For Thanksgiving Day - Thank is a Transitive Verb

Ira Stoll has written and excellent editorial this morning in the Wall Street Journal regarding the historical development of Thanksgiving Day. I quote just a portion:

In 1778, a Thanksgiving resolution drafted by Adams was approved by Congress on Nov. 3, setting aside Wednesday, Dec. 30, as a day of public thanksgiving and praise, "It having pleased Almighty God through the Course of the present year, to bestow great and manifold Mercies on the People of these United States."

The entire editorial can be seen at the following link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765806822958269.html.

Let us remember that “thank” is a transitive verb. It always carries with it a direct object. We should always be thankful to someone or something. The founding fathers understood that our ultimate thanks belonged to Almighty God, our creator and sustainer. We should take this idea to heart. We may be thankful for blessings. We may be thankful to other people. But our ultimate thanks goes to the one who made our blessings and relationships possible, Almighty God the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, and by his Holy Spirit.

Wisdom From Jefferson

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

—Thomas Jefferson (Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 15 February 1791)

Reflections on Ezekiel

My eldest daughter delights in seeing a death and resurrection motif in most everything in life, but especially in literature. Ezekiel is a delight in its description of that motif. We can be delighted and be delightful in our recognition that God was faithful to his word to bring his people back to the Promised Land after the exile. Ezekiel describes a second exodus to the Promised Land and in so doing describes a death of his people and his temple and a resurrection of the same.

The book starts out like most of the other prophets with condemnation for Judah. It is more sever in its detail of the actual devastation brought upon the people and the atrocities inflicted by Babylon due to the closeness of Ezekiel to the actual events. Israel must die and so must the temple be destroyed. The initial portion of the book ends with the description the death of Ezekiel’s wife in which he is commanded not to morn.

The next portion of the book describes a judgment on the nations with a particular focus on Egypt. Much as in the first exodus, Pharaoh must die.

Then in chapter 33, the focus returns to Israel. While it continues its theme of death and destruction initially, the theme shifts at about chapter 36 to resurrection and the design of the new temple in chapter 40. The new design is given at Passover. Passover will be celebrated. 45:11. And water will flow out of the temple. Chapter 47.

God was faithful to his word given in Deuteronomy 28 and 30 to scatter the people and bring them back, to devastate and renew, to kill and make alive. Israel was “born again.” God would live with them once again.

The church is the same. With Christ, God lives with us. We, as individuals and as a community, are also subject to death and resurrection. We must be “born again.” The difference is that Christ promises never to leave us. He will be with us to the end of the age. As we go through individual and corporate trials, we can be sure that although there is a sense of death in what we suffer we will be brought resurrection through those sufferings. We can rejoice in our sufferings then. We can also be sure that God will be faithful to us because He has been faithful to us his people in the past. We can be faithful. This joy gives us motivation to worship and to serve.

Quote of the Day

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives."

—John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756

What Others Think of the Bailout

"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men." --John Adams


"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." --Theodore Roosevelt

A Sea Change In America? I Don't Buy It.

We are now being told that the 2008 Presidential Election signaled a sea change in America. I don’t buy it. For the first reason, I learned very quickly from my days as a lobbyist in Jefferson City, you can never believe what the media tells you regarding the political system. Second, look at our recent history of U.S. Presidents. The only time we have not changed our President’s party after eight years in recent history was after Ronald Reagan. And that was only because he was a wildly popular President. Four additional years of George H.W. Bush gave us William Jefferson Clinton. It seems that every eight years the American people need to change the party of their Presidents. That period can, of course, be shortened for a particularly bad President. Add to these factors that this year the media went to unprecedented levels of bias in reporting, the extreme financial difficulties arising in the country, a particularly weak Republican candidate and the groundbreaking character of this election. I would prefer to wait a year or two and see the electorate’s response to the new policies of our new President. I seem to recall many similar prognostications upon the election of William Jefferson Clinton. It was fascinating to see what happened just two years later.

Wisdom From George Washington

"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn."

—George Washington, letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, September 5, 1789