If you live in the United States, you've just experienced quite the celebration. Our country's 246th birthday as a nation was yesterday! United States neighbors, I hope you were able to enjoy safe glorious fireworks displays as well as a burger, a hot dog, s’mores, or perhaps other traditions you may share with family and friends. It truly is a great day to celebrate the freedom that we experience in our country! Yesterday, we were all brothers who come with the moniker...Americans.
Don't get me wrong, there are issues we have in the United States that must be resolved. Those resolutions should come from our elected officials after they have sought out constituency feedback and wise council. If you are not happy with the state of the country, vote. Do your research and vote!! Dig deep into the lives of the men and women who are asking for the career opportunity to represent us given to them through our vote. Do their beliefs, values, and character align with your own? Ok, support them. If they don't win, ok. Be active in communicating to the elected official that does get the electors' vote, especially when you have concerns about their performance for you. If your candidate does win, hold them accountable for the characteristics by which you chose them.
The resolutions that we need as a country don't come in the form of demonstrations and destruction of property as we have seen in recent years, they may have in 1776, but we were dealing with a dictatorship in the form of a king at that time, which is very different from the constitutional republic we celebrated yesterday. Yes, you read that correctly. The United States government is a form of a constitutional republic, not the media-fed, often misquoted term... democracy. Look it up! We really don't want democracy as a government...Shall we reinstate Civics as a course requirement for High School graduation now? Maybe your elected official could write a bill that gets turned into a law! If we were to do that, I think we should have the law signed on the 4th of July, and that way we could say it with firecrackers! Noisy 4th anyone?
80 years ago we certainly celebrated the 4th of July a bit differently! Can you imagine sports coats, ties, and those dresses in the heat? Yikes!!!
Today's song comes from composer Irving Berlin's holiday-themed movie Holiday Inn. Filming for the musical began on November 18, 1941. 19 days later the "date that will live in infamy" occurred as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and created a nationalistic revival that had not been heard of since the Revolutionary War. One could say that we haven't had one until 9/11, yet that revival didn't seem to last too long. The movie production halted for a brief time because of America's entry into World War II. This gave producers the opportunity to lengthen today’s feature song in an effort to heighten the exposure of America's military might. The expansion of the song included adding the Song of Freedom portion and the "newsreel" footage that pans behind Crosby's vocals. It fits very nicely into the film and is a good reminder that our freedom is never free...
"...but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus." FREEDOM!
"...for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord..." FREEDOM!!
Here comes the FREEDOM man!!!
"I'm singin' a song of Freedom for all people who cry out to be free..."
The birth narrative of Jesus, the Savior of the World, the first begotten, the Lamb of God...you get the idea...once again shows the tax collector and physician providing the detail to the birth of freedom. Matthew says it happened, and Luke piles on the details complete with angels, shepherds, Innkeepers, and a weary couple who bring a child into the world at a tumultuous time.
Jesus was born exactly as the angels had pronounced to Mary and Joseph. His birth fulfilled the over 300 prophecies found in the Old Testament that pronounced a Messiah bringing freedom was coming. For a more detailed look at the birth prophecies and narrative, click it... Prophecy Of Jesus Birth In Old Testament - endtimesalvation.com
With Jesus' birth, freedom was delivered to all of mankind. This is not the kind of freedom that a declaration of independence can achieve. This is the kind of freedom that restores the broken relationship between God and man that was destroyed by man's disobedience in the Garden. (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Don't Know What You Got (Til It's Gone)" (Cinderella)) You see friend, even Adam and Eve needed the cost of freedom that Jesus was able to pay. Ultimately, Adam and Eve had to make the same kind of choice we are faced with every day. Do we do what we want to do or do we do what God, the One who created us and knows what is best for us, wants us to do? One choice is selfish and places the shackles of Adam and Eve's curse on us. The other choice is to experience a type of freedom our minds cannot even fathom. When Jesus was born, the pathway was cleared for mankind to come back to God in a real, flesh and blood, way. Now, we get to choose...every...single...
Jesus' birth is the most dramatic event that occurs in the Bible. The physician Luke is really the only Gospel writer who gives the richness of detail from which many a Christmas drama is derived. He paints the picture of the darkness of the world and contrasts that with vivid colors and imagery of the angelic experience of shepherds (lowest dudes on the social stratosphere), as well as the stress of Mary and Joseph finding a place for Jesus to be born. The grotto in Bethlehem where believers and sightseers make their way every Christmas is not much more than a small cave. Luke brings the awe of the experience from different vantage points and pulls them all together to make it as beautiful a narrative as has ever been woven together.
Everything prior to Jesus' birth points to Him. Everything that occurs after His ascension is because of His being on earth. Everything that will happen in eternity is due to Jesus paying the price of freedom that can never be paid by anything we can do.
The original Holiday Inn had no room for the Son of God, how about you? The angels sang of His glory, how about you? The shepherds were astounded at the sights and sounds of the season that they were experiencing, how about you? Mary and Joseph were amazed at the comfort found in each other as well in their own angelic proclamations. Has your chance for freedom caused you to be amazed lately?
This Independence Day season, make sure that you take full advantage of the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. Most nations do not have what we have. But also explore if you haven't already, the freedom in this life and the one to come, that belief in Jesus and the salvific price He paid provides. Trust me, you'll want to say it with more than firecrackers...
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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