Good morning all.  I hope You were able to have a little fun over the holiday and that you took a moment to reflect on why we celebrate our freedom it and what it takes to keep it.  Today we will be having a celebration at the church.  I’m really looking forward to it.  We’re still proceeding with safety in mind, but I’m so glad that we have chosen to trust our God and to choose to live.  We’ll have the Communion ceremony during the service and then hamburgers and hotdogs afterwards.

I wish I had put this out sooner, but I have been working long hours and just barely got the message together last night.  I wanted to talk about freedom, but I think there’s something more important that we need to focus on right now.  It’s really an extension of what we have been saying for the last few weeks amid all the turmoil in our nation.  In Matthew5:9-12 Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” then continues with advice for those who will be persecuted.  I don’t think it’s any accident that these two things are back to back.  Our enemy doesn’t want peace.  He wants to kill, to steal, and to destroy.  We see his work all around us today.  When we take an active roll in making peace, we are going to find ourselves opposed, but we are also in line for a blessing!

What does it mean to be a peacemaker?  We all have some idea.  We probably think of someone who works to resolve conflict.  That’s part of the job of a peacemaker, but there’s a lot more, and we’ll draw from scripture to find the answers.  Even as we celebrate the birth of our great nation, we’re nearly ready to fight another civil war.  The church has it’s work cut out, and we’d better get busy doing it or we may find we’ve lost the opportunity.

I hope to see you this afternoon.  Let’s invite the Holy Spirit for some real fireworks!

Love y’all,

Larry