Imagine the scene of the Pilgrims departing Holland. If you were their pastor, what advice would you give? Fortunately, we know what John Robinson wrote these brave Pilgrims. Their pastor recited Ezra 8, a beautiful parallel to our Pilgrims.

Welcome to Politics by Faith, our Thanksgiving week edition. I want to read a little bit from John Robinson. John Robinson was the leader of the Puritans in Holland before they set sail to the New World. So they were in England, and then they went to Amsterdam for about 12 years to flee the king and persecution there. And then they said, this isn't good enough because Amsterdam is corrupting our youth. So we're going to go to the New World. 

I want to read two things here. The first is, a description of the departure from William Bradford. And then I want to read from a letter that John Robinson wrote to the Pilgrims, the Puritans. They called themselves separatists back then. So he wrote a letter to his fellow separatists who were off on the journey. Let's start with William Bradford's account of leaving. 

So being ready to depart, they had a day of solemn humiliation. their pastor taking his text from Ezra 821. It's great. He gave a sermon on the boat. We'll get to Ezra in a little bit, but, uh, Ezra 821. And that at Yee River by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek of him a right way for us and for our children and for all our substance. 

Upon which he spent a good part of the day, very profitably and suitably to their present occasion. The rest of the time was spent in powering out prayers to the Lord. with great fervency, mixed with abundance of tears. " How about that? Powering out prayers. That sounds very like modern evangelical. 

We're going to power some prayers in 1620. And the time came, excuse me, the time being come that they must depart. They were accompanied with most of their brethren out of the city and to a town sundry miles called Delfishaven, where the ship laid ready to receive them. So they left Delfishaven. goodly and pleasant city, which had been their resting place near 12 years. And they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things of the city, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits. 

When they came to the place, they found a ship and all the things ready. And such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them. And Sundry also came from Amsterdam to see them ship to take the leave of them. That night was spent with little sleep by most. but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and other real expressions of true Christian love. The next day, the wind being fair, they went abroad, aboard, and their friends with them were truly doleful. 

Sad was the sight of the sad and mournful parting, to see what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches. " I don't know what this word is. I'm reading this from the old English. Pithy speeches pierced each heart. Pierced! P -E -I -R -S -T, and pithy speeches pierced each heart. That sundry of ye Dutch strangers, and stood on ye key as spectators, could not refrain from tears. 

Yet comfortable and sweet it was to see such lively and true expressions of dear and unfeigned love. But the tide, which stays for no man, calling them away, were thus loath to depart, the revered pastor falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks, commended them with most fervent prayers to the Lord and his blessing. And then with mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leave one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them. I love doing the best I can to imagine what that scene looked like. I want to read some of this letter that their pastor, John Robinson, sent with the Pilgrims. Some advice. 

And though I doubt not that in your godly wisdom, you both foresee and plan for your present state and condition, initially and together, individually and together, I still thought it my duty to add some further encouragement to those who are already running, not because you need it, but because I owe it to you in love and duty. First, as we daily renew our repentance before God, especially for our known sins and generally for those unknown, so the Lord calls us in a special way at times of such difficulty and danger as you now face to search more deeply and reform our ways before him. So amazing. Of course, we need to repent of our sins, the ones we know and the ones we don't, but especially in times of danger and difficulty where we're clearly in God's hands, it's all the more reason to repent. to repent, and reform our ways before him, lest he call to mind sins forgotten or unrepented, and take advantage against us, leaving us to be swallowed by one danger or another in judgment. But on the other hand, when sin is removed by sincere repentance, and its pardon sealed upon a man's conscience by his Spirit, great will be the security and peace in all dangers, sweet the comforts in all distress, with happy deliverance from all evil, whether in life or in death. 

That's what happened to the Pilgrims. Praise God. So he goes on. I love this scene here. He encourages everyone to work well together. And this relates to Ezra, which we'll get to in a minute. 

Because Ezra 821 is what this pastor, Robinson, read. quoted from memory when they were about to embark, and it ties in very nicely. But here's one piece of advice. Carefully, work together carefully to provide in that your common work, you unite common affections truly bent on the general good, avoiding as a deadly plague, all withdrawnness of mind for private gain. Avoid it like the plague. or singular desires in any way, let every man repress in himself and the whole body and each person all private respects that oppose the general convenience. 

Just as men are careful not to have a new house shaken with violence before it's well settled and the parts firmly knit, so I beseech you, brethren, to be more careful that the house of God, which you are and are to be, be not shaken with unnecessary novelties or opposition when first settling. Lastly, since you become a political body using civil government amongst yourselves, and are not furnished with any persons of special eminence above the rest to be chosen in office. So you're not going with any political people, like the governor is not going with you. Let your wisdom and godliness appear not only in choosing persons who love and promote the common good, but also in yielding them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administration. Do not judge them. This is so good. 

Do not judge them by outward appearances, but as God ordinance for your good. Do not be like those fools who honor the fine coat more than the virtuous mind. or glorious ordinance of the Lord. " It's so good. Don't honor the fine coat over the virtuous mind. You know better that the magistrate bears the Lord's power and authority, honorably, however humble the person. 

And he ends with this. There are many other things, important things, I could remind you of, and earlier matters in more words, but I will not wrong your godly minds by assuming you're heedless. Many among you are able to admonish yourselves and others rightly. Therefore, these few things briefly, I earnestly commend to your care and conscience, joining with them my daily unceasing prayers to the Lord, that he who had made the heavens and earth, sea and rivers, whose providence governs all his works and especially all his dear children for good, would so guide and guard you in your ways, inwardly by his spirit and outwardly by his power, that both you and we, for and with you, may have reason to praise his name all our days. Farewell in him in whom you trust and in whom I rest. 

All unfailing well -wisher for your happy success in the hopeful voyage, John Robinson. " I love reading old letters. All right, so let's go to Ezra 8. So we have the Jewish exiles. Again, this is what John Robinson, leader of the Puritans, the separatists in Holland, this is what he decided is the most relevant piece of scripture to share with these pilgrims before they embark. Ezra 8, we have Jewish exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. 

And Ezra gathers everyone at this river, Ahava, and he proclaimed to fast. Remember, Thanksgiving used to be a day of fasting and prayer. Now it's gluttony and football. It used to be a day of fasting. And Ezra and the Jewish exiles, they got together and they prayed to God. Pick up at verse 21. 

Then I proclaim to fast there at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road. Because we had spoken to the king saying, the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against us. all those who forsake him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. " I love this so much because first of all, it's fasting, right? 

So fasting to focus like a single -minded devotion to God. That's the point of it. 

Why? 

To seek from him the right way. That's what Ezra wanted. That's what our pilgrims wanted. God, help us go the right way. Shouldn't we be asking the same thing? God, help. 

I want to go the right way. Everyone in our modern culture today, I want to go my way. No, we need to seek God's way. Literally, which way do you want me to go, God? And how do you want me to go there? Our pilgrims ask that constantly. 

But then the second part of the scripture, to not ask for protection from the king, because they already said that God will protect us. So there's like incredible danger on this journey, but he couldn't go back to the king and say, um, so we, like we said, we trusted God, but we really don't that much. You know, just be careful. Just be sure. Uh, you know, Do you mind if we get some of your people to protect, get some of your earthly protection? Cause we don't really trust our heavenly protection God that much. 

I mean, we do, but not, you're not real. I mean, a couple, couple military people can't hurt, right? So no, they couldn't do it. So they fasted and they prayed and God protected them. Our pilgrims, they couldn't have any protection. There was, there was no offer of protection from the King, fleeing the King. 

All they could do was ask God to protect them. And God did. And one more tie into the letter from Robinson. So Ezra gave all the gold and the silver and all the offerings for the house of our God to the priests. There are 650 talents of silver and we can go down the line, but it's millions and millions. of dollars, like tons and tons of like so much money, so much wealth on a very dangerous journey. 

And he gave it all to the priests and he weighed it. He weighed everything before they left. Here's what the Bible says. Then we departed from the river of Haba on the 12th day of the first month to go to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was upon us. And he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. 

