Proactive Thanksgiving

My heart goes out to people who are disadvantaged or going through difficult times. I'm talking now primarily about the hundreds of thousands and actually millions of refugees in the world that stream from all over the place, trying to get into the United States from the southern border, while we may condemn the actions of allowing them into the United States. My heart goes out to the desperation of these people. It's just very, very difficult for me to see it. Right now, human trafficking is the worst that has been ever in history, ever. People are trafficked for everything from sex traffic to labor traffic. One of the congressmen, I believe it was from the state of Kentucky, spoke one time, who was responsible for a senator who works with homeless or works with human trafficking. He mentioned in a presentation that I had heard that if you want to buy somebody, you can go buy somebody today. The traffic there of whatever you want, if you have somebody who's a worker at home or whatever, he said, I've got to go to Los Angeles, and somebody said, I'd like to buy somebody for this purpose or that purpose. There's a market for it, and there's vendors who will do that. It's the worst in history. For migrants, for homeless people, for slave laborers all over the world. And again, it's the worst it's been in history. One reason that this affects me and is a topic of special interest to me is because my parents and I were refugees at one time. We came to this country as very, very fortunate people from Europe after World War II, and settled here, and feel very, very grateful for where we're at. I'd never forget that. I continually thank God for my life. So I'd like to express some very personal thoughts about my gratitude, about our gratitude, that especially comes at this time of year. This is a subject that should be top of mind for all of us, is Thanksgiving, and its importance. We have so much in this country that we may become accustomed to it as being normal. But for most people, what we enjoy is only enjoyed by a very small percentage.

I have spoken often about my parents' war experience, how they got there. That's not what I want to talk about today. I'd like to say a few more things about their refugee status. Most of my parents were teenagers living in Ukraine during World War II. When the Germans came in 1941, they were taken by the Germans in 1942. My mother was 16, my father was 18, they lived on different ends of the country.

And they were taken to work in Germany, in their factories during World War II. And that's where they stayed until the very end. They were told that they were only going there for three to six months. But it would be 30-some years before my mother would return to see her mother. They were laborers that were from the USSR that Germans needed during World War II. When Europe was liberated by the Allies in 1945, the city that they were in, in fact, the town that they were in, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how my father met the first American, that city was liberated by the Americans.

But then because of the Potsdam Conference, which was held shortly thereafter, the Russians and the other Allies decided to redraw the boundaries of where people would be under. And so that area was taken over by the Russians. So one day they heard the voices of Americans. That all disappeared. And all of a sudden they heard Russian voices. My father, here's how he met the first American. And this is a account from my dad that my brother and I remember. Every time dad ate a Hershey bar, he always mentioned some soldier in Germany in 1945.

This was when the war ended. World War II was winding down and both my parents were Ukrainian teenagers in Nazi labor camps. The Allied bombing was relentless. They lived through horrific bombing during the last part of the war. Many of their friends were killed. People, the Americans, which came by day and the British by night, 24-hour bombing of the cities that they were in. Night after night, they went into bomb shelters. In fact, they got tired of going to bomb shelters because it was a long line. And they said, we'll just stay out here. If we get killed, we get killed.

Because they didn't know what was going to happen. Allied bombing was relentless. When the air raid sirens began to wail, soldiers and slave laborers would evacuate into outlying fields for safety. My father, my dad found a bale of hay to lay on as he watched his factory explode, where he was working, and burn up the previous night from the bombing. He fell asleep, and the next morning the ground trembled as he heard droning from a roar of a huge wing of airplanes flying towards them.

So he thought this was another bombing. Terrorized, he thought this was another bombing raid. But somehow, this one was different. He watched the planes fly overhead. Then he saw small puffs coming from the airplanes, and slowly descending towards the Earth. It was a long-awaited American airborne, and he was in the middle of a drop zone.

As he stared at the sky, there was a crash behind him. He spun around and saw an American GI rolling off his parachute. As soon as he was done, a young soldier ran to my dad and started barking out orders in English. The soldier was stunned at my dad's gaunt face from starvation working during the war. Finally, out of frustration, the soldier reached into his coat. Thinking of this was a gun my dad froze.

