Daily Devotional For Friday, May 23, 2025
Good day Southside. This weekend we enter Memorial Day weekend. It is a time for cooking on the grill, having a picnic and being at the beach for an extended weekend. For many, they totally miss the main reason we have this weekend. It is to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice – their life – for our freedom. I think of Exodus 12:14, even though it has nothing to do with Memorial Day Weekend. Here it is: “Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.” (NASB). The context is God commanding His people to remember Passover every year.
This holiday is a day birthed in blood as well. It commemorates when the death angel passed over any home with the lamb’s blood on the door post. Failure to put the blood there, then the first born child and all first born of all animals would die. This is what broke Pharaoh’s stubborn heart and the Egyptians. The first Memorial Day was May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.
During that first national commemoration, former Union Gen. and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.
This national event galvanized efforts to honor and remember fallen soldiers that began with local observances at burial grounds in several towns throughout the United States following the end of the Civil War, such as the May 1,1865 gathering in Charleston, South Carolina organized by freed slaves to pay tribute and give proper burial to Union troops. New York was the first state to make it a legal holiday in their state in 1873. Soon other states followed.
But it was not until 1973 that Congress made it an official national holiday under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Soon, Americans were putting little American flags on soldiers' graves. So, for 52 years we have honored and memorialized our fallen troops whose lives give us our political freedom. I would like to encourage you this weekend to focus on another life, Jesus’, who gave His life with the shedding of His own blood for your spiritual freedom.
There is nothing glorious in war. Soldiers get maimed, crippled, get PTSD and come home with their lives ruined. Video games do not give an accurate reality of real war. Soldiers do not sit behind a computer screen safely from real threats coming at them. Real soldiers get hit with real bullets and IEDs. Jesus’ day on the cross was with real nails, a real crown of thorns, a real cross and a real spear plunged into His side. He was so brutally misfigured from the scourging of the Cat of the Nine Tails, He was hardly recognizable. We have no idea and could never possibly understand unconditional love like that.
Assignment: This weekend, besides remembering fallen soldiers, remember our fallen Lord on the cross and in the tomb. If you do put a flag on a grave, put the flag of surrender on the soil of your heart to the Lord this weekend. Recommit your life to Him. Find a way to serve someone else, other than your family, with His message of freedom from sin.
Scripture To Meditate On: Ephesians 1:7, “He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I am so thankful for You shedding Your blood for my freedom from sin, death and the grave. I could never thank You enough. So, this weekend, I recommit my life to You for You to use however You desire for the glory of God. I plant the white flag of surrender in the soil of my heart for the victory You secured over death, hell, sin, and the grave. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly