Thanksgiving Message 2008

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By Colin A. Hanna
President, Let Freedom Ring.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, let’s pause from our normal political commentary and simply say, Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for sustaining the Pilgrims through their first few harsh winters so that they could begin to build a great nation out of what began as a frail group of freedom-loving adventurers.

Thank you, Lord, for giving them, and the many generations since, such abundant harvests that we can not only feed ourselves but also feed much of the rest of the world.

Thank you, Lord, for the faithfulness to you that provided the basis from which our Founders declared independence from an oppressive scheme of taxation.
Thank you, Lord, that the bell which proclaimed our independence, which later became known as the Liberty Bell, bore an inscription form the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, signifying our continued dependence on you, even while we were declaring our independence from King George.

Thank you, Lord, that we were victorious when forced to defend our independence.

Thank you, Lord, that it was your answer to the fervent prayers of the delegates to our Constitutional Convention that broke the legislative deadlock in that body and produced what has become the worldwide model for self-government.

Thank you, Lord, that it was the work of tireless advocates of freedom and equality, largely drawn from your church, the awakened the nation to the cruelty of human slavery.

Thank you, Lord, that this nation was preserved intact when a great civil war threatened to divide us.

Thank you, Lord, that it was again your church that awakened then nation to the cruelty of child labor as factories began to replace farms as the center of our economic progress.

Thank you, Lord, that you so blessed us that by our third century we had become the most prosperous nation on earth, yet one who acknowledged you as the one in whom we trust, by adopting "In God We Trust" as our national motto.
Thank you, Lord, that you used the military forces of this nation that trusts in you to successfully defeat the forces of tyranny in two world wars.
Thank you, Lord, for the millions of Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in those and other wars for freedom, wherever on earth it was threatened.

Thank you, Lord, that it was again your church that awakened the nation to the sin of racial discrimination and that led to a gradual if occasionally uneven recognition that we were all created in your image, and it was that recognition that ultimately defined our understanding of racial equality.
Thank you, Lord, that it was again your church that awakened the nation to the wrongs of abortion and euthanasia, as the taking of innocent life, not the legitimate exercise of personal freedom.

Thank you, Lord, that we remain the most devout, Bible-reading and churchgoing nation on earth.

Thank you, Lord, that you have blessed us in so many ways that we cannot enumerate them all. We ask that you continue to extend the hand of your protection upon us as we face the threats of terrorism, economic distress and moral decline. May we wholeheartedly repent from our selfishness and experience a great revival in the coming year – a revival that leads us to a fresh realization it is only in service to you that we may experience true freedom.

This has been Colin Hanna of Let Freedom Ring for American Radio Journal. Visit us on the web at LetFreedomRingUSA.com