He thought he was a dead man. The GI pulled out combat rations, Wrigley's double-mint gum, and a Hershey bar. My dad said it was the best meal he had had in three years. He always worshipped the American soldier. Freedom tasted good. So that's how my parents got acquainted with the Americans from a parachute run. My father would tell that story. He had many other stories to tell. But then they found their way, and this is entirely the full story.

They got to a United Nations refugee camp in the city of Hanover. And that's where they resettled. This was in the British zone. They still remember the day that they came to the camp, because the big news that day was that some kind of atomic bomb had been dropped in Hiroshima. So even pinpoint the tape to when they arrived. They came to that camp, and they would live there for the next four years.

They looked for places that they could be resettled. They couldn't go back. They couldn't go back, because the Russians, the Soviets, treated the people who had gone over as teenagers as collaborators with the Germans. As ones who helped the Germans, even though these teenagers had nothing to do with how they came over. They were forced, they were ordered, they were commanded to come and work in those factories. So my parents tried to immigrate to Australia.

To Brazil, and their friends in the camp were being picked up by different countries. Australia, the United Kingdom. Canada was taking in people. They even had very close friends who were sent to Canada, because they put an ad in the newspaper.

They gave an announcement to a British, to a Canadian soldier, and said, could you put this into the newspaper when you come back to Canada? And it was, dear uncle, this is your nephew. If you are reading this, please contact us. We're in a refugee camp. And would you believe that uncle saw it in Alberta, and they immigrated to Alberta. My parents were not that fortunate. They didn't have any contacts. And so, after I was born there, my parents were married in 1945, as the war came to an end.

I was born in 1947. I was almost two years old. My parents said, look, we don't have a country to go to. Nobody wants us. We'll just go back to Ukraine. And as my father was writing to his dad about the fact that we're coming home, we're going to just take our chances. And as they were packing up to go, my father's father, which is my grandfather, wrote to my dad and said, don't come! Stay back! Under no circumstances should you come home.

My dad was stunned by how rude this was. He said, my dad's wife, my mother, she was Russian. My dad was Ukrainian. He said that Ukrainians and the Russians hate each other, and they're killing each other after the war, with all disagreements. When people disagree in those countries, it's not a matter of just talking it through. They take care of things in that manner.

So, my dad didn't come back. And very fortunately, he was able, through a sponsor, to find a person through his family back in Ukraine, of a University of Minnesota professor who was a humanitarian, Ukrainian humanitarian, who then sponsored them to the United States. Dr. Grunowski, a very well-known bug professor. That's called entomology. Not etymology, but entomology. And so, he sponsored us to the United States, and my parents and I came over there. I'd like to read a letter that my father wrote to Dr. Grunowski, because this kind of gives you an insight into the mentality of these desperate people.

The refugees, many of them are like that, as they are political war refugees as well, as well as a lot of undesirables that are crossing into our border. But this letter was written on July 18, 1949, as my parents were about to board a ship in Bremen for New York City. And the letter was preserved in the archives of the University of Minnesota, which has archives of this professor's correspondence with all kinds of people that he was in contact with.

And so, here's what my father wrote. Highly respected, sir professor. The translation is a little bit clumsy, but you have to understand. I'm happy to inform you that on the 19th of this month, July 1949, we completely leave these inhospitable camps, which all got under our skin during these seven years, because they lived in slave camps, they lived in concentration camps the last months of the war, and then refugee camps. They had a tour of camps. I don't know whether you realize, sir professor, what a great favor you've done for me and my family by taking us out of that cursed German nest.

And we are those who experienced those seven years in those camps had eaten not one ration of bread or label of soup, which was given from hands as if we were the lowest of people through food at them for seven years. They never felt that they were of any value. We appreciate the great favor that you have shown us. At the earliest opportunity, we will thank you properly.

On Tuesday, the 19th of this month, we are sailing off from Bremen to New York. Our ship is named the General Muir. With my wife, we together are a bit anxious about how American society will accept us and how we will be taken. But I think they're not the only ones who are going through this. By then, stay well and greetings to all of your family with great respect to you, Igor Kubik, that was my dad. So, my parents then came to this country. And one thing that we as children were commanded as we were growing up, because we all became naturalized.

