Let Us Give Thanks

On Thanksgiving Day, 1621, the pilgrims gathered with the Indians and their chief Massassoit to celebrate the harvest that would keep them alive as a colony. From their copy of the King James Bible, published just  ten years before, they might well have read or sung together:

Let the people praise thee O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him (Psalm 67:5-7).

To the pilgrims this really was “the ends of the earth.” Several of the Native Americans, notably Squanto, were already believers in Christ; the pilgrims hoped that the good news of Jesus would indeed bear fruit in the New World. 

Today there is an outpouring of thanks to God all over the world as more and more people come to trust in Christ.  The Thanksgiving Psalm, Psalm 67, begins like this:

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. (Psalm 67:1, 2)

God shines his face on us in the face of Jesus. We don’t see him now with our eyes, but we know his love, we know his smile.  God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). God has blessed us so that the life giving knowledge of Jesus Christ may fill the earth.  It’s happening.

For instance, the Jesus Film (by Campus Crusade for Christ) is the most widely viewed film ever made – bigger than “Titanic” or “Gone with the Wind.”  In 1991 the Soviet Union broke up and in Ulan Bataar, the capital of the Buddhist nation of Mongolia, the first international film ever to be shown was the Jesus Film.  The Bible is the most widely bought, widely read book in the world, and has been translated into far more languages than any other.  

This Thanksgiving, as we give thanks for God’s blessing on our family and friends, let us also give thanks for the worldwide spread of the Gospel and let us pray for its continued growth. And let us thank God for what he is doing in Irvington Presbyterian Church at this season.

Warmly and thankfully in Christ,

Pastor Michael