manifests blessings the Psalmist cries, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?….I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”
While celebrating this great day of the year let us remember that thanksgiving that does not translate itself into thanks-living, will make a mere mockery of this sacred day of the year. Let us heed the admonition of the Apostle Paul who writes in I Thessalonians 5: 18, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
What is Man? Heb. (2:6)
The inquiry of my text is simply the reiteration of the question that David asks in Psalms 8:4 as he beheld the creative work of God. In Isaiah 40: 12 the prophet records His wondrous work when he writes, “He hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” He created it all with a spoken word.
Following the creation of the heavens and earth and all that was therein God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…….and the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” God crowned man with glory and honor and gave him dominion over all that had been created.
The tragedy of the fall occurred because while man was given mastery over all creation he never learned to master himself. Through disobedience he forfeited his honor and dominion; sin and death passed upon the entire human race. However, God had already planned for such an occurrence and had instituted His plan of salvation that culminated in the death and resurrection of our Savior. This great act of sacrificial love should cause all mankind to ask the question, “what is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
1. God’s consideration of man is certainly not because of the worth of the chemical substance and make-up of the human body. This could be purchased at a drugstore with just a few dollars.
2. Neither is it because God requires the energy of the machine (body) to run His vast universe. As a machine the body can generate about 1/10 of a horse power and maintain that level for 8 hours. Man himself is able to develop a machine that can do more work in an hour than he can in a month.
One behaviorist said that as an automobile is a machine that does one type of work, man is a machine that does another sort of work. He failed to understand that while man can generate a measure of energy, unlike a man-made machine, man is the director and driver of his machine because he is mind as well as matter. While an automobile is self-moving it is not self-steering.
Man was the crown of creation and unlike the rest of creation he was created to share God’s name and bear His image. He was given an eternal spirit and a will that gave him the power of self-determination. It was the misuse of this power that de-faced the God image in man. Through the sin of covetousness man wanted to be god and life was no longer centered around God. Man became self-centered. Like the rich farmer of Luke 12 he became small and impoverished thinking only of self, the ego ‘I’. The rich farmer said, “I have much goods laid up for many years…” He thought only of his own selfish welfare and in terms of ‘many years’ but God said, ‘this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
What is man? He is an eternal spirit and as such he is larger than the world in which he dwells. The soul of man is so vast that if you drop the whole world with all of its power, pleasure, and possessions into it, it would rattle around with resounding emptiness. Proverbs 16: 32 says, “He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”
C. S. Lewis said that man is made for something more than this world can afford him. When he finds a restlessness within that this world cannot satisfy he will then realize that he was made for another world. God’s preventing grace awakens within man an innate hunger for something beyond himself and the world. This is evidence that traces of that created image remains in fallen man and it is to this that the Holy Spirit makes His appeal to draw man back to Himself. God is not only mindful of man but visits him and puts within him the urge to come back to Him. When the quest for God becomes intense and conditions are met, God enables man through the hand of faith to reach into the sacred death of our Savior and appropriate the provisions of salvation.
“What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visits him?” Man is God’s master piece in creation and when, through disobedience, man became alienated from the Creator, Jesus came “to give His life a ransom for all.” When we think of the infinite price that God paid for man’s redemption we are made to realize the value and worth of one soul from God’s perspective. If God so loved us that He paid such a price for our salvation it would seem that we who are recipients of His grace and mercy should share that same love and compassion for our lost world.
When the Psalmist “considered the heavens, the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained,” he was made to realize that it all paled into mere insignificance when compared to MAN, God’s crown of creation and the supreme object of His love in redemption
