Canadians recently celebrated Thanksgiving, while Americans will be celebrating it later this month. Does your country have a specific day for giving thanks?

I stood shivering at the tram station in the heart of my new city, snowflakes falling faster and faster. If I missed the last tram for the night, I would face a ten mile walk home in a blizzard. The street signs read a language I didn't yet recognize, let alone comprehend. The sun had set, disorienting me to landmarks that might offer a small idea of where I stood. The empty cobblestone streets echoed silence. I sank onto the frozen bench and pulled my scarf to cover my face. I was utterly alone in a foreign city, with no map, no language skills, and no friends. An inaudible prayer escaped my lips, “Help.” 

With little effort we each can likely recall similar moments of isolation and difficulty when we lift tear stained faces and cry, “Help.”  Maybe a financial crisis, a broken marriage, a wayward child, an aging parent, a horrendous job, or unwavering depression. The feeling that help isn’t coming anytime soon can overwhelm us. The temptation to focus on our surroundings and circumstances invades our minds. 

At the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln formally scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November. He implored all U.S. Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation” (History of Thanksgiving).

With Thanksgiving just 17 days away, families and friends are making preparations for food, festivities, and football. We excel at making external preparations. But are we preparing internally for Thanksgiving? Are our hearts ready to give thanks?

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With His mission to show us God the Father and to make a New Covenant for us completed, Jesus the God-Man is then revealed for who He is - our Mediator, Great High Priest of Priests,  King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! (1 Timothy 2:5. Revelation 1:10-18;19:16). He is robed in the garment of the Great High Priest, appearing as God was described in the Old Covenant (Ezekiel 1:27;8:2). That is, in the fiery beauty of Holiness!

Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. (Hebrews 4:14 NET)

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When my husband and I would visit my parents, we liked to take bets about how long it would before my Dad would bring up the subject of the driverless car. After all, he was a transportation engineer for more than 3 decades, so he couldn’t help himself. It was fun for us to exchange knowing glances when the conversation really picked up steam, and Dad never disappointed. 

Genesis 15:7-21
Time: Between 2081–2080 b.c.
Place: Canaan
 
Lesson Aim: To recognize that faith is a journey with God.
 
Introduction
 
Bob remembers traveling as a child with his father, a regional salesman, to visit accounts throughout southern Illinois. “On those trips, my dad relied as much on his datebook as he did his map,” Bob says. (This was decades before the arrival of smartphones and tablet devices.)
 

While posing for a photo with some female friends at a recent professional event, a colleague announced how well-endowed we are. After my jaw dropped, one of his cronies scuttled over to assure us his friend didn’t mean anything bad by the comment—that he meant it as a compliment. Well, 1962 called. They want their ideology back. Because reducing a colleague down to body parts is the opposite of a compliment. Furthermore, a thought ought to remain inside the confines of one’s head, or else it ceases being a thought.

“I love the Father. I love His Holy Son. I love the Spirit. I love the three in One. For He created me, redeemed and set me free. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him."

I was unaware, while singing this catchy song in the form of a “round” growing up, that I was singing some very important words about a deep theological reality. Nor did I know that many years later this profound, but simple song would surface as an opening sentence for a blog on The Trinity.

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And a man high in the government purchased him and brought Joseph to his large estate. And Joseph lived in the house of his boss. There Joseph found favor in the boss’s eyes and became his attendant. The boss put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to Joseph’s care everything he owned. From the time the boss put Joseph in charge of his household and of all that he owned, everything—in and outside of the house—prospered because of Joseph. So the boss promoted Joseph; everything except what the boss ate was entrusted to Joseph’s care.