The First Thanksgiving

We know that the Mayflower left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 with 102 passengers, including three pregnant women, and a crew of about 30.  The voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Harbor is about 2,750 miles, and took the Mayflower 66 days.

Captain John Smith wrote,

"The Gentlemen and Merchants of London, and of other places, provided two ships:  The Mayflower, at 160 tons and the Speedwell of 70 tons.  Leaving the coast of England on the 23 of August, they were forced to return the next day when the Speedwell sprung a leak.  The Mayflower returned to sea, less 20 of her passengers, on the sixth of September, and on the ninth of November sighted land at Cape James (Cod); but having been pestered for nine weeks in this leaking unwholesome ship, lying wet in their cabins, most of them grew very weak, and weary of the sea."

From William Bradford, we have his account of the crossing:

"..... and now all being compact together in one ship, they put to sea again with a prosperous wind, which continued divers days together, which was some encouragement unto them; yet according to the usual manner many were afflicted with sea sickness.

“…..But to omit other things, (that I may be brief,) after long beating at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod; the which being made and certainly known to be it, they were not a little joyful.

"Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. "

Land was sighted on November 9, 1620 and landfall was made on the 11th; the passengers now numbered 103 and the crew about 29.

The Problem

Nothing was known of the area they had landed at, other than the Dutch had listed the area as inaccessible.  It was the beginning of a New England winter, a time of sharp and violent weather, with fierce storms.  The land was a desolate wilderness known to be full of wild beasts and savage men.  There was great fear of the Indians, however none were to be seen until the following spring.

An attempt was made to put up a fort; however this failed due to the arrival of snow and the winter was spent living on board the ship.  The settlers had planned to live on fish and hunting, however, fishing was poor and hunting was sparse throughout the winter.  According to the journals kept at the time, only 6-7 men were able to continue to hunt and work on building the fort, the rest being too ill or dying.  During this winter, 57 of the passengers were to die from disease, drowning or starvation. 

The First Thanksgiving

By March of 1621 and the coming of warmer weather, they observed the first Thanksgiving - giving thanks to God for His provision and the solemn sharing of five (5) ‘kernals of corne' (buckwheat), for each of the survivors as their daily meal.

No Indians, no town, almost no food.  Just a celebration of life.

Not quite the story you thought, was it?

Ten Simple Rules For Dating My Daughter

Rule One: If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two: You do not touch my daughter in front of me.  You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck.  If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three: I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys your age to wear their trousers so loose that they appear to be falling off.  Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots.  Still, I want to be fair and open-minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object.  However, to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during your date with my daughter, I will use my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely to your waist.

Rule Four: I'm sure you've been told that in today's world sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you.  Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five: In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics and other issues of the day.  Please do not do this.  The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."

Rule Six: I have no doubt you are a popular fellow with many opportunities to date other girls.  This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter.  Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date and no one but her until she is finished with you.  If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven: As you stand in my front hallway waiting for my daughter to appear and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget.  If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating.  My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge.  Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight: The following places are inappropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas or anything softer than a wooden stool; Place where there are no parents, policemen or nuns within sight; Places where there is darkness; Places where there is dancing, holding hands or happiness; Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough for my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops and midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat.  Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which feature chainsaws are okay.  Hockey games are okay too.  Old folks' homes are even better.

Rule Nine: Do not lie to me.  I may appear to be a pot-bellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been.  But on issues relating to my daughter I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe.  If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  I have a shotgun, a shovel and five acres behind my house.  Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten: Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy outside of Hanoi.  When my Agent Orange acts up the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home.  As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight.  Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car--there is no need for you to come inside.  The camouflaged face watching you from the window is mine.

Knowing God’s Leading

First, always remember that anyone's belief, mine – yours - anyone's, no matter how strongly held, can be equally as wrong.  Being a Christian is no guarantee of being right nor having an opinion worth listening to.  Yes, Christians can be just as dumb as a stump, just as with any group of people.

My God is capable of doing almost anything (except contradicting himself!); so nothing surprises me when it comes to watching Him at work.  You will need to understand I am very much a conservative in my approach to theology (Reformation based and a literalist) but very much a liberal in my acceptance of the Holy Spirit (not a ‘Pentecostal’ though).

