The upcoming weekend is a very special one in the United States. It is more than a three day weekend for many people.\u00a0 It is more than the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indy 500.\u00a0 It is a time set aside to reflect and remember those who gave their life in defense of this country.\u00a0 We owe so much to our men and women in the military, police officers, firefighters, and EMTs.\u00a0 The blanket of protection you and I sleep under each day and night in this country came at the expense of one of these brave men and women.\u00a0 Freedom isn’t free.<\/p>\n
Yet there was another who paid a ransom with His life so that we might be free from the penalty of sin.\u00a0 Had it not been for Jesus willingly laying down His life for the world, we would suffer a fate far greater than being enslaved by another nation.\u00a0 We would suffer in the lake of fire for all of eternity.\u00a0 As much gratitude as we owe our men and women in uniform, we owe Jesus so much more.\u00a0 We owe Him our life, because if He didn’t lay down His life, we wouldn’t even have a life worth living.\u00a0 Yet Jesus is not a tyrant demanding we pay Him.\u00a0 His request is quite simple.\u00a0 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”\u00a0\u00a0 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”\u00a0 “Love others as yourself.”\u00a0 His request is that we live a life surrendered to His Lordship, demonstrating our love and devotion to Him by serving one another in love.\u00a0 Jesus lived out the words of John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”\u00a0 Now it is up to us not just to say that we love God, but to demonstrate it with our life.<\/p>\n
On behalf of our church family, myself, and my family, thank you to the men and women currently serving our country as well as to those families who lost a loved one who died defending our freedom.\u00a0 May we always remember, freedom isn’t free, it always cost someone else.<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The upcoming weekend is a very special one in the United States. It is more than a three day weekend for many people.\u00a0 It is more than the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indy 500.\u00a0 It is a time set aside … Read More