Memorial Day

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

(Proverbs 14:34)

Memorial Day

by Larry Burkett

We should honor those who died to ensure our freedoms. It seems to me that we take these freedoms for granted, but I can guarantee you that our forefathers didn’t.

Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other men met in 1774 to pledge their fortunes, their lives, and their good names to secure our right to decide our own destinies.

We owe these men, but we have an even greater debt to our fallen soldiers. Every one of the original “generals,” whom Christ chose and called apostles, gave his life to ensure that we would have a right to decide our eternal destinies and a right to tell others about it.

George Washington had been a wealthy man, but he was willing to pledge everything he had—fortune, fame, good name, family, even his life—for a cause he really believed in.

When people in the armed forces go to war, they must lay aside their families, businesses, and their own selfish desires and surrender themselves to the ones who have enlisted them.

The apostle Paul said that, as believers, we must do the same thing. He wrote, “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4). 

That’s an important principle to remember. I encourage you to give thanks for all the fallen Americans who have preserved our freedom and our right to hear, teach, and spread the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Daily Scripture Reading:
2 Samuel 23:1-7; 1 Kings 1:1-2:12