July 1
Read John 8:36
The month of July carries into my heart a passion for Patriotism. The July 4th holiday is always one of my favorites because it reminds me of all that America stands for. I have never served in our military, but I have a passion for the soldier. I am fully aware of the price that was paid for my family to have everything that we enjoy. Daniel Webster said, “God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to defend it.”
This is a somber time in our nation’s history. With the events of September 11, 2001 still very much on our minds, we are sending our troops a world away to fight for freedom from tyranny. Generation after generation has faced challenges similar to ours, but that doesn’t make it any easier. John F. Kennedy stated, “In the long history of the world only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”
We live in such a generation. Whether it was the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World Wars I & II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War to the war on terrorism today, adequate words of gratitude can never be uttered. Young men and women have defended the freedom of Americans and those abroad, but that doesn’t make the pain of the families who watch their loved ones leave any less real. Every generation in American history has stood to fight in some way for our freedom, but that doesn’t make our support for our fighting men and women in these difficult times any less important.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given, of other generations much is expected.” Today, we live in both. We have been given so much, and yet so much is expected of us. That is why those who fight and guard our liberty is a story of bravery and sorrow, a story dedicated to country and love of family. It is a story of leaving those you love most behind so that they can live in safety and freedom.
America is an incredible nation. While we work to promote our freedoms here at home everyday, our young men and women have always been willing to step into the international scene to protect those who need it most. In doing so, we realize once again that freedom isn’t free. We can never, and will never, take our freedom for granted.
“Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.”
- Calvin Coolidge
July 2
Read Isaiah 53
As a nation, we have set aside holidays such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July to remember and honor those who have sacrificed to fight and guard our liberty. After September 11, 2001, we realized that there is also a very important group of people that also step in harm’s way for the sake of our liberty. These are the people who maintain our freedom.
We honor all of our police and fire forces, our hospitals, doctors and nurses, our civic leaders and justice departments, who are brave men and women who work to keep the infrastructure of our liberty intact. Adlai Stevenson said, “Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” Those that maintain our liberty are men and women that have spent years in preparation for their particular field. Daily they prepared and now daily they perform the duties that protect the freedoms we possess.
From the blazing fire, the confronting of some criminal, legislating laws to fighting disease, these men and women place themselves in the way of harm for our lives to be better. Harm is defined as “Physical or psychological injury or damage or wrong; evil.” In harm’s way is defined as “a risky or dangerous position.” This defines the firefighter, the police force, the medical field, the utility worker. Those that step into risky situations so that we can be safe from that harm are those that maintain our liberty.
Firefighters protect us from the flames, police protect us from the criminal, the doctors and nurses care for our sickness and the utility worker makes sure we have the power necessary to live in our relative comforts.
When fire is cried and danger is nigh,
"God and the firemen" is the people's cry;
But when 'tis out and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the firemen slighted.
~Author unknown, from The Fireman's Journal, 18 Oct 1879
This little poem can be applied to all those that maintain our liberty. We often do not think of the medical field until we have some illness that needs to be righted. We often only think negatively of the police force because we usually only think of them as they write out that speeding ticket. Today, however, we come alongside the military personnel that we have honored, and we honor you. To the police, fire, medical, political and utility fields of labor, we thank you.
“The line of life is a ragged diagonal between duty and desire.”
- William R. Alger
July 3
Read Hebrews 11
A Texan was trying to impress on a Bostonian the valor of the heroes of the Alamo. “I’ll bet you never had anything so brave around Boston,” said the Texan.
“Did you ever hear of Paul Revere?” asked the Bostonian.
“Paul Revere?” said the Texan “Isn’t he the guy who ran for help?”
We cannot live fully without heroes, for they are the stars to guide us upward. They are the peaks on our human mountains. Not only do they personify what we can be, but they also urge us to become what we should be. Heroes are who we can become if we diligently pursue our ideas in the furnaces of our opportunities.
Heroes are those who have changed history for the better. They are not always the men and women of highest potential, but those who have exploited the potential on society’s behalf. Their deeds are done not for the honor but for the duty.
Heroes are the personification of our ideals, the embodiment of our highest values. A society writes its diary by naming its heroes. A diary writes its society by naming its heroes. We as individuals do the same. When Socrates said, “Talk, young man, that I might know you,” he may also have added, “Talk of your heroes that I might not only know who you are, but also who you will become.”
Our heroes tell us much about our value structure. Heroes do not possess a superior gift, but a superior spirit! All real heroes are real people. Heroes come from people that give us inner strength when we reflect on them. Heroes are sometimes people who spend their entire lives doing something for which they never receive rewards. Those that follow them receive plenty, but they usually do not. We usually want to be like the heroes. They make you want to develop into something greater.
Today, people like our 1st grade teacher, our t-ball coach and our trash collector need to be honored. We honor people like our banker, the grocery store clerk, the car wash attendant and the paper boy. We honor you, interpreter for the deaf, postal carrier, phone operator and hotel cashier. Plainly put, all people everywhere that live and work in this great country of America are our heroes.
