Today, on this Memorial Day, America remembers those who fought in our battles for our freedom and lost their lives. It is a day to remember that nothing is free. Someone pays the ultimate price. With their sacrifice, we have the freedom to speech, to protest, to vote, to choose our own careers, to own property, and to have the right to education, along with many other freedoms that others may not have in other places in the world. Even though our country has its flaws and problems, as every other country in the world, we do live in a country that gives us freedom.
In the past couple of years, we have realized that we must be grateful for our freedom. If we become irresponsible, we lose the freedom that we love and enjoy. We have the responsibility to take care of our freedoms. Even though we all have our own political beliefs, we must realize that it is not through a politician or a political agenda that will further our freedom. It is in our actions of how we treat our fellow Americans. We must become more loving. If there are many men and women who were willing to die for the freedom of this country, we must have the sacrifice to see Americans as human beings, and love them with the love of Jesus, which may take sacrifice.
If we want to keep our freedom, we must sacrifice. We must sacrifice our own desires for the good of others. As Christians, we must think of the desires of others above ourselves. For everyone to enjoy freedom, we must all sacrifice. We all have something in our own lives that we must sacrifice. Our sacrifice comes because of the ultimate sacrifice given for us.
As Christians, we have freedom from death because of the sacrifice of Jesus. He gave His life so that we can be free. He didn’t die when we decided to be good and attend church. He died for us while we were still sinners. “For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps some might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8, CSB) Jesus sacrificed his life, so we can have the freedom to live.
With the sacrifices for freedom, it is why the church must begin to act. We cannot take our freedom for granted. Once we abuse it, we lose our freedom and become lukewarm in our faith. Faith without action is dead. (James 2:26) If we just wring our hands and claim that there is nothing that we can do because of the evil and wickedness in the world, then our faith is dead. All the heroes in the Bible fought for their faith, and with their actions, they were able to defeat the evil.
This Memorial Day, we can all find one action that we can do for our own community that reveals sacrifice. It could be donating food and clothing for those in need. It could be volunteering with a community service for young people. It could be becoming involved with our own neighborhood and seeing who our neighbors are and sharing our freedom in Christ. The one command that Jesus gave us was not to hide in our comfortable homes, but to go and bring the gospel to every corner of the world. The corner of the world that needs Jesus most just might be right around the corner from where you live. So let us go and let our freedom ring!
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