Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A Day of Publick Thanksgiving and Prayer

It's time for George Washington's first Thanksgiving Proclamation again; I know I posted it last year, but my heart is so tender toward the General that I feel impressed to share it again.
People will tell you that Mr. Washington was not a man of God. I beg to differ. He was sincere in his devotion and his understanding of the role that Divine Providence played was deep.
Please read his words, take them into your heart and find the way to make yourself a better person by taking his advice.
His initial goal was to make the day one of service to our God. He wasn't telling us which God to serve, only that we must be filled with the idea that we owe EVERYTHING to Him who lends us breath, and on this, Thanksgiving Day, we should be in the attitude of continual prayer.

We are at a place in our country now, that prayers by all of us are needed to restore the Constitution and to steer us away from Communism. Please, I know it's evolved into a day of football and family, make time today to pray fervently to your Father in Heaven, not only in gratitude for the magificent blessings we have both personally and as a nation, but also in humble supplication for the restoration of our Republic.

I give you George Washington's First Thanksgiving Proclamation; it's not long, please read it.

God Bless you on this day of Thanksgiving.
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; 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 peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Source: The Massachusetts Centinel, Wednesday, October 14, 1789

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Gettysburg Address

On this day, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave a most moving speech; for us, today it is a touchstone for our time.
Many revile Lincoln, having suspended states rights and abolished slavery which stepped on "property rights"; I would like to posit that Lincoln was acting as God would have him do. He was a prayerful man, and it is my firm belief that he was acting according to the spirit. He restored states rights in the end and righted a terrible wrong as well. Until we meet God face to face, and the questions of the ages are answered, I will hold Lincoln in high regard, and bless his name for all the good that he did.
Lincoln's words resonate with us, because of the times in which we find ourselves. These are dark times, with evil growing around us. Communism is on the rise and we have "king-men" elected to high places. Many have died for the freedoms that these evil and designing men which to usurp; let us not forget their bravery, their sacrifice, but rise up and take back the government from those who would bind us into modern day slavery.
I have been to this battlefield, the spirit is strong there; those who have sacrificed are continuing participants still in the cause of freedom.

Gettysburg; November 19, 1863
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”