Independence Day 

   “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people chosen as his inheritance.” (Psalm 33: 12) 

   Today we celebrate the independence of the United States of America, a nation founded on the premise “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  How we need to revisit these statements and renew them in our nation.

   We are endowed with unalienable rights.  This means that no one has the right or authority to take these rights from us.  Among these are life.   Yet over 66 million babies have been deprived of this right through abortion.  And more and more of the elderly are being deprived of this right through euthanasia.

   We are endowed with liberty.  But we are called to task if we allow our religious liberty to interfere with societies call to accept sinful behavior.  If we dare to question or refuse to support the abominations that society is supporting, we may be vilified, persecuted, and possibly deprived of our business and our personal liberty.

   We are endowed with the pursuit of happiness.  Pursuit of happiness does not guarantee that we will achieve it, it simply means we can try to be happy in our lives.  But this pursuit is denied when we cannot openly and publicly declare our faith and object to those things which offend God.

   Have we always lived up to these founding principles?  No, we have not.  Like all things human there have been and will continue to be failures.  Does this mean we should no longer strive to live up to these ideals?  Of course not!  I believe the great majority of Americans are decent people who want to live by these standards.  We should never forget the failures, but we should never give up trying to do what is right.

   On this Fourth of July let us make a promise to ourselves and to God to try harder to live up the principles upon which our nation was founded, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. 

Lord, we are a sinful people.

We often fail to live according to Your will.

Help us in our efforts to improve.

And God, please bless America. 

Amen