Freedom

This weekend, we pause to celebrate one of the most sacred of our national holidays, July 4th. For most of us, it's a time of long weekend days, rest and relaxation, fireworks, and just generally cutting loose from the everyday stressors of life. My wife and kids and I will be all in for that kind of fun this weekend as many of us celebrate together.

In the course of your celebration, I want to extend my personal invitation and encouragement to join together with the Journey Family in worship Sunday morning. Have you thought about how much more "free" the weekend might be if you could just skip church, sleep in on Sunday morning, and pick that stuff up the next Sunday? Maybe the following Sunday rolls around and there's a great concert that goes too late on Saturday, or a last minute trip that makes worship in church inconvenient?

The truth is that our freedom has been given us by God and paid for with the blood of many brave men and women over these last two plus centuries of our nation's history. That freedom includes things we take for granted like the right to peacefully assemble, the freedom of speech, and the freedom to worship God. This year, I'm asking you to reserve Sunday morning, July 4th, 2010 for God... for worshipping Him with your church family... for thanking Him together for the unspeakable freedom He has given us.

There are so many other things we could do with that time... so the real question is whether those things are more important... or not.

I hope you'll use your freedom to worship the God who gave you that freedom this weekend.

If you're here in New Orleans, then I'll see you there!

In the Peace of Christ,

Pastor John