Abraham Lincoln offers Thanksgiving to God
October 3, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln Establishes the annual day of ThanksIn response to the persistent requests of Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, President Abraham Lincoln was the first president to establish an annual day of thanksgiving. This was to occur on the last Thursday in November as a day of repentance and humility before God almighty. Here are Lincoln's exact words issued in his proclamation that day:The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863.Thank you, President Lincoln, for a reminder as timely now as it was then. Happy Thanksgiving to every reader, American and people of all nations. And thank you, dear Lord, for your grace and kindness to all, which is far greater than anything we deserve.
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.comwww.epm.org
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Just Do It
11/21/2008 1:40:00 PM
11/21/2008 1:40:00 PM
I tend to procrastinate. So to fight that tendency, I’ve posted the following quote from a nineteenth-century preacher under my computer monitor. I hope these words inspire you to attend diligently to the most important matters each day, by God’s grace.
It reads:
It reads:
No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.
-Alexander MacLaren (1826–1910), Scottish preacher
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Renowned Serbian joins former abortionists in becoming ProLife
The Catholic News Agency Online issued this remarkable report. My comments follow:
MADRID, November 13, 2008 (CNA) - The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country."The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name.""Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream."They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him."Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated."That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion - something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby's heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being."After this experience, Adasevic "told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university." After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas."You are my good friend, keep going,” the man in black and white told him.“Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslavtelevision to air the film 'The Silent Scream,' by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times."Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.....Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
From Randy: Many years ago, when we spoke at the same prolife event, I met and conversed with Bernard Nathanson, now in his eighties. At the time he still had no faith in God, though since then he has become a Catholic.What Dr. Nathanson became convinced of was that the 75,000 abortions he had committed were all the killing of children. His lies to the media, spoken from his position as co-founder of NARAL, were widely spread throughout the country and helped create the climate in which abortion-on-demand was made into law by the Supreme Court.
I refer to Dr. Nathanson (whose most recent book is titled The Hand of God) often in my prolife books, for instance in Why Pro-Life? under the section "Is Abortion Really a Women's Rights Issue?" I personally know another physician who used to perform abortions and joined us in peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics nearly twenty years ago. Our friend Carol Everett was director of four Dallas abortion clinics, and owner of two. She was responsible for the clinics' daily operation and knows the abortion industry inside out. She had an abortion soon after it became legal in 1973, and now speaks out about the ugliness she saw and was part of in the abortion industry.
There are countless physicians and "abortion providers" whose eyes are now open to the truth. Here are links to the stories of a number of them: www.prolifeaction.org/providers/ You can also order a "Meet the Abortion Providers" video at www.prolifeaction.org/store/#providers
I am grateful that Dr. Adasevic of Serbia has joined the ranks of those who know first hand the terrible truth our culture, and often even Christians, want to deny: abortion kills children.www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
The Catholic News Agency Online issued this remarkable report. My comments follow:
MADRID, November 13, 2008 (CNA) - The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country."The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name.""Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream."They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him."Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated."That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion - something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby's heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being."After this experience, Adasevic "told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university." After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas."You are my good friend, keep going,” the man in black and white told him.“Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslavtelevision to air the film 'The Silent Scream,' by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times."Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.....Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
From Randy: Many years ago, when we spoke at the same prolife event, I met and conversed with Bernard Nathanson, now in his eighties. At the time he still had no faith in God, though since then he has become a Catholic.What Dr. Nathanson became convinced of was that the 75,000 abortions he had committed were all the killing of children. His lies to the media, spoken from his position as co-founder of NARAL, were widely spread throughout the country and helped create the climate in which abortion-on-demand was made into law by the Supreme Court.
I refer to Dr. Nathanson (whose most recent book is titled The Hand of God) often in my prolife books, for instance in Why Pro-Life? under the section "Is Abortion Really a Women's Rights Issue?" I personally know another physician who used to perform abortions and joined us in peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics nearly twenty years ago. Our friend Carol Everett was director of four Dallas abortion clinics, and owner of two. She was responsible for the clinics' daily operation and knows the abortion industry inside out. She had an abortion soon after it became legal in 1973, and now speaks out about the ugliness she saw and was part of in the abortion industry.
