As we approach the anniversary of the United States Independence on July 4th, we must remember that our FREEDOM came with a price.
Our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. It was declaring our independence from Great Britain.
Since the signing, we have fought not only for our independence, but the freedom and independence of other nations. The cost of this freedom came with losing lives and of other individual luxuries that many lost as a result of their sacrifice. The sleepless nights that have been wrestled with for some, continue to haunt them. The addictions that follow some have ruined their lives so we can have the comforts they have provided by their service to our nation.
Ecclesiastes 3:8
8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Issaiah 57:1-2
57 The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.
2 Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
Matthew 24:6-7
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Matthew 5:9
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Romans 8:37
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
2 Corinthians 10:4
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
Psalms 144
1 Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
3 LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.
5 Part your heavens, LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners
8 whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.
9 I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
10 to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword
11 deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.
12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields;
14 our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.
John 15:13
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
