The spiritual condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. That's Psalm 107, verse 1.
And the Bible has so much to say about giving thanks. We're going to, obviously, with Thanksgiving, the holiday coming quickly, we're going to focus on that. And Alex McFarland here, one of my favorite subjects I love to talk about, thanksgiving. The Bible tells us to be steadfast in prayer, being watchful in prayer. With thanksgiving.
That's Colossians 4:2. Psalm 50, verse 14 says, Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High. Psychologists say that being thankful. is good for your mental health. Emotionally stable people are thankful people.
And so we're going to talk about Thanksgiving and maybe share a few memories. I hope you are ready for a very special and very meaningful time of Thanksgiving. We as Americans have a lot to be thankful for. And we're going to talk about this today. And with me, in the studio, two very special individuals.
One is my wife Angie. And you heard Angie a few weeks ago talking about our years dating and the rats in the car. If you don't know what that's about, just go back and you'll find that in our podcasts and our archives and go to alexmacfarlane.com. I have to say, the visit with Angie a few weeks back is probably the most response we've gotten from a radio show in a couple of years. I mean, literally hundreds of people either came to hear me speak or emailed and said, oh my goodness, how do you do that?
have angi on more often.
So Angie is with us. The other individual in the studio is Esther the dog. I'm grateful for her. But first of all, Angie, thanks for coming back on the show and being willing to upstage me once again. You are so very welcome.
Glad to do it. Apparently, you've got a fan base out there. You know, I'm the preacher. I'm trying to faithfully open up God's Word. And everywhere I go, I did a six-state speaking tour over 19 days.
Literally every city, people said, Hey, Alex, Put in Jean Moore.
Well, I'd prefer not to be, but I pray for you. That's my job. I support you in prayer and Thanksgiving. I thank the Lord for you, Alex.
Well, I'm thankful for you. We talked about how you invited me to a Monday night Bible study. 35, 36 years ago, and changed both of our lives, didn't it? Yes, it really did.
So, uh growing up, what did you do? For Thanksgiving.
Now, folks, I wish I wish you could have known Ann Lowe. Angie's mom, She went to be with the Lord March 16th of 22. I've talked about her many times. She was the best cook in Guilford County. I sat down at her table hundreds of times, and Ann and I were very close.
But go back to your growing up. What did you guys do for Thanksgiving? We put on a spread. We put on a spread at our house almost every night. I mean, breakfast was big, lunch was big, but supper was big too.
And, um, My mother was Very Christian, very Christ-like. She worshiped the Lord. We went to church. She was just a great mom and I had a great dad too. And, uh, he was he was very quiet and very reserved, but um my mom was always laughing and always having a good time and we would get ready for Thanksgiving and We would go to the grocery store with a list.
We would get those things on the list. We would get home and she would say, I forgot something. We needed three pounds of butter. We only got one p pound of butter. That you always had to go back after, you know, getting through the grocery store for Thanksgiving and all that, and getting a turkey.
And all the trimmings, you always had to go back to the grocery store for something else the next day and in preparation for. for a Thanksgiving meal, but we always had turkey or chicken. Um she was a great cook and we would have chicken pie. Homemade chicken pie with the homemade crust. We would have Turkey.
We would oftentimes have a little bit of ham. We would have anything my dad or she wanted. I mean, if if dad said he wanted steaks for Thanksgiving, that's what we had. Whatever dad wanted, mom fixed. You know, I feel so blessed.
Even as a kid, I have to say this, I realized as a little kid That I was fortunate to grow up on a farm. Do you remember The Waltons, that show in the 70s? My sister and I, I think we kind of felt like we lived in our own version of the Waltons. We had a farm that we owned for 88 years. My granddaddy literally cut the trees and built a house.
and we had chickens and I've told the story about my grandmother she talked about during the Great Depression how they made their own ketchup. And they made their own mustard. And they made their own peanut butter. And I remember I was about twelve years old and I was like, peanut butter? Grandmother, how in the world do you make peanut butter?
And she taught me how to make peanut butter, and we made many, many batches of, yes, homemade peanut butter with peanuts we had grown. And you know, it was probably the late sixties, early to mid seventies. But I remember Thanksgiving and I remember Christmas and I remember, you know, it would snow and we would have to dig out the egg delivery trucks. And I remember, Angie, that, you know, we worked hard, we played hard, but I remember thinking, I'm really blessed. And something that my mom and dad instilled in me at a young age was a love for America.
I remember the pilgrim stories and that 1620, the pilgrims came. By the spring of 1621, more than half the pilgrims had died. And yet they had a Thanksgiving service since 1621. And I hope you all are prepared to thank God. Of course, the greatest.