There are countless physicians and "abortion providers" whose eyes are now open to the truth. Here are links to the stories of a number of them: www.prolifeaction.org/providers/ You can also order a "Meet the Abortion Providers" video at www.prolifeaction.org/store/#providers
I am grateful that Dr. Adasevic of Serbia has joined the ranks of those who know first hand the terrible truth our culture, and often even Christians, want to deny: abortion kills children.www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Extremists Demand
End to Christian Activity in Orissa
 Since August 23, dozens of churches in Orissa have been damaged or destroyed by anti-Christian extremists. (Photo courtesy of the Global Council of Indian Christians) |
Two of the anti-Christian extremist groups responsible for the violence against Christians in Orissa, India, are demanding that the state government ban Christian witnessing and officially honor their murdered leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. At the same time, Orissa's state government announced that it would give up to 200,000 rupees ($3,990) to the churches whose buildings were destroyed and 100,000 rupees ($1,995) for those that were damaged.
About 50,000 people representing the Sangh Parivar and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) extremist groups rallied in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, on November 15. They have made the following demands of the state government:
- Arrest the killers of Swami Laxamananda Saraswati.
- Stop all Christian conversions and the slaughtering of cows in Orissa.
- Grant national awards to the slain Swami for his service, like those granted to famed Catholic nun Mother Teresa, who ministered to thousands of poverty-stricken Indians in Calcutta during her lifetime.
If these demands are not met by December 15, the extremists say they will organize a bandh, an illegal statewide strike that shuts down all transportation and commerce, on December 25. Some are saying the ultimate purpose of the threats appears to be preventing Christians from returning to their villages in time to celebrate Christmas.
The Sangh Parivar and VHP speakers at the event said they were simply demanding that Orissa officials properly enforce the Orissa “Freedom of Religion” Act. In spite of its name, the law places restrictions on people who choose to follow Christ or become Muslims.
 Anti-Christian extremists have been on a rampage against Christians since August 23. Now they have presented the Orissa government with a list of demands and are threatening to shut down the state on December 25. (Photo courtesy of the Global Council of Indian Christians) |
Speakers at the rally also lashed out at state and federal politicians who have condemned the violence against Christians, saying they are simply protecting the Swami's killers. Three people, including two Christians, were arrested for the murder of the Swami, in spite of the fact that the Maoist group known as the Naxalites has taken responsibility for the murder.
Although the offer of government assistance to rebuild churches is appealing to Christians, they also express concern that excessive demands for documentation will prevent the churches from actually receiving the funds. The VHP is actively opposing the move, saying the government has no right to spend taxpayer funds to appease the Christian community.
Gospel for Asia's leaders in Orissa ask for prayer for wisdom for the government in dealing with the extremists' demands. They also ask you to pray for the many Christians who are still hiding out in the jungles and forests as the bitter cold winter weather arrives in the state.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Simplify Your Spiritual Life (by Donald Whitney)
Does your spiritual life sometimes seem more like a burden than a blessing? Does your spirituality seem to exhaust you as often as it refreshes you? Have your spiritual practices become "just another thing to do" in an already overcrowded, stress-filled schedule? If so, then you need to simplify your spiritual life.
We should expect part of true spirituality to exhaust us, for it exists not merely for our own edification, but to serve the glory and purposes of God. Jesus' spiritual labors occasionally so fatigued Him that He could fall asleep in an open boat in the middle of a lake during a life-threatening storm (Luke 8:22-25). Likewise, the Apostle Paul knew the depletion of inner resources that results from the willingness to "spend and be spent" for the sake of the souls of others (2 Corinthians 12:15). All aspects of externalized spirituality—serving people's needs, doing good works, taking the Gospel to the spiritually lost, working in church ministries—all these expend the reserves of both body and soul.
There's a problem, though, when the inflow of spiritual renewal doesn't replenish the outflow of spiritual ministry. For the spiritual life should also be the source of inner recreation and restoration since it is the way we most directly experience the Lord Himself in daily life. Through our spiritual disciplines (rightly motivated and practiced) come many of the most refreshing blessings of knowing Christ.
