This week we begin celebrating the season of Advent by lighting the first Advent candle. The word Advent means, “coming” or “arrival.” It is, in a sense, a countdown of anticipation in which we celebrate Christ’s first Advent, or coming, in which Jesus was born into this world as a small child in a manger just over 2000 years ago.

The wreath and its candles are the visual focus of Advent. One of the candles is lit each week as Christmas approaches. The circle of the Advent wreath has no beginning and no end. It portrays for us God’s timelessness and His eternal plan of salvation. The evergreen color denotes eternal life that we are granted when we come to know Christ as our Lord and Savior. The shape of the wreath is round, reminding us of the fellowship of believers around the world who share with us the celebration of His coming. The four outer candles represent the gifts of His spirit in us, which are: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

The first Advent reading:

This week we recall the hope we have in Christ. The prophets of Israel all spoke of the coming of Christ, of how a Savior would be born a King in the line of David. They spoke of how He would rule the world wisely and bless all nations.

As the follower of Christ, we await His return. We light this candle, the candle of hope, to remember that as He came to us humbly in the manger at Bethlehem and gave light to the world, so He is coming again in power to deliver His people. We light this candle to remind us to be alert and to watch for His return.

Prayer:

Loving God, we thank you for the promise of the Messiah who came to be the light of the world. Help us prepare our hearts to receive Him. Bless our worship. Help us to hear and do your Word. We ask it in the name of the one born in Bethlehem. Amen.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Washington, D.C.October 3, 1863

This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.

The holiday we know today as Thanksgiving was recommended to Lincoln by Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor. Her letters to Lincoln urged him to have the “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”

According to an April 1, 1864 letter from John Nicolay, one of Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. Fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary on October 3 that he complimented Seward on his work. A year later, the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops and since then has disappeared.

Probably the greatest example of persistence is Abraham Lincoln. If you want to learn about somebody who didn’t quit, look no further.

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.

He could have quit many times - but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country.

Lincoln was a champion and he never gave up. Here is a sketch of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1818 His mother died.

1831 Failed in business.

1832 Ran for state legislature - lost.

l832 Also lost his job - wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

1834 Ran for state legislature again - won.

1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature - defeated.

1840 Sought to become elector - defeated.

1843 Ran for Congress - lost.

1846 Ran for Congress again - this time he won - went to Washington and did a good job.

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress - lost.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state - rejected.

1854 Ran for Senate of the United States - lost.

1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention - get less than 100 votes.

1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again - again he lost.

1860 Elected president of the United States.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. “

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. “

“If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. “

“Sorrow comes to all…Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better and yet you are sure to be happy again. “

“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I’m much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. “

“My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work. “

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”

“‘A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall. So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey which catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the highroad to his reason.”

“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? “

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. “

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks edited by Michael Burlingame (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1998), p. 210.

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I’m much more concerned to know who his grandson will be.

Your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends.

He who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.

Common looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

A story is told of Abraham Lincoln.

One day the President summoned to the White House a surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland from the state of Ohio. The major assumed that he was to be commended for some exceptional work.

During the conversation Mr. Lincoln asked the major about his widowed mother.

She is doing fine, he responded.

How do you know asked Lincoln. You haven’t written her. But she has written me. She thinks that you are deadand she is asking that a special effort be made to return your body.

At that the Commander and Chief placed a pen in the young doctor’s hand and ordered him to write a letter letting his mother know that he was alive and well.

Oh, the blessings that we take for granted. Oh, the wretchedness ofingratitude.

It was Shakespeare who worded it more appropriately than everwe could. He wrote:

“Blow blow thou winter wind. Thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.”

President Abraham Lincoln

All of us, individually and collectively, have much to give thanks. I would like to dedicate my blog this week to the man who proclaimed the last Thursday of each November to be a national day of Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln was, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest men in the history of the United States. I will post some of the wisdom made by this inspirational statesman each day for the next week. Learn and enjoy!

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.” The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1995), pp. 258-259.

“Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.”

“I care not for a man’s religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it.”

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe. “

I just thought this was funny. Man, I sure wish I had time to go fishing…..but, I really need to clean my garage!