Are you looking for Thanksgiving stories with a Christian message? If so, check out Thanksgiving and Pilgrim Stories at Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries, the web ministry of Dr. Ralph Wilson. Many webservants may be familiar with Dr. Ralph through his work as one of the Internet’s leading experts on small business marketing and e-commerce. His Web Marketing Today web site and newsletter has 135,000 subscribers.

Wilson is also an ordained minister and his Joyful Heart ministry offers wonderful Christian reflections on major holidays. His Christmas site has long been on our list of favorite links, and Ralph also has a page of Christian Thanksgiving articles. These include “How the Pilgrims Got their Name,” which traces the history of the early Separatists from England to the New World, and “Cranberry Sauce and Pumpkin Pie,” an essay on thanking God on Thanksgiving day. We’re confident you’ll be blessed!

Are we losing Thanksgiving? That’s the question posed by Leadership Journal managing Eric Reed in a holiday essay from 2006. Reed worries that football and commerce have overwhelmed the Thanksgiving holiday. “I don’t mean to sound like Chicken Little (or Turkey Lurkey?),” Reed writes, “but the one day set aside to contemplate our blessings and their divine origin has, in one generation, been reduced to a football orgy and now, for football widows, a jumpstart on the biggest shopping day of the year as more stores open on the sacred Thursday.”

But Reed also notes that Thanksgiving services can be an important ministry opportunity:

The pastor of an Atlanta church told us that Thanksgiving was becoming for them the new seeker’s holiday. They found that people curious about faith would attend thanks-themed worship services with their believing friends. For seekers, Thanksgiving is a less demanding holiday than Christmas, which requires belief in the improbable (a Virgin birth?), or Easter, with its claims to exclusivity (must Christ be the only Way?). Everyone has something to be thankful for, and most people recognize that something beyond themselves must be credited with their blessings.

As we interact with family, friends and co-workers this Thanksgiving, let’s be mindful of that point and share our gratitude for the amazing God who is the source of all our blessings.

For the Third Sunday of Advent our Devotional is “Encountering God in the Checkout Aisle: Finding the Manger Amidst the Madness of the Mall.” An excerpt:

Every year around this time, I have a familiar experience. I’m out shopping, and I’ll go through the checkout line, and pay for my stuff. When the cashier hands me back the change, they’ll say “Happy holidays,” or perhaps even “Merry Christmas.” I’m aware that they may be saying this because they’ve been told to, and suspicious of the whole business. But at least once every year, I have a cashier who looks me in the eye and says “Merry Christmas,” and really means it. And it changes my whole day.

Read the rest at our Advent Devotions pages. We’re featuring a different Advent Devotional on each Sunday of Advent, closing the series on Dec. 23. We hope these meditations will be a blessing to you!

There was plenty in the Old Testament about the Messiah, but not a word about being the Messiah’s Mom. So when Gabriel appears to Mary to deliver the news about her role in God’s plan, the young girl has no Scriptural or historical playbook to work from. We can try to imagine ourselves in Mary’s shoes, but I don’t expect we can ever really grasp the enormity of her situation. Mary must have known there could be problems. But rather than focusing on the size of her problems, she chose to trust in the size of her God. You can read our entire Advent Devotional on Mary for additional reflection.

We’re featuring a different Advent Devotional on each of the next five Sundays, closing the series on Dec. 23. Our first devotional focused on Zechariah and his visit from Gabriel. We hope these meditations will be a blessing to you!

What would happen if one morning, during the middle of your daily routine, an angel appeared and told you that God had a plan that would completely change your life?

Zechariah’s dilemma is recounted by Luke in Chapter 1 of his Gospel. How would you respond? That’s the subject of the first of our Advent Devotions, titled simply “Zechariah.” We hope these meditations will be a blessing to you!

December 2 is the first Sunday of Advent, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christmas, and the beginning of the Western Christian year. The name Advent is derived from the Latin word “adventus” meaning “the coming” and equates to the Greek term “parousia” which is often used in reference to Christ’s Second Coming. The season serves as a dual reminder of the Israelites’ lengthy anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah, as well as our expectation of Christ’s return.

