“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,…” Galatians 5:1
Everyone knows “freedom is never free”. Our country was founded because people didn’t want to be under tyranny and wanted the freedom to worship God as they pleased. The hardships the Pilgrims endured to start settling our country is probably beyond our comprehension to the fullest extent. When you see the graves of some of these Pilgrims, you can’t help but wonder exactly what they suffered for us to be where we are today. They struggled each day for survival. Some made it and some didn’t but those that made it kept the faith and carried on.
The beauty of the song “America the Beautiful” is that it tells our rich history, describes our beautiful landscape and gives us glorious words to live by.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
Our freedoms to worship are being slowly eroded. We need leaders who will stand up for the spiritual freedoms the Pilgrims desired as they left England. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
Life is easy compared to what the Pilgrims went through but they were beating a path of freedom for us. Hebrews 12:1 reminds us that they are witnesses for us. Can we run like they did? “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,…”
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” How many have sacrificed over the years as America became a nation? How many people have lost their lives so we could be free today?
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
Pilgrims dreamed of a world where they could worship freely. Here in this world we will forever have tears and hardships but we can be of good cheer. Just like the patriots of old knew, we can have assurance of heaven; a place where Jesus shines as the Light and no tears will flow.
A place so perfect that the only way we can get into it, is to declare our unworthiness of entry on our own accord and come seeking forgiveness of our sins through Jesus’ blood. Hebrews is a great book and here we read (10:19), ” Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,…” So lest we forget let us remember to thank those who have served our great country so we can live in liberty and freedom.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.
