How do we associate the greatest gift ever given to man with a good time to get together with our family?
I thought Thanksgiving was a good time to look at the family and see why they are so important. Our family, the one we most refer to, is our Earthly family. We live with them, we play with them, we even get angry at them from time to time. However, with the grace that God has given us we can even love them at all times even when we are angry.
What happens if we no longer have a family to go to, or if our family is so far away that we are not able to spend the holiday’s with them. With the age of technology we can converse through Face Book or even a free subscription of Skype if needed. It’s still not the same when you can’t hug your mom or sister, and that is why the right church is so important to each one of us.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians tells us some of the struggles he was going through. To those of you who are not familiar with Paul, he has decided to follow Christ, far from the life he had know before. In order for him to do this he had to leave everyone he knew before behind him . . . Friends and Family. Here is what he says in the 3rd chapter of Ephesians:
8Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
A Prayer for the Ephesians
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
His new family were now going to be the Christian’s. A group of people who were all following the same person (God and his son Jesus).
We may all worship in different ways, we each have a different style that is more comfortable for us. Some of us prefer to have a minister or pastor stand high above us in an extremely formal type of service. Some of us prefer to worship using traditions and symbols to help us remember all that God, Jesus, and the Saints have done for us. Some of us prefer to have a minister or pastor lead us in scriptures that we take home and study further with friends and study groups. And some of us prefer to worship through song and dance.
I know that I have my own personal preference, however I do believe that as long as you worship God the way he has intended, with a group you can call your family you need to do that as well.
I don’t care if you are Catholic, Baptist, Protestant, Methodist, Non-denominational, etc., God will always love you and so will I. You need to find a home that is comfortable and you can call home.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thel First Thanksgiving
In parting with my 25 days of Christmas for a moment I wanted to share this thought I found at History.com
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.
What Was Actually on the Menu?
What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
Did you know that lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu? Learn more...
Seventeenth Century Table Manners:
The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.
More Meat, Less Vegetables
Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrims's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.
The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.
Surprisingly Spicy Cooking
People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.
Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:
The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.
In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns—breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.
What Was Actually on the Menu?
What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
Did you know that lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu? Learn more...
Seventeenth Century Table Manners:
The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.
More Meat, Less Vegetables
Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrims's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.
The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.
Surprisingly Spicy Cooking
People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.
Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:
The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.
In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns—breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Why Choose to Be Politically Incorrect at Christmas?
Good question . . . And my answer is . . . Because I am who I am. You see a long time ago the wisest man I knew (my grandpa) taught me that no matter where you are or who you are with, you need to be yourself.
I know it doesn’t sound very hard, but the older I got the more I realized why he had said that. Grandpa didn’t go to church and I never knew why I just knew that’s the way it was going to be. Grandpa had been raised in the church, his mom and sisters went to church, his brothers even went to church, but not Grandpa. What was the reason?
As I grew older I realized that some people don’t go because they feel like the preacher is picking them out in the sermon and everyone knows he is talking to them. I know from experience that isn’t exactly the way it happens most of the time. There is not a preacher around that knows when some of you are going to darken the doors of the church again if ever. How on Earth then could they pick you out in a sermon and preach to only you. Quite possibly it is not the preacher at all, but the Holy spirit speaking to your heart letting you know how you can fix some of the hurt you are feeling. But that wasn’t the reason Grandpa never went to church.
The way you act speaks louder than any words you will ever speak. How then can we say one thing on the street and quite the opposite in the church? How do your neighbors even know who you are? Do we watch our language a little more at church than we do at home? Do our jokes get a little cleaner? Do we dress more appropriately than if we were going out for the evening? Why should any of this matter? Why do you need to keep your church life, personal life, and business life separate? Are you afraid of what people will see? What is the harm of letting them see the truth?
Matthew chapter 5 says 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Grandpa’s reason for not going to church was the men and women he knew on the street were not the same people he knew in the church even though they looked the same and had the same name.
For me to be politically correct to save someone’s feeling from getting hurt would do far greater damage than if I would just tell them the truth in the first place. Though it may be as unpleasant for me as it is for them, they need to know they can always count on someone to tell them the truth in a gentle way, but without mincing any words.
So what does this story have to do with Christmas. Christ is there and he always will be. He will be there without packaged presents, unadorned, and as he always has been . . . waiting. He does have 1 gift for you, and though you do not have to earn it, it comes with a price that no money could buy. To give your life to Christ would signify that you could live your life at home as you do in the church building,
I urge each one of my friends to attend their church on Sunday as you are today and see if you are recognized. If not, please go back to your scriptures and see where you need to start.
Please come celebrate Christ’s birth with me this year. And Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I know it doesn’t sound very hard, but the older I got the more I realized why he had said that. Grandpa didn’t go to church and I never knew why I just knew that’s the way it was going to be. Grandpa had been raised in the church, his mom and sisters went to church, his brothers even went to church, but not Grandpa. What was the reason?
As I grew older I realized that some people don’t go because they feel like the preacher is picking them out in the sermon and everyone knows he is talking to them. I know from experience that isn’t exactly the way it happens most of the time. There is not a preacher around that knows when some of you are going to darken the doors of the church again if ever. How on Earth then could they pick you out in a sermon and preach to only you. Quite possibly it is not the preacher at all, but the Holy spirit speaking to your heart letting you know how you can fix some of the hurt you are feeling. But that wasn’t the reason Grandpa never went to church.
The way you act speaks louder than any words you will ever speak. How then can we say one thing on the street and quite the opposite in the church? How do your neighbors even know who you are? Do we watch our language a little more at church than we do at home? Do our jokes get a little cleaner? Do we dress more appropriately than if we were going out for the evening? Why should any of this matter? Why do you need to keep your church life, personal life, and business life separate? Are you afraid of what people will see? What is the harm of letting them see the truth?
Matthew chapter 5 says 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Grandpa’s reason for not going to church was the men and women he knew on the street were not the same people he knew in the church even though they looked the same and had the same name.
For me to be politically correct to save someone’s feeling from getting hurt would do far greater damage than if I would just tell them the truth in the first place. Though it may be as unpleasant for me as it is for them, they need to know they can always count on someone to tell them the truth in a gentle way, but without mincing any words.
So what does this story have to do with Christmas. Christ is there and he always will be. He will be there without packaged presents, unadorned, and as he always has been . . . waiting. He does have 1 gift for you, and though you do not have to earn it, it comes with a price that no money could buy. To give your life to Christ would signify that you could live your life at home as you do in the church building,
I urge each one of my friends to attend their church on Sunday as you are today and see if you are recognized. If not, please go back to your scriptures and see where you need to start.
Please come celebrate Christ’s birth with me this year. And Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
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