Memorial Day 2013

Remembering is a good thing to do–particularly on days like Memorial Day.   It’s not just the beginning of summer and picnics, watermelon and barbecues.  Memorial Day is rooted in something far more profound!  Today is a day to remember those who served their brethren, laying down their lives so that we could live as free people.

John 15:13 reads, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  It was modeled by Christ and many of our soldiers have died on the battlefield following their Lord’s model of sacrifice, deeming true freedom important enough to demand the highest cost imaginable: that of a human life.

Let’s face it, freedom is resented by many in the world today because freedom is something given by the God of both Christians and Jews.  God loves freedom, but evil relishes tyranny and nibbles away at freedom wherever it can: at home, abroad, in our courts, in our schools, in our churches, in our government, and on the battlefield.  We must stand firm on the moral issue of freedom.  We stand firm in the war being waged in the spiritual realms, a war whose scope is far beyond what we see reflected on the battlefields of earth.

In the spiritual realm, evil whispers that sacrifice isn’t worth it, freedom isn’t important, liberty is overrated, and serving others is a thankless endeavor.  But God’s servants stand firm in the knowledge that Jesus died to give us freedom from sin’s punishment and therefore it’s worth protecting.  Liberty is the only antidote to bondage.  Serving others is godliness in action.

In Galatians 5:13, the Bible says, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Thank God today for those who died so that you could know the fullness of godly freedom and learn from their example to serve others in love.