Thanksgiving

1 Thessalonians 5:18
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Webster’s Dictionary defines Thanksgiving as:

1: the act of giving thanks
2: a prayer expressing gratitude
3 a: a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness b capitalized : thanksgiving day

In the Thanksgiving proclamation, written in 1782, I quote,

“IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States…..”

How awesome is it that our forefather’s recognized the importance of taking time to thank GOD as a nation for His goodness! How incredible for American’s to come together in unity in gratitude for the many blessing’s the Lord has bestowed on this great nation. I am thankful for Thanksgiving Day! How easy is it for us to forget how blessed we really are, yet during this season we are all reminded how important it is to give thanks.

Here are some things we are thankful to the Lord for specifically today:

1. God’s Word- the fact that His un-changing, un-compromising Word never fails. The fact that there are places in this world where people are not even allowed to have a Bible because of religious persecution but we in America have the freedom to worship. When nothing else is our life is certain on Christ this solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!

Hebrews 5:14 “For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and of marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

2. Our family- A. Zach, Angela, Elijah, and Aviah. “but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:14
B. Cornerstone Family- “But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” Matthew 3:33-35
C. Biological Family- He knew exactly which family we would be born into and it was no accident no matter how wonderful or how crazy our biological family can be. Today we thank God for our families …” the days were fashioned for us when there were yet non of them, He saw our substance when it was yet unformed…” Psalm 139

3. Those things which are eternal specifically love, joy, and peace!

4. The power of the Holy Spirit- “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

5. Having a security in knowing who you are in Christ- there is a counterfeit security that comes from so many things in this world. I am so thankful that I am not defined by who I am, but by who I am in Him.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galations 2:20

We could go on and on but we will stop there…at least for the blog!

Be blessed, be a blessing!

New Blog

My old blog (that I started last August) is still up and running but I will probably delete it soon because I never kept up with it and I couldn't figure out how to change things without deleting all the old stuff! I decided to start fresh with a brand new one and go from there. I will try to update it more often with new pictures for our out of town family!

Title: We were looking for a fun name (yes, I know we're cheesy)....and decided on the Hinson Herald. The word Herald means the following (taken from dictionary.com):

1.
(formerly) a royal or official messenger, esp. one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime.
2.
a person or thing that precedes or comes before; forerunner; harbinger: the returning swallows, those heralds of spring.
3.
a person or thing that proclaims or announces: A good newspaper should be a herald of truth.
4.
(in the Middle Ages) an officer who arranged tournaments and other functions, announced challenges, marshaled combatants, etc., and who was later employed also to arrange processions, funerals, etc., and to regulate the use of armorial bearings.
5.
an official intermediate in rank between a king-of-arms and a pursuivant, in the Heralds' College in England or the Heralds' Office in Scotland.–verb (used with object)
6.
to give news or tidings of; announce; proclaim: a publicity campaign to herald a new film.
7.
to indicate or signal the coming of; usher in.

For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE to study. Not that I have much time these days with my two babies, but early mornings and late nights are working well for me :) My favorite thing to study is the Bible. I use the KJV, NKJV, and NASB. Anyway...I wanted to know what Herald meant exactly before I used it. I want to focus on this definition for the word herald: (formerly) a royal or official messenger, esp. one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime.

When you study the history of the monarch specifically the king, he was constantly followed by a man who held the title of the kerux. When the king was absent or un-available for any reason the kerux would be his representative. His main duty was to bring the message (to herald the message) to the people when the king was out. In this particular portion of the word herald you see noted that this takes place especially during wartime. It is our job as representatives of "The King of Kings and Lord of Lords" to represent Him and herald His message to this world. In studying out the the duties of the kerux, his sole purpose was to follow the king in order to learn his ways. His ways including how he spoke, how he carried himself, how he dressed etc. The goal was for him to be so closely associated with the king that he himself took on all of the king's characteristics as to make sure that the king was the one being seen when other's looked at or heard him. The Word of God tells us that we are crucified in Christ, it's no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me (Galations 2:20). When we are surrendered and yielded to His Holy Spirit, choosing to be His hands and feet, lights in the darkness, cities on a hill that cannot be hidden, we are hidden in Christ, decreased that He might increase, we are able to represent Him in the way the kerux represented the king. The Word of God tells us we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). Just as the kerux spent time with his king to learn his ways and become more like him, so should we make time to spend with our King. This blog is for fun and for family to keep in touch with the many miles we have between us, but more importantly I would like to use this blog as an outlet to herald the message of the King. I hope to keep up with it as time allows and post words of encouragement and interesting facts as I study the Word. Zach will be posting things as well and we will add pictures of the youth group etc so that the people we know and love can live life with us even across the many miles!

Love,
Zach, Ang, Elijah, and Aviah