Thanksgiving Day at the English Farm

Thanksgiving Day at the English Farm

Thanksgiving Day at the English Farm November 28, 2013 was a special time for us.  We celebrated our loving parents, our heritage of Christian faith and thanked God for all our many blessings.  We recognized our losses this year and asked God to keep them until we are reunited.

Psalm 118

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    his love endures forever.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you;

    you are my God, and I will exalt you.

29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    his love endures forever.

Psalm 100

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2     Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 111 

1 Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart

    in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

2 Great are the works of the Lord;

    they are pondered by all who delight in them.

3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds,

    and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered;

    the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

5 He provides food for those who fear him;

    he remembers his covenant forever.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,

    giving them the lands of other nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;

    all his precepts are trustworthy.

8 They are established for ever and ever,

    enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He provided redemption for his people;

    he ordained his covenant forever—

    holy and awesome is his name.

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

    all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

    To him belongs eternal praise.

2 Corinthians 4 

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

 

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

 

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.