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Excerpts from Moishe Rosen's lead article in the Jews for Jesus Newsletter, November 1987

Only a person who eats regularly and well learns to be picky about food. Those who don't eat as regularly are never indifferent to food. They are usually thankful in direct proportion to their deprivation and hunger. People who are blessed with plenty are sometimes substantially less thankful.

Indifference to God is a killer disease, and those who are afflicted are unaware of their perilous condition. [The inability] to perceive God's love [is] ... a living death. The Bible defines it that way, too. It tells us that those who cannot perceive God's love and salvation are dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13). That's why we at Jews for Jesus feel so compelled to get out the message of God's love and salvation in Y'shua.

The world is spiritually starving and most people don't even know it. They think that the diet God offers them is too bland. They don't want God; they want excitement. They want to overdose on quail when what they need to sustain life is manna. And the manna, properly presented, need not be bland. Colossians 4:16 admonishes us as God's servants to season the salvation message with salt. With His help, we can certainly do that.

Much is said and written these days, especially at holiday time, about alleviating physical hunger in the world, and this is noble and right. How much more impelling should be our concern to bring Jesus, the Bread of Life, to a world that is dying of spiritual malnutrition?

I want you to enjoy your holiday, so don't get too worried or too upset. I just want to remind you that it's important to be thankful and loving. It's also good to act upon your thankfulness, because God has given you so much. I hope that God is sending you all the manna you need and just enough quail for your daily ration as you traverse the wilderness of your earthly pilgrimage. I hope you truly appreciate His provision. I trust you are not indifferent to it.

Thankfulness is the recognition of grace. It is the acknowledgment that someone has given us something that was not due us. Whether the gift is of material value or merely a kindness, it shows that the giver knows who we are and what has meaning and value to us.

I remember the first real gift I ever gave. It was a birthday present for my mother that I had bought with my own money—a potato peeler that cost me a big 15¢. At the time, that was a lot for a nine-year-old who earned pennies for doing errands. The realization that I had done this all by myself made my mother smile. Years later I learned that flowers or a handkerchief or something more personal and less suggestive of kitchen drudgery might have been more appropriate, but my mother had been totally appreciative. She had been thrilled to have a son who wanted to do something nice for her on her birthday.

I think the heart of the Almighty is truly touched by our small tokens of love. He could create mountains of gold for his treasuries, but the widow's mite means more to Him than mountains of gold, because it comes from a needy heart that says, "I love you, Lord. I trust you to take care of me. So, here ... take this." I think that's what Thanksgiving is all about. It involves acknowledging God's goodness and care by taking the occasion to say, "Father, I love you; I trust you. Here, take all that I have, and again—thanks!"