Giving thanks for freedom!
by PASTOR DICK RILEY
Rockford United Methodist Church
Once upon a time, a man found the barn where Satan kept all his seeds of sin stored. In bag after bag, seeds were stored that were destined to grow in the hearts of people everywhere. There were seeds of envy and greed, seeds of hatred and lust, and seeds of bitterness and idolatry. In row after row, the man found all the different seeds of sin, and then, suddenly, Satan himself entered the barn. The man looked at Satan and then looked at the many bags of seed—the seeds of sin.
“So, what do you think of my bags of seed?” Satan asked.
“Tell me,” the man asked. “Will these terrible seeds—will they grow anywhere?”
Reluctantly, Satan frowned and admitted that there was one place in which his seeds of sin would not grow.
“And where is that?” asked the man.
“My seeds of sin,” said Satan, “will never grow in the heart of a grateful person.”
This coming week, we will celebrate our nation’s 236th birthday! What a blessing! What a gift! What a time to celebrate all of the freedoms that we enjoy in this great land of ours! And what a wonderful time to pause and, with grateful hearts, thank the Lord our God, worshiping Him in the church of your choice, and, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, “giving Him thanks and praise” (I Thess. 5).
Have a great and grateful Fourth of July week!
Comments by our Readers