SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #203 ---- 11/18/01
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
Good Fight of Faith
A personal letter of encouragement to you, written
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SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #203 ---- 11/19/01
TITLE: "Give Thanks! With A Grateful Heart!"
My Dear Friend and ministry Partner.
Today I write from a motel room in central Missouri
where Jo Ann and I are ministering in a church seeking
restoration and healing. In addition to ministering
in music, I had the opportunity of speaking three
times on Sunday. I will speak twice today and again
tomorrow before heading home to celebrate America's
Thanksgiving Day with fifteen to twenty relatives who
will be coming to our home from Texas, Missouri, and
Illinois.
I am having to go through webmail to send this letter
to you in that the local access number I had is
apparently not working. So, if there is an unpleasant
format today, please overlook it.
At this special time of year we have so much for which
to be thankful. For those who are not living in the
United States, you won't fully appreciate this
national holiday. However, I pray you'll be blessed
to read something about this great country and how God
has placed His hand of favor on us for so many years.
Before I get to that, however, let me bring up a few
important . . . .
ODDS AND ENDS:
1. National Bible week is a time set aside to
encourage everyone to read the Bible. While studies
show that millions of Americans own at least one Bible
and believe it's a Holy Book, for many that's about as
far as it goes. National Bible Week encourages
Christians and non-Christians alike to get into the
Word and discover its truth and relevance to today.
IDEA: For more information on National Bible Week go
to http://www.nationalbibleweek.org. This is a great time to
introduce your neighbors and friends to the Bible. If
you've been praying and caring, you can take the step
now to share God's Word.
If they've expressed an interest in the Bible,
consider purchasing a New Testament in a contemporary
translation as a gift for them in honor of National
Bible Week. You could also include a sample Bible
reading plan to help them navigate through the
Scriptures and offer to follow the same reading plan.
Follow up with them in a couple of weeks to see how
they're doing.
2. Here is an excellent website to continue helping
you learn more and more about Islam and how to share
the Gospel with them. Check out
ywam.gospelcom.net/prayer/muslim/01musl
3. I recently received this updated information from
Intercessors For America. Please pray that this
becomes an actual event.
RESOLUTION TO OBSERVE A "NATIONAL DAY OF
RECONCILIATION" PASSED SENATE LAST NIGHT Rep. Tom
Delay (R-TX) and colleagues in the House introduced
Concurrent Resolution, HCR 184, on July 10, 2001. It
passed the House by voice vote and was sent to the
Senate Rules Committee. While opposed by secularists
and controversial in some Christian circles, much
prayer, fasting and persuasion has been occurring
behind the scenes and S. Con. Res. 15 was passed in
the U.S. Senate last night.
The goal is to reconcile and unify our leaders within
the concept that America is "One Nation Under God."
The wording is quite simple, and is as
follows: "Concurrent Resolution - Providing for a
National Day of Reconciliation. Resolved by the House
of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That on a
day of reconciliation selected jointly by the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and the President pro
tempore of the Senate, and with the Chaplain of the
House of Representatives and the Chaplain of the
Senate in attendance -- (1) the two Houses of the
Congress shall assemble in the Hall of the House of
Representatives; and (2) during this assembly, the
Members of the two Houses may gather to humbly seek
the blessings of Providence for forgiveness,
reconciliation, unity, and charity for all people of
the United States, thereby assisting the Nation to
realize its potential as the champion of hope, the
vindicator of the defenseless, and the guardian of
freedom."
OUR THANKSGIVING HERITAGE:
To equate our American Thanksgiving with the harvest
celebrations of past cultures ---- where they focus on
harvest, fertility, good luck, self-indulgence, and
merry-making ---- is to miss the uniqueness and real
blessing of our celebration as Americans.
Thanksgiving, as we celebrate it here, in its origin
and truest purpose is designed to enable us to focus
on God's goodness and mercy, and to give thanks of
gratitude for His bounty, mercy, and care. It is
different from all others in its history, in its
heart, and in its hope.
Its history is found, first of all, in the Heart of
God. More than 415 times thanks, thankful, praise,
gratitude, and other such words are used throughout
the Bible to instruct man to develop a heart of
gratitude and thanksgiving that expresses itself in
attitude, word, and action.
Secondly, its history is found in the Heritage of
God's people. From the very beginning of Creation,
Abel gave offerings of thanksgiving for God's goodness
and provision. Cain, on the other hand, celebrated
his own prowess and ego ---- and became the human
race's first murderer.
Thanksgiving can be found when Noah came out of the
ark, when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees to follow
God, when Moses led the Children of Israel out of
Egypt, and scores of other occasions.
When the Law was given from Mt. Sinai, an entire
section included instruction about giving thanks, and
a thorough description of a series of feasts, most of
which were designed as reminders to be thankful for
God's mercy, grace, and provision. When Christ came,
certainly His redemptive activity portrayed the basis
of our thanks giving in the ultimate sense.
Third, Thanksgiving's history is found in the History
of our country. While the native American celebrated
his gratitude to nature and the "great spirit" long
before the first white man set foot on the shores of
this continent, giving thanks and gratitude to God
were at the very core of our beginnings as a new
nation.
Christopher ("Christ-bearer") Columbus openly
declared "it was the Lord who put into my mind (I
could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be
possible to sail from here to the Indies. . . . There
is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy
Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous
inspiration from the Holy Scriptures. . . For the
execution of the journey . . . I did not make use of
intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the
fulfillment of what Isaiah had promised (Isa
49:1,6). . . No one should fear to undertake any
task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if
the intention is purely for His holy service."
After land was sighted at 2:00 a.m. on an August
morning in 1492 and the landing party came ashore
after daylight, the first act committed was that of
Columbus and his two captains kneeling before God with
thanksgiving on the shores of what was to be known as
San Salvador ("Our Saviour").
When you look at history, you receive it either from
the basis of straight fact, or from opinionated and
preferential revisionist interpretation. In reading
the pure facts, for example, there is no doubt that,
as expressed in his own personal journals, Christopher
("bearer of Christ") Columbus began his journey of
discovery first because the Holy Spirit clearly "put
it in (his) heart" to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the New World.
That pattern repeated itself later on the West Indies
and virtually everywhere he went in discovering new
territory.
Captain John Woodlief led the ship "Margaret" and its
passengers from England to near Jamestown in December,
1619, with clear instructions that "Wee ordaine the
day of our ship's arrivall at the place assigned for a
plantacon (plantation) in the land of Virginia shall
be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of
Thanksgiving to Almighty God."
Their first act upon landing was to carry out that
instruction at what became known as the "Berkeley
Hundred" plantation.
As the pilgrims began arriving, documents record that
they specifically intended to establish a country NOT
only for religious freedom, but also to send the
Gospel around the world.
One of my own ancestors arrived on those Jamestown
shores during those years. Robert Tolliver arrived
and procured some 5,000 acres of land in the Jamestown
area. To him were born five sons and two daughters.
At least four houses in Williamsburg, PA were built by
Robert or one of his sons, including the George Whythe
house which at one time was used as the home of the
governor. He was long time friend with Thomas
Jefferson.
Captain Christopher ("Christ-Bearer") Jones, on
September 6, 1620, embarked from England on the ninety-
foot-long Mayflower with a group of Christians seeking
complete religious freedom in the new land. Dropping
anchor in Provincetown Harbor, the weary and
malnourished group came ashore near where Plymouth
Rock rests. After a harsh
winter during which nearly one half of the 103
original passengers died, Chief Squanto befriended
them and taught them skills of crop raising, resulting
in a prosperous Spring and Summer.
Years earlier, around 1608 , several years before the
Pilgrims arrived, English traders came to those shores
near what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts where they
traded with the Wampanoag Indians. The deceptive
traders took them prisoner, transported them to Spain,
and sold them into slavery. One of their prisoners
was a young boy names Squanto.
He was bought by a Spanish monk, who taught him the
doctrines of Christianity.
Squanto ended up in England where he worked for a man
named John Slaney. Slaney was a kind man who took a
personal interest in Squanto's desire to return to his
home. He promised to help him return to his
homeland. But It wasn't until 1619 -- ten years
after Squanto was first kidnapped -- that a ship was
found that was sailing to that region. . Finally,
after a decade of exile and heartbreak, Squanto was on
his way home.
Tragically, when he arrived to his tribe's home in
Massachusetts, he discovered that an epidemic had
wiped out his entire village. He was the lone
survivor of the Wampanoag tribe.
A year later, a shipload of English families led by
Governor William Bradford arrived and settled at the
place once occupied by Squanto's people. When he went
to meet them speaking English, the Pilgrims were
stunned.
issued the following proclamation that
Fall. "inasmuch as our great Father has given us this
year an abundant harvest . . . and has made the
forests to abound with game, and the sea with fish and
clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the
ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence
and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God
accourding to the dictates of our own conscience; now,
I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims,
with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye
meeting house, on ye hill, between the ours of 9 and
12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November ye 29th of
the year of our Lord 1623, and the third year since ye
Pilgrims lande . . . there to listen to ye pastor, and
render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His
blessings." Many local and regional Thanksgiving
services and celebrations took place
in the years that followed.
After Squanto's untimely death, Governor Bradford
wrote these words in his diary. He "became a
special instrument sent of God for [our] good. . . .
He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take
fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was
also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for
[our] profit, and never left [us] till he died."
When Squanto was on his death bed with a fatal fever,
Bradford wrote that his friend Squanto "desir[ed] the
Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the
Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto bequeathed his
possessions to the Pilgrims "as remembrances of his
love."
George Washington, during his first year as president,
and because of national peace and the ratification of
the U.S. Constitution, proclaimed, "I do recommend and
assign Thursday, the 26th of November next, to be
devoted by the people of these states to the service
of that great and glorious Being . . . for the signal
and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions
of His providence in the course and conclusion of the
late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union,
and plenty, which we have since enjoyed; for the
peacable and rational manner in which we have been
enabled to establish Constitutions of Government for
our safety and happiness."
