This Independence Day, choose dependence on Christ
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” —2 Corinthians 5:14–15
I had never heard of the term semiquincentennial before this year. America will celebrate 250 years of Independence this year, our Semiquincentennial. There are many big celebrations, and I pray that Americans will be protected from those who may seek to harm or discourage our people and our values.
I’m looking forward to the day and all that it will bring. That said, I’m looking back as well, and those thoughts give a powerful perspective.
July 4, 1976
1976 was a big year for me. I graduated from high school in June of that year with more than seven hundred fellow seniors. The graduation ceremony was outdoors with red, white, and blue balloons. We were told to wear red, white, and blue clothing. The music represented our class and our country. When Steve Zerta crossed the stage, a huge roar went up from the crowd. He was a popular guy, but he was cheered for being the last name of the 700-plus students!
After graduation, we boarded buses to Disneyland’s “Grad Night” celebration. We stayed up all night at Disney and celebrated with other graduates from other California high schools. Mickey, Minnie, and the other characters were all wearing red, white, and blue costumes, and Winnie the Pooh sported a mortarboard. We drove home at daybreak, exhausted, excited, and thinking ahead. Every graduate knew that Grad Night was probably the last thing we would do as a group before we headed to various universities, jobs, and branches of the service.
July 4 was an important day for me spiritually as well. I grew up an “interdenominational” Christian. I’ve been Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and then Baptist. I’ve been “sprinkled” once and “immersed” twice, which makes me the most-often baptized Christian I know.
The baptism I count as my own took place on Sunday, July 4, 1976. That was the day I stepped into the baptistry to tell God and others that I was a Christian. I remember it because of the day, but also because that was the day my baptism was between my Lord and me. I was baptized because I wanted to obey Jesus when he said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15–16).
In many ways, my personal commitment to Jesus as my Lord began on July 4, 1976. I had already accepted Jesus as Savior, but I chose to be baptized that day because I knew I wanted to live in obedience to Christ as my Lord. For me, those two choices were separate and unique in my life. In many ways, I felt called to give up my independence that day in order to depend on Jesus as my King.
Later, when I wanted to join the Baptist church, the pastor told me I needed to be re-baptized. I told my parents that I didn’t want to do that, so the pastor asked me to come see him. I agreed to the meeting, and he explained that I had been baptized under a different theology and therefore needed to be rebaptized to join the church. We politely “argued,” and I finally agreed to be baptized with the understanding that my real baptism was July 4, 1976. My bicentennial baptism was a spiritual commitment for me. I just got wet that day in my second immersion.
When did you give up your independence?
It has been fifty years since I was baptized as a commitment to Jesus as my Lord. When did you choose to make Jesus your King? It’s easier to choose Jesus as Savior than Jesus as Lord. If we ask Jesus to be our King, we don’t get to sit on the throne of our lives. His Word is no longer a book of suggested guidelines or good ideas. The Bible becomes a manual of required values and behaviors. None of us will ever follow it perfectly, but if Jesus is King, we will try to place his control over our lives above our own independence.
Can you remember a time when you asked Jesus to be your King?
Fifty years later
I have thought a lot about this July 4, but for different reasons than most. How might my life have been different if I hadn’t stood in the baptistry that day and truly meant the words, “Jesus is my Lord”?
My dad came home a year later and said, “I’m accepting a job in Houston, TX.” I was nineteen years old and DID NOT want to move to Houston. But I did, and my entire future changed.
There have been a lot of major decisions in the past fifty years, and when I included Jesus in those choices, he was able to redirect, control, guide, and bless those days. I was a child of the seventies when independence often meant an escape from traditional values, traditional music, traditional haircuts, and traditional religion. Fifty years later, I see some of the long-term consequences of my generation’s choices.
We elevated independence at the expense of our submission to Christ as Lord. I wonder what our country would look like today if the value changes in the seventies had not occurred. California was a hot spot in the seventies, and I still remember the communes at the beaches and campgrounds that harbored drug users and “free-love” thinkers. My generation introduced much of the thinking that shapes today’s culture.
A semiquincentennial commitment
Will America have a tricentennial? Jesus could return in the next fifty years. I, and probably most of my readers, will not be here to find out. We will celebrate that July 4 in heaven, where time is not measured, and the things of this earth have “passed away.”
This year, I will remember July 4, 1976, and the commitment I made in church that day. I want to recommit my life to have the same passion for Jesus as my Lord that I felt that day. This Independence Day, I want to once again make the choice to sacrifice my independence for the sake of my dependence on Christ as my King.
Revelation 19:15–16 describes our King today: “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Can you remember the day you gave up your independence and chose to make Jesus your King? If not, join me in making this July 4 a day you will remember for every day to come. Simply pray, “Jesus, thank you for being my Savior. Today, I choose to make you Lord of each moment to come.”
Happy “dependence” day!
