Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Happy holidays, happy holidays.
Wait a second. Before we get there, blocking the way right in the middle of the intersection between you and Christmas is a very important holiday. It's called Thanksgiving. I'm Stu Epperson and we're talking about Thanksgiving all hour long because one week from this moment someone's going to be thanks feasting, someone's going to have family around the table, someone's either going to be real excited or real annoyed by the people you'll be seeing. I, St. Nick, you're my witness, I'm eating my first piece of pumpkin pie of the holiday. I'm so excited. Let me tell you what my new favorite holiday is.
Well, I don't know how new. I don't know if it's my newly favorite holiday, but I've never enjoyed a appreciated Thanksgiving more than ever. And that's why I'm going to take on a national radio show a bite of Thanksgiving pie right now. Nick, I'm so good.
There's more. Thanks to my buddy John for kindly giving the Truth Network this whole pie. I just left their office and here I am eating it on the air. What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving? Why this has become one of the most forgotten holidays. Why we talk about not remembering the real meaning of Christmas, we drill that into the ground. It's so important that we have the real meaning of Christmas, right?
It's about the Christ child. Well, what about Thanksgiving? How often are we prone to forget the real meaning, the real reason for the season a la Thanksgiving? Is it a Thursday that just gets in the way of you and your Yuletide festivities? Or is it arguably, I'm going to go strong here, the most important holiday of the year? Is it not one of, if not the most important of the holidays of the whole year?
Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me why Thanksgiving is so important to you. What do you do? What's the tradition? What's special about it? And how do we redeem this season? How do we, what is the real meaning of this season? That's pretty clear when it comes to Christmas. Although we, the lights and the sounds and the money and all the chaos and the retail can drown out the real meaning of Christmas. Well, what about Thanksgiving? What is the real meaning of Thanksgiving? What is the point of it all? And what does it mean to you?
And how do you love so much? What are you celebrating it? What are you doing this year? And how can we make more of this great, amazing holiday? I'm going to give the number.
It's 866-344. I'd just love to have a conversation with you today about this amazing time of year. Loving it, loving the leaves changing for those of you that are anywhere near leaves that are changing, that are falling, covering the hard top. It's a beautiful time of year.
The colors, the weather gets crisper outside. And we get together, and it is a whole holiday dedicated to giving thanks. Toll-free 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Thanksgiving is something that is a theme pulsating from every page of Scripture. It is a powerful, powerful virtue.
It's a powerful action. We're told to give thanks how often? In everything. So really, it's not just something that you do once a year or something you do once in a while.
It's got to be something that is a part of your life. How do we make that that way? And how do we really...you're thinking about the Thanksgiving table, you're thinking about all the feasting that's going to go on, whatever tradition you do. How do we make Christ the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table? How do you do that when you have family that may not know the Lord? How do you do that when you have a whole lot of chaos?
How do you do that when you have a lot of distractions and whatnot? So I am doing an all-Thanksgiving hour on Truth Talk Live today, and I'm taking your calls. Toll-free 866-348-7884. How can we make arguably one of the most forgotten holidays, one of the greatest holidays in our culture? We're going to talk to a man who owns a Christian bookstore who has an absolute special place in his heart. He loves Thanksgiving better than Christmas. Does anyone else love Thanksgiving better than Christmas?
I might have to give someone something if they do. If they call in and they tell me why they love Thanksgiving more than Christmas, I want to talk to them at 866-348-7884. We are saying, where's the Thanksgiving?
Where's the love? Where's the veneration for this holiday, and how does it become this kind of last lost holiday? Why could you argue that Halloween is celebrated more than Thanksgiving? Halloween, in terms of the numbers, in terms of the way it's lifted up, in terms of what everyone does, and the excitement built up from the kids, seems to me like maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, here. We make a bigger deal about the trick-or-treating Halloween, which has all kinds of, by the way, pagan roots and pagan underpinnings. We make a huge deal about Halloween. What about Thanksgiving? How can we make more of it? And as we get closer to it, how can we be redemptive?
Ephesians 5 says, redeem the time for the days are evil. So, I have a lot on my heart about this, but I want to hear from you, and hear your thoughts on that, maybe your favorite Thanksgiving tradition. What are ways you, now listen, you got a lot of people listening, so if you share something that's going to encourage somebody, I'm going to share some things. Oh, I got a whole arsenal here, and I say Nick's got to keep me on track here, but I'm telling you, our awesome producer today, grateful for Nick and the team, grateful for the wonderful hosts we've had this week.
We've been to the Ukraine, we've been to the tough gender, the tough issues of gender confusion from brother Rosenberg yesterday. How can we redeem Thanksgiving? What's your favorite part about it?
And how can we make it bigger and better all year round, especially this time of year? Toll free, 866-34-TRUTH. Share your heart on that, and I want you to encourage listeners what we can do better to redeem this season.
Toll free, 866-348-7884. More Truth Talk Live coming up. Hang on.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Happy Thanksgiving, and I'm going to be saying that a lot longer. I'm going to be saying that past the final Thursday of the month of November. I want to start saying, I might say it every day, here's a quote, direct quote from a friend of mine's book, for too long we've relegated the practice of Thanksgiving to a holiday unobtrusively stuck between Halloween and Christmas. Thanksgiving was actually the first federal holiday declared in the U.S. October 3rd, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789, as the official holiday of sincere and humble thanks. This day was not set apart for people to make requests and petitions of God for our young nation with all kinds of issues, and yes, there were many. It was to be, it was not to be a day of getting more from God.
Our founders saw the great need to give more thanks to God, and eventually they changed the entire calendar with this focus. Saint Nick, hey, we're taking off next Thursday, aren't we, bud? And we're not going to be here. We're going to take a time off.
Now, the show's still going to be on. We're going to pick a good one. We've got to pick a good best of.
Maybe we'll pre-record some things. But Thanksgiving, it's huge. It's ground zero of the Christian life, yet so often it's become relegated to kind of the back seat, the red-headed stepchild holiday. How can we bring it back?
How can we redeem this season? Becky, calling us from Florida, you're on Truth Talk Live with Stu. Thanks for calling in, and happy Thanksgiving! Thank you, Stu. How are you?
Fantastic! What can I do for you today? Becky, tell me what you're, something you're thankful for, and tell me your favorite part about Thanksgiving. Oh, well, I think your question was, how is it that your friend says it's better than Christmas?
Yes, talk to me. And of course I can answer lots of your questions, but it's, one, we don't run around five days before going to stores. That we got to be thankful for to begin with. I like that. We just, we are humbled in ourselves that we don't have any expectations of our family members during this period of time, or our friends, and that we just sit down in peacefulness, grace, and love.
That is so good. I love it all! So Becky, is this also your favorite holiday? Do you like it better than Christmas?
I'd say it's up there really high for many reasons. Christmas has its own story. We're not going to take from that, because our Lord and Savior who has given us, you know, grace to make it to heaven, you can't debunk that one.
Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, but I mean, but think about that. The biggest call when you get through Christmas, when you get through the nativity, the incarnation, the beauty of that, the beauty of the King coming in such humble fashion, when you get through the resurrection celebration, the Easter holiday, what is the first call? The first call is, thank you, Jesus! Thanksgiving! You know, and we always say, we always say at Christmas, well, hey, it's not, it's the gift that keeps on giving. It's gonna, this is his grace. This is not just this time of year.
It's all year round. We always say at Easter, hey, he's not just alive on Easter Sunday when they have the big brunch, and everyone's dressed up real nice, and pops into church, you know, this big day. No, he's alive every day! He's alive in me! The tomb's empty, my life is full! And so, you know.
You're correct. You know, we've got that Easter holiday, and then we've got the separation in between, and the disciples taught us, but Paul, Paul's a hero. I'm telling you, we got a lot of heroes out there, but Paul is a hero, and he tells us what to do in between. He tells us, go out, don't be afraid of the word, spread the word, the good news, you know, and then of course we recycle ourselves each year in the glory of Thanksgiving, of Christmas, and Easter. Yeah, it's a great cycle, but there is a perpetuity, there's an ongoing, almost a thanks living going on that makes this holiday a very crowning moment for everyone. And by the way, unbelievers, when they read you, do they read someone whose life is overflowing with Thanksgiving? I sure hope so. Yeah, and what goes through their mind, like, why are they thankful?
Man, think about the, they have these health issues, and they have these problems, and they're struggling economically. Well, that's a great opportunity to share the gospel. I love what Becky said about spreading God's Word. Thank you for calling, Becky, you've made my day. You've made mine. I love listening to the stories you have on here, and I have it playing in the car all the time.
You guys work so hard for the Lord, I really appreciate you too. Well, God bless you, Becky, calling from Florida, I believe 91.7 FM, one of our great affiliates. You got it! Awesome. It actually comes on two stations, 91.3 and 91.7. Well, fantastic. I love it, and if you slide down toward Daytona Beach, if you slide through St. Augustine, 91.9 FM as well.
Oh, cool! Yes, ma'am, going south. God bless you, Becky.
Let's go to let's go to Julio. Hey, how are you? Hey, great. So tell us the biggest way we can redeem this holiday, or tell us your thoughts. I threw a lot of missives, I threw a lot of questions out there to get folks thinking, to provoke a little bit, because this is stuff that's heavy on my heart.
What say you this afternoon? Yeah, I would say Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, even over Christmas. And it's because when my family immigrated to this country, that was the first holiday we celebrated.
And despite the fact that we didn't really know what pumpkin pie was, we never had turkey, you know, a lot of cultural differences, it was the first opportunity we got to sit down as a family together and give thanks. And, you know, we got so much community support, so it's a beautiful memory that has never fallen away from my family's talk around the table every year. That's so cool. I love it, man. Yeah, wow. And, you know, look for there's all kinds of little ways to honor Jesus around that table.
You know, think about Thanksgiving. What has he saved you from? How has he delivered you? How has he opened your eyes? What milestones, what mountains has he moved for you this year? What answered prayers, right?
The fact that you're there, the fact you're alive, that breath you just breathed, Julio, that breath is a gift from him. Amen? Amen. So, wow, I love it, man. Thanks for calling in. God bless you, my friend. You're welcome. Thank you.
Yes, sir. Toll free 866-348-7884. Shout out to my buddy Finley. I'm thankful for him and his friendship.
Fellow baller, hard-working dude, he's listening right now to Truth Talk Live. All the new friends I've met today that I've told to listen, shout out to you. Thank you to our friend at Vintastic. I'm thankful for folks that helped this radio show go forward. They have made a drink that has zero calories, zero carbs, zero sugar, and it's full of the antioxidants from the muscadine grape. And we're so grateful for our friends at Vintastic.
More information is found at their website, vintastic.com. So we're grateful for them. All the people that make this possible, we're grateful for one of our top guest hosts, who will be in this chair tomorrow, Dr. Carson. Doc, it's good to hear your voice.
If you want to grab a line, it's 866-344-TRUTH. We've got some other folks holding on, but we've got to get Doc in, because he knows all about this holiday, don't you, Doc? Oh, I love this holiday, Stu. And I love what you said regarding giving thanks daily. You know, when you look at Scripture, the proper way to approach God is with thanksgiving. Approaching God with thanksgiving.
Wow. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Hold on. 866-344-TRUTH. More on thanksgiving and more of your calls after this. Hang on.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. There's history here, historical significance to this holiday. There is biblical significance to this holiday. In fact, you could argue that Christmas and Easter, in terms of the pure calendar, don't necessarily match up with exactly when the birth of Christ took place, or exactly the date of the resurrection. There are rich traditions. It doesn't diminish the fact of the incarnation, the birth of Christ.
It doesn't diminish the fact, you know, those dates of the resurrection. But one thing we do know for sure is that every day of the year is cause for thanksgiving, especially if you know the King, if you've been transformed by Jesus. So I just shout it out to all my Instagram fans, friends, and family to tune in right now and to call in. If you want to join the conversation, tell me something about thanksgiving that's been a huge blessing to you. Tell me how you think. Becky called earlier, great words from her.
And Julio, wow, what about that? He's like, yeah, that really didn't have a big turkey meal with all the fixins and all the pumpkin pie, which, by the way, I just devoured a piece of pumpkin pie, and my wonderful producer St. Nick saw me do it. As we started the show, it was so good. One of our friends, Christian Radio Partners, gave us a whole pumpkin pie, like literally as I was coming into the studio to do the show. And so I had to cut a piece with a plastic knife, and I ate it well in time. I ate a bite on the ear, actually.
But if you want to tell me how thanksgiving has made an impact on your life, not just the holiday, but the notion of thanksgiving, the action of thanksgiving, the attitude of thanksgiving, how is that so important? How is that so powerful? And we're going to let you in a little something. Dr. Carson's still in line with us. I'm so glad he called in. We had to go to a break, but we're back on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Epperson. All thanksgiving Thursday today, one week out from the big day. But we want to talk about how the greatest feast in the Bible is actually a thanksgiving feast. So I'm not going to go into that as much right now.
I want to kind of hold my powder. That's called a tease for those of you who have the understanding of the radio world. So we teased you there, but we are going to come back, I promise. In the meantime, let me give the number, and we're going to go right back on with the wise one, the date the word maestro, Dr. Duane Carson.
The number is 866-34-TRUTH. Colin, it's all about thanksgiving. Maybe you don't think it's a great holiday. Maybe you wish that we could just skip it and get right to Christmas.
Maybe you, like many Americans, prefer Halloween and the ghoulish trick-or-treating and all the demonic stuff of Halloween over a holiday fully given to giving thanks. If that's your perspective, we'll talk to you. We're not going to yell at you or shout you down. We just want to hear why.
You may have a hard time defending that premise, but we want to hear from you at 866-34-TRUTH. Tolfrey, 866-348-7884. We want to hear from our Lynchburg peeps at 93.7 FM. Our awesome folks in Jacksonville at The Truth, 91.7 FM. How about our friends in Toledo and Dayton on 106.5 FM. Spartanburg, South Carolina, Boiling Springs, Shelby, 88.3 FM.
How about Greenville, 96.9 FM. Dr. Carson, this holiday, which is because of all the materialism embroiled in Halloween and even in Christmas, how has this holiday become a lost holiday, Dr. Carson? And what's your challenge to our listeners to really redeem this day? Well, I think it's become a lost holiday because of Black Friday. All of a sudden, we are all geared up to going shopping, and I remember when they started opening the doors at midnight on Thanksgiving night, and it just took away from the reason we're having Thanksgiving is to recognize we have incredible blessings that have come down from above. And as a nation, we go back to the pilgrims, Mayflower coming over. They had this Thanksgiving, but I grew up in Virginia, Stu, and the first official Thanksgiving in America was really December the 4th, 1619, on the Berkeley plantation in Virginia, because it was settled in 1607.
They realized the only reason that they were getting a foothold in America and being able to survive was because of God. And when you look at Scripture, it is just filled with a call to come before God with thanksgiving. We're in his presence with thanksgiving. So if we're praying every day, we've got to be thankful every day, because you're not supposed to be coming into his presence grumbling and complaining. So good.
Hey now, I want you to stay on the line. We got another Christian radio friend who has been praying. He's been praying fervently that this show would come up, that we would be on topic here. And I think he's an answer to Becky's prayer, Julio's prayer, my prayer. He is Uncle D. White Gullion, and if you're ever in King, North Carolina, Statesville, North Carolina, and you, oh my, you've got to go to Gullion's Christian Supply, an amazing Christian bookstore.
It's like walking into just a little piece of beauty, just a little bit of heaven on earth. Dwight Gullion, you are not so—I mean, I don't want to hurt your sales, because it's a big time of year for you. You sell a lot of Bibles at Christmas, a lot of books at Christmas, but you have told me over the years that you really love thanksgiving even more than Christmas.
