Two hundred and forty years ago, bravery stepped up to the plate. Men who had everything to lose, stood up to be counted, at great sacrifice to them and their families. They put fear behind them to take the colonies back from oppression and unfair tax burdens. They declared that the colonies should be independent of rule from across the seas. Something worth fighting for.
Genealogy is one of my favorite pastimes. I enjoy researching family members from long ago and learning as much as I can about their lives. Since last July 4th, I have developed a relationship with two awesome cousins from my father’s family. Together, we have researched and have discovered a great grandfather who served as a drummer in the American Revolutionary War. Just a young boy, unarmed, walking from one colony into the next, drumming out the signals to the regiment before him. He was injured, and recovered, had smallpox and recovered and then was taken prisoner aboard a British prison ship off the shores of Charleston, South Carolina. He suffered horrible conditions there and came out of it able to recount his story in 1838 and lived to be ninty-five years old in the Indian territory of Florida. So, you might ask, what does that all have to do with a Christian devotional blog?
It occurs to me that we hopefully can celebrate two independence days. The one for our country that we celebrate today and the day that we accepted Christ and declared independance from a burden of sin that we could never make right on our own. The day we turned our life over to a power greater than ourself. The day that grace and mercy touched our life and set us free. We are still in the world. We go about our days, working and living in a world that sometimes seems that it has gone totally mad.
Yet, with all the evil rampaging across the world, we are free! The One who set the sun, moon and stars in place, controls our days, not the world. The One who moved the earth into beautiful mountains and valleys cares for us and guides us daily through the maze of worldliness that surrounds us. We are in the world, but not of the world.
There is a sacrifice to be paid for independence. Whether in military war or in the daily war to keep a sound mind in a world that is out of control. Either way, it is a fight to maintain our freedom from the enemy.
Today, July 4, 2016, we celebrate the two hundred and fortieth anniversary of our American Independence and in my case, the forty-ninth anniversary since I made the decision to follow Christ. Whether you are a new follower or a longtime follower, celebrate your decision. Celebrate the release of the shackles that had you bound. If you have not yet made that decision, I pray you will. It is a decision that will change your life.
~Scripture For Today~
2 Timothy 1:7
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (KJV)
Galatians 5:1
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (KJV)
2 Corinthians 3:17
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. (KJV)
~Prayer For Today~
Hello Father! Thank you for those braves souls who fought to make a nation out of thirteen colonies. For the lives that have been lost through the years since the Declaration of Indpendence was signed. We pray today for You to bless this country, heal our land, and protect it from those who mean harm. We ask forgiveness for our sins of omission and disobedience, to You, the God of the Universe. In Jesus’ name. Amen.