Thanksgiving Day, 2025: "We Gather Together"

WE GATHER TOGETHER

Netherlands folk hymn; translated by Theodore Baker

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,

Sing praises to His name: He forgets not His own.

Beside is to guide us, our God with us joining,

Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;

So from the beginning the fight we were winning:

Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,

And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be.

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation:

Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

America the Beautiful Again

"America the Beautiful Again" is a poem by American poet Richard Blanco.

Forsake Me Not, O Lord

Do not forsake me, O Lord!

O my God, be not far from me!

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

From the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

Forsake me not when my strength is spent.

O God, be not far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

Make haste to help me,

O Lord, my salvation!

Sources: Psalms 38:21; 71:4, 9, 12; 38:22 (English Standard Version)

The poem "Forsake Me Not, O Lord" is a found poem of mine from the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Brilliant Thought on Prayer

Here is a quotation from Ashleigh Brilliant (1933-2025) on helping other people and on prayer.

If we could all hear

one another's prayers, God might be relieved

of some of his burden.

A Brainteaser and a Biblical Quotation

A communications code word of seven letters and a chiefly Scottish word of four letters have two letters in common. The fourth letter in the communications code word is the same as the third letter in the chiefly Scottish word, and the second letter in the chiefly Scottish word, the Scots' word for church, is the same as the sixth letter in the communications code word. What are that seven-letter communications code word and that four-letter, chiefly Scottish word for church?

To read the answer to this brainteaser, click here  for the communications code word and here for the chiefly Scottish word.

From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,

called to be an apostle

and set apart for God's good news. . . .

To those in Rome

who are dearly loved by God

and called to be God's people.

(Common English Bible: Romans 1:1, 7)

For the Birthday of Agatha Christie

Today is the 135th anniversary of the birth of English detective-story writer Agatha Christie (1890 -1976).

"Truth," I observed, laying aside the Daily Newsmonger, "is stranger than fiction!" So begins Agatha Christie's detective story "The King of Clubs" (1923), in which detective Hercule Poirot says in part, "Not only is truth stranger than fiction -- it is more dramatic."

The great minds of Agatha Christie"s fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss (Jane) Marple have at least once thought alike. In Mrs. Christie's detective novel The ABC Murders Poirot says, "There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! Speech, so a wise old Frenchman said to me once, is an invention of man's to prevent him from thinking. It is also an infallible means of discovering that which he wishes to hide. Every time he will give himself away." In Mrs. Christie's detective novel A Caribbean Mystery Miss Marple says, "Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide."