Being grateful on Thanksgiving Day

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           Reading: Luke 12-19 (NKJV)

12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Luke 12-19 (NKJV)

Jesus Christ heals 10, only one thanks Him

Thanksgiving Day is a day filled with spiritual meaning, despite the way most of the United States celebrates it: football games, feast-size eating, travel to visit friends and relatives. There is nothing wrong with any of these things. And in a way, I rank Thanksgiving Day up there with Christmas and the Easter season's Holy Week events, as No. 3 on the list of significant seasons in the year. 

Why? It is a time we can use to reflect on something other than ourselves. It helps us to remember that we all have something for which we can be thankful. The reading from the Gospel of Luke shows us several things to ponder on during the busy holiday week.

God expects us to turn to Him for help. In Luke's account, Jesus was not surprised that the 10 lepers would cry out to him for help. Their situation was desperate, because among other things, their leprosy had caused them to be cut off from their families and communities. It was an unbearable isolation. They were considered "unclean," and could not be approached by healthy people.

Jesus responded to their dire request for healing, and instructed them, as was the Jewish custom of the day, to report themselves to the priests. The priestly confirmation of healing would allow them to reincorporate into their families and communities, and to resume their normal lives.

One of the 10 was not Jewish; he was a Samaritan, which is why Jesus referred to him as a 'foreigner.' The Samaritan was the only one of the 10 that returned to thank Jesus for healing him. 

No doubt the others were thankful too for what they had received, but for some reason they did not consider it important to personally thank the one who had healed them and who had dramatically changed their lives. Perhaps, it didn't take long for them to take the miracle for granted.

Jesus also wondered why the other nine did not come back to thank Him. "Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

This tells us that God expects us to express our gratitude for His blessings. How can someone who's done something for you tell that you are grateful unless you let them know, better yet show it? Gratitude goes beyond what we may think; it involves an act of the heart that leads to an act of thankfulness. Gratitude is a shared event.

The Samaritan, who belonged to a community that Jewish religious leaders did not fully accept, had more reason not to go looking for Jesus than Jesus' own kinsmen. There was constant friction between the two camps. But, the Samaritan was overwhelmed with gratitude that he had to seek out Jesus; he had to personally thank Him.

In an act of humility, the Samaritan threw himself down at Jesus' feet, and in this way he also expressed his total dependency on the one who had the power to make him whole. The Samaritan had understood - and acknowledged - the source of the miracle he lived to experience.

Thanksgiving Day is used to commemorate certain events that took place in the early history of the United States, led then by religious Puritans and Pilgrims. There are competing dates and events in our national history that claim to be the nation's first Thanksgiving Day. Competing to be thankful, that is a good thing ....

Needless to say, the United States is one of only a handful of countries that observes an "official" thanksgiving day. According to Wikipedia, Thanksgiving , is observed by the United States, Canada, Liberia, Grenada, Saint Lucia, the Australian territory of Norfolk Island and the Dutch municipality of Leiden. It begs the question - what about the others? Worldometers Countries says there are 195 countries in the world.

On this Thanksgiving Day, let us consider the many ways that we are blessed, and show God our gratitude. There are many ways to do this, such as visiting shut-ins, inviting someone new to dinner with the family, donating to the poor, sending a thank you card to someone who blessed you, and so on.

I like the way that some believers in traditional African-American congregations express their gratitude during services: 'if you woke up today, thank God. If you have breath and your heart is beating, thank God'.... We often don't realize that we actually have something to be thankful for, not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every single day of our lives. 

Diana Washington Valdez

Update: The Bible, Ancient Aliens and the Antichrist Prophecies

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The Bible, Ancient Aliens and the Antichrist Prophecies

“... I am making everything new.” Revelation 21:5

Diana Washington Valdez

Commentary

If we believe that what the Bible says is true, then we

must also accept that there is a spiritual dimension to our lives that is unseen. 

The Bible makes it clear that when it comes to time and space, we live in parallel worlds, in the present world with its confines and in an eternal one with its infinite possibilities.

Interestingly, the existence of "parallel worlds" was mentioned by one of the experts interviewed for an "Ancient Aliens" episode that aired Oct. 20 on the local cable TV outlet. Although the popular History Channel presents several interesting facts during its episodes, especially the archaeological and other scientific findings, I consider "Ancient Aliens" as mostly a venue for entertainment, not something on which to base your life. Ancient Aliens

To be honest, we’re so caught up with the routines of daily life that we rarely think about that other spiritual dimension. I wonder how we would define “time” in the eternal world, or if such a concept even applies.

These issues, including the question of what death is all about, are raised by the Book of Revelation. The Christian Bible has much to say about life and death, as well as about the meaning of life.

It also describes two kinds of deaths, physical and spiritual, and what it is that kills the body and spirit. These are other subjects that we will no doubt take up in a future discussion. For now, we will get back to some points about prophetic messages that are contained in Revelation and other books of the Bible.

