July 4th falls on Sunday this year. The last time this occurred was 2004. The next time July 4th falls on our designated day of worship will be in 2021.
While many of us have appropriate plans in place to celebrate our nation’s independence with picnics, barbeques, ice cream, and fireworks, one of the most fitting ways to celebrate Independence Day this year is to exercise our freedom to worship.
Our Baptists ancestors were among the many who contended for religious liberty for all faiths. The first amendment to the Constitution of the
As citizens of these United States, we enjoy greater freedoms than any people group on earth, but these freedoms came with a price. We celebrate our freedom by exercising our freedom. This Sunday is Independence Day. I hope you are making plans for a fun day of celebration with family and friends. I hope you will take time to give thanks for our heritage and to pray for our nation’s leaders and country’s future. Most importantly, I hope you will celebrate July 4th by exercising your freedom to worship.
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday morning as we gather for worship and Bible study.
The following prayer was written by Dr. Jim Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia:
A prayer for the Fourth of July
O God, you who birthed a nation from a barren womb
And made your covenant with a band of runaway slaves;
You who have watched over the rise and fall of every nation
Great and small, near and far, before and since;
You who were in that stuffy room in
when this nation declared its independence;
Be with us now.
Help us see things as you see them.
From your point of view there are no national boundaries,
No ugly black lines on the face of the globe.
From your point of view the greatness of any nation
Is not measured by its gross national product,
Or its military strength,
But by the way its people embrace your truths
And love the things you love.
And so, even as we strike up the band
And join the parade,
As we light the fuses of firecrackers
And celebrate our cherished independence,
We ask that you would teach us the discipline of responsibility
So that we may use our freedom in ways that help and heal
Rather than hurt and destroy.
As the Apostle Paul has said, “let us not use freedom
As an opportunity for self-indulgence
But rather, through love, let us become servants to one another.”
On this Independence Day we pray especially
For the
We ask that you grant to him and to all our elected officials
Extraordinary wisdom, unwavering compassion,
and a clear sense of your kind of justice.
We pray that as a people we may become what you promised to Abraham:
A nation by whom all the nations of the world are blessed.
May the people of
Soon be able to say, if not already, “Thank God for
Even as we thank you, O God, for what is,
And look forward by faith to what will be
When your kingdom comes, and your will is done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
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