My parents had five children. My dad worked as a carpenter. Before that, he was a mechanic. He could do all kinds of things. But we always had the greatest instructions of being grateful to our sponsor, Dr. Grinowski. He was our savior. He was the one that pulled us out of the German... this was the refugee camp.

They were survivors of one event after another, but now they've even survived refugee status, and not being repatriated back to Ukraine. And we were told, always, that we were Dr. Grinowski's presence, who was a member of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Always be polite to him. Always speak respectfully to him. Always look him in the eye when he talks to you, when we were children.

I remember one time, as a sullen teenager, we were at an event at a concert, and Dr. Grinowski came up to me and said, Hello? You're just like a teenager, you know, kind of sullen with an attitude. And boy did I get it from my dad when I came home that night. He said, Don't you ever talk to Dr. Grinowski like that, ever again? Don't you know that he saved us? That we're here in this country because of him? My father was always very, very respectful of him.

Bev and I have been back to the USSR and to Ukraine both. Before the USSR fell apart and to Ukraine, we led youth groups, while you, three of them, to Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Kiev. And we also visited cemeterians many times. And every time we go there, I ask myself, I tell myself, this is where I could have grown up. Because I met my cousins. My cousins all appeared ten years older than I, right away. Their teeth are rotten. Their health is not very good.

I thought I could have been just like that in those countries. We met people that were my parents' friends, that returned from the labor camps, and they were just very, very impoverished people. We have so much to be thankful for to live in America, to know God, to have a great family. And I'm grateful about my parents, is that both of them came into the church. They were both baptized in 1966 at the Feast of Tabernacles in Big Sandy, Texas.

To me, that was one of the greatest joys. My father died several months after that, on May 5th. I always remember Cinco de Mayo. He died. And my mother lived until 1984. My parents were very devout. They were very thankful. And I would say that when the resurrection comes, they're the first ones who I want to meet. One thing about citizenship, when they came to this country, they also made sure that they prepared properly for citizenship.

This is so different from the sense of entitlement that many people have. I'm here in the United States. I can have my own rules. I don't have to learn the English language. I don't do anything. In fact, I live by my own laws in this country.

My parents took to preparing for their citizenship with a great deal of care. First of all, they had to learn how to speak English. I remember my mom and dad drilling each other with English words, because they had to appear before the supervisors and had to show that they had a working knowledge of English. My parents always at home spoke Ukrainian with us, and I didn't speak English until I was five years old. In fact, when I went to kindergarten, the teachers told my parents, teach this kid English. I could write my name in Ukrainian, Cyrillic, but I couldn't do it in English. But they had to have a basic understanding of English. They had to understand the three branches of government.

They had to understand what the executive, the legislative, and judicial sections of government was. They had to explain that about how we were running. They had to know who the congressman was for their district. They had to know who the state senators were. And there was just a whole lot more that they had to know. I was in the second grade, and I was naturalized. That was a big event for me. Second grade. When I came back to my second grade class, they had a big party for me, celebrating my becoming a U.S.

citizen. Thanksgiving. My parents made certain that we learned Thanksgiving always to people that had done good things for us. Good big things, like what I spoke about. And also, Thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving is a Christian virtue that is most important. It is important, certainly, as loyalty, honesty, faith, and responsibility. And after the expression, I love you, thank you is the next most appreciated phrase.