I think of our pilgrims being protected by the hand of God from storm. along the journey, 66 days, six months off the coast. So we came to Jerusalem and we stayed there three days. Now on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the articles were weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Merimoth, the son of Uriah the priest. So they weighed it before they left, they weighed when they got there. It was all there. 

This wasn't done to see who stole stuff. And it wasn't done to prove you were not bad. It was done to show how good they were. These priests were trusted with these valuable items and all of them were honorable in their handling of it. And the pilgrim parallel here is beautiful. Going on a journey, trusting God's hand to carry them. 

And as John Robinson encouraged them to be honest and good. This is the founding of our nation. Thanksgiving is as profound to our nation and to our history and to the history of the world as the 4th of July and the Declaration of Independence. The declaration happened because of this, because of who came to this nation and why they came here and how they came here. And I don't mean how, like on a boat, but how as in by the hand of God and they came here to be good. Praise God. 

I pray that we can emulate this. Everything we do. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The Bible often rebukes people for eating raisin cakes. What's the big deal with raisin cakes? Am I not allowed to eat pie or fruitcake this Thanksgiving? And what does this have to do with our Pilgrims?

Welcome to Politics by Faith on this Thanksgiving week. Every episode this week is going to have a Thanksgiving related theme to it. Have a read James 4 this morning. Let me read through a little bit of it. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? So adulterers, this is how God in the Old Testament spoke of idolaters. They called them adulterers. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea. Hosea has a funny sounding scripture. It says, Then the Lord said to me, Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who looks to other gods and loves raisin cakes. 

Raisin cakes. Raising cakes is actually a couple of other places in the Bible too. Raising cake, it was a dried fruit pressed down into this cake. It was real food. And they were often used in pagan worships to Baal and Asherah and other idols. And there's this idea with this with pleasure, like a sensual pleasure. 

They're sweet. These are pleasing to the senses and wicked when used in the context, of course, of a pagan cult sacrifice. Jeremiah 7, 18, the children gather wood. The fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. more raisin cakes. So check this back out in James 4. 

Do you not know that friendship with the world is an enemy of God? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded. Lament and mourn and weep. over your sin. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. " I want to underline, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 

We've done that analysis before, but I'd like to do it again this week in light of Thanksgiving. Because you're like, wait a second, shouldn't the Bible be talking about happiness? It's not going to be the opposite. We'll explain. But I want to focus on some other things today. Check out this from Spurgeon. 

Note the contrast. Note it always. Observe how weak we are, but strong he is. How proud we are, how condescending He is. How erring we are, and how infallible He is. How changing we are, and how immutable He is. 

How provoking we are, and how forgiving He is. Observe how in us there is only ill, and how in Him there is only good. Yet our ill but draws His goodness forth, and still He blesseth. What a rich contrast. Sin seeks to enter. Grace shuts the door. 

Sin tries to get the mastery, but grace, which is stronger than sin, resists and will not permit it. Sin gets us down at times, but puts its foot on our neck and puts its foot on our neck. Grace comes to the rescue. Sin comes up like Noah's flood, but grace rides over the tops of the mountains like the ark. 

That's great. 

All right. So what are we to do? Resist the devil. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. This is from Adam Clark's commentary in the 1800s. 

James does not recommend that demons should be cast out of believers by a third party. Instead, James simply challenges individual Christians to deal with Satan as a conquered foe who can and must be personally resisted. The word resist, it's two Greek words put together. It means to stand against, stand against the devil. And what will happen? He will flee from you. 

Bible commentary from the 1600s, Matthew Poole. He says, And he will flee from you as to that particular assault in which you resist him. And though he return again and tempt you again, yet you still resisting, he will still be overcome. You are never conquered so long as you do not consent. So we must resist the devil. And when we do, he will flee and we need to draw near to God and he will draw near to us. 

Think of it like magnets. You get opposite magnets and they repeal. Devil flies away. But if you get the same magnets, they repel. But if they're opposite, then they cling together. So you want to be like the opposite magnet. 

