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.