HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM HIS INSCRIPTIONS!

11/21/2022

HAPPY THANKSGIVING PHOTO HIS INSCRIPTIONS

Dear Friends,

Kevan and I are looking forward to spending some quality time with our three grown boys this week, one of whom returns home from college tomorrow.

Before I clean house and do some cooking for the holiday, I want to encourage you with a brief testimony and a word from the Lord!

Last Thursday, I served Thanksgiving dinner to the residents at Teen Challenge in Taunton, MA along with a team from CedarWood Realty Group. Teen Challenge is celebrating the first Thanksgiving in their new group home, and I can honestly say it was the best Thanksgiving ever! (Pics above.)

These young women know what it means to be grateful; many of the ladies have gone through countless detox programs seeking freedom from alcohol or drugs, only to relapse again and again.

Yet once the women put JESUS at the center of their healing process, everything changes! Their hearts overflow with God’s grace - grace that can only come through deliverance from sin!

We spent the mealtime hearing powerful testimonies. At one point during the meal, someone wanted to pray, and every woman at the table prayed with hands raised to Jesus as He took His place in our midst. It felt like heaven on earth as we lifted Christ up in unified praise and thanksgiving; a family drawn together and united through His blood!

As I reflected on my time at Teen Challenge, the Lord highlighted one simple truth that applies to all: Thanksgiving is a byproduct of deliverance.

The first Thanksgivings celebrated great deliverances, even from war:

The original Thanksgiving happened after a year in which many Pilgrims were dying of scurvy and disease. God mercifully sent Squanto to teach the Pilgrims how to plant successful crops and build relationships with the Wampanoag Indians. Thanksgiving was the Pilgrims’ first harvest: a celebration of life and a very real deliverance from death!

The second Thanksgiving, celebrated in 1623, came after a long drought and much fasting for help and deliverance by the Pilgrims.

Congress and early Presidents designated subsequent Thanksgivings to honor God for deliverance from the Revolutionary War and the ratification of our independence from Britain.

Finally, Thanksgiving became a national holiday during the Civil War. Notice that it was President Abraham Lincoln - the emancipator of slaves - who asked Americans to “commend to [God’s] tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” What a prophetic picture!

For all that’s happening in our world today, I believe this Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to remember that our God is still our Deliverer!

For those of you who feel bound by the enemy in any area of your life, or are praying for unbelieving family members, the Lord gave me Isaiah 49, which contains wonderful promises about our Mighty Deliverer:

‘This is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.”’ (Isaiah 49:25)

Jesus comes as Restorer, Deliverer, and Covenant-Keeper, faithfully upholding God’s covenant of peace with us even when we fail Him (See Isaiah 49:8). He contends for us against all our enemies:

JESUS sets people free from demonic chains and torture (Mark 5:1-15).
JESUS cures the sick and frees them from infirmities (Luke 13:16).
JESUS raises the dead from captivity - even those confined to Hades (Eph. 4:8).
JESUS releases people from bondage to the law and sin (John 8:33-36, Gal. 3:22-23).
JESUS was, is, and will forever be the source of our praise, worthy of all our thanksgiving!

I’m so grateful for each and every one of you who has prayed for and supported His Inscriptions and our family over the years! May Jesus be at the center of your hearts and your celebrations this week as you worship Him - our Mighty Deliverer!!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Deborah