An example of how the spiritual disciplines can be an ongoing means of reinvigorating the soul occurs in Psalm 1:2-3. Frequent meditation on (and not just reading) God's Word so continually refreshes the meditator that, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."
However, as everything else in our lives becomes more complex, so can our spirituality. As one writer observed, "The pattern of overinvolvement, clutter, and busyness that is a part of our lives at home and at work will follow us into our spiritual lives unless we are vigilant." With increasing prosperity and technology come increasing opportunities and options—even in our spiritual practices—that weren't available a short time ago. For instance, instead of simply sitting in a comfortable chair by a sunny window with our Bible, journal, and pen, now we can
Receive devotional readings sent daily by automatic email.
Read the Bible in several of the many translations we possess, including those on our computer.
Make journal entries on the computer by keyboard or voice-recognition software, inserting interesting graphics along with the text.
Envelop our devotional experience with worship-enhancing audio and/or video.
But it all needs to be done faster than ever before because of the strangling demands on our time.
The growing frustrations of hurry and complexity affect the practice not only of our personal spiritual disciplines, but of our congregational spiritual disciplines (the ones we practice with other Christians) as well. There's less time for church involvement than previously, and yet there are more church activities to choose from. We're so far behind in so many things that sometimes we wonder if what we receive from church is worth the overwhelming effort just to get there.
In some ways we're doing more than ever spiritually, but enjoying and profiting from it less. Many areas of our lives are productive and prosperous, yet we've never felt so spiritually withered. Our calendars are full, but our souls are empty.
The time has come to evaluate whether what we are doing in our spiritual lives is taking us where we want to go. There is hope. Read on.
From Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2003). Copyright © 2002, Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.
We should expect part of true spirituality to exhaust us, for it exists not merely for our own edification, but to serve the glory and purposes of God. Jesus' spiritual labors occasionally so fatigued Him that He could fall asleep in an open boat in the middle of a lake during a life-threatening storm (Luke 8:22-25). Likewise, the Apostle Paul knew the depletion of inner resources that results from the willingness to "spend and be spent" for the sake of the souls of others (2 Corinthians 12:15). All aspects of externalized spirituality—serving people's needs, doing good works, taking the Gospel to the spiritually lost, working in church ministries—all these expend the reserves of both body and soul.
There's a problem, though, when the inflow of spiritual renewal doesn't replenish the outflow of spiritual ministry. For the spiritual life should also be the source of inner recreation and restoration since it is the way we most directly experience the Lord Himself in daily life. Through our spiritual disciplines (rightly motivated and practiced) come many of the most refreshing blessings of knowing Christ.
An example of how the spiritual disciplines can be an ongoing means of reinvigorating the soul occurs in Psalm 1:2-3. Frequent meditation on (and not just reading) God's Word so continually refreshes the meditator that, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."
However, as everything else in our lives becomes more complex, so can our spirituality. As one writer observed, "The pattern of overinvolvement, clutter, and busyness that is a part of our lives at home and at work will follow us into our spiritual lives unless we are vigilant." With increasing prosperity and technology come increasing opportunities and options—even in our spiritual practices—that weren't available a short time ago. For instance, instead of simply sitting in a comfortable chair by a sunny window with our Bible, journal, and pen, now we can
Receive devotional readings sent daily by automatic email.
Read the Bible in several of the many translations we possess, including those on our computer.
Make journal entries on the computer by keyboard or voice-recognition software, inserting interesting graphics along with the text.
Envelop our devotional experience with worship-enhancing audio and/or video.
But it all needs to be done faster than ever before because of the strangling demands on our time.
The growing frustrations of hurry and complexity affect the practice not only of our personal spiritual disciplines, but of our congregational spiritual disciplines (the ones we practice with other Christians) as well. There's less time for church involvement than previously, and yet there are more church activities to choose from. We're so far behind in so many things that sometimes we wonder if what we receive from church is worth the overwhelming effort just to get there.
In some ways we're doing more than ever spiritually, but enjoying and profiting from it less. Many areas of our lives are productive and prosperous, yet we've never felt so spiritually withered. Our calendars are full, but our souls are empty.
The time has come to evaluate whether what we are doing in our spiritual lives is taking us where we want to go. There is hope. Read on.
From Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2003). Copyright © 2002, Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.
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