It is one of the most pleasant things that we can hear. We live in a time when human feelings are jaded. As it says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. We live in a time of great perversion. Great perversion. 2 Timothy 3 describes this time. If some of us are wondering, why can't this world get any better? I'll tell you something. This world is going to get worse. It's crazy, but it's going to get crazier. And people will become more evil, and their natures will become more hardened. But here is what the Apostle Paul describes as being what we'll see, and what we are seeing right now in our society. I know this, verse 1, 2 Timothy 3, that in the last days, perilous times will come. We live in those perilous times. They're not coming. They're here. Perilous times are here, and they're not getting better. And it will take the return of Jesus Christ to sort this out. Men will be lovers of themselves. I've gotten all this by my own power, by my own wits. Lovers of money. Boasters. Proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. That is one of the characteristics mentioned in the signs of the end of the age, in the last days, in the perilous times we live. Unthankful. Unholy. Unloving. Unforgiving. Slander. Have you heard any slander on television? Have you heard? No, somebody's slandering somebody because the things they're saying don't add up without self-control. It depends upon which channel you turn to. If you turn to Newsmax, you get one version. Turn to CNN, you get another version. Despisers of good. Traders. Headstrong. Paudy. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And on top of that, having a forum of godliness. We're good people, but denying is power. And from such people, turn away. Turn away. Don't be connected to or don't be influenced by such people. Now, this type of mentality creeps into the church. Now, we have grown up in the church. We have become... These types of attitudes can creep into the church, and we need to be on the watch for them. Now, as far as just talking about Thanksgiving, less than 50% of teenagers have ever written a thank-you note, even for multitudinous things that they get for Christmas, birthdays, or other events where gifts come.

People are saying, bring back the pen, please. All they have is their devices, and they don't really blame people. They don't write notes to friends or siblings showing appreciation. 83% have never written a love note to a sister or brother or a parent. They just don't. They don't think that they should. Now, remember, we were taught to do these things. We were taught, we were instructed, this is what you have to do. I don't know about you, but when we do nice things for people, sometimes I don't get any kind of acknowledgement.

Now, in a church, certainly, people are much better that way. But I have given gift cards to people, I have sent flowers, and it's just nothing. It's not that I want to profusely be thanked, but like in the case of flowers, I once at one time sent some flowers to a woman who was suffering from a disease. And I asked her husband, you know, just when I saw him at some meetings, did she ever get those flowers? I don't know if they even got there. I don't know if they got there. I said, yeah, and there was no thank you. I'm just saying that that may be an extreme case, but it really struck me about people don't think about saying thank you.

Thank you is a skill, as we see here, one of those things, it's signs of the times in our generation. So if we have people that never thanked anybody, they're not teaching their children to thank anybody. They don't develop this very, very proper Christian attribute of being thankful. Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. The Apostle Paul in this chapter talks about how we can see God. You know, this one way that we can really witness God is by the creation, by this awesome creation that we see.

Verse 20, Romans 1, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. This is a very clear method about how to experience God. You want to experience God? Take a look at the awesome things around, whether they're very tiny and little, or whether they're awesome in the universe. That is God. That is God's presence. That is God's creation. There was a creator behind it and it was God. He's understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, or his divinity.

He's understood by the things that are made, how they're made, how reproduction takes place. What the human being is, I can talk about the nature of God and the nature of man. I can talk about this for hours because I am just awed by the fact that we have been made in God's image, and his image and likeness. And there's a purpose for us. And I thank God that that is what he's doing to me with my life.

I'm so very grateful for that. So that they are without excuse. Verse 21. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful. They didn't say, God, thank you for creating this earth with his perfect connectivity, with his temperature, with the atmosphere, with just a civilization in the middle of nowhere. Where did it come from? God, thank you. Thank you for being born. Thank you for being able to have the conscience I do.

Thank you for the wonderful experience of life. No, people don't have that. They believe in themselves. And they become futile in their thoughts. Useless. And their foolish hearts were darkened. And that's what he writes when he wrote the book of Romans sometime in the 50s A.V. Isn't it even more true right now in our times? Jesus Christ talked about ingratitude in the story about the ten lepers, which appears in Luke 17, verse 11. Ingratitude is something which is a default state of humanity, unless it's taught. Unless it's taught why you should be thankful and the blessings of it.

You know, when you are thankful, you don't have opportunity to really criticize or grumble or complain if you're thankful. Because thankfulness snuffs out that grumbling atmosphere, that mentality that a person may have.