Martin Luther King said, “Never allow it to be said that you are silent onlookers, detached spectators, but that you are involved participants in the struggle to make liberty a reality.” Today, we stand together as Americans. We stand together as defenders of liberty. We stand before God and lift our voices to God for our dear land. For truly, it is in God we trust.
“Our flag honors those who have fought to protect it, and is a reminder of the sacrifice of our nation's founders and heroes. As the ultimate icon of America's storied history, the Stars and Stripes represents the very best of this nation.”
-Joe Barton
July 4
Read Leviticus 25:1-13
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson - Declaration of Independence of the United States of America
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, and another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants; nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. However, they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." (Author Unknown)
When you read that, what emotions, as Americans, well up? In me, I am forever grateful for those men, women and children that sacrificed so that I could have what I have today. Still today, men, women and children sacrifice in our military forces to protect and serve our great country. At the same time, I remember June 16th, 1980 at Camp Galilee on Grey Cloud Island in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, when I had a personal day of Independence. The sacrifice that was paid came in the form of a betrayal by a friend, smiting upon the cheek, plucking of the beard, lashes upon the back, a crown of thorns upon the brow, nails in the hands and feet and forgiveness for all. Surely, whom “the Son sets free is free indeed.”
“Freedom is knowing what is right and wrong, and having the ability to do right.”
-David Norris
July 5
Read Hebrews 12:25-13:6
Have you ever had any worries in your life? We worry about house payments, car payments, credit card payments, doctors’ bills. We stress about which school to send our kids to, which grocery store to shop in, what kind of car we should have and which direction we should drive. We concern ourselves with the quality of our clothes, our yards and our neighbors. We get tangled up in the issues of the day such as, social insecurity, taxes, gas prices and the weather. Are you noticing a trend here? We get so consumed with here, we forget there!
Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw had a wonderful philosophy of pitching. He called it his “frozen snowball” theory. “If I come in to pitch with the bases loaded,” Tug explained, “and heavy hitter Willie Stargell is at bat, there’s no reason I want to throw the ball. But eventually I have to pitch. So I remind myself that in a few billion years the earth will become a frozen snowball hurtling through space, and nobody’s going to care what Willie Stargell did with the bases loaded!”
While we read in the Bible that the earth will someday “melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10), there is much validity to McGraw’s statement: We need to keep life in perspective. Most of the things we worry about have no eternal significance. We get so tied up with earthly things that we fail to see the blessings of the heavenly things. We are not designed for this earth – we are designed for His presence.
The writer of Hebrews was concerned about our perspective. Throughout the book, he keeps our eyes focused on heaven and away from earth. Unless our minds are on heaven, we will have little eternal influence on earth. I would rather influence someone to follow Him and gain eternity, than to lead someone into the right investment and make then a million dollars. While we all have to live in this world and deal with all of these issues, our perspective must remain on heaven. In fact, I am not sure how anyone can even survive the pressures of this earth without the hope of that heaven.
There will come a time when the earth will be shaken, and things that once seemed permanent will be gone (Hebrews 12:27). What you fear most today will be forgotten like yesterday’s headlines. What really matters is what you do today that has a touch of eternity about it. Remember, there is only one life to live for Christ, and if lived for Him, then eternity is your reward.
“The awful importance of this life is that it determines eternity.”
-William Barclay
July 6
Read I Corinthians 1:18-25
I love school. I love to learn. I have been going to school pretty much since I graduated. I was excited when my wife decided to go back to school. She is studying to become a Medical Transcriptionist. I have found very quickly an interest in all the functions of the medical world. Just opening the books peaked my interest to read and learn some things.
In 1692, Harvard College adopted as its motto Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae—“Truth for Christ and the Church.” Its crest showed three books, one face down to symbolize the limitation of human knowledge. But in recent decades that book has been turned face up to represent the unlimited capacity of the human mind. And the motto has been changed to Veritas-"Truth." It is truly a sad commentary on one of the leading Christian developed schools in our country. They have now taken the position that truth can be obtained without Christ and the Church.
The pursuit of knowledge is praiseworthy, yet learning can quickly lead to pride and a refusal to acknowledge any limits on our mental abilities. When that happens, biblical truth is ignored or rejected. It is even frustrating to have to write the phrase biblical truth (I do so for clarity) because without biblical truth, there is no truth.
What, then, is the truth about truth? A wise king wrote centuries ago, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). We must recognize the relationship between God and truth. Without the help of the Holy Spirit and the instruction of God’s Word, man will be ever “learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). When we acknowledge and obey His truth, however, we will be set free from spiritual ignorance and error (John 8:32; 17:17). In John 18:38 Pilate asks the question, “What is truth?” Truth was standing right in front of him and he failed to see it.
That’s why we must be diligent in our study of the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15). It is the only book that tells us the truth about truth. In studying the written word of God, we see how many limits are in our own understanding, but we also see through the written Word, the Living Word or the Christ. I know Him today because I have been revealed truth from the bible and now all things are filtered, not through my own understanding but through the Word of God.
“Facts are many, but the truth is one.”
-Rabindranath Tagore
No comments:
Post a Comment