People have written whole books on the single subject of how do we know when God is talking to us and how does He do this.  One I have used through the years is: ‘Knowing God’s Will and Doing It’, by J. Grant Howard, Jr.  So, I will not attempt in so few words to summarize whole books, but basically there are a few thoughts I would share:

The Holy Spirit was promised to all believers - so if you have accepted Jesus’ payment for your sin - we know you have this already in your life.

The Holy Spirit gives you special gifts to use for its own purposes - mostly in support of the body of believers and their mission.  When a gift is being ‘displayed’ that is apart from this purpose - start to become a cynic no matter whom or what is involved.  If you always err on the side of caution – your spiritual life will be kept safe.

When God has something to tell you, He will tell you.  He does not need someone else to come into your life to tell you, if you are walking in faith and not having misled yourself.  If you are misled or have plugged your spiritual ears, well prayer is our tool to seek God’s help with!  And, He has promised to answer – if you will wait on and listen for the answer.

With me, God has used dreams, odd arising situations and just by speaking to my spirit.

Dreams are probably where most bad religious practice comes from!  God does use dreams, so we can not discount them.  However, he is not necessarily the only originator of dreams!  I know well enough my fertile mind is quite capable of coming

up with some real oddities.  So, again great caution must be exercised when deciding if a dream is from God or not.

When I dreamt I was a turtle swimming in a sea of Japanese calligraphy - I doubt that was of God.  If it was, I have no clue what it would have meant.  When I dreamt of the Eastern Bloc being pulled to the West - I could not have understood the collapse of the Soviet Union and westernization of the Eastern Bloc countries - but I did understand that God was trying to tell me something that I needed to respond to.  (And did.)

Dreams can be hard to interpret and you can easily misunderstand what the message was to have been (always good to have someone around to bounce ideas off of and whom you will not be offended by if they pooh-pooh what ever you thought it was).

Did you know that there are about 14,000 tablets from Babylon dedicated to the translation of dreams?  It was recognized by the ancient world dreams had meaning and one could possibly see into the future, if you could only understand them.

Perhaps one could see into the future through a dream, but God generally is not concerned with revealing His future plans to either you or me.  How do I know this?  Well we already know our future (heaven), we already know what it is we are supposed to be doing on this Earth (witnessing and teaching) and His work in the world is really none of our business. 

True, Paul was called to Roman Asia through a dream, Peter was shown Gentiles were to be allowed into the church, etc.  So we can see directions in ministry given as examples of this in our Bible.  But let us not discount Daniel's dreams, nor the dreams of the Babylonian Kings and of John.  Yes, God does use dreams for prediction and prophesy but I think you can see a difference here in the quality and quantity of value.  We have no examples of a dream being used to show you whom would be your spouse or for any other daily concern!

God is far more active in our lives than I think we give Him credit for, even if you think you notice all of His handiwork in your life, there is still a ton more to be discovered!  His leading is sometimes not understandable until decades later when you look back and you go – “Oh my!” 

For a real but horrible example: I was hit by a truck while biking in 1995.  I survived and was quite angry about having to buy a new bike – as it was hit and run.  But, this happened again in 1996, only this time part of my spine was severely damaged.  Now this was a pretty hard pill to swallow when you are a scuba diver, mountain climber, hiker, backpacker and long distance bicycler!  But, only because of this accident, did I find out I had spinal cancer.  So, I sought out the surgeon whom invented the surgery I was to undergo and I walked into that hospital knowing I had only a narrow chance of surviving the operation (5% !).  If you want to talk about trusting your future to God!  Yes, I was crippled between the accident and the operation - walking was now something I would not be doing again.

But, I have been walking, albeit at times with a cane.  How come?  Well, I was surfing the web and discovered a German laboratory which was documenting the long term effects of using an Italian discovery called alpha-lipoic acid, as derived from potatoes skins.  It causes nerve regeneration.  So, I started taking this drug and my spine, either through God's direct hand or His leading - regenerated.  This does not happen, we are talking MIRACLE here!

So, my spine has been healing and a tremendous amount of good came from this - this drug is now officially recommended for people with spinal damage or surgeries!

But, this was not what this whole incident was about.  God was leading me back into teaching youth - something I had walked away from, mostly in disgust over the politics behind most church programs.  So, I needed to learn to ‘suck it up’ and be willing to be used and transparent again.  And I need a year to write and prepare those lessons.  That was what it took for me to turn my life around – may all your lessons be far less painful!

