Gtcotr/ss052415
John 12:24 “Most assuredly, I
say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains
alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
(I just returned from Fort Bragg NC where I
attended the 2015 All American Week in memory and honor of the soldiers lost in
war …)
The
price of life is death. Either we pay the price for someone else to live or
someone else pays the price for us and others to live.
This
is true both in our earthly life and in the life to come. Jesus, the Son of
God, paid the ultimate price for our eternity when He gave His life to save you
and me. God respected the death of Jesus and honored Him. Jesus laid down His
life in love. The scriptures tell us:
John 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down
one’s life for his friends.”
Simply
put – We lay our lives down for those
whom we love more than we love ourselves.
We'll
come back and further develop this thought in a moment but first let’s focus
our attention on the Holiday we will observe tomorrow.
This
weekend is Memorial
Day weekend, and tomorrow is Memorial Day - the time we set aside in
our great nation, the United States of America:
* this one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all;
* this land of the free, home of the brave;
* this nation that was built on the ideal embraced and taken from a poem by Emma Lazarus written in 1883 which welcomed more than 12 million immigrants to Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954:
“… Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
* the nation is a golden door …
* this nation who defends the weak, feeds the hungry, gives to the poor and protects the rights of each individual regardless of race, color, gender, national origin or religious affiliation;
* this nation of The People, by The People, and for The People, who has always given its very best and brightest sons and daughters in defense of these ideals … the United States of America …
We should yield solemn respect to those who gave their time, talent and treasure, pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to serve our country in times of war and peace, and remember those who sacrificed their lives in that noble cause. These men and women made the difference.
We owe our nation, our homes and our cars, our jobs and our hobbies, our past, our families and our future to those brave Americans who unselfishly gave their lives for us.
There are so many heroes in our past who served in one way or another to make America great. Men and women alike … those who sailed with and supported Columbus; families on the Mayflower; the colonists who braved the elements of a new harsh world; those early pioneers and settlers of the west; men and women of science and medicine; those who laid the railways to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific; people like Lewis and Clarke, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers and the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr.; … so many educators and philanthropists; inventors and astronauts; homemakers and shipbuilders; slaves and freemen; factory workers and farmers … America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, a land filled with heroes to whom we owe our good lives.
Every day of the year could be a special day commemorating a different segment of our society for their unselfish and sacrificial contribution in making America great and leaving such a legacy behind.
However, one class of citizen stands out on the front lines of our nation when we think of the heroes of our past, it’s the American Soldier. Memorial Day is about those who died while defending us in war.
* this one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all;
* this land of the free, home of the brave;
* this nation that was built on the ideal embraced and taken from a poem by Emma Lazarus written in 1883 which welcomed more than 12 million immigrants to Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954:
“… Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
* the nation is a golden door …
* this nation who defends the weak, feeds the hungry, gives to the poor and protects the rights of each individual regardless of race, color, gender, national origin or religious affiliation;
* this nation of The People, by The People, and for The People, who has always given its very best and brightest sons and daughters in defense of these ideals … the United States of America …
We should yield solemn respect to those who gave their time, talent and treasure, pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to serve our country in times of war and peace, and remember those who sacrificed their lives in that noble cause. These men and women made the difference.
We owe our nation, our homes and our cars, our jobs and our hobbies, our past, our families and our future to those brave Americans who unselfishly gave their lives for us.
There are so many heroes in our past who served in one way or another to make America great. Men and women alike … those who sailed with and supported Columbus; families on the Mayflower; the colonists who braved the elements of a new harsh world; those early pioneers and settlers of the west; men and women of science and medicine; those who laid the railways to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific; people like Lewis and Clarke, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers and the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr.; … so many educators and philanthropists; inventors and astronauts; homemakers and shipbuilders; slaves and freemen; factory workers and farmers … America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, a land filled with heroes to whom we owe our good lives.
Every day of the year could be a special day commemorating a different segment of our society for their unselfish and sacrificial contribution in making America great and leaving such a legacy behind.
However, one class of citizen stands out on the front lines of our nation when we think of the heroes of our past, it’s the American Soldier. Memorial Day is about those who died while defending us in war.