Recently, we learned that a writer who described himself as a "Christian numerologist" predicted that the end of the world would occur on September 23. Author David Meade's prediction did not come to pass then, and he set October 15 as the new date for the cataclysmic event. The prediction of the author of "Planet X" also came with somewhat of a qualifier: it was not to be the end end but the beginning of the end. That leaves things pretty open-ended, for now. Meade theory

Over the centuries, prophecies have come and gone. They've come from Christians and from people of other faiths and cultures. One of the best known historical figures who engaged in prophecy was the French doctor Nostradamus (1503-1566).

The entire Book of Revelation is about the "end times," and we know that Jesus Christ confirmed to his disciples that such things (as were later mentioned in Revelation) would happen before his second coming, which also is something that not all Christians believe.

In fact, I still remember quite vividly how the young daughter of a military chaplain -  she must have been 10 to 12 years old - broke into a conversation that several of us adults were having about the expected return of Jesus Christ.

The young girl who was listening to us dropped what she was doing, came closer and asked earnestly, "Jesus is coming back?" Her father, an ordained Protestant minister, apparently did not teach this, and probably did not believe it himself. There are numerous ministers (of all faiths) who studied in seminaries and do not believe in the parallel spiritual dimension of life, and who do not believe in a literal heaven or hell. Revelation mentions hell as a lake of fire [1].

Many Christians, including other members of the clergy, also do not believe that a literal "antichrist" will arise sometime in the future to rule over mankind, and that he will wage war against believers and the forces of heaven in the run-up to Armageddon [2]. Revelation gives details about the characteristics of the antichrist, but his identity remains a mystery. The "666" and other clues aren't enough to make him obvious, at least not at this time.

Just like those who have set dates for the end of the world, there have been numerous old and modern-day prophets who swear they know the identity of the antichrist. The internet is filled with their findings. It's amazing how many former presidents and other world leaders have been labeled as the antichrist.

For all it's worth, over my lifetime, I've heard at least two messages about the antichrist that caught my attention. They occurred more than 30 years apart, with the two different times acting like bookends for these two claims.

I heard the first message from a Christian evangelist from Africa who had some connection to the international Youth with a Mission (YWAM) ministry. During a religious service in Germany, he shared a prophecy he had heard somewhere else. I don't recall the minister's name, but he was a respected and serious man.

The African minister said that according to the prophecy the antichrist had been born. If I recall correctly, the original prophet for this message did not provide details on when exactly he was born or where he was living. The only reason I never forgot it is because of the setting at that time, and the idea that this key figure mentioned prophetically as "the man of perdition" [3]) could be alive in my lifetime.

A more recent and similar reference to the antichrist also caught my attention. This time, it came from Perry Stone, an evangelical Christian minister who has spent decades studying Bible prophecy. Stone is controversial, and I do not agree with all his views, but I can't find many people in Christendom that I agree with 100 percent of the time. Much of the prophetic in the Bible, which hasn't already occurred, frankly, is open to interpretation.

You can listen to a brief version of Stone's message at Perry Stone video for yourself. His organization, Perry Stone Ministries, uploaded it on YouTube last year. "And He (the Lord) let me know that the antichrist ... he is presently, the man, is presently on the planet," said Stone, who claimed that the Lord revealed this to him during a visit to Jerusalem.

If we are to assume the two prophecies are accurate, then it means that the man who could become or is the "antichrist" is a person who walks among us now. Considering the time lapse between these two messages, he is a man who may be in his 40s or 50s. I will speculate that he is probably not from the Western Hemisphere, partly based on the fact that the two prophecies were transmitted in the Eastern Hemisphere. Of course, the many caveats for these two prophecies are self-evident. 

Jesus Christ warned his followers in the Book of Matthew [4] to watch out for "false messiahs" and "false prophets," and He spoke to them at length about the conditions that would exist on the Earth just before His return. A lot of life as usual, and so forth.

Truthfulness was the test of a real prophet in the Old Testament days. Back then, if a prophecy proved to be false, then the prophet who uttered it was as good as dead, not to mention discredited. That was the price to pay for making false predictions in the name of the Lord.


In another video, the aforementioned Perry Stone says he believes that the antichrist will be a political and military leader of the Muslim faith. He also describes another view of the meaning of the name and number of the antichrist, which traditionally has been noted simply as "666." Perry Stone 2

There is a third prophetic message about the End Times worth sharing that differs from Stone's version of who the antichrist might be.

The late Yves Dupont, a French Roman Catholic prophecy scholar, said he believed that the antichrist would come from the Jewish tribe of Dan, born in Israel's Chorazin (Corozain) area to a prostitute, and evil from his youth. Dupont studied numerous "prophecies" from over centuries, and it appears that his conclusions add to the idea that this man is in the earth today. A summary of the information that he compiled and was published in 1975 may be viewed @ Dupont .

I encourage everyone to study the prophetic themes of the Bible, including the Book of Revelation. They are interesting, fascinating, and are meant to be read. Today, we have many study aids available to help guide students through the writings. Some churches have Bible study groups that are willing to discuss the end times, and are not intimidated by the parts that as yet seem unclear.

John, the author of Revelation, states that there is a blessing for those who read and study this prophetic book: "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." [5]

Those who read Revelation will find that it describes how our "parallel" world will no longer exist side by side but actually intersect. The wall of invisibility will come down. There will come a moment when we will be able to see things as they really are.

