A Thankful Nation 11-22-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Thank You for loving me. Thank You for setting aside the glory of heaven to humble Yourself in the likeness of human flesh and blood to live Your life as an example to us and lay down Your life as a sacrifice for us. Thank You for making a way for us to be reconciled and restored in relationship with God through the blood of Your cross and the victory of Your resurrection, despite our sin. I give thanks with a grateful heart, as I begin this day with You. ... Thank You for the blessing that our nation continues to celebrate a day of thanksgiving every year. Though many think it may be a day of thankfulness in general, it has always been a day of thanksgiving to God. From the time President George Washington decreed a national day of thanksgiving in 1789, then becoming a celebrated day throughout the nation when President Abraham Lincoln decreed the last Thursday of every year as Thanksgiving Day in 1863, we have given You thanks as a nation. May the heart of Abraham Lincoln's "Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day" of October 3, 1863 be the heart of our personal and national prayer every day, as we confess the sins of our nation in our own generation, seeking Your mercy, and giving thanks for our blessings to "Almight God," "our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens," and "the Most High God:" The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. /s/ A. Lincoln "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning, and Your faithfulness by night" (Psalm 92:1-2). Thank You, Father. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Special thanks to Gerry Calvert for passing along this reminder of our history. To subscribe/unsubscribe, or to order my teaching dvd's on inner healing and deliverance, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Our address is 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502. Come to The Fountain the 3rd Saturday night of every month at 7 pm for our citywide gathering for prayer and worship in the chapel. Daily archives: www.morningbymorning.injesus.com