Happy 250th Birthday, America!
In Acts 17, Paul told the Athenians that God:
. . . made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation . . .
Acts 17:26-28
I thank God for making my birthplace America. When God created the land we call America, He sculpted and painted a masterpiece. People created in His image have lived here for centuries. Using the intelligence God placed in their hearts and minds and the strength He gave their bodies, these people have found many ways to use what He has provided in abundance. These people have lived the story of American history. We are living it today.
Americans are a richly blessed people. Like every person who has ever lived (except Jesus), we Americans are sinners in need of grace. Our history has many beautiful stories. We have done many things right, but not everything. Some of our stories are not so beautiful. Our heavenly Father takes those good and bad things and works His perfect will.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, my prayer for our families is that we will have:
- gratitude for what God has created in America
- awe at what the people made in His image have done with the gifts He gave us
- a realization of our personal responsibility to do God’s will while living in this wonderful place we know as America the Beautiful.
Happy 250th Birthday, America!
May God bless you with a very Happy 250th Fourth of July that you and your children will long remember! I hope your celebration includes at least some of the components that future President John Adams described to his wife, Abigail, in a letter dated July 3, 1776. After the Second Continental Congress resolved to declare independence on July 2, Adams thought Americans would celebrate on that date. Though he was mistaken about the date, we have celebrated with many of the practices he thought we should do. He wrote:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
May God bless our 250-year-old America!
And may God bless you and your family with true liberty and freedom.
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
Psalm 119:45
So Jesus was saying
to those Jews who had believed Him,
“If you continue in My word,
then you are truly disciples of Mine;
and you will know the truth,
and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32