Now it happened, verse 11, as he went to Jerusalem, Christ, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. They lifted up their voice and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. The word was out that Jesus Christ healed people. And here these people sitting there, just a little covey of them, saying, have mercy on us. So when he said, so when he saw them, he said to them, go, show yourself to the priests. And so it was, as they went, they were cleansed, healed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face, on his feet, giving thanks. He was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, were there not ten cleansed? So where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to them, arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. This is a story about ingratitude. This was ten percent of the gratitude given. People need to pay attention to stories like this, about general ingratitude. Do we have gratitude shown on television, technology, etc.? It's Turkey Day! Travel Day! Thanksgiving to talk about, we should be thankful to God for all the blessings that we have, that we have the free country that we do, that we have an awesome combination of factors in the last three, four hundred years that have created this country to be what it is. And we're sitting on top of it, the richest people in the world as a nation. People who come here, when we have people come over from other parts of the world to stay with us, they are absolutely, really amazed by all the things we have. To the point where I don't really like people to come over and see all that we have, because it's everything that they don't have and what they will have to return to. Can we be thankful for everything that we have? In contrast, which I wrote last week in the e-news, for those who get the e-news, I talked about my visit to Ukrainian Sabbath keepers in western Ukraine. I met, we were staying, this was in 1992, a year after Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union. But the economy was in shambles. Everything was in short supply. One of them had a car, but there was hardly any gasoline. He had to wait in the morning to get a quart or two of fuel delivered to his door so we could go 20 miles or so in our travels. That's how bad it was. Food was in short supply. And one day, they said, could you help us out? They allow every person who is able to make it to the bread truck two loaves of bread. The word is that he'll be in the center of town. The bread truck is coming from the government. And if you stand in line, you're entitled, anybody, to two loaves of bread if you can even get to the back of this truck. So I was put in line. Line moved forward, and here the back door of the truck opens up. Here's these bins of bread, hard-crusted wheat bread. And two women were passing it out, and they kind of inched my way up to the end of the truck. And this big woman grabs two loaves of bread, shoves it into my chest, takes the money out of my hand, and pushes me out of the way. I've never had a shopping experience like that before. It brought new meaning to give us this day our daily bread. But I was able to, by just being there, to provide the family with two more loaves of bread. They had four children, provide two more loaves of bread, because the father and mother stood in line as well.

And then that evening, the Sabbath came on. Not sure if it was that evening, but in the evening, when the Sabbath came, as the sun was setting, I said, okay, it's time to welcome the Sabbath. And so all their children, which were four, mom and dad, and I was there as well, along with the person I traveled with, who was the director of our German operation in Germany. And so we all were in a big circle, facing each other, and everybody prayed, asking God, thanking God for the Sabbath. The purpose of the prayer was to thank God. Thank God for what they had. And what they said brought tears to my eyes, because seeing how they had terrible transportation, terrible roads, limited food, being economically a mess, they could still be on their knees, and they could thank God for their mom and dad, for their relationships. They could thank God for their brothers and sisters. But they did more than that. They described their brothers and sisters, what they liked about them. I mean, they were detailed. And this was an event that took maybe 20 minutes or so, as we were facing each other. It was Thanksgiving that they were offering. I said, we just aren't this way. When it came to me, now one thing they have a lot of is relationships. There's no goods, limited goods, but they do have human beings that they relate to, and they have God to relate to. They thank God over and over again for the fact that they could worship now, because a year or two before that, they weren't allowed to worship publicly. So they were thankful to God to be able to worship. So when we visited the Ukrainians in the early years of their freedom, services on the Sabbath were all day long. From the time of the sunset to Saturday sunset, it was one service after another. They just couldn't get enough of church. They were long youth service. They had an adult service, or for a congregational service. They were so happy to be with one another. And this village that we were in had 300 Sabbatarians in it. And as we would go to church, we walked. People would come from their doors. It was just a millennium. Everybody was keeping the Sabbath. They seemed like the whole village was keeping the Sabbath. We all gathered there. They were so happy to see each other. And this prayer, this group prayer, for being able to worship God. To have freedom that God was good to them.

