Thought For the Week

Dear Friends, As one who grew up just about an hour from Plymouth, Massachusetts, and one who was raised in a Congregational Church (tracing our spiritual roots back to Christ through the Pilgrims) Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. Therefore, since Thanksgiving is just two days away, I offer you this selection. It's the last one-third of an article entitled, “Who Were the Pilgrims Who Celebrated the First Thanksgiving?” by Craig Lambert. I have added what I consider to be some helpful or necessary explanatory notes of my own into his text! His words are a good reminder of the life-and-death-struggle that preceded the celebration of what we have come to call, “the first Thanksgiving.” Enjoy. Who Were the Pilgrims Who Celebrated the First Thanksgiving? “The Mayflower’s manifest made an unlikely expeditionary force. [Of the 102 people onboard] Fewer than fifty were adult men, many of mature years, while at least thirty were children, and nearly twe

Dear Friends, For many here in the U.S. it’s probably too late to send this post out, since the polls in most states opened at 7:00 a.m. and many of you will have voted before ever seeing this when they close at 8:00 p.m. Yet, I still felt it was worth sharing. It’s an article that focuses on the advice which the well-known 18th century evangelist, John Wesley, gave to his followers in the face of a less than charitable political election in his day. Wesley had been preaching in some small English towns near Bristol, England, where a very contentious election for Parliament was about to take place later that October in 1774. The chief candidates were Edmund Burke and Henry Cruger, who differed in their political ideologies, their positions on the American colonies, and issues regarding the religion and the church. Wesley’s comments to his followers are still worthy of our consideration today, along with the comments of Dr. Matt O’Reilly who expounds

Dear Friends, I once baptized a twenty-something year old man by immersion in a river in Westport, Massachusetts, late in March or early April. All who attended were in coats or sweatshirts, and though there was no ice floating on the water, the water was so cold it took my breath away! Yet, he was insistent that he wanted to be baptized then, by immersion, and not wait for warmer weather. Then, after the baptism, our teenage foster-daughter asked me, "Dad, why did you baptize a grownup?" Having been raised Catholic she had only ever seen babies baptized. So I explained the biblical rationale for baptizing believers. Of course, for most people in America in the last 100 or so years, seeing older children, teenagers, and adults baptized is a pretty common phenomena. In fact, even if they haven't seen it in person, they've usually seen it in pictures, on TV, or in movies. Yet there was a time (centuries after the Bible was written) when it virtu