Thanksgiving » PWOC International Blog

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Nov 252011

Oh I rejoice in the Lord. The Lord is mighty and He is Good! It is Thanksgiving. A time to Praise and give thanks to the almighty God for All that He has done. William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving for the colonists. George Washington declare the Holiday in 1789. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, looking for ways to unite the nation, Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed the last Thursday in November in 1863.

I thank my God that we to this day have a right to stand and thank and praise and give honor to the one and only true God. Who loves us intimately and created us to praise Him. So many Psalms talk about praise and giving thanks. My favorite is Psalm 100:

Make a Joyful noise to the Lord all you lands! Serve the Lord with Gladness! come before his presence with singing! Know(perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He who has made us, not we ourselves (and we are His)! We are his people and the sheep of His pasture, (Eph2:10) Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness and truth endure to all generations.

Friends, I pray that today you all will take time to worship our Lord and King. It says to not only come into the gate but come into the courts. Go to the inner court of your being and spring up that well that so desires to say “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within Me!” We all have things to be thankful for. Even if you are going through a trial, He says to count is all Joy. Meaning that even if we are going through a valley, there is still reason to praise Him. Job did not give up. He continued to have faith in God. Continue to be thankful this season. Don’t allow the enemy to kill steel and destroy. Rise up and say, “I will praise and be thankful today!” So let’s rise up as a nation and give thanks to our God for all the things He has done and things that He will be doing for us in our lives. We serve a faithful God, a God that will never leave us nor forsake us. Yet how many times have we not been faithful to him or obeyed his ways. He is there saying, come on home. He loves to be intimate with you. Take time to worship with your loved ones.

Tomorrow we will start a new tradition in our Home. We are going to say things that we are thankful for every hour on the hour. To remember the things that the Lord has done in our lives. To have a continual attitude of praise throughout our day as we hang Christmas lights. Make a new tradition this year to come up higher to put our Lord First place in all things. May your day be filled with the Lord and all the blessings of our Heavenly Father that He has bestowed on you in your life time. Blessings my friends! Remember, Jesus is Lord. Always will be. Rejoice and be Glad!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jane Ahl

Happy Thanksgiving

News & Announcements

Nov 252010

Thanksgiving Activities -- Anytime!

Devotions

Nov 222010

In the spirit of keeping things light and simple this month, I decided to share a few ideas that can be implemented any time of year with seasonal variations. The point here is to spend time on what really matters – the people in our lives – and avoid falling into the trap of busyness and perfection. Remember Mary and Martha? Let’s try to be more like Mary this holiday season.

Gratitude Game for You: Get out a pad of paper and a colorful felt-tip marker. Set a timer for two minutes. Make a list of things you’re grateful for before the timer goes off. Post it where your family can see it. Let it be a testimony of God’s goodness during this Thanksgiving season and beyond.

Gratitude Game for Your Kids or Your Whole Family: Follow instructions above. The person who has written the most gratitude items in two minutes is the winner and gets a prize. If I were the winner in your house I might want a King-Sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pack or Snickers or Butterfinger . . . yum! If you want to take the winner out for a special treat I highly recommend Dairy Queen’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (or other flavors). Then again, there’s always Baskin Robbins or Cold Stone. Whatever works for the winner in your house!

Place Card Gratitude: Use card stock about the size of a 4×6 card in colors of your choosing. Fold them in half and write names of those who will be present on the outer side. Or decorate them without names. Write a short scripture verse that expresses thanks to the Lord on the inner side for each person to read. The host starts and each person takes a turn. If you have a more diverse crowd, put a number on the inner side of each place card instead. Before or after the meal is served, have everyone look to see what their number is. The person with number one gets to begin the gratitude chain by sharing something they’re grateful for. Go around the table(s) in order.

Nature Walk for Treasures: This is a fun activity with kids and/or friends. Take a nature walk and pay attention to God’s creation. Notice the detail in everything you see this time of year at your location. Here in Colorado the evergreens are dropping cones. We might do a pine cone hunt in our neighborhood. What can you and your kids hunt for? As you collect your treasures, talk about how the Lord has provided for you this year.