Presidents John Adams and James Madison also
proclaimed such days of Thanksgiving, while others lef
it to state and local officials.
Abraham Lincoln, after a bloody year of war punctuated
by the battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, issued his
first Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863. "It is the
duty of nations as well as of men to owe their
dependence upon the overruling power of God;" After
detailing the need for repentance over sin and the
bounty of God's great blessings on the nation, he
declared, "We have forgotten God. We have forgotten
the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and
multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we
have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our
hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated
with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that
made us.
"It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be
solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as
with one heart and one voice, by the whole American
people. I do therefore invite my fellow
citizens . . . to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and
praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
heavens."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1939, after 75 years of
presidents declaring the last Thursday of November be
set aside, moved the holiday back a week to aid
Christians Shoppers. However, in 1941 Congress passed
a resolution legalizing the fourth Thursday in
November as national Thanksgiving Day.
As one writer put it, "Nothing worthwhile comes easy;
a day set aside to thank the Lord for blessings has
been fraught with turmoil. But, through it all, it
has survived. God willing, some form of giving thanks
will always be part of our national heritage."
Amen to that! The Psalmist said, "blessed is the
nation whose God is The Lord." May it be so in
America again. Because He has blessed us, may we
bless others.
OUR HOPE FOR THANKSGIVINGS OF TOMORROW:
The founding fathers made sure that no government-
founded and controlled religion would be established,
but that complete religious freedom could be freely
enjoyed and expressed. Nowhere in early legal
documents is there a mention of a "wall of separation"
to keep religious and moral values from properly
seasoning society.
Why was this true? Because from the discovery of this
new continent, through the founding of this nation to
the Twentieth Century, the necessity of integrity,
truth, honesty, and character were clearly
understood. Though there were certainly "glitches" of
deception, manipulation, and self interest appearing
throughout our history in the political and economic
circles, it was not until after President Eisenhower
that such qualities as character and integrity were
abandoned as a criteria for service in either the
public or the private sector ---- under the guise
of "personal rights".
We now suffer the consequences of leaving those
moorings. Because of a loss of virtue, character,
honesty, and integrity, we groan under the pummeling
of disrespect, cheating, deception, abuse, and
dishonesty at every level of society. No agency,
institution, or enterprise is immune from the presence
or consequences of these character flaws.
The Apostle Paul, in his great discourse to the
Philippians on joy, insisted that we should
concentrate on developing truth, honor, right-ness,
purity, beauty, and a good reputation (Phil 4:8) as
the pathway to being at peace with God and with all
men.
Likewise, the Apostle Peter (II Pet 1:5-9) declares
that, "applying all diligence, in your faith supply
moral excellence (character), in your moral
excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-
control; and in your self-control, perseverance, and
in your perseverance, godliness; and in your
godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly
kindness, Christian love."
At present, our wonderful country, has generally
removed faith and moral excellence from the list,
beginning instead with knowledge.
When you do that, the results are devastating. This
is seen at every level of society ---- political,
economic, educational, industrial, religious, and the
family. When we no longer promote faith and moral
excellence, we have arrogance instead of knowledge,
license rather than self-control, laziness and
slothfulness rather than perseverance, sensuality in
the place of godliness, disrespect and neglect rather
than brotherly kindness, and selfishness instead of
Christian love.
During any time of disenchantment, angry unrest, and
uncertainty, you have an opportunity to do something
about it. Wherever you are ---- at work, in the
market, at the polls, in your neighborhood, at school,
in church, and IN YOUR HOME ---- by example and by
instruction begin changing your part of your world by
living with character and integrity, and insist that
those who lead you and serve you do the same.
It isn't too late to change the ethical and moral
climate of our land. It can be done the very same way
it was "undone" ---- by personal example. By
restoring character, integrity, honesty, and
integrity.
Contrary to what many are saying, personal honesty and
integrity are paramount to how we serve others, for
those are the fountains out of which all other actions
spring forth. If those fountains are dry, deceptive
and perverse consequences will result. Let's change
that!
FINALLY:
In the midst of all that has happened to us in recent
weeks, it is my prayer, dear friend, that this soon
coming Thanksgiving Day will be a very special one for
you and your friends. As you meet, please, please
remember our nation's Christian heritage, the
development of a spirit of Thanksgiving in this land,
the dangers we face that might cost us a heart of
thanksgiving, and the assurances of God to bless those
who choose to be thankful people.
Have a great week! Be blessed! Over and over again,
be blessed!
In His Bond,
Bob Tolliver -- Rom 1:11-12
Copyright November, 2001
Life Unlimited Ministries
[email protected]
Do You Get "Shoulder To Shoulder"?
If this letter has blessed you, feel free to forward
it, with proper credits, to any and all you wish.