July 4 devotion for Independence Day

Psalm 18:49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name.

Of all the special days on the American calendar, I love Independence Day the most. I guess that as a free-born Scotsman, whose leaders like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought and died for liberty, I appreciate the Great American Struggle to win independence for themselves. It was not an easy choice to make, nor was it an easy cause to fulfill. Without commitment and dedication, patience and perseverance, along with unity and determination, America's liberty would never have been won.

We often forget that they took on the strongest army in the world. We don’t appreciate the magnitude of the struggle. It was like David versus Goliath on an international scale and the rocks inside their slingshot, which fortified the Revolution, were called Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I sometimes wonder if the revolutionaries fully knew what they were accomplishing. Most of them fought for their families and colonies. It was a question of survival against the mightiest power on Earth. When the War was over and their new Nation was internationally recognized, I wonder if they really understood what the consequences would be. Their gutsy decisions, haphazard victories, and loyalty to the cause engendered a new beginning for the whole world. They showed every nation on Earth that the God-given right to be free is the greatest force and noblest quality that humanity can ever aspire to or experience.

The writer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, once wrote “The God who gave us life…also gave us liberty.” In my opinion, that is one of the most truthful statements ever written in the annals of human history.

So today, I will celebrate this precious holiday by thanking God for the United States, its people, and its freedoms. I will remind myself of the costs and causes of the past, as well as the responsibilities that our liberties lay upon us today as free citizens. All of these blessings are God-given rights which we need to cherish and continue to spread throughout the world. After all, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness should be blessings that every child, woman, and man should know and experience all over this wonderful planet.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You for the courage and wisdom of those who established this nation. We are humbled by their achievements and blessed by their accomplishments. Help us to cherish this day with our families and friends, as well as our neighbors and people. Let freedom ring throughout this nation and across the entire world. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Come and join us for worship on Sundays at 11:00 AM. We will be delighted to see you and make you feel very welcome :)

Independence Day devotion - Semper Fi - Acts 21:10-16

Acts 21:13       Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

            You cannot fault Paul’s loyalty to Christ. He believed in Jesus completely and was more than willing to lay down his life for his Lord. Many years before this incident, he was blinded on the road to Damascus by Christ, as a means of saving him from his own destructive ways. Paul never forgot that dynamic moment. It changed everything completely for him, which is why he was willing to totally give everything for Jesus. Paul was always willing to be faithful (semper fi) to Christ, even if it cost him his life, which eventually did happen.

            In a couple of weeks, we will be celebrating Independence Day in the United States. It’s a great occasion for communities to display their national pride. US flags will be flying everywhere; special parades will take place in towns and cities; people will be wearing red, white, and blue; families will be grilling in their backyards, and fireworks will go off all over the place into the wee small hours of the morning. It’s a fantastic celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but I wonder how many of us will remember the sacrifices that our Founding Folks made and the lives that were sacrificially laid down, so that freedom could be procured for future generations?

            It’s the same in the Christian Church. Each Sunday is actually an Independence Day celebration because we remember that Christ set us free from the captivity of sin and tyranny of death, through His perfect sacrifice and glorious resurrection. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote in 1774, ‘The same God who gave us Life…also gave us Liberty.’ In other words, the same God who gave us Christ, also set us free forever!

Questions for personal reflection

How much of my life am I willing to give to Christ? How much does He expect of me?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, You have set us free from our failures, our mistakes, and our sins. You have purchased that freedom for us through the spilling of Your blood and the giving of Your Life. We are unworthy of such a holy sacrifice, but we are also eternally grateful to You for liberating our souls from the bondage of sin and finality of death. May we freely choose this day to serve You and God’s Kingdom forevermore. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is one of John’s Independence Day drawings. It’s called “Liberty Lights,” and features the Statue of Liberty surrounded by 4^th July fireworks. If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8164/7503142478_e8e6283de3_b.jpg

9-11 Devotions: 9/11 Revisited - Luke 13:4-5

Luke 13:4-5    “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” 

Like most Americans who lived through 9-11, I can still hardly believe it. It was a beautiful sunny morning which turned into a wicked and terrible day. We were all stunned at the time and didn’t know why it was happening. It was a deadly day where fear and alarm really tested our faith and allegiance to God.

This morning, I watched a documentary about 9-11 and saw some things that I had never seen before. Some unfortunate people, who were trapped in the burning towers, jumped from the windows so that their bodies would be found. People on the ground were absolutely horrified and helpless. One African American lady was in tears, but through her sobbing she kept on praying, “O Lord, save their souls. O Jesus, save their souls.”

That was all she could do; that was all that she could pray, but it was a prayer of hope from a helpless person. The people who died in 9-11 on the planes, in the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, or in a remote field didn’t deserve to die. They were just like us and we are still just like them, trying to get through each day of life safely and satisfactorily.

In Christ’s time, people who died disastrously were thought to be terrible sinners who had offended God and therefore they died horribly as a punishment for their sins. When Jesus came, He changed that way of thinking. He told His people that accidents happen, disasters occur, and terrible deaths take place but they have nothing to do with human sinfulness or God’s wrath. People die because we are all human and frail. However, Jesus did also point out that all of us perish and that our souls may also be destroyed unless we repent of our mistaken ways.

I don’t think that anyone who jumped from the Towers on that terrible day did so without seeking God’s help and forgiveness. And I also believe that the simple heartbroken prayer of the woman in the street below was also compassionately answered: “O Lord, save their souls. O Jesus, save their souls.”

