Freedom

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood 

From sea to shining sea! 

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America! 

God mend thine every flaw, 

Confirm thy soul in self-control, 

Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America! 

May God thy gold refine, 

Till all success be nobleness, 

And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America! 

God shed His grace on thee 

And crown thy good with brotherhood 

From sea to shining sea!

~America the Beautiful, words by Katherine L. Bates 

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And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. // John 8:32

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself // Galatians 5:13-14

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. // Romans 8:1-4

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To those of you who are Americans- Happy Independence Day! God has blessed us with remarkable freedom for nearly two and a half decades in America, and we should never forget what He has given us.

To all believers- no matter what country you live in- we are all blessed with the true freedom found in God's Word, though Jesus! He gives us the ultimate freedom, and may we never forget that as we strive to tell others about this true Freedom found in Christ.

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O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!

Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heaven rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,” 

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

-The Star-Spangled Banner (fifth verse), words by Francis Scott Key