Blessing of all is Being thankful for salvation. But I remember I was very cognizant from a young age. to grow up on a farm with my grandmothers and Whole family, that was a blessing. To go to church, even though it would be many years before I understood what it was to be a believer. But to be an American Andy, what are the top two or three things?
We'll have to unpack this more after the break. But if you could only name two or three things for which you are grateful. What are you thankful for, Angie? I am thankful for Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for salvation.
I'm thankful that I was born in America. I'm thankful for My parents and I'm thankful for my brother. Family, friends. I'm thankful so for so many, many things. You know, about Christmas time when I go down that aisle in the grocery store and you smell cinnamon.
Or pumpkin, aren't you kind of transported back to your mom's kitchen when see one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving through Christmas. is because it's like five, six weeks of really good baking. Just all the time you come home and there's something that's been cooked to eat.
Well, we've got to take a break. We're talking about thanksgiving. The Word of God tells us that we are to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. And bless the name of our Savior.
Psalm 100, verse 4. Stay tuned, we'll be back after this brief break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you like a book to help you understand the biblical prophecies, the passages about the end of time?
Hi, Alex McFarland. You know, for well over a decade, Bert Harper and I have been on the nationally syndicated AFR show, Exploring the Word. Over 3,000 shows we've done together, and Bert and I have a brand new book as of fall 2025: 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times. You can get it at booksellers everywhere. Our brand new book, Bert Harper, Alex McFarland, Exploring the Word, 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times, published by our great friends at Broad Street Publishing.
Check it out, and we believe it will help you understand how to live and thrive in these last days. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. You know, we've got a lot to be thankful for.
I mean, really. And so, as we get toward Thanksgiving, I hope that you are. are able to bow your head and say to God Thank you for creating me. Thank you for giving me life. I hope you, folks, hope you're a believer.
By the way, if you don't know Christ, or maybe you wonder what is this thing called salvation? What is Christianity? If you go to my website, which is alexmacfarland.com. AlexMcFarland.com. There's a tab.
What does God say? about my relationship with him. That explains in very, very simple terms how you can know that you have salvation. You can know that whenever you leave this world, as we all will, You're straight with God. You've got Jesus in your life.
Go to that tab, alexmacfarlane.com. What does God say about my relationship with Him? There's a hard copy of the book. We've given away a quarter million of these. We've had, I don't know how many downloads.
But if we can help you come to Christ or come back to Christ, I want to say to everybody listening: Jesus loves you so much. The Bible says God takes great delight in you. He wants to bless you. God has good things for you, but if we can help you spiritually in any way Please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Well, I'm here in the studio. We're on the set of where we do our television shows and different shows. I've got Angie with me. and let me be on record and say when I bow my head at the table on Thanksgiving Day, I do this every day, but I'm thankful for a Christian wife. And uh no exaggeration, I I I've never known as consistent A Christian As Dedicated to Jesus Christ and the Great Commission is Angie.
And so, uh, I'm thankful for you, Angie.
Well, I'm thankful for you. We need to get on with what we're thankful for. You don't know, you don't have to just say I'm thankful for you because I said I was thankful for you. But before the break, you were talking about. You got a Christian mom and dad, got a Christian brother.
What else? What are you thankful for? How about your health? I'm very thankful for my health. The Lord has uh gotten me through um Several bouts of COVID and I'm a heart failure patient.
And, um My ejection fraction Has come from 13 and it's now 32.
So that's a tremendously. A wonderful, wonderful blessing from the Lord.
Well, I wanted to bring that up. Uh, everybody asks about your heart and your health and, um You had a procedure on a heart. I had a cardiac MRI. The other month, and it showed that my heart was improved. Tremendously, and it's due to the care of my cardiologist, my heart failure specialist.
and lots and lots of people praying. And God Almighty. Amen. He is our healer. Isaiah fifty three, five and six says regarding Jesus dying on the cross, By His stripes we are healed.
And you know, folks, if you are finding it hard to name your blessings and be grateful for things, a week ago, Uh interestingly, I had two pastors in one day. Two completely different pastors, different states, but in one day I had two. Pastors Call Me, each of which had been through a family tragedy. One pastor, they were expecting grandkids. It was going to be twins.
And both twins were born extremely prematurely. One lived one day, one lived two days, but they died. And the other pastor had been through another just crucible of pain, and both of these pastors in one day that reached out to our ministry, were ready to give up their faith. and so it was our privilege to counsel with them the first of many counseling. Conversations.
But, you know, I mentioned them, and it's worth repeating now. Charles Spurgeon said, don't doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light. I realize as many people are celebrating the election results, other people are lamenting.
