The “First Thanksgiving”

November 28th

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith… They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing should be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

1 Timothy 4:1-5 (HCSB)

…our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as served the company almost a week… 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 on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was 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.

from Mourt’s Relation (A Letter…)

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Like I was going to post anything else.

The story is cliche for a reason, okay? It’s pretty impressive that a bunch of exhausted, starving, persecuted, not-especially-skilled, English peasants managed to land in a completely unfamiliar place, with a wildly different culture, and not get themselves killed.

I mean, half of them died of terrible diseases. But, hey, it was a different time.

On that cheerful note… Happy Thanksgiving?

 

Practicing virtue

November 20th 

…Practice these things; be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.

1 Timothy 4:15-16 (CSB)

We have an idea that we have to alter things, we [don’t]; we have to remain true to God in the midst of things as they are, to allow things as they are to transmute us. “Things as they are” are the very means God uses to make us into the praise of His glory. We have to live on this sordid earth, amongst human beings who are exactly like ourselves, remembering that it is on this plane we have to work out the marvellous life God has put in us.

The life of a worker is not a hop, skip and a jump affair, it is a squaring of the shoulders, then a steady, steadfast tramp straight through until we get to understand God’s way. It takes the energy of God Himself to prepare a worker for all He wants to make him. We need a spiritual vision of work as well as a spiritual vision of truth. It is not that we go through a certain curriculum and then we are fit to work; preparation and work are so involved that they cannot be separated.

If the worker will obey God’s way he will find he has to be everlastingly delving into the Bible and working it out in circumstances, the two always run together. It requires all the machinery of circumstances to bring a worker where God wants him to be—“co-workers with God.”

from Oswald Chambers’ The Love of God,
The Message of Invincible Consolation (The Worker and Things as They Are) 

Contentment

November 5th 

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

1 Timothy 6:6-7 (NKJV)

Virtues are, like friends, necessary in all fortunes; but the best are friends in our sadnesses, and support us in our sorrows and sad accidents: and in this sense, no man that is virtuous can be friendless; since God hath appointed one remedy for all the evils in the world, and that is a contented spirit: for this alone makes a man pass through fire, and not be scorched; through seas, and not be drowned; through hunger and nakedness, and want nothing.

For no man is poor that does not think himself so: but if, in a full fortune, with impatience he desires more, he proclaims his wants and his beggarly condition.  For if that which we are or have do not content us, we may be troubled for everything in the world which is besides our being or our possessions.

God is the master of the scenes; we must not choose which part we shall act; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well, always saying, ‘If this please God, let it be as it is…’  If we choose, we do it so foolishly that we cannot like it long, and most commonly not at all: but God, who can do what he pleases, is wise to choose safely for us, affectionate to comply with our needs, and powerful to execute all his wise decrees.

Here, therefore, is the wisdom of the contented man, to let God choose for him; for when we have given up our wills to him, and stand in that station of the battle where our great general hath placed us, our spirits must needs rest while our conditions have for their security the power, the wisdom, and the charity of God.

from Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living (Ch. 2, sect. 6)

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I know I was just complaining about Taylor, but then it turned out this was the perfect follow-up to yesterday’s post, so I guess I get what I deserve. Though there was the wonderfully quaint “He were a strange fool that should be angry because dogs and sheep need no shoes, and yet himself is full of care to get some” so it’s not all dull.

Anyway, happy Guy Fawkes Night to anyone who cares, and a friendly public service announcement not to be d***s to people who believe differently than you.  🔥 🔥 🔥

…and here’s Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. With cannons.

Timelessness

September 20th 

He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

1 Timothy 6:16 (BSB)

If there is, then, something eternal in a man, it must be able to exist and to be grasped within every change. Nor can it be wisdom to say, indiscriminately, that this something eternal has its time like the perishable, that it makes its circle like the wind that never gets further; that it has its course like the river that never fills up the sea. Nor can it be wisdom to talk of this eternal element in the same vein as if one were speaking of the past, as if it is past and past in the sense that it can never, not even in repentance, relate itself to a present person but only to an absent one. For repentance is precisely the relation between something past and someone that has his life in the present time. It was unwise of the youth to wish to talk in the same terms of the pleasure of dancing and of its opposite. For this clear act of folly betrayed that the youth, in his youth, would like to have outgrown youth. But as for the Eternal, the time never comes when a man has grown away from it, or has become older — than the Eternal.

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing (Ch. 1)

 

Concentration

August 25th

Do not neglect your gift… be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them…

1 Timothy 4:14-15 (NIV)

If we wish to excel in secular things, we concentrate; why should we be less careful in work for God?

In immediate preparation don’t call in the aid of other minds; rely on the Holy Spirit and on your own resources, and He will select for you. Discipline your mind by reading and by building in stuff in private, then all that you have assimilated will come back. Keep yourself full to the brim in reading; but remember that the first great Resource is the Holy Ghost who lays at your disposal the Word of God. The thing to prepare is not the sermon, but the preacher.

…It is possible to have a saved and sanctified experience and a stagnant mind. Learn how to make your mind awake and fervid, and when once your mind is awake never let it go to sleep. The brain does not need rest, it only needs change of work. The intellect works with the greatest intensity when it works continuously; the more you do, the more you can do.

Clean off the rust and keep bright by use.

from Oswald Chambers’ Approved Unto God (Keep Bright By Use)

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To be clear, Chambers isn’t saying to never rest, just that there’s no need to veg. Or, you know, maybe he was saying that and that mentality is why he died so young.

What? Too soon?