Thankful for our Freedom to Worship

With Thanksgiving 2012 approaching, I looked back and remembered so many things we can be thankful for this year. Last year our brother Pastor Youcef from Iran was granted his freedom (This year we are praying for the release of his lawyer). God's church in developing nations is continuing to grow and reach out even through difficult times of persecution. I am also thankful as I stop to remember God's blessings on America. While believers are jailed in Iran, brothers are killed in Nigeria and churches are burned in Pakistan; we here in the United States enjoy the freedom to worship as we choose. The greatest thing we have in America is not our money, our powerful military or even the amazing size and beauty of our land. Our greatest blessing is a simple idea. "...That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 

If we in America lost all the world counts of value, yet could hold on to this single idea, this single hope, this single dream, we would still possess our greatest treasure. Governments and leaders come and then fade away but God's truth remains. Political leaders promise to give us rights but only God can give us rights. The greatest nations simply understand and recognize those rights that God has given. How wonderfully blessed we are and what a responsibility we have to use the freedom we have to share the message of Christ with the world and to pass our that heritage on to our children and our grandchildren! So this Thanksgiving let's be thankful to God and remember all that He has done!