We had the feast in Estonia in Eastern Europe. One of the years, I believe this was 2009, we had people who came there from East Germany, who previously had been part of East Germany. Now they were free. From Latvia, which was a Soviet republic before. Estonia, a former republic. From Belarus, we had Natasha, who is now our coordinator of our Russian program. She was there. Zimbabwe. These people all were visitors. They were attendees at the feast in Tartu, Estonia. And they told us their stories. We had one evening, we wanted to hear from them about their life and how they worshipped God. The stories from East Germany and Zimbabwe were just really amazing. The young lady from Zimbabwe said she was taught how to shoot a rifle and how to defend herself. It was amazing for what happened there. We had people talk to us from East Germany about how they were watched and spied on continually. And then they said, we want you to tell your stories. I thought, I'm going to talk about my feast in Panama City Beach. I really fought it hard to find any kind of a story that would match some of the things that they had had. In fact, it was almost a laughing point with us because we had it so good. We didn't realize how good we had it until we were compared to somebody who had it the way they did. Another person I traveled with to Ukraine was a British surgeon. He was actually a member of the Church, an elder in the United Church of God. He died two years ago. We traveled to the Chernobyl area and also we traveled to the Sabbatarians. He experienced some of this family closeness and gratitude that people expressed to one another. He talked to me and said, shaking his head, This is truly amazing. These people can just talk and talk about relationships and what they appreciate and being detailed. I come back to England and he said, How dad? Hi dad. How are the kids? How's your car? Well, see you. He said it was so minimal as compared to the expression that these people had about Thanksgiving with others. Thanksgiving was, going back to biblical instruction, was taught as something that you must do to God. The Book of Leviticus is basically comprised of five offerings, five different kinds of offerings that were given to God. The Book of Leviticus, sacrifices and offerings, and it was like a manual for the Levitical priests. Now here's what you do. Here's the kinds of things you sacrifice and here's the purpose of those sacrifices. It wasn't written or it wasn't even thought of until a year after the giving of the Ten Commandments because those laws were added. And so when they were added, there were instructions given to them and that became the Book of Leviticus. If you look for a good source to get an overview, it's Juke's Law of the Sacrifices. But in the first two offerings, with a peace offering, of the five major offerings that were instituted, to teach what? To teach thanksgiving. These were instructions on how to be thankful. I'd like to read from Leviticus 7 and verse 11.

This is the law of sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mixed with oil. You see, the purpose was to be thankful, offers it for a thanksgiving to God. Unleavened wafers anointed with oil or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. Besides the cakes, as his offering, he shall offer unleavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. Thanksgiving is mentioned many, many times. And here, it's a formal teaching method to make the people remember where they came from. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the Tabardacle in David's time, the Levites were commissioned to offer thanks and appreciation. It was not just the glory of Israel. It wasn't just like to have shrines and monuments dedicated now. Sometimes not with any thanksgiving to God for it. It's just, look how great we are as a nation. Look how wonderful we are. And it's like an idol to us. But these offerings and the dedication of the Temple were to glorify God. You can read this whole song of thanksgiving in 1 Chronicles 16 and verse 4 through verse 36. I won't read every single verse. This is a song that doesn't appear in the book of Psalms. It's one that's recorded in Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 16 verse 4, Continuing in verse 7, On that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren to thank the Lord. And here's how it goes. Verse 8.

How do we give thanks?

Isn't it wonderful how God created the colors? Isn't it wonderful how God created mankind? Aren't our bodies formed that are fearful and wonderfully made? You know, as we who have been given instructions and knowledge of a bigger purpose of salvation, we thank God daily for our salvation. That is not clearly known to the world at this time, but to us it is. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. You see why David was a man after God's own heart? He was just naturally bubbling with thanksgiving. He had his problems, but he certainly was very, very thankful. Now, I'm very grateful to the instructions I had from my dad about being thankful to others, making certain that we thanked people, that we praised them, that we acknowledged them, that we made certain they knew, that we appreciated what they gave to us.

