4th of July Remembrance

With the 4th of July in just a few days we need to remember the original purpose of July 4, 1776.  Sure we celebrate this great day with picnics, ballgames, family gatherings of all kinds and of course the All American Fireworks!!  What a great way to get families together!

But most of us fail to remember the true meaning of the celebration.  We are celebrating the birth of a nation.  There are many heroes and many villains in this story, but we need to reflect on some of the true heroes of our founding.  One such hero is John Hancock.

Once the wealthiest merchant in Boston, John Hancock was groomed by Sam Adams and became one of the leading players in the Revolution. He presided over the Second Continental Congress. He was the first elected governor of Massachusetts, and was reelected 8 times. He was reelected President of the Second Continental Congress after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, and presided over the Massachusetts convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States. John Hancock’s signature is the largest on the Declaration of Independence.

On April 15, 1775, four days before the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” he wrote:

“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent Measure should be taken to ward off the impending Judgments . . .“All confidence must be withheld from the Means we use; and reposed only on that GOD who rules in the Armies of Heaven, and without whose Blessing the best human Counsels are but Foolishness—and all created Power  Vanity… “It is the Happiness of his Church that, when the Powers of Earth and Hell combine against it . . . that the Throne of Grace is of the easiest access—and its Appeal thither is graciously invited by the Father of Mercies, who has assured it, that when his Children ask Bread he will not give them a Stone . .

 Learn more from John Hancock as well as many or our other Founding Fathers in my book  “One Nation Under God: A Factual History of America’s Religious Heritage” available at Amazon.com, Barns & Nobel, and on my website:  http://www.leonstevens.org – Free shipping from my site…