Is this true, sir? Oh, yes, and thank you for letting me be on the program, Stu. It's an honor, and recognize the voice of your other guests there.
Good to hear from you, brother. But I just wanted to say, yes, our family does make the most of thanksgiving each year. And in my opinion, it's the most important holiday that we celebrate in that it encompasses that we are thankful that, yes, that Jesus was born. We're thankful that he died and was resurrected. We're thankful for our country, July 4th. We're thankful for those who served our country and that died and that still serve for Memorial Day and Veterans Day and any other holiday that you can think where we're celebrating something.
Thanksgiving is when we can be thankful for all of those things to the ones who provided them for us. And so I think that it's just a shame, in my opinion, that it doesn't at least get as much attention as Halloween. Isn't that a shame?
Yeah. Dr. Carson, you know, what has happened to our country when we give more platform, when more folks are looking forward to getting free candy and dressing up as little demons and stuff, then we are about the big thanksgiving deal, huh? We've lost focus on who really is our great provider. And I love that you read that from George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln did the same thing in 1863. And it's a call by our early leaders to focus their attention on saying thanks to God who made all this available to us. It's humbling to do this, and maybe it's because of our arrogance that we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in a way that we are giving thanks, that we do, as Dwight said, take time to truly make this a focused time of giving thanks. It's almost like it's a feast, as the Passover feast was kind of like the height of all Thanksgiving feasts for Israel.
Like, how significant was deliverance, emancipation, from 400 years of brutal slavery? And here, God brought them out, and every year they celebrated that blood-bought stay of God's wrath, you know, by the beautiful blood of that lamb, that some of the lamb had to die. And they ate that feast standing up, and Dwight, Gulen, you're going to celebrate your Thanksgiving feast relaxed and enjoying with your family, correct? Tell us how you redeem this holiday. You're selling books in a Christian bookstore. You're doing so much for the Lord. You've been a blessing, a mentor to me and Dr. Carson. How does your family redeem this holiday?
Let us all sit at your feet here for a quick second. Well, let me just say this, is that if you are thankful, it's hard to be covetous. If you're thankful, it's hard to hate. If you're thankful, it's hard to be lustful. It just covers a whole lot of sin, right? If you're thankful, then there's no room for sin to be in because you are recognizing the God of creation and the God of your salvation, and you're giving gratitude to Him instead of focusing on the flesh and the world.
But yes, our family actually, since you asked, we actually have chosen for now 24 years, or however long I've been married now, 27 years, as long as we've had children, we actually exchange our gifts at Thanksgiving because we're showing our gratitude to one another. And that way we reserve the December holiday for the Lord's birth and being thankful for that and don't have to get caught up in all that then. And we, of course, have to be careful not to get over commercialized for the Thanksgiving either. But it's Jesus' birthday.
Let's do that for Him then. And then for Thanksgiving, we'll show our gratitude to one another and to the Lord at that time. And actually, this year, our family, through our church, is having an opportunity to go out to Western North Carolina and serve Thanksgiving meals to those who are homeless out there in Western North Carolina. So we're looking forward to that.
It's going to be a blessed time. Why not have a Thanksgiving party? We have Christmas parties. Why not have a Thanksgiving party?
This is Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson. I'm inviting you two to the Thanksgiving party. I'm going to have one.
We're going to call Uncle Gus. We're going to get the Mayflower before Thanksgiving, maybe the Tuesday before. More coming up on Thanksgiving after this. Hang on.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I'm Stu Everson. I'm so glad to talk about this amazing holiday. I have a special guest whose favorite holiday, even more than Christmas, is Thanksgiving.
I'm going to read another quote from my buddy's book. He said this, Tragically, this fourth Thursday of November has all too often been seen as merely an annoying delay before people can enjoy their yuletide celebrations. And yet, what would Christmas be without the giving of thanks?
