Listen @ http://www.brendanflannagan.com/what-is-thanksgiving/Today, on the So What Series, we ask, “What is Thanksgiving?” Millions of Americans have just returned from gathering around the tables of friends and family to celebrate this national holiday and literal “feast day.” But, instead of recalling the size of the Turkey. Stop, and consider the real reason for this holiday for the concept of Thanksgiving reaches far beyond 1623, and finds its genesis in the man's relationship with God. Thanksgiving literally means to praise God for His grace and, whether you are a Christian or not, we all have plenty to be thankful for. Without grounding our thankfulness in God, we will find ourselves void of a natural outpouring of thanks and praise for God’s bountiful blessings and many graces, but only filled with an empty pride and unsatisfying self-conceit. Thank you for joining us as we attempt to kindle the true meaning of the holiday and the warmth never far from a heart pressed closed to the hand of God.In the Greek New Testament, thanksgiving literally translates to eucharistia, and means an outpouring of gratitude and thanks for God’s undeserved mercy and grace. While the Roman Catholic Church, has attempted to give the word new meaning within the practice of Eucharist. We can recognize thanksgiving not as what enter one’s mouth, but what proceeds forth (Matthew The general grace of God is administered to everyone independent of any behavior. In Matthew But, in God's special grace, the light is on full display in Jesus Christ. Despite our hostility to the things of God, He draws us into a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ (Col The best biblical verse to sum up this uniquely Christian thought is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph Finish Reading and Listening @ http://www.brendanflannagan.com/what-is-thanksgiving/