Some people have so much joy right this minute, things to be thankful for. And other people are brokenhearted. Maybe there's been the death of a loved one. Family issues, job, economics, health issues. Maybe you've gotten a diagnosis and just a visit to the doctor recently has turned your world upside down.
But as I was talking to these two different ministers, both of whom were having a faith crisis, and we often talk about talking somebody off a ledge. I was saying this and and I realized platitudes and sayings have their limits. But really, if we are intentional about it, we have things to be grateful for. And Charles Spurgeon said this, and it's been made into poems and songs, but he said, God loves you too much to hurt you. He's too wise to make a mistake.
So when you can't understand, when you can't trace his hand. Trust his heart. And I've talked to a lot of people that have been brokenhearted. But I've also talked to hundreds of people that will testify how, after going through a deep valley, they came to a place of incredible joy and blessing. Angie, there is.
It's not fun to be in the waiting room. It's not fun to have to Grope through the dark and trust the Lord. In the valley, but yet there is joy and blessing for all who put their faith in Christ, isn't there? By all means, yes, of course. I think that's where.
Oftentimes we grow, we grow in our faith and we grow in our ability to understand that there is a God and that He is in control and He is in complete control of our situations, of what's going on around us, and it may look very dark, it may look very dim. And it may look like you are all alone, but you are never, ever alone. Um you're not. God is with us. God is with us.
He says that in His Word. He it's repeated time and time again. I think because we fail to remember, we fail to appreciate. And when hard times come, that's when we cry. That's when we cry out for the Lord.
And. Rarely Do we cry out for the Lord when things are good? But I'm trying to be better at that and to be always in a posture of thankfulness to the Lord. For all he has done for me and for my family, for my husband, for just all of us and I'm thankful. Very, very thankful.
Well we've got to take a break. If you've ever wondered why sometimes the righteous suffer, and you're saying, Alex, it's hard to be thankful at this season. Angie, maybe somebody's thinking, oh, you know, Alex and Angie, they've got so many blessings. What could they possibly know about my struggle?
Well, we don't know everything about your struggle, but we've had the struggles of our own, you know, burying parents and parents living with us for years on end that had dementia. But God is faithful. And when we come back, we've got to take a brief break. But I'm going to talk about why. God Allows even the most devout Christian, his children that are faithful.
Why do the righteous sometimes go through incredible crucibles of pain? Stay tuned, it's Thanksgiving. I submit that there is much to be thankful for even in life's challenges. Alex and Angie, wishing you and your family a very blessed Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.
We'll be back right after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you invest a financial contribution to see young people saved, people give their lives to Christ, and people care about God and country? If you would please make a donation securely online, you can give at alexmacfarlane.com or please mail a check to TNGPO Box 485 Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313.
Your gift will be faithfully handled, fruitfully used, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Over the last several decades, it's been my joy to travel the world talking with children, teens, adults, people of all ages about the questions they have related to God, the Bible, Christianity, and how to know Jesus personally. Hi, Alex McFarlane. I want to make you aware of my book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. You know, we interviewed hundreds of children and parents and families to find out the questions that children and people of all ages are longing to find answers for.
In the book, we've got practical, biblical, real-life answers that they have about how to be a Christian in this modern world. My book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, you can find it wherever you buy books or at resources.afa.net. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Alex and Angie here, and Hey. You know, several weeks ago you shared the story of the rats in my little blue fiat car. We were dating and the rats fell out from under the dash. Naked rat babies.
And you married me anyway. Yeah. I was thinking about another Thing of rats. When we were in Africa, the first of many trips to Africa, we were married and this was a mission trip. This will make you grateful.
You were offered a certain delicacy. I was. I was. We were walking from village to village, and it would take, oh my goodness, an hour to get from one area to another in Africa. And we're walking along, and I get this aroma of I'm just not sure what it was, and I guess I would compare it to when we were young and they would work on the schools they would melt and have tar.
And it smelled like burning tar, rubber. And I know they work on the highways with that, but it's got a certain aroma to it.
So we're walking to a village, and I pulled on you, and I said, What is that odor? And you said, I don't know, but it's getting stronger in the direction we're walking.
So we got up to this village, and the villagers understood that white people were coming to their village. And they were it was a celebration. And they said, we have prepared something for you to eat. And we said, what is it? And they said, it is black rat stew.
Yeah, and I said, well, you know, guys, you just hit me on the week that I'm fasting. And I had just eaten a meals ready to eat Pop-Tart.
So I said, I'm so full from my snack. And they said, oh, we'll visit a while and then you'll get hungry again.
So I was offered and had a bowl with the villagers of Black Rat Stew.
So I got to say this, to be grateful, we are so grateful. And we were in Africa, and we were going to all these villages throughout Zambia. And we did. We saw hundreds and hundreds of uh Bush people saved. But we go to this village, and instantly, out of like nowhere, there's like 300 people seated on the ground.