Christmas Wreath: Assemble all your nature treasures and make a Christmas wreath that represents your part of the U.S. or the world. Attach a ribbon with your family name, the date, and the installation name and location. If needed, get extra supplies at Hobby Lobby or your local craft store.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Our Father,

Giver of life and breath, we are grateful for your presence. Let us sense it more powerfully this Thanksgiving season. Give a special touch of love, peace, and comfort to our military families who have suffered loss. Make provision in a special way to those who are enduring financial hardship. Let your mercy be felt by those who struggle with deep grief, heartache, and pain of all kinds. Show your goodness and faithfulness to those who wrestle with abuse and betrayal. Draw near to those who feel a wide chasm between themselves and you. Bless with your unconditional love and acceptance those who feel rejected and abandoned.

We are your people; people who desperately need you. Illuminate our lives with your grace and your beauty. Enable us to know you in ever more tangible ways. We gratefully present these requests to you anticipating what you will do on our behalf. Amen.

Peace in the Crazies

Real life stories, Testimonies

Jan 152010

Submitted by: Mary Heller, Spiritual Life VP, Ft. Meade, MD

We have all had one of “those” days. I tend to have 3-7 of them in any given week! While in conversation on a phone, balanced between my ear and my shoulder, I’m answering an email and a Facebook instant-message (IM) on the computer – all while finishing a conversation with someone at the front door. The baby begins repeating the word “Up!” while proceeding to climb on me (not only on to my lap – Oh, no!) She is progressing up my chest. Then I smell… IT! (ewww) Meanwhile the cell phone begins ‘ringing’ my favorite song – rather LOUDLY. Oh, the poor person trying to have a civil conversation with me over the phone! I ask my older son to take my preschooler down from the chandelier, as I continue trying to talk on both phones at the same time. The newest call is the school nurse telling me that my younger son is in her office and his diabetes measure is not good again; still. That finished, I return my attention to the baby as I don the gas mask & giant rubber gloves so as to attack the diaper situation. Suddenly, I realize that I can’t find the dresser “key” to open the drawers and get fresh – very needed – baby clothes out. I sound quite a bit like Darth Vader (talking through the gas mask) as I continue conversing with my oh-so-patient PWOC sister on the phone. Then the fire alarm goes off – darn toaster oven! Glancing at the clock, I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry as I notice the time: 9am.

Exaggeration? Ok, maybe my daughter swinging from the chandelier is a slight (yes, slight) exaggeration. She hasn’t gotten much higher than the top drawer of the tallest dresser. Later the same day I note (on my Facebook page on the internet) that I need to write this devotion and am encouraged when someone says, “You should write about God’s peace in the midst of the crazies. You’d be really good at that.” Really? Wow. You go God!

So what is peace? Peace, in Hebrew, meant “Wholeness, health, safety.” Interesting. I offer a humorous glimpse into my life knowing, however, that not all of life’s crazies are funny. There are a variety of crazies being experienced all around us. There are family crazies; health crazies; stage of life crazies; seasonal crazies; military crazies. These crazies do not leave us feeling whole, healthy or safe in the moment.

Paul, the self-described apostle to the gentiles said, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9)

He started with “rejoice,” which in the Greek includes ‘to be full of cheer, that is, calmly happy or well off’. Wow. Paul starts us off with a calm chorus of the great old hymn “It is Well With My Soul.” This rejoicing is not a wonderful emotional feeling. It is a calm, quiet, well state of being. Next he tells us not to worry. Paul’s personal experience with crazy suffering through beatings, starvation and imprisonment; offers three ways to avoid worry.

First, prayer. Tell God. Tell Jesus. Jesus “is a man of sorrow; a man well acquainted with grief.” (Is 53:3a) He understands. He cares. He wants to hear.

Secondly, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving looks back to what God did before. Thanksgiving says, “I have seen God provide and do this, that and the other thing. Therefore, I know that He will hear my prayer and will help with this situation.” Thanksgiving states what we’ve seen – to find vision to move forward. Finally, Paul breaks it down in no uncertain terms: focus. Peace comes in “taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5) by keeping our focus on the positive and dwelling on these things. In this focus is thanksgiving that says, “Even if I feel broken, unhealthy or unsafe in this moment I have hope. I know that the God of Peace is with me and will make me whole, healthy and safe- though I don’t see or feel it now.”

So, whatever crazies you’re dealing with right now – be it illness, deployment, relocation, retirement, new family member, finances, parenting, marriage or just trying not to accidentally pour the coffee into the sippie cup while flavoring your coffee with formula – remember: Peace is not a feeling. Peace is a choice. Peace is a series of decisions resulting in a state of being. Peace is a hope that looks back to a man suffering on a cross, hearing Him say, “It is finished,” just before committing His spirit into the Father’s hand; beside us to see the God of Peace who walks with us; ahead to see peace fulfilled.

GIVE THANKS!

Devotions, Real life stories

Nov 252009

Turkey. Parades. Mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes. Stuffing. Cornbread dressing. Pies. That green bean casserole you either love or hate. Football games. Family times around the table, the yard, the TV, the fireplace. What is your definition of this American holiday we know as Thanksgiving? My children love the Peanuts version where the kids are sitting around the ping pong table, eating pretzels, popcorn and toast.

As far back as the early 1600s, white settlers and Native Americans would feast and celebrate and be thankful with the bountiful crops of the year. Or so that’s what we hear and think of when Thanksgiving rolls around the fourth Thursday of each November.

In thinking about giving thanks, I am reminded of what Jesus did “on the night He was betrayed.” Matthew’s Gospel says, “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.’” (26:26-28)

In both this account about the Lord’s Supper and in Matthew 15 about the loaves and the fish, the word “thanks” is used to mean “being thankful.” The word is actually eucharist. The next time you approach the Lord’s Table to commemorate His death and resurrection, remember the words of Jesus Himself.

We ask a blessing before we eat a meal around the table. We give thanks. I pray these traditions are more than just what is common to do; I pray they are heartfelt prayers of thanks for the new life God has given you in His Son – and for the abundance of blessings God has given you. By remembering where we come from as a physical nation and a spiritual nation, we can’t help but be thankful. God bless you and yours on this special day. And if you are apart from your loved one due to deployment or other separation, I pray He pours out an extra measure of His grace to comfort you and give you strength.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Thanksgiving, Faith and Freedom

Devotions

Nov 232009

Have you ever thought about passing along a legacy of faith? Or what this means to our culture?

William Bradford, one of the original Pilgrims, wrote Of Plymouth Plantation. In this easy-to read history, you see examples over and over again of the Pilgrim’s faith. They stood on the biblical fact that salvation is by faith alone placed in Christ alone. Salvation does not come out of the empty traditions of men or by works. In Europe, they suffered much persecution as a result of their faith. When they arrived at the New World, they encountered great trials and near starvation. They looked not on their suffering, losses, and persecution, but lifted their eyes to the heavens on behalf of their country and quieted their spirits. Their Christian behavior left a deep impression on the minds of many. Their peace, courage, and shining testimony came out of a faith already present and a repeated commitment to look to Christ and God’s word.

If you are not familiar with this portion of history, it is partly because within this century there has been an overt attempt to strip the historical record of any mention of God and His providential dealing in the matters of nations and peoples. Today we are seeing different organizations pressure our leaders to remove God’s name from money, buildings, textbooks, and end public prayers. The example of the Pilgrims sets the record straight that God was and still is involved in the affairs of America. Without remembering our true roots, it is inevitable that we as Americans will lose sight of our original call from God.

Judges 2:7 reads “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua who had seen all the great work the Lord had done for Israel…and there arose another generation after them who did not know the work that He had done for Israel. And the children did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baal.” They forgot their history!

This Thanksgiving, may we also look to Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, seeing the incredibly compassionate, merciful, just, loving Father God behind this whole free gift of Salvation – giving this awesome legacy to our children, husbands and whoever will hear and believe by God’s amazing grace. And don’t forget the Pilgrims and their example as you celebrate. The spiritual wellbeing of future generations depends on it.

Prayer Points November 22-28

Prayer Points

Nov 202009

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

As we celebrate the anniversary of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving to God, we remember their passionate pursuit of freedom to worship and freedom from tyranny. We have enjoyed the fruit of their sacrifice in our nation.

Father God,

We thank you for the godly heritage of our nation. Please forgive us for using our freedom as an excuse to do unholy things. We throw these weights off and run toward you. Jesus, you are our goal and our prize! Thank you for the incredible strength you showed in faithfully going to the cross. Thank you for your endurance, your humility, and your authority. Strengthen our hearts for the challenges ahead. Father, wash away our weariness. Remove hope deferred. Help us to finish well and strong like You did. Teach us to walk the paths of life, never giving up!

We honor you and we love you. In Jesus Name, Amen.

PWOC International Blog

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Activities -- Anytime!

Peace in the Crazies

GIVE THANKS!

Thanksgiving, Faith and Freedom

Prayer Points November 22-28

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