Equally, and hopefully less drastic, God will bring people and situations into your life - just when you need them.  Because He is a loving God he does not leave us alone to ‘suck it up’ but rather gives us the support we need, just when we need it.  You have no idea how amazing His work is in this area.

As I lay in the hospital after my surgery and the many months in bed at home, God had people call and chat with me.  Some were from my new church - I have no idea whom they were, I was a little out of it for months!  Some were not Christian but they too ministered to me.  One guy in particular, called me everyday for months like clockwork just to chat.  I do not know why he did it but I know that it was humbling to know he understood my needs better than my family.  I do not know if he died a Christian or not, I know his daughter was one.  Because of his insertion into my life, I learned to pray for him and for his heart to soften towards God.  Since, ALL prayers are answered, I know God made the opportunity for him, I just pray he took it.

Of course, not all such situations are so traumatic, sometimes it is just the quiet voice in my mind or spirit telling me to take a different route home, so I take a different route.  And, sometimes I find I avoided a horrible accident on the other road or found someone in need along the route I selected as an alternative.

How do I know when God is telling my spirit something?  Well, if it is something I would have naturally of thought of - it probably was not of God.  That does not mean that I will not do what ever it is, but I will be more cautious about advancing forward.

So, in my life, if one of my friends tells me something about my future God has not told me (and yes this happens often!) - I take it with a grain of salt.  I am not going to hold my breath to wait and see if it is going to happen or not.  I will not work against it happening but I will not work towards it either.  If God wants me in a certain situation, He has to work it out - I'm just along for the ride.  And until directed otherwise, I continue to do what I do because I do try to be faithful to His leading (and someone else's dream or inspiration is not God's leading for me!).

Thus, when someone tells you your future or whom you should date or marry, etc – thank them and wait upon the Lord…….

Bill Boards

Issac Newton – Contempt From The World

“They will call thee it may be a hot headed fellow, a Bigot, a Fanatic, a Heretic etc: And tell thee of the uncertainty of these interpretations, and vanity of attending them: Not considering that prophecies concerning our Savior's first coming were of more difficult interpretation, yet God rejected the Jews for not attending better to them. And whither they will believe it or not, there are greater judgments hang over Christians for their remissness then ever the Jews ever felt. But the world loves to be deceived, they will not understand, they never consider equally, but are wholly led by prejudice, interest, the praise of men, and the authority of the Church they live in: as it is plain because all parties keep close to the Religion they have been brought up in, and yet in all parties there are wise and learned as well as fools and ignorant.

There are but a few that seek to understand therein, do it for worldly ends, or that they may defend it, then for worldly, to examine whither it be true with a resolution to choose and profess that which in their judgment appears to be the truest. And as is their faith, so is their practice. For where there are men that do never yield to anger nor seek revenge, nor disobey governors, nor censure or speak evil of them, nor cheat, nor lie, nor swear, nor use God's name idly in their common talk, nor are proud, nor ambitious, nor covet, nor unchaste, nor drink immoderately? Where are they that live like primitive Christians, that love God with all their hearts and with all their souls, and with all their might, and their neighbors as themselves; and in all that they do are well are not led by fashions and principles of Gentility then religion, and where those disagree do not account it rudeness to deport from the former? I fear there are but very few whose righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.

This is the guise of the world, therefore trust it not, nor value their censures and contempt. But rather consider it that it is the wisdom of God that His Church should appear despicable to the world to try the faithful. For this end He made it a curse under the Law to hang upon a tree that the scandal of the Cross might be a trial to the Jews; and for a like Trial of the Christians he hath suffered the Apostasy of the latter times, as is declared in calling it the hour of temptation which should be upon the world to try them that dwell upon the earth Rev 3:10. Be not therefore scandalized at the reproaches of the world but rather look upon them as a mark of the true church.”

Issac Newton – Do Not Rush To Be A Teacher

“But yet I would not have thee too forward in becoming a teacher, like those men who catch a few similitude's and scripture phrases, and fore want of further knowledge make use of them to censure and reproach superiors and rail at all things that displease them. Be not heady like them, but first be thoroughly instructed thy self and not only in the Prophetic Scripture but more especially in the plain doctrines and delivered therein so as to put them in practice and make them familiar and habitual to thy self. And when thou hast thus pulled out the beam from thine own eye then shalt clearly to pull the mote out of thy Brothers eye. Otherwise how wilt thou say to thy Brother, "Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own eye".  “