Questions for personal reflection

Where was I and what was I doing when the Twin Towers were hit on 9-11? What was God doing on that day?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, let Your Spirit of Compassion be near to those who lost loved ones on this day in 2001. Comfort them as they quietly and painfully relive those terrifying moments on that awful day. Help us to do what we can to commemorate and cherish those who were lost. Keep us mindful of our own mortality and enable us to embrace Your forgiveness and love. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. if you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is John’s latest 9-11 tribute drawing called “Still There.” It features some of the firemen at Ground Zero raising a US flag to show the world that we may have been wounded painfully as a nation, but we were not defeated. If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8178/7974965148_1b1e34a867_b.jpg

Daily Devotions: Light of Liberty

Matthew 5: 14 "You are the world’s light. You cannot hide a city on a hill.

The days following the 9/11 tragedy were amongst the weirdest that many of us ever experienced. To begin with, there were no planes in the sky anywhere, so it seemed empty and quiet. Mostly everyone hunkered down in their own homes, glued to the continuous coverage on television. Restaurants and malls were practically empty and it appeared as though large and small communities throughout the United States would never be the same again.

And then flags started to appear everywhere. People had them attached to their cars, in the front of their homes, and at their businesses. The local newspaper contained a magnetic flag to be placed on automobiles or fridges in every home. We were brutally broken and totally shocked by the turmoil, but we crawled out of our caves and restarted to live our lives as the means to honor the innocent dead and to defy the terrorists their complete victory.

Out of the ruined rubble of our society, we rose up and overcame the darkness of despair. Freedom and liberty were now even more precious to us because they had been snatched away from us for a couple of days. Lady Liberty still stood as a sentinel before the smoking Manhattan skyline and we became just as resolute. Our duty was to show the world not just our resilience and defiance, but our faith in freedom and our light of liberty.

Within a week, our skies were filled with vapor trailing planes carrying our people from state to state and city to city. Within our hearts, we all silently vowed that we would prevail and that this would never happen again on our watch, in our cities, and across our land. We have remained true to that promise, and maintained that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are still the noblest and highest of rights to which any nation, kingdom, or people on Earth can ever aspire towards.

Even after eight years, we are still that light of liberty which the world seeks. We are still that shining nation of strength and hope that the Earth still needs.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we remember the dark days of 9/11 and continue to live our lives in honor of those who died. We pray for the bereft families, who were most affected by the losses at the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. Keep us mindful of those days and ever watchful of the days to come. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

4 Minute Devotions: Constitutional Crossroads

Today is one of the most important days in the history of our nation. May God bless America and our next President, whoever he turns out to be.

Podcast version here

Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the LORD says:” Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

This is the most amazing election I have ever experienced. I think the nearest election in comparison was Tony Blair’s win way back in Britain in the 1990’s. By that time, our family had crossed the Atlantic, but our relatives were really buzzing about the changes that were coming. After five elections and sixteen years of Tory rule, the people in Britain were crying out for change.

I don’t what will happen today, but this I do know. America is a winner. When so many people are fired up about voting, it means that the people are actually taking power back into their hands. Far too often, we take our freedoms for granted. But this year, things are wonderfully different, and I feel that God is truly blessing America at this moment in her history.

Whatever the outcome, the next President will really need our prayers. The economy is in a mess and its affecting all of our lives. We’ll be looking for strong leadership from our President and he will probably have to make some unpopular decisions in order to get us back on the right course. That’s when our daily prayers will become crucial. We want our President to be guided by God and protected by His Spirit. I’m going to try to pray for him each morning and night.

Let’s hope that together, we find the good way for our country and that we all walk in it. We are all weary of broken promises and governmental inefficiency. We don’t need anymore political filibusters or failed policies. We need our politicians to act, represent and carry out good government for all of our people. That way God will bless America and enable us to help the rest of the world.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, these are crucial times and we thank You for the beautiful and dutiful responsibilities that our citizens are fulfilling today. May the outcome of this election lead us to a brighter and better future, not only for the USA, but for the entire planet. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

Independence Day Devotional

Of all the special days on the American calendar, I love Independence Day the most. I guess that as a free born Scotsman, whose leaders like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought and died for liberty, I appreciate the Great American Struggle to win independence for themselves. It was not an easy choice to make, nor was it an easy cause to fulfill. Without commitment and dedication, patience and perseverance, unity and determination, liberty would never have been won.

Psalm 18:49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD;I will sing praises to your name.

We forget that they took on the strongest army in the world. We don’t appreciate the magnitude of the struggle. It was like David versus Goliath on an international scale and the rocks inside the slingshot, which fortified the Revolution, were called Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I sometimes wonder if the revolutionaries really understood what they were accomplishing. Most of them fought for their families and colonies. It was a question of survival against the mightiest power on earth. When the War was over and their new Nation was recognized, I wonder if they really knew what the consequences would be. Their gutsy decisions, haphazard victories, and loyalty to the cause engendered a new beginning for the whole world. They showed every nation on earth that the God given right to be free is the greatest force and noblest quality that humanity can ever experience.

The writer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, once wrote “The God who gave us life…also gave us liberty.” In my opinion, that is one of the most truthful statements ever written in the annals of human history.

So today, I will celebrate this precious day by thanking God for the United States, its people, and its freedoms. I will remind myself of the costs and causes of the past, as well as the responsibilities that our liberties lay upon us today as free citizens. All of these blessings are God given rights which we need to cherish and continue to spread throughout the world. After all, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness should be blessings that every child, woman, and man should know and experience all over this planet.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You for the courage and wisdom of those who established this nation. We are humbled by their achievements and blessed by their accomplishments. Help us to cherish this day with our families and friends, our neighbors and people. Let freedom ring throughout this nation and across the entire world. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.

If you enjoyed this devotion, you can read more in John's devotional e-books like "The Light of Love" which has forty-two devotions inspired by the Gospel of John. You can find the book at this link: 

"The Light of Love."