Jesus Came So That We May Be Citizens of Heaven

         Being it the 4th of July and all, I thought I would write a entry that is about freedom. It isn't about the freedom that we think as a country but it is about the freedom we think about as Christians. It is the freedom we have in Christ, our Lord. It is kind of strange how I came up with a topic because I was thinking about couple of friends' birthdays that are this week after the 4th. One friend's is the 5th and the other friend's is the 6th. Then I got to thinking about my birthday and how it is two days after Christmas and I just thought it made a neat topic to write about so here I am writing about it on the 4th. I also have the day off from work so I am writing while I am not too busy.
           I don't know why this topic didn't come to me until now but it is pretty neat once you think about it. My birthday is two days after Jesus' so called birthday or when we celebrate it at least. No one really knows when His birthday really was. Jesus came to this world to save it from sin. We got so messed up that God decided to come down to this earth and lead us in the way we should go. Right? He came as a person on Christmas to show us how to love and other things like that. I am thinking about it now like this: Christmas is sort of Heaven's 4th of July or our 4th of July as Christians. It is when we were freed from our sin. It is when someone else took on a sacrifice for us to live a free and happy life.
            Now the strange thing here is that I have friends that their birthday is right after the real 4th of July. It is something we have in common but yet those two things mean totally different things. As we, Americans, know the 4th of July is our country's birthday. It is when the USA became a country in 1776. Yet people had to fight for that freedom that we now enjoy and have since that year. There has been a lot of wars and still are today trying to keep this country free in a lot of ways. People had to fight for other people even people that were not born yet so one day we would enjoy this freedom we have now. Even with the wars we have now, those people are fighting for future Americans like my children and my friends' children and their children and so on.
             It means a lot when you look at it both ways but when you see one person take on everyone's sin and then a lot of man and woman take on the freedom for other people. It shows you who the strongest one really is and where our reliance should be. Yes, we are blessed to live in a country that has freedom to believe in different things and ways. We get wrapped up in those ways and things that sometimes we forget to look at why we have a free nation and look at the other nations that aren't free. We get so full of ourselves at times that we forget about Africa and what is going on over there or Central America or Middle East or even our neighbors a lot of times. Yes, we are blessed to be the home of the free and the brave. We are blessed to have people that will fight for us. I am thankful for those people as much as any other American is.
              But we are all human and we all fail at times too. There is only one True and Strong Person that we stand for us and beside us even when this country falls and we all have to admit it will. Not everything stays like it is forever. I like being an American citizen and having the freedom to do things that I believe but even better, I love being a Heaven Citizen. I love it that Christ fought for us and won over everything just because He loved and cared for us that much to give His life up. This 4th of July or at least the rest of it, I challenge each of you to take it that consideration and just think about this entry. It makes sense once you think about it. Whether you like to think about it this way or not, God did give us this wonderful country to live in. We are not here by chance or mistake. We are not free just because some people fought for us.
           God puts things in order in life and He for sure put this country and the situations we are in, in order and for a reason. I strongly believe that! I still find it strange at times that some of my friends and me are close to both of the holidays that have so much in common yet in different ways. It is really the little things that make the most important sense when we take the time to look at them in that way. I would also like to think about the ways we celebrate both of them and see if any of the traditions we have have anything in common but that is a whole other entry someday. It was also surprising how easy this entry came to me because I was scared that it wasn't going to be easy to write.