Christ came to us in the humility of the manger to save us from sin and death. Is there anything greater to be thankful for? Maybe we've got these two holidays in the wrong order. Either way, it's time to reorder our perspective, not just by setting up a new calendar, but by resetting our hearts to be a daily calendar of thanks to God. This, my friends, is about thanks living. This is a grand time of year.
I've got Dr. Carson with me, date the word ministries. I've got Dwight Gullion, whose family actually celebrates and makes Thanksgiving what most of us make our Christmas holiday. They eat, they exchange gifts, they give thanks. And Dwight Gullion, with all the reading and all the wonderful books you sell, you know, I know it's occurred to you, and we talked about this yesterday at Wednesday the word Dr. Carson, that the actual Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, which was the Last Supper, also the First Supper of the New Covenant that Christ paid for in his blood and his broken body, that we call it the Eucharist, which means, literally, giving thanks.
This, Dr. Carson, Dwight Gullion, was a Thanksgiving feast, and is. That's right, as was the Passover. Yeah, the Passover and the New Testament Passover. As that Passover was taking place, Jesus said he gave thanks. And as you look back, I like to use the phrase, Deuteronomy calls us to remember to remember. Remember what God has done for you. And as you do that, it's so humbling, and again, it brings about a spirit of giving thanks. Don't forget to not forget. And that's part of why we have this great day set on our calendar, so that we do not forget where all blessings come from.
Wow. Not to forget how soon we forget, which is why it's wonderful to have this day. And Dwight Gullion, when, you know, Jesus, he took that bread, he broke it, he said, this is my body, took that cup, and he said, hey, this is my blood shed for many.
Because when you look at Hebrews 10, it took all kinds of lambs to be sacrificed, to pacify the wrath of God for his children, which didn't take away sin, but they pointed to the one lamb whose once-for-all death did take away sin. Dwight Gullion, this is a great cause for thanksgiving. Oh yes, and that's what I was saying, is that it's the ultimate holiday in that it's when we can be thankful for all of the blessings that God has provided for us, not just his birth that's coming up here, but the Resurrection Day, and all of those combined is the way I think of it. Dr. Carson, it's almost a, there's a fluidity, there's a vibrancy of thanksgiving that kind of floods all of these holidays. Everything.
It floods every day of the week. I mean, the best two words that can come out of your mouth when you wake up in the morning are, thank you! You know, during the break we heard Chuck Swindoll, one of those little vignettes, talking about, hell, go write a thank-you card to a teacher, or a professor, or a mentor, or a coach who's done something, made a difference in your life. We have a country that is starved for gratitude. We have a lack of gratitude, and when you have a lack of gratitude, there's only one cause of that. A lack of grace. Without, and these are the two pillars of the whole Reformation, and all the Puritans, and all the Puritans, so many godly leaders said, hey, if you sum up the whole Christian life, these are the two words.
Grace, because that's where it all comes from, that gift of Christ. Who he is, what he did, and gratitude, which is our response. Gentlemen, last time I checked, we can't add to the death and the resurrection and the great ascension of our Lord Jesus.
We can't add anything. We can't give him anything that's going to give him more, or give him more wealth, but we can give one thing. We can give thanks. And how about the power of giving thanks? What happens when someone is grateful and giving thanks to Wyatt Gullian? What happens when there's a gratitude that comes out of that well of grace in their life? Well, being thankful is just a conduit for the further blessings of God, because just like when your child comes and sits on your knee and tells you, thank you, Daddy, for doing this for me, or for getting me this, that just causes us to just want to do even more for them, and to love on them even more. And I really think that's not why we are thankful, but I really think that if America, and if our neighborhoods, and if our families, and our churches were as thankful as we should be, that the Lord's blessings would come down upon us even more. You know, it's interesting, we have his grace coming to us, and we have gratitude coming out of us as a natural reaction. So if you have a low gratitude tank, you obviously have a low grace tank.
