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The 1965 film classic, Shenandoah, features a memorable and outlandish prayer. With his eight children seated for dinner, the father, played by James Stewart observes, “Now, your mother wanted all of you raised as good Christians. And I might not be able to do that thorny job as well as she could, but I can do a little something about your manners.” After a forgetful and now convicted son removes his cap, Stewart then leads them in a thoroughly ungrateful prayer:

“Lord, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it, and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it, if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway Lord for this food we are about to eat. Amen.”

Few have the gall to say it outright, but many think the same as this movie father; they see themselves as “self-made” men and women. This attitude was certainly a temptation for the Israelites, so God issued them a warning through Moses.

17 Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (ESV)

As they stood on the brink of plenty, Moses reminded them of the source of their wealth. The Lord had promised them a rich land, one flowing with milk and honey (v. 7-9). There they would eat and be satisfied (v. 10), build good houses and live in them (v. 12). Their herds, flocks, silver, and gold would multiply (v. 13). All this was assured by God’s generous provision, so they must not think that they had gained their wealth by their own power and might (v. 17).

This was no excuse for laziness. They still had to tend their flocks and herds (v. 13) and build their houses (v. 12). But God gave them the circumstances, talents, energy, insights, and protection to do so (v. 18), and their wealth should remind them that they were a covenant people.

Shenandoah was set in Civil War America, 30 years before Katherine Lee Bates penned the words to “America the Beautiful.” Stewart’s character would have sung a different tune had he absorbed the biblical truth found in that song text, a truth that extends to all nations who enjoy bounty—that “amber waves of grain” and “the fruited plain” are due to the fact that “God shed His grace on thee.” As it was in Moses’ day, prosperity is a function of God’s mercy and grace, and the nation which ignores His benevolent handiwork is ripe for judgment.

Another song, written more than a decade before the Civil War, captures the kind of spirit God has prescribed in His Word. It is usually sung at Thanksgiving, but its message is fit for every day and every task blessed by God, whether at home, office, construction site, factory, or “the fruited plain.”

“Come, ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide, For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come, Raise the song of harvest home.”1

Thank God, the Father of Jesus Christ, who provides life in His Son for all eternity!

Footnotes :

1 Henry Alford, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” in The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration, ed. Tom Fettke (Waco, TX: Word Music, 1986), 559. Written in 1844.

For the last several days I have been in Washington D.C. attending the annual ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) meeting. Camaraderie with colleagues past and present was especially sweet. Besides this, the highlight was an evening walk through the National Mall guided by a friend who now works at the State Department. Of the various sites, I was especially drawn to the relatively new National World War II Memorial (2004). Amidst the animated fountains I reflected on the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of Americans belonging to what some have called “the greatest generation” of our country. It made me think of how I am forming my own children with a view to future generations.

Bishop of Liverpool and Victorian Church leader, J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) was well known throughout the 20th century for his writing on spiritual and practical issues. His great aim was to encourage serious Christian living, which included responsible child-raising. Along this line he writes the following:

“It is a subject that concerns almost all. There is hardly a household that it does not touch. Parents, nurses, teachers, godfathers, godmothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters,—all have an interest in it. Few can be found, I think, who might not influence some parent in the management of his family, or affect the training of some child by suggestion or advice. All of us, I suspect, can do something here, either directly or indirectly, and I wish to stir up all to bear this in remembrance. . .1

Soul love is the soul of all love. To pet and pamper and indulge your child, as if this world was all he had to look forward to, and this life the only season for happiness—to do this is not true love, but cruelty. It is treating him like some beast of the earth, which has but only one world to look to, and nothing after death. It is hiding from him that grand truth, which he ought to be made to learn from his very infancy,—that the chief end of his life is the salvation of his soul.

A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is the usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day. He must train with an eye to his children’s souls. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short,—the fashion of this world passeth away. He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for the earth,—for God, rather than for man,—he is the parent that will be called wise at last.2”

Footnotes :

1 J. C. Ryle, “The Duties of Parents,” in The Upper Room (1888; reprint, London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 283.
2 Ibid., 290.

On the heals of yesterday’s elections, I think it is good to remind ourselves that there is One who remains in office for all of time. This One, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, presides with complete sovereignty, despite worldly affairs and public opinion. Further, all elected officials carry out their terms underneath the ultimate authority of this One.

Bede, the eighth-century, English, theologian-monk is known as the “Father of English History.” His famous work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (A.D. 731) was more than a recitation of events; it instructed kings in ways pleasing to God. Here Bede reminds the monarch that, under God, history is a moral drama to which one profitably attends. His advice also applies to today’s politicians.

“I gladly acknowledge the unfeigned enthusiasm with which, not content merely to lend an attentive ear to hear the words of Holy Scripture, you devote yourself to learn the sayings and doings of the men of old, and more especially the famous men of our own race. Should history tell of good men and their good estate, the thoughtful listener is spurred on to imitate the good; should it record the evil ends of wicked men, no less effectually the devout and earnest listener or reader is kindled to eschew what is harmful and perverse, and himself with greater care pursue those things which he has learned to be good and pleasing in the sight of God.”1

Footnotes :

1 St. Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 3.