A Free People

   For more than two hundred years, the citizens of our country have been blessed with great political freedom. The flags seen flying on front porches and in public places about the nation testify silently to this freedom, symbolizing our Constitution and way of life. They bring to mind a remarkable chain of historical events and the less tangible promise of political liberty.

  From the revolutionary Declaration of Independence whose words are still borrowed by peoples fighting for their freedom, to the Articles of Confederation, the world's first written constitution of national government, and finally in the ratification of our present-day Constitution, a document unparalleled in its time and still unique, we as Americans have a remarkable heritage of liberty. The men who signed the Declaration of Independence knew that they were risking their lives by associating their names with the treasonable document. The patriots who fought the British challenged the world's strongest power. Later, the framers of the Constitution had no way of knowing whether the document they drew up would successfully protect both security and liberty. But God blessed our nation, and we stand where we do today.

  When settlers came to the new land, freedom of worship was one of their chief goals. It is our responsibility as Christians to pray for the leaders of our government so that we may continue to lead quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty. (I Timothy 2:2) A symbol such as the flag helps us remember this. It embodies more meaning than we can express with words.

  But as Christians we have a heritage even greater than this in Christ, a freedom that doesn't need the protection of documents, that we know is sure, that will last an eternity. The symbol of this spiritual freedom is the cross. It represents the redemptive work of our Savior Jesus Christ. The preaching of the cross represents not only His crucifixion, but His entire ministry beginning with the virgin birth and concluding with the ascension. In the preaching of the cross, we see the gospel message in its entirety as the Apostle Paul expressed in his letter to the Corinthians: “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God”. (I Corinthians 1: 18)   Jesus came to free us from the bondage of unbelief and to loose us from the bands of sin. Jesus says to each of us today: “..If ye continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8: 31-32)

0 GOD, BENEATH THY GUIDING HAND

0 God, beneath Thy guiding hand

Our exiled fathers cross the sea;

And when they trod the wintry strand,

         With prayer and psalm they worshiped Thee.

     Thou heard, well-pleased, the song, the prayer;

   Thy blessing came, and still its power

Shall onward through all ages bear

The memory of that holy hour.

Laws, freedom, truth and faith in God

Came with those exiles o'er the waves;

And where their pilgrim feet have trod,

The God they trusted guards their graves.

And here Thy name, 0 God of love,

Their children's children shall adore,

Till these eternal hills remove,

      And spring adorns the earth no more.

From the archives of the late Pastor A.C. Holmgren, July 1995

Submitted by Pastor Stan