And the headmen, they call it. They said, you will speak, you will speak, but first we eat. And I had an interpreter named Lawrence Chapoya. And do you remember the village that cooked us a chicken? Oh, yes.
And they cooked that chicken. with every feather it had, and its beak, and its talons, everything. I mean, they threw it into a pot of boiling water, and I remember the children taking pieces of chicken, and with their teeth they would pull out the bones and the Feathers and chew up the meat.
So we're in this village, and they sit us down, our backs are against a mud hut, and there are 300 people on the ground watching us. I mean, they're just like. in rapt amazement here these two very white Americans. Yeah, that's true.
Well, they bring us this partly boiled, partly singed Black feathered chicken on a platter. And I mean I could tell it was very ceremonial. And we're looking at it and Lawrence Chapollia, my interpreter, a wonderful Zambian brother, he whispered in my ear, he said, Alex, you have to eat this. Most of these people will never get any meat in the course of a year. and they've killed a chicken for you.
This is really huge. Um you need to eat. And so I said do you remember what I did? It said a said a very lengthy prayer asking God to take care of us. I said, a very lengthy blessing.
And I said, even so, come, Lord Jesus. And, like, right now would be awesome.
Well, I don't have to eat this raw chicken.
So it came into my mind in Mark chapter 16, it talks about these signs will follow them that believe. They will lay hands on the sick and they will be healed. If they eat any deadly poison, it will not harm them. But so we, an entire village, hundreds of people are looking at us. It's dead silent.
So we say the blessing, and I prayed a filibuster. But anyway, it was time to Show our gratitude and eat.
So I pull back the skin, and it's just bloody. This is like burned feathers. and underneath was raw chicken. And we begin to eat. And we did not die.
We ate the chicken. But we didn't die. We did not die. And that opened the door for the ministry. And listen, we're so blessed.
We've got so much to be grateful for. The meaning of life, and Angie, I want you to share a story that we heard from a minister many years ago. But the meaning of life, folks, number one, is to know Jesus, and He is as close by as a prayer. But then, the meaning of life, if you're a believer, It's to joyfully, gratefully, daily. zealously, consistently.
Remember that we have the privilege to represent the King of Kings who is so bountiful to us. As Thanksgiving comes, Angie, you were talking about, it was an awesome Illustration: I heard a minister share something that you remembered. We went to a Thanksgiving breakfast with your mom and dad. At a Presbyterian church in Greensboro. By the way, years ago, my parents are both in heaven.
Dad died in 2007, mom in 2014. But continue. We were invited to this Thanksgiving breakfast. And anyway, it was very meaningful. And it was the pastor of this little church.
And he got up and he said, I want to tell you this story. And he said, It's the story of the five kernels of corn on Thanksgiving. And he began, and the story goes, that it is said that during the harsh winter of 1621, their food supply dwindled to the point that sometimes only five kernels of corn were rationed per person with the pilgrims. Yet even in such scarcity, those five kernels symbolized gratitude. And so, um, I wish that everyone this Thanksgiving would, even if your family's not corn eaters, I wish you would purchase a can of corn.
and mom's put five kernels of corn on every one's plate, and sometime during the meal These five kernels of corn serve as a reminder of the days when their food was scarce and how God provides our needs. Before the meal each person removes each of the five kernels of corn from his or her plate and tells the five things for which he or she has to be thankful. The first kernel of corn reminds us of God's love and care for us. The second colonel reminds us of our love for each other. the third kernel reminds us of the autumn beauty all around us.
The fourth colonel reminds us of our family. our friends and our co-workers. and the fifth kernel of corn reminds us that we are a free people. Amen. We've got a lot to be thankful for.
Why do we go through hard times?
Well, You know, 2 Corinthians 1:4 says that God is our comfort, and He comforts us. in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we ourselves were comforted of God. If we're grateful, it prompts other people to be thankful.
Sometimes we go through hard times so that we can come alongside somebody else. and legitimately say I understand 'cause I was there, and God is faithful. And so maybe the good times, the hard times, really all times, are days we commune with Jesus and we understand how faithful He is. And some day we can tell others Hey, I was going through that too. And the Lord Never left me.
We've got a lot to be thankful for. Angie, thanks for taking some time to. reflect, and I trust that we're just going to have a great meal. And we'll have a good time and happy Thanksgiving to every everybody. Happy Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for all who pray for and support this ministry and enable us seven days a week to be proclaiming the gospel to America and the world.
God bless our nation. and make us a people pleasing in your sight. This Thanksgiving and always. Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth.
Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarlane.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
Okay.
