Susie and I just spend a week in Boston visiting our daughter Betsie who lives and works there. Is there anything better than seeing God bless your children, granting them success in life? Does anything make a parent more grateful?We spent a good deal of time exploring Boston, a city filled with history. People first came there for freedom, religious freedom above all, and for opportunity. 383 years after the founding of Boston and 237 after the founding of the United States freedom and opportunity are still hallmarks of this society we are privileged to live in.
On Sunday morning we went to church at the historic Park Street Church were we heard an incredible testimony given by Tom Gerendas, who grew up in Budapest, Hungary, survived the Nazi holocaust as a twelve year old Jewish boy, found salvation through Christ, later escaped communism, and found his way to the United States (you can find his testimony on the Park Street Church website, www.parkstreet.org), where lives to serve God and Christ.
Park Street Church is also where the Hymn written by Samuel Francis Smith “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was first sung in 1831. Verses one and four read:
My country, 'tis of thee,Sweet land of liberty,Of thee I sing;Land where my fathers died,Land of the pilgrims' pride,From ev'ry mountainsideLet freedom ring! Our fathers' God to Thee,Author of liberty,To Thee we sing.Long may our land be bright,With freedom's holy light,Protect us by Thy might,Great God our King. Interestingly it is written to the tune of “God Save the Queen/King." Boston and the greater Boston area is also home to over 100 universities and colleges with a combined enrollment of several hundred thousand students. It has been referred to as the “Athens of America.” Of course colleges and universities are all about opportunity. At the Walgreens next to where we stayed the clerk was a retired Colonel of the Bangladesh Air Force. He moved his family to Boston so his children could go to “the best schools in the world.” He wanted them to have opportunity. Close to where our daughter lives we drove by a church that has been turned into an apartment complex, that means the church that met there died. Not because there are not enough people in that neighborhood but rather because people stopped going there. It illustrates a shift. The founders of Boston were looking for a place to freely worship God, today we increasingly are looking for a freedom from God. We no longer consider freedom as a call to worship, “Our fathers' God to Thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing,” but are much more inclined to see it as a call to self-expression, self-indulgence, and self-fulfillment. Maybe that’s enough rambling for one p-note. Let me leave you with some words of the Apostle Paul, “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows” Galatians 5:13 (MSG). To God be all glory, love you Pastor Hans