Tag: William Bradford

WHERE ARE THE NINE?

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Shelby G. Floyd

Where Are The Nine?

William Bradford

We remember the first Thanksgiving Day that led to our National holiday. William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth colony, proclaimed in 1623:

To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, 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 according 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 hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

Thus began the very first official Thanksgiving celebration on the shores of this new world called America. Continue reading “WHERE ARE THE NINE?” →

THANKSGIVING

Published on by sgf1964Leave a comment

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Shelby G. Floyd

happy-thanksgiving-2016

The exhortation of the apostle Paul to the church at Colossae is also pertinent today for churches, families and the country:

Colossians 3:14-16
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
NKJV

God wants all people and especially those who belong to Christ, to know the peace of God, to be thankful and to express our gratitude through joyful songs of praise and instruction. We are to be thankful every day and this spirit is symbolized in our national day of gratitude for our blessings vouchsafed to us by our forefathers.

This Thursday we will observe one of our best American holidays—Thanksgiving. It is rooted in our history and our best traditions. Indeed we have a lot to be thankful for in spite of the economic turmoil. But with all of our bounty many people have negative attitudes, and are not thankful for what we do have. Briefly we shall look at three different attitudes from the story Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke—The Ten Lepers. Continue reading “THANKSGIVING” →