I love Independence Day, flags, fireworks, parades, picnics, John Phillips Sousa marches, saying the pledges, and a "few good men" if you know what I mean! ;)
Everything about our country stirs within me a sense of pride, nostalgia and usually tears. I'm thankful for the men who stood up for freedom in 1776 and signed their names to a document that would establish the foundation for what would one day become "...the land that I love." I get chills when I picture the scene as they rang what we know now as the "Liberty Bell" so that the people would know, "You are now free!" I'm thankful for the men and women who have fought to maintain that freedom every day since.
As I think about the freedom that I enjoy as an American, I can't help but think about the freedom I have as a Christian. I am no longer slave to sin. Nothing is holding me back from the abundant life that Jesus came to give. He has given me His nature, His truth, His Holy Spirit. Wow! I want to sign my new name really big like John Hancock did (so the king could see it without spectacles) so that others can see without straining what Christ has done. I want others to know and experience a burden lifted and sin wiped clean. I want them to know that..."It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Gal. 5:1 I want to proclaim the truth so that others may be free. I want to "...let freedom ring..."
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