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Happy Thanksgiving!November 21, 2012
The Staff and Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary pray that you have a blessed Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is perhaps the most God-centered, God-honoring, aspect of prayer. Praise and petition, properly conceived, also involve a true estimate of our relation to God. But they less pointedly have in view our conscious fellowship with God and our re- sponsibility to the Almighty. Praise might be engaged in with little sense of God's concern for us, and petition without much assurance that our cries would be answered. But thanksgiving places in the foreground our proper response to God's action on our be- half. Thus, on the one hand, we recognize God as sovereign and self- sufficient. And, on the other hand, in our thanksgiving we are conscious of responding to God in a manner that is well-pleasing to Him. Thanksgiving, then, is at the very heart of true religion. -Ned B. Stonehouse & Paul Woolley, eds., "Thanksgiving, 1946 The Presbyterian Guardian 15, no. 21 (November 25, 1946): 327.
Words of Thanks from Westminster Staff and Faculty:"This year has been a difficult one, there have been deaths of loved ones, serious illness, and financial downturns. Many changes, but one constant. God never changes. And 'though He would slay me, yet will I trust in Him,' Job 13:15. This Thanksgiving, I praise and thank Him for His guiding hand through all of life’s rough spots. He is more wonderful than words can express!" -Carol Ajamian, Coordinator for the D.Min. and Mentored Ministry Programs. "I am thankful for all those around me whose hearts burn to serve Christ." -Leslie Altena, Director of the Center for Theological Writing "God has again given me life and health, this year after surgery. As I thought of the need for surgery, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I was being punished for sin. (The enemy of my soul was at work accusing.) I am thankful the punishment that brought me peace was on Jesus, there is no condemnation for me in him, and he frees those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." -Karin Deussing, Director of Human Resources "I am thankful for my wife and sons; for the session, deacons and congregation of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church; and for the intercession of Christ at the right hand of the Father." -Rev. Dr. Carl Trueman, professor of historical theology and church history. "In a year marked by innumerable uncertainties and apparent instability, and as Christians increasingly find themselves suffering the consequences of their confession, I'm thankful to God that it will be well with the righteous (Is 3:10), that his counsel will surely stand (Is 46:10), and that their resting place in Christ will be glorious (Is 11:10)." -Carlton Wynne, Lecturer in Apologetics |
