Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
Thanksgiving 2011 Style
October 05, 2011
Someone came into my home yesterday, who asked me what I would be doing for Thanksgiving. It was more of a rhetorical question asked for the purpose of giving her an opening to express her pleasure at the several dinners to which she had been invited to share with family and friends – she mentioned four turkey dinners in all. One would have to agree that she is going to have her share of abundance on this national Thanksgiving Holiday.
Yet, I have to ask myself how much thanksgiving will be expressed at any of the four gatherings. Will hearts go up to God in praise of His goodness and thankfulness for the blessings, which have been bestowed upon these four dinner tables and the greater blessing, which has been bestowed upon this entire land of America?
Both Canada and the United States share in the same heritage of being two nations under God; this is what separates America from the rest of the world’s religious/state nations. When we think of our national holiday of Thanksgiving, we are made to think of the Pilgrims in the United States, who were a puritan form of people, who first arrived to settle this great land, seeking escape from the religious controls of state, mainly from those of England.
They would make America great because they based their lives upon Biblical truth with a moral law, which was aligned with God’s Law and not with the rights-and-control-laws associated with the religious, empire-building states. They made the break from former ties to Romanism and, to a lesser degree, to Anglicanism. This was at the very heart of the sea journey these Puritans had just completed.
They arrived on American shores to begin a new life with next to nothing. Upon arrival they got down on their knees and praised God for their safe journey. Many members of their families were lost during the treacherous sea voyage, and other family members were left behind, in most cases, never to be seen again. Yet, in the midst of their pain they were thankful to be free under God.
God provided for them in a wilderness, which would require taming and hard work for lack of having our modern-day tools and conveniences. Many would die in the first year, because their living conditions were so harsh. Yet, the native people who could have been fierce and warlike were friendly and supportive. The Indians taught them much about growing their food, which resulted in a first harvest when both peoples could sit down together to a meal including turkey and root vegetables, much like that of our present-day, Thanksgiving table. The Pilgrims, in turn, could teach the Indians about God, the Provider, of all these good things.
This little band of the earliest settlers clung together with thankful hearts full of gratitude to God, a foundational attitude which would make America great. Canada was not quite so blessed with settlers who sought freedom from the religious system; they were more concerned about bringing the Romanism of the Babylonian system of empires with them. Battles would be fought over Canada, which would rid her of papal control over the government and, to the credit of the English, though they maintained ties with the English throne, they would not maintain the state religion of England.
Our Founding Fathers, like their brothers to the south, placed God over queen as supreme Ruler in this land, which was blessed with His abundance for no other reason. The hard work of our ancestors under God made America an incredible land of ‘exceptionalism’, like no other land before or since, with the exception of one little nation called Israel. She, also, was a nation under Almighty God, which ruled religion out and truth in with the first commandment given to her. Yet, she, like America, would falter and fail in her covenant commission.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:2-3).” Then God commanded the Israelites to not make idols of things in heaven or from beneath, nor were they to bow down to them; for He is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, but showing mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments.
The American Fathers of the Confederation in Canada and those of the Constitution of the United States blessed their successive generations. How God poured out His blessings on this great land! But then we did that which Moses had warned the people of Israel they would do, in a message to them as the prophet and voice for God.
He warned them to beware that they did not forget the Lord their God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments and His statutes, which He commanded them that day. He warned that when they had eaten and were full and had built beautiful houses and dwelled in them, and their flocks, silver and gold were multiplied, they then would say in their hearts that it was by their own power and the might of their own hand that they had gained this wealth of abundance (see Deuteronomy 8:11-17).
The final warning to them declared that if Israel were to follow other gods and serve and worship them, then her people would surely perish. She would become like the other nations, which God had destroyed before her, in order to bless her as only her God could bless a nation, all of which would be forsaken because the Israelites did not want Him or His Law. They did not want to be obedient to the voice of the Lord of their liberty, but instead would choose multiculturalism in the Promised Land, which He had given to them and from which He had driven out the enemy before them.
Where do we stand this day on the anniversary of a celebration with roots going back to our earliest explorers, such as Martin Frobisher who gave thanks to God, and to Pilgrim purity manifesting itself in thankfulness and relationship with the Lord God, when family members were absent from their tables? Do we awaken each day with a thankful spirit for the beauty of our land, for a warm shower with which we begin our day, for our eyesight by which we behold the beauty of God’s creation, for our taste buds with which we are able to enjoy the food He has provided, and for the food, which is put before us three times a day at meals the rest of the world, under religious gods, often does not have?
Upon reflection, as I think about this woman’s question asking what I will be doing this Thanksgiving, I recognize that I am very unlikely to be at a big table of friends and family, but I will be at one where hearts are lifted up in gratitude to our God, should there be but one or more present. I will not forget my Lord God who placed me in this land, nor will I be ungrateful for all He has done for me. I will serve Him, I will love Him and I will pray for an America, which has lost its way. It has rejected the God who blessed it, and has thrown Him out, along with His incredibly perfect Law of the land to make way for cults, the gods of cults and the rights they demand, while God’s people allow the light of liberty to be extinguished.
Is there any reason why God should bless Canada this Thanksgiving Day, when we gobble up our turkey and all the trimmings, without bowed heads, but rather while wearing earphones to blot out the world and conversation with anyone around us? We surely have reached a place, which can only be described as ground zero, the place where we, the people of God, have told the cults they are welcome to erect their shrine to a cultic god belonging to people who want to destroy us. Only our God could allow the irony of such a situation. He will hand over the city, which has been at the heart of liberty in America under Him, to the gods we have chosen in His place to reside in His land.
God help America, for soon she will not be allowed to speak His name! The lights all over this world will go out at the same time as the One World Order comes in, with the departure of the Bridegroom and His bride. Woe to America, who has refused to have a thankful heart!