Hello ,
I have a colleague in the ministry that recently posted the following message in his local newspaper. I thought it was such an appropriate message, and I asked his permissions to send it to you. Here it is, in its entirety:
Freedom!
As we Americans celebrate freedom from tyranny this week, we also celebrate freedoms we gained and fought to keep over the last 241 years. Many of our friends and family have given their lives to protect our freedom, and for that we are extremely grateful. We should live to honor those who gave up so much.
America is a young country still, as a friend
of mine pointed out to me, “When Thomas Jefferson died Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 17. When Lincoln was assassinated, Woodrow Wilson was a boy of 8. By the time Wilson died, Ronald Reagan was a boy of 12.” It is amazing that the lives of these four men can take us all the way back to the beginning of our country. We are young, but we stand tall among nations because of the principles on which we were established.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
With freedom comes great responsibility. We are not free to live lives of excess. We are not set at liberty to pursue selfish ends.
Paul tells us in Galatians 5:13,
"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
What is true for us as a nation is true for us as Christians. Christ died for our freedom too. A death sentence hung over our heads and Christ’s death gave us an opportunity to be free. We need only to choose to accept that gift of freedom. Our freedom from the tyranny of sin should be celebrated daily and our gratitude should be shown through Him, who lives within us.
Happy 4th of July !
