Wouldn’t it be fun to celebrate with fireworks in church? What celebrations could we mark with fireworks? Here’s my list:

• Every Easter hymn. He is risen indeed!
• Every announcement of the Gospel–God’s glorious, free grace!
• Every baptism–a new member in the family!

 But I wouldn’t stop with Sunday. As we live out our lives of faith, we could celebrate every time someone:

• notices and stops to help someone who’s hurting
• puts aside their own comfort in order to serve
• wisely says “no” to an invitation to a volunteer task because that particular task would be poor stewardship of their time
• notices and thanks a humble servant
• reminds someone else of the purpose behind all that we do

In a firework show, the best is saved for last: the concluding climax fills the sky with deafening noise and blazing light. Similarly, we will save our best fireworks, our biggest celebrations for those events that stir heaven itself: a life transformed, a sinner who repents, a wandering soul found by our seeking God (Luke 15:7).

Praise him–today and forever!

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 One of the people who fought in that war for independence was Mary McCauly. Women didn’t usually enter the military in those days. But many wives did accompany their husbands to the front lines, in the same way that independent contractors accompany our troops today. These women cooked the meals, patched the clothes, and took care of the wounded. In many ways, they shared in the hardships of the soldiers.

Mary McCauly, too, went with her husband into war—and she became a hero!

It happened during the battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778. The day was very hot. Many soldiers were dropping from exhaustion rather than enemy bullets. Mary found a cool spring and carried pitcher after pitcher of water to the tired, thirsty soldiers. On one of her trips, Mary saw a wounded soldier, picked him up, and carried him on her back to safety!

When she returned to the battlefield, her husband was helping fire a cannon. He soon fell, wounded. Now his cannon crew didn’t have enough soldiers to keep on fighting. It would have to be withdrawn from the battle. When Mary saw this, she picked up the ramrod her husband had been using. She did his job, pushing the gunpowder down into the cannon so it could be fired. With Mary’s help, the cannon crew continued to fight throughout the rest of the battle.

When the smoke from the battle cleared, General Washington himself heard about Mary’s heroism. He made her a noncommissioned officer, and from then on everyone called her “Sergeant Molly.” She is also known as “Molly Pitcher.”

We thank God for people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Molly Pitcher, and all the other early leaders in our country. They made sacrifices so that we could enjoy freedom today—especially freedom to worship God in peace and without fear of persecution.

 Many people have fought and died so we can live in freedom. They sacrificed their lives for us. That’s an awesome thing!

And it reminds us of an even bigger, more important sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus sacrificed himself for us. He left his beautiful home in heaven to be born in an ordinary, smelly stable as a little baby. He left the praises of the holy angels for the arguing of his disciples and the insults of his enemies. He laid aside all his privileges as God. The Bible says Jesus “took the humble position of a slave and . . . obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7–8 NLT).

 Now, we don’t have to be afraid anymore that God may punish us for our failures to do what his law requires. Jesus took the punishment we deserved. Jesus sets us free from guilt and fear. We are free to praise God. We are free to show Jesus’ love to those around us. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made all this possible.

This summer, we will celebrate many patriotic holidays, Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July, to name a few. As we do that, we can remember to thank God for all the heroes who fought and died so our country could be free. And we can remember to thank God for his Son, Jesus, who died to win eternal freedom for us, freedom from sin and its guilt. That freedom is already ours, and it will be ours forever in heaven.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

You are welcome to copy this article for one-time use in your organization as long as you will receive no monetary benefit from it. Please include this copyright line and submit an actual copy of use to CTA, attention Editorial Manager.

Used with permission grant #052410. © 2010 CTA, Inc. No duplication of this article is allowed without the express written consent of CTA, PO Box 1205, Fenton, MO 63026-1205. www.CTAinc.com.

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While many Americans know at least that much about the Declaration of Independence, we may not know that of the 56 signers . . .

• 17 lost their fortunes;
• 12 had their homes destroyed;
• 5 became prisoners of war;
• 1 had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship, Jersey;
• 1 had a son killed in battle;
• 1 had his wife die from harsh treatment in prison; and
• 9 lost their own lives during the War for Independence.

When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said:

We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.

John Adams remarked:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration. . . . Yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. . . . Posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not.

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Groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights . . . ?

In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending Providence in our favor . . .

And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?. . .

We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” . . . I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed . . . no better than the Builders of Babel.

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In “A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly,” (1791) Burke wrote:

What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without restraint. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as they are disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good in preference to the flattery of knaves. . .

Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

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This fourth stanza of the National Anthem inspired Congress to place the motto “In God We Trust” on the nation’s coins beginning on March 3, 1865. House Speaker Schuyler Colfax noted at the time:

The last act of Congress ever signed by President Lincoln was one requiring that the motto . . . “In God We Trust” should hereafter be inscribed upon all our national coin.

On October 30, 1949, President Truman commented:

When the U.S. was established . . . the motto was “In God We Trust.” That is still our motto and we still place our firm trust in God.

On February 9, 1961, President Kennedy reaffirmed this:

The guiding principle of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be “In God We Trust.”

And on March 19, 1981, President Reagan asserted yet again:

Our Nation’s motto . . . reflects a basic recognition that there is a divine authority in the universe to which this nation owes homage.

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After the Declaration of Independence was read to his troops, General Washington ordered chaplains placed in each regiment. His troops were told:

The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier, defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.

Later elected president, Washington again expressed his humble faith. In his first Inaugural Address, Washington said:

It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe. . . . No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency.

After this Inauguration, Washington attended a worship service conducted by Congress’ chaplains in New York City’s St. Paul’s Chapel.

In The Lord of the Rings, author J. R. R. Tolkien tells of the human lust for “the ring of power.” The craving seems almost universal; Washington held enormous power—both as general and president—yet twice gave it up. This, despite the urging of many of his countrymen to retain the office he held.

On September 19, 1796, the world stood in awe as President George Washington delivered his Farewell Address. He said, in part:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars. . . . Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. . . . Morality is a necessary spring of popular government. . . . Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?

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• 26 Episcopalians;
• 11 Presbyterians;
• 7 Congregationalists;
• 2 Lutherans;
• 2 Dutch Reformed;
• 2 Methodists;
• 2 Roman Catholics;
• 2 Quakers; and
• 1 deist.

The deist was Dr. Franklin, who had called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787, in these words:

I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning.

The Journal of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 27, 1854, recorded the unanimous vote of the 33rd Congress to print Congressman James Meacham’s report, which stated:

At the adoption of the Constitution, we believe every State—certainly 10 of the 13— provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government. . . . Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people. . . . Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.

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This is the third video in the series of six on the subject of God and Country.

Visit Bill Federer’s website: AmericanMinute.com.

CTA offers an impressive selection of patriotic gifts that help congregations celebrate God and Country.