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord seek, verse 11, the Lord and his strength, seek his face evermore. Remember, remember, that's a part, a very important part of thanksgiving. When you send a thank you card, what is it you're doing? You're remembering what was done to you. Remember, we should send God a thank you card. Remember his marvelous works, which he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. O seed of Israel, verse 13, his servant, your children of Jacob, his chosen ones, he is the Lord our God. His judgments are all the earth. Verse 15, remember his covenant forever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations. Verse 25, verse 23, which is thanksgiving for the gospel. Sing to the Lord at all the earth, proclaim the good news of his salvation. Would you thank God for the gospel that is being preached to the world from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all the people, for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. When you read this, I almost tremble with excitement about how David felt and how he just thanked God over and over again and thanked him. In working in the nonprofit world, in studying nonprofit techniques, one of the things was brought up about thanking your donors. Right now we're doing a much better job of that, even thanking God's people for their sacrifice, their donations to the church. We're doing much more friendly and personable thanksgiving to them. But a question was brought up. How many times should you thank your donors? When is enough? They said, it's never enough. Continually thank your donors. That was instructions that were given to people who run nonprofits. Be very, very thankful. Be effusive in thanksgiving. Be very specific and make certain that the people know that you appreciate their gift.

The end of verse 26. The Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him.

Verse 34. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. We know that song. We can almost hear it right now. For his mercy endures forever. We can certainly be thankful for the fact that God is merciful to us and doesn't judge us or condemn us or punish us for every wrong thought and every deed that we have done. Thank God for his grace. Also thank God for his mercy. And say, verse 35. O God of our salvation, gather us together and deliver us from the Gentiles. Give thanks to your holy name. From everlasting to everlasting, and all people said, Amen, so be it, and praise the Lord. A very important part of thanksgiving, which I will discover somewhat briefly, is the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, which you ought to read, which is also one about thanksgiving. But it's in the context of remembering the Lord, your God. In fact, a very important part of thanksgiving is remembering what people do for you, what God does for us, remembering God. Every commandment, verse 1 of Deuteronomy 8, which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess a land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. Verse 2, And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And we can apply this to us and the journey that we're taking, and be thankful even for the tests and trials that we have, and be thankful, as it says in 2 Thessalonians 2, 16, or 17 in the New Living Translation. Give thanks to God in all circumstances, not just for all the wonderful things He does, but God, thank you for the tests and trials that we've had. Thank you for the reversals that have taught me lessons. I have had painful times in my life that I've had to endure. And I said, what am I learning from this? I hate this. God, get me out of this. Or help me just really knuckle under it and to really get it. I have found God blessing me in great ways with new doors opening, restoring things to me. And I say, oh God, now I understand why you led me through that. I wouldn't have understood it if I wouldn't have had that trial.

So He humbled you, verse 5, allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. But when the people got manna, they had no way to grow food in the desert. A couple million people out there. And so God provided bread from heaven, manna. Oh, we hate this stuff.

We hate this stuff. Instead of being thankful to God, who knows what God could have done? He could have rained down other things. But He got upset with them and rained down quail that they stuffed themselves and many of them died from overeating. That He might make note to you, this is the manna story continuing, that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

This is quoted in Luke chapter 4. Jesus Christ quoted this to Satan, who was tempting him. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. That sure saved on clothing costs. Coals would have been astounded by this. You should know that in your heart that as a man chastens his son, the Lord your God chastens you. God loves us. Whatever God does to us is because of His love towards us.

Verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes. The first thing we should do every day is to thank God for getting out of bed, for being alive. I'm thankful to God for every day that I live. I'm very thankful to God for every day I can sit with my wife in our living room before I go to work.

You know, it just came to us just a couple days ago. You know, we are treasure these times because one day only one of us will be sitting here. So let's be thankful for the time that we have.

One of us will be dead and one will be continuing to live. Remember, do not forget the Lord. When you have eaten and are full, this is continuing in verse 12, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them. When your herds and your flocks multiply, when your stocks soar, and your silver and gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied.

Wouldn't you? When your heart is lifted up, that you do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. We can say that when He brought us out of sin, when He brought us out of the former life that we had, that many people are still stuck in, and yet we have been given an out at this time, from the house of bondage, sin.

Who led you? God is leading us through great and terrible wilderness. Verse 16, Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you, that He might test you to do good in the end. Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of My hand have gained me this wealth. That's the way the great financiers of this country say it. Look at how you can multiply your wealth. Well, where does it come from? It comes from God. Verse 18, And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant by which He swore to your fathers.

Then it shall be, if by any means you forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and worship them, including ourselves, including the gods of wealth, money, I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish. One day all this wealth has been built up. It'll be gone overnight.