I'm not good at my magnet metaphors breaking down. But whatever the magnets are that repel, that's we need to be the devil. And to God, we need it. So as we come closer to him, he will come closer to us. I encourage you to read all of James 4, but I want to turn this over to the Pilgrims now on this Thanksgiving week. And I always want to turn it over to the Pilgrims because they're our first Americans. 

They established the culture. we had for a long time and we need to get connected back to. December 1621, Robert Cushman arrived in America. He was on the Mayflower originally, but as we talked about on Friday's show, when the Speedwell, there were two boats that came over, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and the Speedwell right away took on water. So they had to go back and then everyone crammed into the Mayflower, but it was too full. So some people stayed behind. 

So Robert Cushman actually stayed back in England for a little bit, but he was so important and it was so obvious that he was coming on the next ship over that they stayed behind. him an allotment of land for when he did ultimately arrive, which he did. And this is one of his many sermons called The Sin and Danger of Self -Love described in a sermon. That's the title. This is love of the world. Love of the world is also love of the self. 

That's why you love the world because it gives pleasure. It's like raising cakes. It gives pleasure to me. So I worship the things of the world because it makes me feel good immediately in the moment. Now he wrote about 1 Corinthians 10 .24, which says, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. So Cushman makes note that the church in Corinth that Paul was writing to was eating things offered to idols, like raisin cakes. 

Isn't that amazing? So let me quote this. I'm translating this into more modern speak from 1621. But Cushman says then, during their unrestrained feasts held at church meetings, speaking of the church in Corinth, the wealthy, which by the way, Paul was rebuking, The wealthy, who could afford to feast fully, looked down on the poor, who had nothing to share, mocking and despising them. In both epistles, the apostle often sharpens their arrogance and selfishness. And by the last chapter, he repeatedly urges them to examine themselves to see whether Christ truly dwells in them. 

Despite many seeming to soar high like thousands today who rush headlong to heaven, it's like people rowing a boat facing one direction with their faces, but heading another with their entire body. Wow. Think about that. That imagery. of rowing in the opposite direction. Many display a boastful, grand language, as if they will force open heaven's doors, dismissing humble and 

broken -hearted believers as weak, simple, foolish, and so on. Yet these loud, boastful ones, who seem to be leaving others behind, if they're like the proud Corinthians, are actually just glorifying themselves, pretending to stand for God's glory. What else are they doing but mixing flesh with spirit, serving not God alone, but their own wages, serving their own stomachs, raisin cakes, which leads to damnation. Unless a quick and thorough remedy is applied. The remedy is what our Savior teaches the rich young man, and what Paul prescribes, not seeking their own, but caring for one another's needs. This remedy is as painful to carnal believers as abstaining from drink would be to an alcoholic, and it's a sure sign of sickness if this idea troubles them, as it did the rich man, man that Christ told to sell what he had and who left sorrowfully. 

Yet this ailment must be cured, or it will spoil everything, infecting both soul and body. And the contagion is so deadly that it risks the well -being of the entire community, where selfishness and self -love reign. Our Founding Grandfathers, the Pilgrims, had a culture of loving others, of serving others, of putting to death any pride, of putting to death any loving of the self, and putting to death any serving of their own carnal needs. And if you think about what they left, they had everything. One of the reasons, as we talked about on Friday, one of the reasons they left the Netherlands, Amsterdam, was because their kids were becoming corrupted to the culture of the Netherlands. They could have stayed and had plenty, but that's not what they were seeking. 

They went to the New World and suffered incredibly, suffered to death, most of them. But they still died in glory because they put to death worldly desires. They sailed to the new world, started a new nation, that for a long time embraced that same Christian ethic. On this Thanksgiving, let's pray that we can return to that Christian ethic that Robert Cushman, one of our pilgrims, said, let no one seek his own but the good of his neighbor, 1 Corinthians 10 .24. And also James 4, to not be an adulterer, an adulteress, and to not have friendship with this world. Instead, resist the devil and draw near to God. 

I pray you have a very Christian Thanksgiving, a very sacred and holy Thanksgiving this year. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript and commercial for you. MikeSlater .

I love our Pilgrims. I love their story, their courage, their virtue. We need to have a constant connection with these amazing people more than just once a year. Today, let's celebrate the historic document "The Mayflower Compact".

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being to be the beginning of a few Thanksgiving themed episodes. Love Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because I love our pilgrims. I love our Puritans, our ancestors, our heritage. I think about them all the time. 

I talk about them to my kids all the time. Amazing people. They're very short of the story. And then there's like two or three points I want to make here. And we'll, we'll do some more next week. Just the short of the story. 

So these pilgrims, they were called separatists. So back in England, there was the church of England and there were about four different groups of people who weren't happy with the church of England. They're on a spectrum. So the first group is like, man, we don't like this thing. And then the second group is like, we don't like a bunch of these things. And the third group is like, we don't like anything you guys do, but we're not really going to leave. 

And then you're the fourth group, the separatists. That's us. I said, we got to get out of here. They're getting killed too. So they went to Amsterdam. I didn't know that until a couple of years ago, they went to Amsterdam first and they were there for 12 years. 

And it was really tough for them to be there. And they said, this isn't good enough either. And the reason they left is because their kids were starting to embrace their pay, the pagan culture that was around them. William Bradford said, kids were drawn away. by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses departing from their parents. So they left to the new world. 

So 1620, they got on two boats, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and they left their community, they left their church, in many cases, parts of their family. They would leave young kids behind. The idea was that they'll come in later, later boats, maybe some elderly family members. We're just going to go get things set up over there and then you guys can come later. William Bradford, he said, so William Bradford, he wrote this book afterwards, turned into a book called Of Plymouth Plantation. And he always wrote everything in the third person, which is weird. 

I don't know why he did that. So I'm just going to change they. He would say like, so they left that goodly and pleasant city. as if he's talking about someone else, but he's not, he's talking about him. So I'm just going to change it. So we left that goodly and pleasant city, which had been our resting place for nearly 12 years. 

But we knew that we were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted our eyes to the heavens, our dearest country, and quieted our spirits. Heaven was our dearest country. Sure, we're from England. We escaped Amsterdam. We're pilgrims on this earth. no matter where we live, but chased all over the world. 

Heaven is our real country. So they got on the two boats and the Speedwell started taking on water. Not a good start. So they all crammed onto the Mayflower, 102 people in total. But here's what's super interesting about this. Well, it's a lot of interesting things. 

Another interesting thing, half the people on the boat were not pilgrims, the crew. There were 41 pilgrims, 61, they called them strangers. And it didn't go great between these two groups of people. And then you cram them on this little old wreckety boat. It's wet, damp. dark, disgusting. 

It's a cargo ship. This was the cargo ship. It's not even four people. You put 102 people on there and two very different groups of people on this boat. And then you send them on a journey for 66 days. 66 days to sail across the ocean. 

I bring this all the time up with my kids whenever they start to complain about a long car ride. We say, well, our pilgrims got on a boat for 66 days. And then if they groan, I say, well, you want to make it 40 years in the desert? Which would you prefer? 40 years in the desert or 66 days across the ocean? or the two and a half hours we have left on this car trip. 

66 days. They finally make it here and they get off and they go to Bucky's and they all have a barbecue sandwich. Oh, they get here and it's winter time. They got to stay on the boat for six more months. And that is when half of the pilgrims, half of everyone on the boat died. And I just, I, we can't conceptualize this because we were so distant from death and we've sanitized death in many different ways, but, but it's not like they were doing okay. 

And then boom, you die one day. It was six months of dying. six months of starving, six months of disease, six months of like scurvy, six months of suffering, agony, pain, screaming, and then dying, six months of dying, and then finally, and like all night long, there's nothing you can do. What do you do at night? What do you do at night all night long? There's no phones to scroll, just sit there in the dark. 

Even if you're doing well, everyone around you is dying. Six months. Think about that this weekend. Truly, think about that all week. Today we had some fun on SiriusXM. We were joking around because none of my kids like turkey. 

And I don't either. My wife doesn't like it. So everyone's like, no turkey this year. Dad was like, I finally do ham. I thought about it. Well, that's not American of me. 

