When did the national day of Thanksgiving begin in the United States? After the United States had completed its Constitution in 1787 and the new Congress was in session, the Congress proposed that the Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution as the first 10 amendments. (The Bill of Rights was one of the conditions for ratification of the Constitution). Representative Elias Boudinot of New Jersey and Connecticut Congressman Roger Sherman proposed that President Washington declare a national day of Thanksgiving, with “one voice, in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them.”

Paul begins to lay out the principles governing Christian liberty.  

Most educators agree that public education in America is in crisis. This crisis is multi-faceted, but no matter how one examines this crisis, teachers are the most important facet of education. They spend the most time with America’s youth and their impact can be enormous.

Paul reviews the Christian’s ethical duty to government and the fulfilling of the Law though love.

Since the 1960s and the emerging “Jesus Movement,” evangelical Christians have frequently elevated new converts to a position of near superstardom. My wife and I remember well the elevation of B.J. Thomas in the late 1970s. In his book, The Family Roe, Joshua Prager tells the tragic story of Norma McCorvey (aka the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade fame). McCorvey, an alcoholic, a chronic drug abuser, a lesbian, but also a mother, apparently converted to Christianity and became a “star convert,” paraded before crowds and the media. But her struggle with enslaving sinful habits demonstrated the messiness that goes with sin. She tried to live up to evangelical expectations, but rarely succeeded. She is a monument to the folly of elevating a new convert too quickly.

Paul continues his focus on the virtues of the Christian life.

Paul begins to describe the virtues of the justified believer.

Years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing; they then become capable of believing in anything.” There is no better characterization of the state of Western Civilization than Chesterton’s acerbic observation. In a culture where we gather in comfortable silos of thinking and the ideology of that silo prevails over everything, truth is no longer important. The obvious, common sense conclusions are ignored and what the Bible calls foolishness reigns supreme.

John F. Kennedy, a war hero running in his first congressional campaign, delivered a speech on 4 July 1946, at Faneuil Hall in Boston. It included a haunting meditation on the American soul: “A nation’s character, like that of an individual, is elusive,” Kennedy said. “It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us. It is the result of physical factors, intellectual factors, spiritual factors. . . . In peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.” JFK was speaking of the national character.

Paul begins his exhortation on what the justified life looks like.