I Have The Right.....

It's 10:15 Saint Louis time and it's 11:15 here in Virginia. The 4th of July celebration will probably start in a few hours if it hasn't already. Soon we will all begin to remember why we have the rights we possess in this country. That thought got me remembering something a teacher of mine told me once. In paraphrasing it, she said that the only right that humanity possessed was the right to death. That's not necessarily a fun thought to think of. But when you get down to it, I'm pretty sure she's correct. The only thing we inherently deserve because it is ours is death. We've taken it upon ourselves to make it a right for us when we sin. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. I love the way Paul said that. Break it down and you could say it like this. "What we have earned for ourselves because of our sin is death. That's it, period. But we've been given what we didn't deserve in eternal life because of Jesus!" Thank you Father for giving us a gift we didn't deserve and we didn't earn. I don't know what your plans will be tomorrow. I don't know if you'll set off fireworks, hang out with friends and family, work, or something else all together. But what I do know is this. Tomorrow, we should really take a second to remember two things. Firstly, our rights that we have in this country are a gift given by the lives that fought and died that we may be one nation under God. And secondly, thank you Jesus that your gift is so much stronger than my right to death!

Remember.....