No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 HCSB
Today, in our country, we honor the brave young men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. Billy Ray Cyrus released a song, Some Gave All, in 2011. The title says it all. It pays tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives fighting to save our way of life. Now, sometimes I look at our way of life and have to ask if it is worth saving anymore?
This country was founded by God fearing men seeking religious freedom. But if you ask me, the pendulum has swung too far to the left. This “freedom” came at a great price. It came at the price of many lives. It came to give people the freedom to speak against it. We have many freedoms in this country. We can place our hands over our hearts in honor of the flag and what it represents and give honor to those that fight to maintain our freedom, or we can take a knee. We can respect our flag or we can burn it in the streets. We can worship the one true God or we can worship any other god we choose. A male pedophile can choose to go into the men’s room, or in Target, he can go into the women’s restroom with the women and children. If you patronize Starbucks, know that you are giving your money to someone who has clearly stated that if you do support the second amendment and don’t support gay marriage, they don’t care if they have your business or not. We have a lot of freedom in this country that we abuse daily. Today, some will honor those that fought to give us this freedom, while others will complain about what they did.
Our scripture passage says that there is no greater love that anyone could possibly have than to give their life for their friends. Our soldiers gave their lives for their country and all who are in it. They gave their lives for those that honor this country and for those that do nothing but complain about it. I guess you could say that they gave all they had for friends and foes alike.
The same is true for Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 said that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus didn’t wait until everyone accepted Him. God didn’t wait to send His son to die on the cross until we were all good little Christians. We don’t have to clean up our act to come to Him. We can be washed white as snow with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. His love is unconditional. Just as these soldiers didn’t take a poll to see how many American’s respected our country and honored those fighting for it before they went into battle, God doesn’t decide to love us only if we are well behaved. He gave all for all. He sent His son to die on the cross for everyone of us. He gives us freedom to choose. What we do with that freedom is up to us. .
The internet gives us the ability for good or bad. Just the other day, I received two messages on my website. These people threatened to take me down tomorrow if I don’t send bitcoins to their accounts today. They threatened to post vile lies about me and my website and threatened to go viral with it. First of all my website is not monetized so where do they think I would get these bitcoins from? They picked the wrong person to mess with. One reason is because I don’t even understand what bitcoins are and would have no idea how to send them even if I did know what they were. But the main reason is because I am protected by God. I trust in God’s will for my life. I trust in the fact that all things work for my good (Romans 8:28). So I cannot fall prey to extortion because that would be giving in to sinners and criminals instead of putting my faith in God. When I give honor and glory to God, I am blessed by Him. I don’t have to work for it and I certainly don’t deserve it, but He gives it anyway. How awesome is that? So, to my extortioners I say, “be very, very careful”. I pray that instead of choosing to fight against the almighty God that you will come to love Him as I do so that you can receive blessings beyond bitcoins.
Knowing that God gave His all for me makes me want to give my all for Him. So today, I ask you to join me in honoring the brave young men and women that gave their lives for our country. They gave all they had so that we could be free. Use your freedom wisely. In doing so, remember that Jesus Christ gave His all for us as well. It’s a gift that I could turn my back on, but I know how that would work because I have done it before. So today I choose to embrace the precious gift that God gave us. I choose to honor him in my thoughts, my actions, and my words. I pray that God will examine my heart and let me know where I need correction (Psalm 139:23-24). I will strive constantly to be deserving of this great blessing he has bestowed on me, knowing that I will never measure up but He will love me anyway.
There truly is no greater love than someone laying down their life for you. The best thing is, that if you turn your life over to Him, you don’t lose your life it just gets better. It’s win-win, right? Won’t you give your all to Him today before it’s too late?
Have a great day!