To
give you an idea of the numbers of our brave men and women from the Army, Air
Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, who have lost their lives while serving
in defense of our freedoms, allow me to briefly show you these figures: (Source: http://www.militaryfactory.com/american_war_deaths.asp)
American Revolutionary War 1775-1783 25,000
Northwest Indian War 1785-1795 1,056
Quasi-War 1798-1800 514
War of 1812 1812-1815 20,000
1st Seminole War 1817-1818 36
Black Hawk War 1832 305
2nd Seminole War 1835-1842 1,535
Mexican-American War 1846-1848 13,283
3rd Seminole War 1855-1858 26
Civil War 1861-1865 625,000
Indian Wars 1865-1898 919
Great Sioux War 1875-1877 314
Spanish-American War 1898 2,446
Philippine-American War 1898-1913 4,196
Boxer Rebellion 1900-1901 131
Mexican Revolution 1914-1919 35
Haiti Occupation 1915-1934 148
World War I 1917-1918 116,516
North Russia Campaign 1918-1920 424
American Expedition Force Siberia 1918-1920 328
Nicaragua Occupation 1927-1933 48
World War II 1941-1945 405,399
Korean War 1950-1953 36,516
Vietnam War 1955-1975 58,209
El Salvador Civil War 1980-1992 37
Beirut 1982-1984 266
Grenada 1983 19
Panama 1989 40
Persian Gulf War 1990-1991 258
Operation Provide Comfort 1991-1996 19
Somalia Intervention 1992-1995 43
Bosnia 1995-2004 12
NATO Air Campaign Yugoslavia 1999 20
Afghanistan 2001-2014 2,356
Iraq 2003-2012 4,489
Total US Military War
Deaths above 1775-2014 1,319,943
(Note: The above source lists only 35 of
the 65 wars and armed conflicts the US has waged or participated in since 1775.
For information on other conflicts and total American War Deaths ((1.35 million
)) - visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war )
In honor of those who gave their lives in sacrifice for our freedom we have set aside a national day of remembrance, we call it Memorial Day and we celebrate that day tomorrow. Everyone is encouraged to take a moment at 3 p.m. tomorrow and remember those brave souls who chose their course and served the cause, giving their lives in defense of our Nation’s decided best interest. We owe a debt to them and to their families forever.
In fact let’s take a moment together right now and thank God as we prayerfully honor these remembered lives and the sacrifice they made.
The
price of life is death … someone else died so you could live. Someone else gave
their life so you could enjoy yours. Someone else paid the price for all the
things we now enjoy. However …
Of
all the wars that have ever waged, the battles lost and the victories won, no
war has ever been greater than the war that rages on the inside of a person to
live or to die. There are fierce battles ongoing in the hearts and minds of men
and women every day, even you, right now!
The
battle ‘of the heart’ is a battle ‘for the heart’ and the battle ‘of the mind’
is a battle ‘for the mind’ – one battle is a battle for our eternal soul: who
will own it; to whom will it belong eternally? The other battle is for control
of our lives while we live out our temporal time on planet earth. This second
battle is a battle fought by opposing forces to determine:
·
What
we will believe
·
What
we will say
·
What
we will do
The battle for the heart is won when a person:
1.
Recognizes they need a Savior;
2.
Repents of their sins before Almighty God;
3.
Receives Jesus into their heart as Lord and Savior …
The
battle for the mind is a daily battle we face in this life while awaiting
heaven’s final call. The battle of the mind is daily
won as we:
1.
Prove or disprove each thought by the Word of God;
2.
Train our lips to speak the Truth in Love;
3.
Deny ourselves, take up our daily cross and follow Jesus …
If
you have never been Born Again, today is your day to win that battle.
-
Recognize;
Repent; & Receive Jesus as Lord and Savior today …
If
you have already been born again then you are a child of Almighty God. The
greatest fight you now face is how to win those daily battles of the mind. Let
me arm you with a winning strategy for those constant conflicts.
Remember
what we discovered earlier? - Simply put – We lay our
lives down for those whom we love more than we love ourselves.
You
see, our greatest victories always come in love and in death – specifically: Death to self and selfish ideals - Love for God and others.
During
the past 240 years 1.35 million men and women in uniform have made the ultimate
sacrifice because they loved others more than they loved themselves. Listen
again to the words of Jesus …
John 15
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life
for his friends.
Today,
in respect of Memorial Day, I challenge you to reconsider who and what you love
and for what are you willing to sacrifice. Have you laid your life down on the
altar of love for God and for others above yourself?
