July 2026

My family noted many times how God’s common grace was on full display on the Fourth of July, although we didn’t use that exact term. Seemed like most of my childhood memories of the 4th included some rain either a day or two before or on the holiday itself. We would laugh and say that God was preventing us from burning down the neighborhood with all the fireworks. I loved to shoot off fireworks as a child. However, they were illegal in Georgia at that time; so, we would usually make a run across the border to Alabama to buy them. Somehow, however, my dad always seemed to have some fireworks that didn’t come from our border trip! Those are great memories.

As we celebrate the 250th year of our nation, let’s take a minute to think about all the freedoms that Jesus gives us. Of course, we think about the freedom from sin that Jesus gives to His children. The penalty and punishment for our sins, that should fall on us, have fallen on Jesus in our place at the cross. Therefore, our sins are punished but our souls, and bodies eventually, are spared. Peter said, “[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sins, we might life for righteousness; by His wounding you have been healed.” Likewise, we think about the freedom from the tyranny of death we have received from Jesus. Certainly, the process of dying can be very frightening; but, death itself has been defanged by the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.  Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever.” And the Apostle Paul asked the rhetorical questions, “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” Triumphantly, he provided the answer, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Therefore, thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” We have been given freedom over the twin evils of sin and death in Jesus. Thank you God for giving us Jesus!

However, there is another type of freedom that God has given to us in Christ. God has given us freedom to come into His presence anytime through our High Priest, Jesus. Under the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, not only did God’s people have to observe all sorts of religious rules and prohibitions, but they could never enter the fullness of God’s presence. What little bit of access they had to God could only be experienced through the gift of a sacrifice, often a blood sacrifice. Imagine every single time you wanted to pray to God or needed to hear from God you had to make a sacrifice to Him of an animal. The distance from God and the difficulty getting to God would feel overwhelming. But praise God, that is not the covenant stipulations for entering into God’s presence under the New Covenant. As the writer of Hebrews taught us, through the blood of Jesus, our High Priest takes us directly before the throne of God day or night, any time we have a need. That is true freedom!

My prayer for you is that you know Christ in a saving way and experience true, eternal freedom in Him.
Pastor Clint Miller