A string will be pulled one day, just like it did in 1933 with the stock crash, or 29th stock crash. The string was pulled, and the whole economy collapsed. People didn't see it coming. We've seen inklings of it with a dot-com bubble burst. We've seen it with the housing markets crash. But there will be a big crash from what we have now. I don't know how it's going to happen. Honestly, how we can spend trillions of dollars by just printing more and more money. Somehow, the whole thing, it just doesn't make sense.

I'm just thankful that God right now is protecting us, protecting the Church, protecting your family, and say, God, thank you for keeping the economy what it is. But someday there will be a reckoning. So it's like my parents have told us, we don't want you to forget where we came from, and the people who have helped us, and how God has helped us.

You can read also the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy. I'll just read one verse, but read Deuteronomy 4, 1-10, because there are so many thoughts, and there are so many instructions about being thankful. Verse 7, For what great nation is there that has God so near to it? Do we be thankful for our Church that has our God so near to it? God is right here in this room. God is with us through His Holy Spirit right in this room, and we can be thankful for that.

As the Lord our God is to us, that for whatever reason we may call upon Him, our prayers are heard by Him. And what great nation is there that such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law, which I set before you this day? But take heed to yourself. This is instruction to us, as we thank God for His laws, as we thank God for His blessings, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And then, and you shall teach them to your children. We need to teach our children to be thankful.

Children are great imitators. Teach them to thank people. Teach them to make a little gift of some sort of craft of thanksgiving. My wife and I really appreciate when we have our scholarship program, and we have from countries, they send us a little book of their names, who receive what scholarships, and they just thank us. We don't want to put them through that trouble, but it was good for them to thank us.

And we feel good, they feel good, and they're benefited. But we should teach our children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in horror, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. This is something that we should never, never forget. Verse 23 of Deuteronomy 4, Take heed to yourself, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made to you. We should be very, very thankful in the Church.

So, Thanksgiving is a day that we can actively and proactively, not just, whoops, I've got to say thank you, I've just got to say thank you, maybe even purposely. But saying Thanksgiving was really thinking through what you have received and what God has given to you. The blessings that we have in this country, above any country, any nation, for that matter, any Church that's out there, we can be thankful for the body of blessings that God has given us. If you really come to think of it, I'm thankful to God for the understanding and knowledge that I have been given.

The Gospel that we preach. I'm thankful to God for the Church that we have. Our Church goes through all kinds of trials, human things. The trials are always human. They don't come from God. They're a function of our messing up, of our neglect. Of actions that kind of culminate, even with issues regarding vaccines, COVID, distancing, all that stuff.

It just goes on and on. But I can be very, very thankful that God has protected us. He's with us. He guides us. He's not going to force us into something that we are not able to overcome.

We have threats to us like the OSHA law that was forcing us to vaccinate all of our people, or to go through a very stringent process. But He delivered us. He delivered us that time. God will always deliver His people. We are His special people. We are His called out ones. And He will listen to us. He is as close as you and I are to one another. You can talk to Him. You can bring your concerns to Him.

I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. Neither am I angry. One thing that I found with the Ukrainian who prayed in the circle on the Sabbath, as the Sabbath approached. There was not one word of anger about their economic situation. Oh God! I just wish we had more. I just wish we were like these Americans.

Please make us more like the Americans. Not one. They said, God, thank You for giving us enough to eat this last week. That's what they said on the same day that they asked us to go stand in line for bread for them. They were very, very thankful for what they had.

There was not one single word of protest. There was not a single word of grumbling. And I was just so very impressed by that experience. Anyway, I'm looking forward to talking to you after services. It's been nice talking to you out there in Zoom land. And I'm looking forward to the question and answer session that we have afterwards.

This has been wonderful. I enjoy visiting congregations and talking to people. And in this congregation, having been here just one time, previously, maybe six years ago with George and Kathy, and our ill-fated trip last year, it wasn't so ill-fated because we had a lot of time to spend with the Burton's in the ease of their living room, so we were thankful for that. But also that it worked out here in this very wonderful and glorious atmosphere. May God bless you.