249 and counting
By Paul Bawden
Amazing! It is amazing!
The United States of America will celebrate its 249th birthday on July 4, 2025. Regardless of what the USA has been through over this period of time, the ups and downs, the positives and negatives, America is still a city on a hill.
America is the greatest country in the world that provides strategic leadership in different ways in country and around the globe. But at the foundation of it all is the freedom our country provides to its citizens and others who come to this country, which is second to none.
Words from the Declaration of Independence remind us why this is possible: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These words make America unique among nations. They tell us that each individual is equally valuable in the USA and has personal rights which include Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It’s well to consider again on this 249th birthday of our nation, that such rights don’t come from government, they come from the biblical God who is the Creator of all of us. The USA Government is designed to make sure that such happens so individuals can flourish in this wonderful country.
Could the challenges that plague our country on its 249th birthday come because there are those who are promoting philosophies and lifestyles that have forgotten, ignored, even denied that there is the Creator?
For when the Creator is not acknowledged, man becomes his own god, and thinks that his reason is the basis for enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What is the result? Pride, selfishness, rebellion, lack of respect, lawlessness, covetousness, and immorality abound, while some are using their freedoms in America to try and destroy the very freedoms that they enjoy.
What’s happening here is that the Creator, the biblical God, created us to be His image bearers, to live a life that gives an example of who He is in His person and action, and to enjoy His freedom. That’s what our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created to do in the Garden of Eden, to be God’s image bearers. They blew their privilege, and sin and disobedience came into the human race, while losing their freedom to be God’s image bearers.
That’s why there is the need of the Savior, who can pay for our sin, which brings death, and provide us the privilege to have the freedom to be God’s image bearers once more. That’s why Christ said that the one who commits sin is the slave of sin, but He has come to set us free, which would happen through His death, burial and bodily resurrection (John 8:34-36). That means the person would be able to live in Christ’s freedom of being God’s image bearer.
And what does that involve? For the believer in Christ that freedom involves depending on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit so His fruit, Christlikeness, is displayed through his life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As you live in Christ’s freedom, being His image bearer, give thanks to Him on this July 4th that our great nation gives you the freedom to do that to the glory of God! Enjoy celebrating America’s 249th birthday!! God bless America!!
Paul Bawden is married and served in the pastoral ministry for 45 years, retiring in 2011. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Speech and attended Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Theology. He has taken counseling courses at Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. Paul is a lifetime member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, as well as being a member of Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM), which serves churches during their time of transition in searching for a new pastor. He writes for Union Gospel Press, as well as being a volunteer writer for GotQuestions.org. Paul likes to write, read, bike, and work in the yard. The Bawdens have had the privilege to travel to Mexico and Romania on mission trips and visited various countries in Europe.