Lesson 18-16 Happy Thanksgiving

Our number one desire for these Bible lessons are for them to be understandable, defendable, and for the Holy Spirit to bear witness that the conclusions are the true, and correct interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

Guidelines for our Bible studies on this website:

1. We treat the living words of the living God as spoken by the Lord Jesus and given to the Apostle Paul for the Body of Christ the same importance, as the words of the Lord Jesus recorded in red letters in the books of Matthew – Acts Chp. 8, as what should be known as the instructions to the nation Israel.      

2. We will not be wresting the scriptures against each other, we will look at the verses in their context, and will not try to make the scriptures say anything, but what they say.

3. We will be using the verses out of the Authorized Version, commonly known as the KJV. It is fine if you want to look the verses up in other translations if you like, but we will consider the Authorized Version as our final written authority.

4. We do not and will not use the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin languages to prove any points, or give any indication that the Authorized Version has been incorrectly translated. 

I hope these studies are interesting enough to provoke you to study your Bible and for you to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We will resume our lessons on unlearning unsound doctrine after the Thanksgiving Holiday. But now we will look at the giving of thanks and it’s importance in the Christian’s life.

There is much in the history books on when Thanksgiving the holiday officially began in America, for the most part it is agreed that in 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians, shared an autumn harvest feast, was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

Officially Abraham Lincoln in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care to all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation” he made it an official American Holiday.

Now to start our study of what the Christian’s attitude should be toward the giving of thanks, I looked up all the verses where the word thanks, or one of it's derivatives appears in the New Testament.

What I found is that the word thank, thanks, thanked, thankful, thanksgiving, and thankworthy appears 71 times in the New Testament.

Out of those 71 times the word thank or one of it's derivatives only appears 18 times before the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Out of those eighteen times the word thank or a derivative of thank appears as repeats in the same recorded events in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and as such is used even less than 18 times. Just as an information point the word thank or a derivative of it is used in the Old Testament only 68 times, which is interesting in that the Old Testament is much larger in content than the New Testament.

Interestingly enough the actual word thanksgiving also does not appear in the New Testament, until it appears and is spoken by the Apostle Paul in his epistles.

After the Pauline epistles the word thanks is only used 3 times, thanksgiving 1 time and thankworthy 1 time.

For the record the Apostle Paul spoke or used the word thanks or thanksgiving 43 times when giving instructions to the Body of Christ, or Christians living in the dispensation of grace. 

Remember Paul is our Apostle and gives the instructions that Christians are to follow in this time period of history.

I would like to share a few of those verses with you where Paul gives thanks to God as an example of how I believe we as Christians should also be thankful, not just on Thanksgiving the holiday, but every day we should be giving the Lord Jesus thanks for the wonderful gift of life, not only in this world but in the world to come.

Acts.27 [35] And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.

In the verse above we see the practice repeated by the Apostle Paul that we witnessed in the Gospel accounts of the Lord Jesus giving thanks for food before being received.

This practice of giving thanks before eating a meal was very common thirty or forty years ago among Christians.

Today if you see someone bow their head and give thanks before a meal it is a rarity and seems almost out of place when someone is seen in a restaurant giving thanks to the Lord Jesus for their meal.

I believe we as Christians are missing out on a great opportunity to share our faith with others by not bowing our heads and giving thanks to God for our food when we are out in public. I have had many people over the years come up to me after this practice to share with me how nice it was to see someone to give thanks for their meal.

1Cor.15 [57] But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2Cor.2 [14] Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

In the verses above we see Paul giving thanks for our victory and triumph as Christians, which we have in the Lord Jesus. This is another good example of how we should be offering thanks to the Lord God/Jesus.

2Cor.4 [15] For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2Cor.8 [16] But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.

2Cor.9 [15] Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Just think how wonderful it will be when we spend an eternity with the one who loved us and died for us and has given us the gift of eternal life. Tit.1 [2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Eph.1 [15] Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, [16] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

Eph.5 [3] But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; [4] Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

Here in Ephesians we see a list of behaviors that are common among us today, Paul said we should not be partakes of those things as Christians, but we should rather be giving thanks.

Recently I made a decision to quit watching a TV show that I enjoyed watching, but due to the filthy language being used I just felt like I could no longer as a Christian justify exposing myself to that type of language. I thought of Lot who vexed his righteous soul daily with the unlawful deeds of the Sodomites.  In 1Cor.15 verse 33 it is written “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” Our society has seen the use of communication devices explode over the last thirty years with the advent of Computers, Cell Phones, IPads, etc. and as wonderful as these devices are, much of what they are used for is to promote a lifestyle that is contrary to the Lord Jesus and living a righteous life.

Eph.5 [20] Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Phil.4 [6] Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Col.1 [3] We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

Col.1 [12] Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Col.2 [7] Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Col.3 [17] And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

1Thes.1 [2] We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;

1Thes.3 [9] For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;

1Thes.5 [18] In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

2Thes.2 [13] But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

When we look at the Holy Scriptures to determine what the Christians attitude should be toward thanksgiving we can only come to one conclusion, we should be a very thankful people not only on Thanksgiving the Holiday but every day!

I said this before and I say it again, the study of the Bible will affect how you live your life, how you treat your friends, family, enemies, how you drive, work, and behave yourself every day.

When you trust in the Lord Jesus as your savior you will be a different person!

What a great day that will be when Jesus Christ returns in all his glory, friend don’t let that day take you unawares. Today Jesus has his arms outstretched and open to sinners to put their trust in him. One day we will all stand before him either as our savior or our judge, don’t put it off invite Jesus to save you today!

"The crowd that will not accept one truth will decay to the point that it does not accept one God: many denominations, many translations, many gods."

All of the confusion among Christianity/Christians today can be attributed to the simple fact that the church, the Body of Christ, does not recognize the separate, distinct, and unique apostleship, ministry, and message of Paul.

If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus as your savior, I encourage you to believe in him and invite him to save you today! All one needs to do is to trust and believe in the Lord Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to be made new in him.

Gal.2

[16] Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified

Eph.3

[17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, [19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

The words of our Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles!

2Tim.2 [15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Come join with us as we study God’s Holy Word!

Remember most unsound Bible Doctrine, is sound Bible Doctrine misapplied to the wrong time period, or wrong group of people.

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