The earliest Advent can begin is November 27 and the latest is December 3. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). When Christmas Eve is a Sunday, as is the case this year, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.

For more, see our Advent Resources page.

Today you’ll be seeing lots of media coverage of Cyber Monday, probably describing it as the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season. This site seeks to focus attention on the spiritual heart of Christmas, rather than the commercial hype. Cyber Monday, like the Black Friday “doorbuster” sales, is the product of heavy promotion by some of the largest retail chains. Contrary to much of the spin, it isn’t even the busiest day of the year for online sales.

Rather than adding to the hype and sales for Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other retailers, I felt this would be an opportunity to instead shine a spotlight on the many Christian retailers. These companies and individuals have placed their faith at the center of their lives and their business. I encourage you to visit these web sites and consider supporting these businesses. Keep Christ at the center of Christmas with gifts that uplift your family and your faith.

• Crossings: A major online Christian bookstore. Get your first 5 Christian books for just 99 cents.
• Family Christian Boosktore: Save up to 75 percent at FamilyChristian.com’s Clearance Center.
• JesusBranded.com: Witness Wear. “We make the clothes. You live Jesus Branded.”
• Bibles.Org: Select Bibles in many styles and more than 200 languages.
• Simply Youth Ministry: Teaching help for high school and junior high students from Doug Fields.
• VisionVideo: Quality Christian movies and videos from Gateway Films.
• YouthMinistry.com: Ministry tools for Junior High students.
• Answers In Genesis: Resources for life, family and apologetics.

If you have dealt with other quality Christian web merchants, feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

This year we’ll be blogging about many facets of the Christmas season, and pointing to quality sites and information resources for Christians. One subject we haven’t covered previously is Christmas poetry. We’ve reviewed many resources for Christian Christmas poems, and here are a few we’ve found worthwhile:

• Christmas Poems: An extensive collection of Christmas poems compiled by the Marian Center at the University of Dayton.
• Christmas Poems: A nice collection of traditional Christmas poems, some dating as far back as the 14th century.
• Apples 4 The Teacher: Excellent collection of Chirtsmas poems and recitals for children.
• A Holy Christmas – Poems: Richard Fairchild’s excellent collection of Christmas links has a fine poetry section.

Are there any good resources we’ve missed? If so, share them in the comments.

For the Second Sunday of Advent our Devotional is “Switch Seats.” An excerpt:

There’s a company that makes T-shirts with spiritual themes. One of them shows an airplane being flown by a frantic pilot. The shirt says “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.” That’s a statement that’s simple, but sort of sums up our struggle. We often talk about how faith is hard. But I believe a certain amount of faith is really not difficult at all. It’s not hard to acknowledge God. And I don’t think it’s hard for me to make God my co-pilot. Like this: “God, you keep an eye on the horizon and the dials and gauges while I fly the plane. But you be ready in case a storm comes up or we lose an engine or the wing falls off, because then I’m gonna need you to save the day.”

Read the rest at our Advent Devotions pages. We’re featuring a different Advent Devotional on each Sunday of Advent, closing the series on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. We hope these meditations will be a blessing to you!

One of my favorite Advent activities, going back to my childhood, is the Advent Calendar. In our family we used to reveal the day’s Advent calendar before dinner each night. The Advent Calendar has successfully made the leap to Cyberspace, and we link to some of the most popular ones on our Advent Calendars page.

The TeachingMOM Advent Calendar is an outstanding example of how a Web-based Advent calendar can be a great resource for family worship. Each day’s entry features an abundance of goodies. Here’s how TeachingMom’s Leigh Ann describes it:

Every day on the TeachingMOM Advent Calendar is full of goodies to help you and your family create some wonderful traditions this Advent and Christmas, as well as have some good old-fashioned fun! You’ll probably learn a few interesting facts about the season as well. We’ve collected some of the best on the net – and your public library! – for you all in one convenient spot. But don’t feel that you should be doing everything listed on each day! The Advent Calendar was made to be used over again for as many years as you can get something out of it.

Make a point of visiting this excellent Advent resource today!