We Have a Choice: Humility or Humiliation
By James Robison

    Let me share first my personal understanding of prophecy in light of statements that often confuse or distort the definition of real prophecy. I believe that true prophets sometimes predict future acts and events or consequences. These messages can be alarming or refreshing, but they are always intended by God to give life or improve life.
    There are prophets who may, on occasion, foretell the future, but every believer can prophesy or speak words of life. Paul said in Corinthians, “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy.” In my opinion, this means that when we speak, we should prayerfully seek to speak words that edify and enhance life itself.
    When Paul encouraged people to prophesy, I do not believe he was encouraging us to predict future events, but rather to strengthen the lives of the hearers. We should pray that the heart of God will be expressed every time we open our mouths. We should never attempt to reduce the “end times” to a specific time frame or date. Jesus Christ will return quickly in the sense that He will come suddenly, unexpected by far too many. Believers are exhorted to live prepared for Christ’s return at any moment, always redeeming the time.
    All biblical predictions will come true. All prophecies will be fulfilled. The misunderstanding of the Bible’s truth is often man’s finite attempt to comprehend infinite wisdom. Paul said, “If you think you know, you don’t know as you ought.”
   Throughout history, from the Pharisees of Jesus’ times to the religious zealots and intellectuals of today, people have been proven wrong. Inappropriate predictions, unwholesome lifestyles and the course of world events continually expose the fallacy of human wisdom. We need prophets today — not fortune tellers and wild-eyed mystics, but exhorters and edifiers. We need prophecy today to encourage believers and to correct the family of God by speaking words of life.

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The First Thanksgiving
By Todd Akin

    The celebration of Thanksgiving became quite popular in the New England Colonies in the decades following the first celebration of 1621.  In 1789, President Washington declared the first national Thanksgiving to thank God for our new Constitution.  In 1863, President Lincoln fixed the date for the holiday as the last Thursday in November.  But let’s take a moment to recall the first Thanksgiving, and what it was our forefathers believed.
    For seven weeks the Pilgrims had been packed into the dark, stinking, wet, ‘tween-decks, as the Mayflower pitched from crest to trough through the storm tossed North Atlantic.  Seasickness, crying children, and fear of sinking had been their constant companions.  Now, the Mayflower lay anchored in the natural harbor at Provincetown Cape Cod.  With the November wind whistling through the rigging, God’s little band of separatists, “Saints,” mixed with a group recruited by the merchant adventurers, “Strangers,” were gathered to sign a document made necessary by the storms which had forced them north of their Virginia destination.      Because their charter didn’t apply to the new location, some of the “strangers” threatened to go their own way.  To pre-empt anarchy, the Saints drew up the Mayflower Compact.  It began, “In the name of God, amen....for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith... (We) covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic....”  God’s covenant people had landed, and for the first time in recorded history, free and equal men had covenanted to create their own civil government.
    But the trials of this covenant people were far from over.  As they struggled to make a beach-head in Plymouth, constant exposure and inadequate food took their toll, and people started to die.  As the winter continued, the sick dragged their dead to shallow graves scratched at night in the frozen ground.  They were afraid the Indians would learn of their weakness.  When spring finally broke, 47 of 102 were dead, 13 of the 18 wives died; only 3 families remained unbroken.  The children fared the best because of the sacrifices of the parents.  Of the 7 daughters, none died; and only 3 of the 13 sons died.

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