Dear Friends of the Lake Region, HAPPY THANKGIVING! We will celebrate our national day of thanksgiving on November 24 in the USA. I am thankful that we have our Newspaper, the Devils Lake Journal, that we pastors of the area can communicate our religious message each week. Thanks to Kathy Svidal, Louise Oleson, and all our “Local Hero’s” who saved our Newspaper from disappearing from our City! WE ARE THANKFUL FOR YOU AND YOUR STAFF!
In a more general way I would suggest to you to think about these 4 points about our National Holiday of Thanksgiving: 1) for the blessings and protection God has given us. 2) for our democratic government and the prosperity, we enjoy 3) for our freedom of speech and religion, and 4) for the generosity and good will of our people.
The common History of thanksgiving speaks about the winter of 1610 at Jamestown, Virginia, had reduced a group of 409 settlers from England to 60. The survivors had prayed for help without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a thanksgiving prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God.
Some years later, President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as a formal holiday to express our thanks to God. On November 26, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill declaring that Thanksgiving should be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of each November.
Let us be thankful and let us learn to express our thanks daily:1) To God for His innumerable blessings, providential care and protection and for the unconditional pardon given to us for our daily sins and failures. 2) To our parents – living and dead – for the gift of life and Christian training and the good example they have given to us. 3) To our relatives and friends for their loving support, timely help and encouragement. 4) To our pastors, teachers, doctors, soldiers, police and government officers for the sincere service they render us.
My love and prayers go out to each of you on this November 24, as we celebrate this Holiday. Please do your best to hold Christmas off until we at least celebrate Thanksgiving! Let us be gratefulness to God, and prayer for our World….those in Devils Lake and beyond for God’s peace to abound. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
