Independence Day

I love this time of year. Time to celebrate the birth of our nation. A time to remeber those who were seen as radicals and rebels, challange an empire to be recognized as an independent nation. A time to honor those who gave their lives to ensure that we had the right to govern ourselves and provide freedom for our new nation. Not to mention the cookouts, family get togethers and of course fireworks. I can remember how my two oldest kids reacted to the fireworks that were displayed before their eyes. I enjoyed watching them more than I did the fireworks. All of this thinking about our history and the birth of our nation out of the old empire set my mind to thinking about salvation. When we become saved, we become a new creation. We separate ourselves from the rest of the world. We choose to be known as a singular Christian. And everything about our identity changes. We choose to follow a different path. Is it always easy? Most certainly not. As a matter of fact, as soon as we make the choice to follow Christ, that is when it is the hardest. It seems that is when we go through some of the harshest trials. We can see in the book of Matthew and the 4th chapter that as soon as Christ was baptized, He was tempted by Satan to turn back. Such is the same for us. When we first make that decision, hard temptations follow. Sometimes from our friends, and even our families. When there is no one else that are friends and family that are also saved, they sometimes don't understand why we would want to do that. They become distant. We seem to be ridiculed sometimes as well. This attack on our soul is Satan's way to try to get us down while we are still new to the Word. It is important that we strive to read the scriptures as much as possible to defend ourselves from, and fight temptation. Again this seems to resemble the birth of our nation. As soon as we declaired our independence, we had to fight to keep it. Years of war, suffering, and death. Our founding fathers could have easily given up and joined the British empire once more. However, they continued, and won their independence. What does this mean to those who have been saved for a long time? It says to me that when someone chooses to follow Christ, it is our duty to build them up. Our duty to help them grow and fight the temptation to turn from their commitment. We need to follow the example of our founding fathers and Christ. When Christ was tested, He did not waiver. He did not turn back. He fought temptation for forty days, and found victory. Have we found our victory? Are we preparing ourselves to fight temptation everyday? Just some thoughts for this independence day.

Thanks and God Bless You all this week.