Go back to the well of grace, go back to the cross, go back to the one who redeems you, and tune into him, and allow his grace in your life, you know, trust in the power of the gospel, and watch gratitude flow. But Dr. Carson, even the secular psychologist, and you've been with the best of them, you've spoken all over the world, we may have lost Dr. Carson. So, Dwight, you can speak to this, because you sell a lot of books at Guillain's Christian Supply, and you read a lot of books as you vet them, you know, to put them on the shelf. But isn't it fascinating that even some of the most secular folks that speak about success, that speak about, you know, worldly gain, and how to have a healthy lifestyle, they're all now saying that you should have a gratitude journal. They're all now saying that the most successful people, and the most generous people, philanthropic people that are making a difference, are the people who are grateful. So there's this common thread of gratitude, even the secular world, Dwight Gollin recognizes. Isn't that, how does that strike you?
Isn't that fascinating? It is, and it's because the principles that God has put, their eternal principles that God has put into place, and they have the designed effect. When you are thankful, then it will make your life be more successful, both earthly and, of course, heavenly. Yeah, Dr. Carson, speak to that power of even the world is now saying, and the world is now giving much applause to the power of gratitude, the power of thanksgiving.
People don't even know Christ, that really don't have the deep eternal reason for it. They recognize the benefits of being grateful. Yes, I heard an illustration years ago that came from Ohio State Health, that when you wake up in the morning, it's like you're in the basement of a building, and all you can think about is yourself. But if you get on an elevator and go to the penthouse where you can see out, all of a sudden you never think about yourself anymore. And we have to get out of thinking about ourselves and thinking about others, and when that begins to happen, one begins to have good health, not only the physical health, but the mental health, the emotional health.
John Maxwell said it this way, when a person's all wrapped up in themselves, they make for a very small package. Yeah, I like that. When you start thinking about other people, and that's part of the things, the list of giving thanks, one of the things we do still is I challenge my children to come up with many words that begin with the letter F. I have to say very carefully, the words that begin with the letter F, and all of a sudden we've got like 30 to 40 different things to give thanks for, just using the letter F. And you think about friends and family, and you think about our freedoms, you think about the food that we do get to enjoy, those are just a few quick things. Our future. And this list can go on.
You can do the whole alphabet like that. I mean, what a beautiful thing. Great activity, by the way. We might have to play this show on Thanksgiving Day. What do you think, guys? St. Nick, what do you think? I like that. That sounds like a good Thanksgiving Day activity.
Okay, so if we play this show on Thanksgiving Day as a best of, here's what I want to do. I want you guys to give your parting shot, give me your favorite Thanksgiving verse in the Bible. Now, we're at an unfair advantage, Dwight, because Dr. Carson's ministry has dated the Word. He's got a verse for every day of the year. His Bible's like a Bible encyclopedia.
So why don't we start with Uncle D. White. You tell us what is your favorite, when you think of Thanksgiving, give us your favorite scriptural challenge, encouragement that comes to your mind as we wrap out of here on Thanksgiving. It's hard for me to not think about 1 Thessalonians 5.18. Isn't that what we've been working on is, in everything, give thanks. So I'm just, you know, there's all kinds of scriptures.
Are you sure that's it in some things? God would never expect us to give thanks to everything. Listen to him.
I love it. And you finish the thing. Hey, by the way, this is God's will, so is there anything more sacred, more powerful than the will of God? In Christ Jesus, he's the one that gets us there. He's the access concerning you.
That's the application. So that one verse, 5.18, you have the five A's of 5.18, the amount and everything, the action, give thanks, the aim, this is God's will, the access in Christ Jesus, and the application concerning you. Dwight, that's a real good one. Dr. Carson, real quick, your favorite Thanksgiving verse. Go, sir, we're almost out of time. Psalms 100, verse 4, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, and be thankful to him and bless his name.
I love it. Psalms 100, verse 4. Okay, I'm going to go with Psalm 95, verse 2, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms, verse 3, for the Lord is a great God. Because of who God is, because of what he's done for us, we have all the reason to be, to give a shout of praise, and happy Thanksgiving, guys.
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