I saw a post on Facebook recently that said: I’m so old, I remember America’s 200^th Anniversary.  I know some of us here were around for the 175^th Anniversary, and that is awesome.  This kind of Anniversary is important for us as a nation.  It is important because we have freedoms that many around the world do not have.  We even have Liberty” (which means we can choose our own path in life) and that is denied for far too many.  Today, we have politicians who want to control and track our population, with them in control.  The Bible warns us about this in the “End Times”.  We are warned about those who “seek after power over others”.  Sounds like a politician.  Let us pay attention to this in our elections.

God gave humanity the freedom to choose, even in our spirituality.  The Angels in heaven are not given this choice.  We can follow Jesus, or we can ignore him, or even fight against him.  When we come to Christ, it means more to God than anything.  If we were “programmed” to follow Christ, it would be expected.  Pastors feel this way when the church to which they were sent, decide  to like, appreciate, and follow their leadership.  We all feel this way when we make a friendship.  Someone else chooses to like us.  That means a great deal, especially to someone who is new to a community.

The question is this: What are we doing with our freedom?  Those who are regularly in worship, we know the answer.  Those who’s health prohibits them from worship, the church/Pastor need to keep them connected.  Those who do not, by choice, attend worship are telling us (and God) that they are ignoring God.  For whatever reason, these are the folks I hope we will make more of an effort to reconnect with Jesus.

The same is true with our country.  There are people who apparently have decided to hate our nation.  They protest everything from the President to anything the other political party does.  They have the freedom to do that.  They do not, however, have the right to disrupt traffic, loot, deface statues, and burn down buildings.  Our nation is under attack which disturbs me greatly.  Our nation fought against Communists and New York City elected a Communist Mayor.  We fought against Nazis and Maine elected a Nazi for one of their Senators.  The Devil has been busy.  Our nation NEEDS all churches to pray that God take our nation back.

The Bible talks to us on several levels.  Firstly, the Bible confronts us on a personal level.  This is something we have all known.  Secondly, the Bible confronts us as a church.  This is most obvious in the seven letters to the seven churches in the Book of the Revelation.  Thirdly, the Bible confronts nations and the whole world.  We are pretty good and number one, but the church has been rather lax about numbers two and three.  We might not remember our spiritual birthday (when we accepted Jesus as our personal savior) but we do have Pentecost (the Church’s birthday) and the Fourth of July (our nation’s birthday).  As we celebrate, lets invite others to the “party” with God.  Pastor Jeff