I may live long enough to see whether the prophecies I've mentioned - about the antichrist - will come to pass before I die. If not, the very next generation after me will be able to read this blog in the future, and conclude whether it proved to be only a blind alley.

#DianaWashingtonValdez , an award-winning multimedia journalist and a Christian ordained minister, is a member of the International Association of Religion Journalists.

End notes

[1]New Testament (NT): Revelation 20:10.
[2] NT: Revelation 16:16.
[3] NT: 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. (KJV)
[4] NT: Matthew 24: 1-44.
[5] NT: Revelation 1:3.

Selling the end of the world and pending Bible prophecies

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Commentary

Selling the end of the world

"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8 NT* (KJV)

"Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7 OT*(NIV)

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Jesus Christ in Mathew 24:36 (KJV), when he was asked about this.

Diana Washington Valdez
The Digie Zone Network

EL PASO, TEXAS - Get ready everybody, another doomsday deadline is approaching soon, and this time it's October 15, the date set by author David Meade for the beginning of the Biblical end.

The first date he set for this, September 23, did not go as scheduled, so he gave us a new one. He says the explanation for this theory is in his new book "Planet X." End of world article .

Meade, who stated in published interviews that he's a "Christian numerologist," asserts that his dates for the end or the beginning of the end, are based on mathematical calculations and his interpretations of the Christian Bible.

The late Harald Camping, a Christian radio evangelist, also claimed to have used math to come up with May 21, 2011 as the date for the end times, as described in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

After nothing happened in May, Camping, who reportedly spent millions of dollars (from supporter donations) advertising the end of the world, recalculated and changed his date to October 21, 2011, according to published accounts.

Family Radio/Harald Camping billboard.

Camping paid for billboards like the one in the photograph to announce "Judgment Day." He ran a relentless publicity campaign to warn the world that the end was coming. We all know that the evangelist's prophecy did not come true.

Camping, who had a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, died of natural causes in 2013.

What sets Meade apart from the also math-oriented Camping is that Meade believes that a mysterious planet "Nibiru" will pass closely by the Earth, and that this will set off a series of catastrophes worldwide.

NASA on its website has denied that any such planet exists. The idea of the mystery planet has been kicked around in conspiracy theory circles for decades. No planetary collision

The central plot of the Danish-produced movie "Melancholia" released in 2011 involves the end of the world as the Earth is set to collide with another planet. [My review of the movie: It's weird.] NYT movie review

The real countdown

Jesus Christ himself told his followers - who wanted to know - some of the signs pointing to his second coming. It's in the New Testament.

However, I disagree with how Meade has chosen to "alert" his fellow earthlings about the imminent doom that he portrays in his book.

In the first place, the countdown to the end really began after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That most important Earth-shattering event is what really set the clock ticking for what we have come to know as "the end of the world." In the Christian calendar, everything of spiritual significance happens before and after Christ (anno Domini).

Secondly, I believe that when we come closer to a specific end-times period, the Lord in his wisdom and mercy will probably let his church (the body of believers) know it, and not just one or two handpicked persons.

In fact, probably many other people in the world, in addition to Christians, will become aware of the prophetic events that signal a final divine warning.

Moreover, ff Meade truly believes what he wrote, then he should be willing to share his information free of charge (not have to buy his book) with the rest of the world. Why would anyone want to profit from such a warning, if he or she truly believes it?

The heavens and earth will tremble

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land." Haggai 2:6 OT (NIV)

"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” Hebrews 12:26 NT (NIV)

Tomorrow's doomsday alert notwithstanding, the Bible includes numerous references to the kind of end-times scenarios that we've seen portrayed in movies and popular books.

Just because it won't occur in mid-October doesn't mean we should downplay or ignore the advisories contained in the Bible.


Jesus Christ himself told his followers, after they asked him, about some of the future signs that are supposed to point to his second coming.

Catastrophes can be caused by humans or may arise in nature. Across the globe, previous cataclysmic events have tested the resilience of people and their ability to survive under trying conditions. Prophetically, what's in store though will surpass anything in the known historical record. Until then, we ought to pay close attention to what goes on in the world and remain prayerful [1].

To learn more about the "end times," read the entire Book of Revelation, along with other passages in the New and Old Testaments that foretell these same events in vivid detail. 

(Not all Christians believe that prophecies are intended to be literal events, and prefer to view a book like Revelation as mostly symbolic.)

Life as we know it will not end on October 14. There is no need to lose sleep over it.

While on this earth, we will continue to experience catastrophes in our lives, collective ones and personal ones. All of them ought to serve as a wake-up call for getting into a right relationship with the Creator. Any day is a good day for this, doomsday or not.

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27 

(KJV).

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#DianaWashingtonValdez , an award-winning veteran journalist, is a member of the International Association of Religion Journalists.


[1] Geopolitically, the most active hot spots at this time are #NorthKorea, the #MiddleEast and the #Baltics region and #Ukraine , according to news accounts and other sources.

* OT is the Old Testament and NT is the New Testament.