So I brought it up on the radio and everyone called in. Not one person said stick with the ham. Every single person's like, you're a terrorist. And I reckon I recognize it, too. Right. But everyone is making these really good arguments about why we should still do Turkey. 

I'm not going to do it here. But it really had to do with manhood and tradition and conservatism and the pilgrims. Not no one made the claim. It's good. A couple of people did at the end. But that's ridiculous because Turkey's not good. 

Oh, but Slater, if you inject it with butter and you pour spices over it and you deep fry it... and then smoke it for 20 hours. You're like, okay, I guess maybe then it's edible. But no one eats turkey any other time of the year. I don't mean turkey sandwiches, I mean like a turkey. No one's, what's the big of turkey, honey? 

And just get a whole turkey and put the whole bird in the oven. No one does that except for this one time of year. It's not good, it's okay. There's other reasons why we're still having turkey in the Slater home. But I bring it up because someone said, Slater, I know the way to make turkey taste good. 24 hour fast before the turkey. 

Absolutely brilliant. Can my children make it 24 hours before the meal? Tastes delicious then. Because our pilgrims went 66 days on the boat and six more months hanging offshore. And then when they got off the boat, they still had all the work to do, but everyone was so sick. There were only six men who were able to do any work and they had to do all the work and all the work needed to be done. 

But I want to, my first main point here is I want to talk about the Mayflower Compact because we had this problem here with the 61 strangers. with the 41 pilgrims. So they're supposed to land in Virginia. That's where their legal authority was to set up, but they got blown off course and they landed in Cape Cod. So the patent they had, the permission was null and void and the strangers are going to kill the pilgrims. So William Bradford wrote up this Mayflower Compact. 

It was the first document ever creating a consensual government between individuals without a king. So all the other declarations in the past were in agreement with the king and the people like the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was the king saying, all right, fine, I won't do these things to you people. But this was just people coming up with their own separate agreement. John Quincy Adams says it was the first example. in modern times of a social compact or system of government instituted by voluntary agreement conformable to the laws of nature by men of equal rights, so no king, and about to establish their community in a new country. 

And this was the beginning of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. This is the Mayflower Compact. So I want to read it to you here. Again, my first point is how secular this document was. Just more evidence that, of course, we were founded as a Christian nation. Let's go back to the very beginning. 

The Mayflower Compact. It said, this is the whole thing, I'm going to read the whole thing. In the name of God, Amen. That's a great opening. The Constitution has a great opening too. We the people. 

That's a good opening. The Declaration opens with when in the course of human events. That's a good opening too, but this is a strong opening. You can't get better. In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith. 

Oh, they were deists and not, they didn't really believe. In honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Due by these presents, these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends of Forset. The ends are the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. And by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, and constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, we have here under subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, King James, Anno Dominio Lievre Lord, 1620. 

This is our heritage. This is our country. This is where we come from. And I'll leave you with this, Anne Bradstreet. We're going to talk more about her next week. Anne Bradstreet came over to New World with her dad and her husband in 1630, first to Salem Mass. 

And then two years later, they settled in what's now Cambridge, Mass. She had eight kids, incredible life. She was our first poet. She's a wonderful poet. I've read a couple of things of hers in the past, and she's a fantastic poet. Our very first. 

I just want to share this again, more evidence of where we came from is who we are. And I hope this inspires you to reconnect to this. This is, uh, the church covenant 1630 and a bunch of men. And also Anne Bradstreet signed this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance. We, whose names are here underwritten. being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ our head, in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed and sanctified to himself, to hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to the 

ordinances, and in mutual love and respect each to other. So near as God shall give us grace. 

" The beginning of the church is now known as the First Church of Boston. 

Still around. I'm so inspired by these amazing people. It's so important for us to reconnect to them. We know their courage. We know their bravery. We know their virtues. 

We know what mattered most to them. And the more we can reconnect to that, the better off we'll all be. I was going to say, better off we'll all be even today. Better off we'll all be especially. A few more Thanksgiving points we'll make next week. But I hope you have a wonderful weekend thinking about that. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript and commercial free.