The Fourth of July.  It’s flags, fireworks, family, and fun.  It’s burned burgers, burned backs, and burned-out bottle rockets.  It’s barbeque, beans, and Boston Pops.  It’s water sports, water slides, and watermelons.  We simply call it “The Fourth,” and everyone knows exactly what we mean.  With a day full of activities, it’s quite easy to forget the one thing that makes the day so special.  Freedom.  How often we take it for granted!  I’m sure you have some plans for this holiday; my family and I do.  But in all the activity, be sure to celebrate what the day truly stands for.  Take some time and consider the price paid over the last 246 years that provided and protected our freedom.  Consider those serving in our military who stand guard against the constant enemies of our freedom.  Consider those in other countries who cannot celebrate freedom as we do.  Consider brothers and sisters in Christ who are not free to gather publicly this Sunday, but will meet stealthily in someone’s apartment, a back room, a basement, or a secluded place in a field or forest.  They’ll read contraband Bibles, sing quietly, pray fervently, and learn hungrily.  Oh, how very blessed we are with freedom!  On this Independence Day, I trust that we will truly be grateful to our God who has graciously granted freedom to this nation.  I pray we will faithfully labor to share the message of true freedom through Christ with those around us and those around the world.  The Fourth of July is a perfect time to make a fresh commitment to follow the advice of the Father of our Country, George Washington, who wrote in his general orders on May 2, 1778, “While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion – To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian.”  Our duty as free citizens of this nation goes beyond the desire to be better Americans and rests in our decision to be better followers of Christ!