Seven Kernels of Corn

We are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, a wonderful time of sharing with family and friends. Hopefully you will have that opportunity to spend time with some of your favorite people, share good food, laugh and enjoy the day. But I also hope that you will take time to count your blessings also.

Most of us are aware of some of the reasoning for the holiday, the celebration of the Pilgrims who traveled from another land far away who had survived. They didn’t have it easy as you know, sickness, starvation, death were a very real part of their existence. It was recorded that they averaged 3 deaths per day and less than 50% of their original group lasted through the winter. At one point they were near starvation and each person had to exist on only seven kernels of corn a day.

I have trouble imagining living that kind of existence, though I have seen some of it personally in other countries. Even there I never had to endure what the people around me had to endure. It was at times overwhelming to say the least. Perhaps you have experienced those conditions, perhaps you have seen it up close and personal. If so, then you have some idea of how those first colonist suffered, yet they stopped to count their blessings.

I have been told that some families make a real effort to remember their blessings as they celebrate Thanksgiving by using Seven Kernels of Corn. They place seven kernels of corn beside each plate and ask each person to tell seven things they are thankful for. Not a bad idea is it?

I’m sure that each of us will have far more than seven kernels of corn to eat this Thanksgiving holiday. But because of that many will not really stop and think about how blessed we are. For many, the day has become about food, football and parades, not about counting your blessings. If that’s true in your family, maybe it’s time you help them refocus of what the day is supposed to be about, “Giving Thanks.” We sing a short hymn that has these words, perhaps we need to sing them more often. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” (Doxology, Thomas Ken).

What Good Is Christianity?

Christianity
is really under attack at this time in our world, it is seems especially in our
country. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. If you set back and be nothing, or
do nothing, have no opinions or thoughts that differ from those which are
deemed “politically correct,” then you will be left alone. If however you have
strong beliefs and either act upon them or express them, you can expect to be
attacked. That’s the nature of Satan and those who have been persuaded to
believe as he teaches.

It
is interesting to see and hear those who are on the side of evil, those who
proclaim that God is dead, or that the Bible is no longer relevant or is
outdated, screaming out their hateful criticism of Christians. However let me
remind you that being a Christian is more than just wearing a name, it is a
life style, it is woven through our belief in what is morally right or wrong.
It effects our relationship to our world and those who share this world with
us.

The
following story makes a good point: A
preacher and the president of a soap manufacturing company went for a walk
together. The president said, "What good is Christianity? Look at all the
trouble and misery of the world! Look at the anger, at the division among people.
It’s still there, even after years, thousands of years, of teaching about
goodness and truth and love and peace. Still there, after all the sermons and
teachings. If Christianity is good and true, why should this be?" The
preacher said nothing.

They
continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter. Then the
preacher said, "Look at that child. You say that soap makes people clean,
but see the dirt on that youngster. Of what good is soap? With all the soap in
the world, over all these years, the child is still filthy. I wonder how
effective soap is, after all!"

The
president of the soap company protested, "But preacher, soap cannot do any
good unless it is used!" "Exactly," replied the preacher.
"Exactly."

You
may not be able to change much of the world, you may not be able to stop all of
the hate that is being directed towards those of us who claim to be Christians,
but just like with dirt, you have to start washing somewhere. Little by little
the whole body becomes clean if we don’t stop washing….

Of
course the washing starts with ourselves. Peter wrote long ago, “to those who were disobedient
long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being
built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and
this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt
from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s
right hand with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (1
Peter 3:20-21).

What
good is Christianity? It gives us a moral compass that points to God! It makes
us clean and it saves those eternally who are washed clean, (1 Corinthians
6:9-11).

GOD WILL PROVIDE

We live in trying, unsettled,
unsure times but for those of us who are Christians it is good to know that God
is there for us. We trust in God, we rely upon God, we believe that God will
provide what is necessary. After all Paul writes in Romans 8:28, “And we know
that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose.” 

But, is there more to living by
faith than just believing and trusting? I believe there is!

A friend shared this story with
me that speaks to this problem. “A girl brought home her fiance, a theology
student, to meet her parents for the first time. Her father was keen to learn
what prospects the boy had.

"How do you plan to make a living?" asked the father. "I don't
know," said the student, "but God will provide." The father
raised his eyebrows. "Do you own a car?" "No," said the
student, "but God will provide." "I see. And where are you
thinking of living once you're married? "No idea, but I'm sure God will
provide."

Later the mother asked the father
what he thought of their prospective son-in-law. "Not a lot, really,"
sighed the father. "He's got no money and seems to have given precious
little thought to the future. But on the positive side, he must think I'm
God!"

You see it is a act of faith to
trust in God and trust that he will provide, but God also instructs us that our
faith requires some actions to have God work in our lives. James 2:14-16 tells us, “What good is it, my
brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can
such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and
daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,”
but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

The
attitude of the young man in the story above is not a new concept. It is my
understanding that when the Gospel was first preached that people really,
really believed that Christ was coming back very soon. They gave up there jobs
and set with others in their places of worship and prayed and sang waiting for
the Lord to come back, believing that God would provide for them. In response
to to that problem, Paul wrote in 1
Thessalonians 3:10-11, “While we were with you, we used to tell you,
“Whoever refuses to work is not allowed to eat.”

I honestly believe that God will
provide, but I am also very committed to the fact that He requires us to do
something to make that happen.

If you want your life to be
blessed, then work at it, if you want your church to be blessed, then work at
it and God will provide the increase.