Today we celebrate the 233^rd birthday of our country.  With the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, religious and civic freedom became a reality as tyrannical exploitation of the citizens of the thirteen American colonies ended.  This freedom did not come without a price.  Our nation’s forefathers not only proclaimed the need for freedom, they put everything they owned, even their very lives, on the line for the freedom we now enjoy.  Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, five were tortured and killed, nine died in battle or war hardships, two lost sons, two had sons captured, and twelve had their homes and property burned and looted.  Many paid a high price for our liberty.  Today, we thank God for the civil and religious freedoms we now enjoy and the spiritual liberty that Jesus sacrificed His life to offer mankind. 

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1)