Last Sunday our choir and orchestra under Troy's leadership, along with Gen. Jerry Boykin, reminded us of the freedoms we wake up to every day, the freedoms we take for granted, freedoms like voting, writing a letter to the editor, wearing shorts, shaving, not shaving, going to church, not going to church, driving to Georgia or Kentucky, even to Alabama! These are simple freedoms, maybe silly examples, but freedoms we enjoy. And men and women through the decades have bled and died to protect them, not just for us, but for millions of others on distant shores. Our freedoms, to use a cliché, are not free.
Men and women in our church, members you see almost every week, know what it is to smell, taste, hear, and feel the horrors of war. How blessed we are to worship with true American heroes, sitting quietly and unassumingly among us. When they stood during the tribute to the armed forces, the rest of us have no idea what they faced, what they remember, how they have served. In the absence of knowing, may we simply say, once again, thank you.
Our Founding Fathers were truly inspired men answering a call to bring freedom to the world. But the freedoms we enjoy, freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and secured with the blood of patriots, cannot guarantee a true and lasting freedom if we live in bondage to broken relationships. Most of us don't know what it is to go to war. Every one of us knows the battle and bondage of an unforgiving and unforgiven heart.
Kim P. is best known as the little girl in the famous photo of a Vietnam War napalm-bombing attack near Saigon on June 8th, 1972. She was captured on film running in terror, arms outstretched, clothes completely burned off her body. Kim lives in Toronto now with her husband and two children. Recently she wrote the following for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp:
"Several days after the bombing, I awoke and realized that I was in the hospital, where I spent 14 months and had 17 operations. It was a very difficult time for me when I went home from the hospital. Our house was destroyed; we lost everything and we just survived day by day.
The anger inside me was like a hatred as high as a mountain. I hated my life. I hated all people who were normal because I was not normal. I wanted to die many times.
I spent my daytime in the library reading a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books I read was the Holy Bible.
In Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive - the most difficult of all lessons. It didn't happen in a day and it wasn't easy. But I finally got it.
Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope and forgiveness."
Sharing that true love, hope, and forgiveness offered freely by Jesus Who paid the price for our freedom from sin and death is the MAIN THING. It's the "main thing" we're talking about doing when we talk about keeping the "main thing." How best to accomplish that main thing is the question we must answer every day. Too many Christians are fighting the wrong battles these days, and feel justified in doing so. That's what makes our struggle as intense and as critical as any battle ever fought.
Just as we have recently honored those who fought so bravely in service to our country, we must honor the Lord this Sunday and every day by sharing His true love, hope, and forgiveness with those in bondage to an unforgiving and unforgiven heart. Let's not win battles of personal preference and lose the war for lost souls. Stay the course of our Great Commission and live sent.
See you Sunday,
Bob Landham
Executive Pastor