Daily Devotional For Sunday, May 26, 2024

This is Memorial Day Weekend and today is Sunday, the Lord’s Day. I want to call attention to the words Moses said to the Hebrews in Exodus 13:3, “So Moses said to the people, “This is a day to remember forever—the day you left Egypt, the place of your slavery. Today the LORD has brought you out by the power of His mighty hand” (NLT). This is the weekend we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice —their lives for our freedom. America is unlike any other country. We were founded by Pilgrims seeking religious freedom in 1620 upon the Mayflower. And 150 years later, we were led by their descendants to fight for the freedoms we enjoy today. 

Freedom has a price and it is called blood, lives, and sacrifice. What the Pilgrims wanted and what our Founding Fathers wanted along with others living at that time in 1776, was to right a wrong. And that is what they sought to do in the what we call The Declaration of Independence. Below is a quote from it:

"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Though many of them were deists — they believed God existed — they made sure they included God in their public and private statements and comments.  This is why the last statement in the Declaration of Independence says this:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Typically, on July 4, we are called to remember how we secured our freedom. I have always thought Memorial Day Weekend personalizes it. As you see above, they asked for protection of divine Providence — God helped them with what they were about to do. There are families all over America who have lost a son or a daughter or a father or a mother or a cousin or an aunt or an uncle in fighting for our freedoms. 

What this young, protesting generation does not understand is that most of our Founding Fathers were middle-aged men when they signed the declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was 33, John Adams was 40, John Hancock was 39, Thomas Paine was 39, Paul Revere was 41, and George Washington was 44. Some were younger such as Alexander Hamilton who was 21, James Monroe was 18, Aaron Burr was 20 and Nathan Hale was 21.

Remembering is a good thing and we are deeply bothered when we cannot remember something. For example:

"In the later years of his life, the great 19th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered from an increasingly faulty memory. When things would slip his mind, he complained of his “naughty memory,” as he called it. Sometimes Emerson would forget the names of different objects. In order to speak of them, he would refer to them in a round-about way. For instance, when he could not think of the word “plow,” he would call it “the implement that cultivates the soil.” More important was the fact that he could not remember the names of people who were quite familiar to him. At the funeral of his friend, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emerson commented to another person, “That gentleman has a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his name.”

Unfortunately, many see this weekend as an extended weekend to BBQ, grilling-out, going boating, going to the beach or to have an extended and longer weekend. But to those families who have lost a loved one in battle, this weekend is another reminder they will never again have that husband or wife, that father or that mother or that brother or that sister and etc. Never again will that person come home and greet the again. All they can do, is go to the grave where they are buried and grieve. Looking at a headstone or grave marker is no consolation to such loss. 

In Psalm 105:5-6, David writes this:

“Remember the wonders he has performed, His miracles, and the rulings He has given, (6) you children of His servant Abraham, you descendants of Jacob, His chosen ones” NLT).

Why does David remind his people to remember this? Because their history had been one that when they forgot all God had done for them, they drifted off into thanklessness, idolatry, sin, self-sufficiency and pride. What was true for them will be true for us. If we ever as a nation forget why we are free, we will being to take that freedom for granted and have the arrogance to believe we can make our own way without God. We will do well to remember the promise of Psalm 33:12, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord . . .” (ESV). America will be blessed if God is our Lord.

On behalf of all those families who have lost a loved one keeping America safe and free, I want to express my gratitude to you and your family. Remembering the past can at times be a way to escape our problems in the present and the possible heartache of the future. But for this weekend, that is not the case. We need to remember. In 1948 before the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said these words: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Churchill took the words of philosopher George Santayana, who originally said this: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This is why all through the Bible God calls His people to “remember.” It doesn’t take much for us to forget and to forget quite frequently. We get so caught up in life, we forget that all of life is about God — all of it. In Judges 8:34 it says this, “And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side” (ESV). After all God had done for them and through them, they forgot. This weekend let’s not forget the real reason we have it. Thank you.

Questions To Consider

1. How intentional are you throughout the day to remember the Lord?
2. When it comes to this weekend, does your family take time to remember the men and women who have died so we can be free? Why or why not?
3. Who could you call, or write or text or send an email or reach out to in person to say, “I want to say “thank you” to your family for the sacrifice you have made so we can be free?

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 77:1, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, today is Sunday — the “Lord’s Day.”I know every day is Yours, but today I am going to remember Your grace to this nation and to my life. I will remember that freedom comes at a price — blood and a life. Without the blood and death of Your Son Jesus Christ, I would still be a slave to sin. Thank You for such freedom. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly