Daily Encouragement

Friday, July 4, 2025

Watching fireworks from Old Windmill Farm

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Message summary: Today, are you free indeed? The greatest sense of freedom is our spiritual freedom.

Listen to our message on your audio player.

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

Last night we headed over to the Old Windmill Farm to watch the fireworks display from the Barn at Paradise Station where they had a big event called "Celebrate America! Patriotic Concert & Fireworks Spectacular" culminating with fireworks. We avoided the crowds (and a $25.00 parking fee) by joining friends (Lapps and Waldvogels) and watching from the farm. As you can see from our lead photo we had a great view!

Today is Independence Day here in the USA and many have a day off work. Many will celebrate and gather with family and friends. Lots of picnics, cookouts, camping and pool parties are planned on this beautiful sunny day. Costco Magazine states that more than 150 million hot dogs will be eaten today, which is enough to stretch from Washington DC to Los Angeles five times! (But I would have to see that to believe it!)

We got a chuckle out of a story which illustrates how children misunderstand adult words and concepts:

The Fourth of July was coming up, and the nursery school teacher took the opportunity to tell her class about patriotism. "We live in a great country," she said. "One of the things we should be happy about is that, in this country, we are all free". One little boy came walking up from the back of the room. Exasperated, he stood with his hands on his hips and declared, "I'm not free. I'm four."

Regardless of where you live, today is July 4, but the words "July 4th" or "the 4th of July" has special meaning here in the USA. Independence Day is a time we consider our history and express thanks for our freedoms. Many Americans take these freedoms for granted so it's important to set this day aside (particularly on the 249th birthday of our country). There are those who don't even notice or choose to ignore that our freedoms are systematically being diminished. Sadly, we read that there are many who are disregarding this 249th birthday of our country. We were married on the bicentennial in 1976 so next year we will celebrate our 50th anniversary while America celebrates its 250th birthday.

Daily Encouragement readers live in a variety of countries and under varying degrees of political freedom or lack thereof. Most live in countries with a relatively strong freedom, but others live in places with religious oppression and in some cases outright persecution. It's doubtful that this material reaches those living in slavery, although millions live under such conditions.

But today, regardless of where we live or the conditions we live under we can all share one freedom in common based on our daily text: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed".

This freedom, available to all, is infinitely greater than any political or religious freedoms we may or may not enjoy in this present life. One hundred or one thousand years into eternity no matter where we lived or the conditions under which we lived will be of little regard, with the one exception of our decision that we chose to place our faith in Jesus Christ and accept His provision for our slavery to sin.

If you are a citizen of a free country don't take it for granted. Give thanks to God for the privilege while also considering those who sacrificed for your freedoms. Be sure to pray for our brothers and sisters who do not live with these freedoms.

But above all give thanks to God that Jesus paid the supreme sacrifice so that we might be freed from the slavery of sin for all eternity. That's something that we can all rejoice in no matter the political conditions of our country.

Today, are you free indeed?

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, how glorious it is to enjoy the many freedoms provided to us in our homeland of the brave and the free. We're also mindful and grateful for our freedom from sin, thanks to the sacrifice of Your Son on our behalf. Our lives, once enslaved to sin, now enjoy freedom from that which once held us captive to Satan's bondage. We live in victory because You have set us free and we are now free indeed. Thank You, Father, for delivering us from the dominion of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of Your beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin! Amen.

Christ provides:

1) Freedom from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:18)
2) Freedom from guilt and shame (Colossians 1:21-23)
3) Freedom from fear of death (Hebrews 2:15)

Study note: In John 8 Jesus confronted the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day who challenged His authority. The encounter specifically began when Jesus asserted, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). The Pharisees challenged Jesus and the validity of His testimony and of course that has been at the heart of resistance to God's redemption plan ever since.

Jesus told the Jews who had believed Him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples" (John 8:31). Then He said to them "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). This especially infuriated the proud Pharisees who responded, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" (v. 34).

But Jesus was speaking of a slavery that impacts the entire human race; whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, intellectual or unlearned, the politically free, oppressed or even enslaved. People from every background and every time period since the fall are slaves to sin! Yet this is the very slavery that Jesus came to free us from: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Free Indeed" Watch on YouTube River Valley Worship

"Man of Sorrows" Watch on YouTube The Acappella Company

Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled
Now the curse of sin has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free, oh, is free indeed!

"Celebrate America! Patriotic Concert & Fireworks Spectacular" This describes the event last night. Here's a video from the 2024 event.

Before driving back the long lane to the farm last night we drove by where the main event "Celebrate America! Patriotic Concert & Fireworks Spectacular" was held. Not only did they park cars on the property and adjacent properties but people also parked at The Strasburg Railroad parking lot. The train then shuttled them to the big event via the Lancaster scenic route! Ester took this photo of the engine when the they were unloading people at the station. The train is not moving; if it was, you would not be seeing this photograph and we would not be alive today!

Before it got dark the children were swimming in the farm pond. The barn where the event was held stands just above the corn in the background.

Years ago in 2007 I took a dip in this pond but really have no interest in doing so at this point in life! But when I was young I sure liked to swim in farm ponds and that's all Brooksyne swam in until she graduated from high school (with one exception when her family went to Six Flags Over Texas).

One summer I was staying with my grandparents in tiny Harwood, Missouri one summer. My PaPa (as I called my grandfather) had been in business and was well known throughout that rural area as a man of honor and integrity. I wanted to go fishing so he called a local farmer to get permission for me to fish in his farm pond but I was explicitly told not to go swimming.

Well, what do you suppose a fourteen-year-old does when the fish aren't biting? I looked up toward the farmhouse and seeing no one I went swimming.

Well, it turns out someone was watching. When I got back did I ever get chewed out! PaPa emphasized that he had trusted me and I had violated that trust. I still remember that lesson to this day. What hurt me most is that I had disappointed my grandfather.

On the way to the farm we passed this man as he was riding his horse through a field. Ester captured this view on camera that looks a little like a scene from an old western. We just need the mountains in the background which Lancaster does not have!

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