Hi, I'm Jim Denison with Denison Forum, and this is the Daily article for Tuesday, November 20th, 2018.

The Dow lost 395 points yesterday as tech stocks dragged down the major indexes.

A star system in our galaxy is primed for an intense explosion that could wipe out the ozone layer in our atmosphere,

though the system is 8,000 light years away from us.

Here's the good news. We're not living in AD 536, which one Harvard historian considers the

worst year in human history. Here's the reason. A cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland

spewed ash across the northern hemisphere, blanketing the land in a mysterious fog for 18 months.

Temperatures fell, crops failed, people starved. Bibbonic plague followed, wiping out one-third

to one-half of the population of the Eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse.

How does this dismal story relate to Thanksgiving?

I've been contemplating a challenging sentence in

Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 518 says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God

and Christ Jesus for you. Give thanks translates a Greek word, Eucharistete, from which we get Eucharist.

The Greek verb is a present tense imperative, second person plural,

and thus can be literally translated, each and every one of you is commanded continually to express

gratitude without ceasing. In all circumstances translates Ponti, meaning in each and every place in

time. The Greek adjective admits no exceptions or qualifications, such gratitude

is God's will for you, referring to each and every believer. What does our Lord command

every Christian to express thanks in every circumstance of life? Does this imperative mean that God's

self-esteem is so low that he needs our constant affirmations of gratitude? Or could it be that this

command is for our sake rather than his? The latter is obviously the case. Why then does our

father want his children to live in a continuing state of Thanksgiving? The answer is not that

...