No special day

Today has no special title or recognition. It is simply another day of the week and like any other day we tend to go on about our business with little thought other than just getting done with it and getting to what we want to do.

We have forgotten the costs that give us the freedom to work and do things that we wish to do. We have forgotten that there freedom cannot exist where there is no one who has laid down their life for it.

We forget the soldiers on the frontlines who daily lay down their lives, their freedom, their peace of mind, and their health for us. We forget that not all soldiers are in the military and that the frontlines are not just on some distant battle field. We forget that these soldiers keep fighting in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. They keep fighting even in the face of our ingratitude and opposition. They know what needs to be done and that someone needs to do it. They throw themselves into the breach for our sakes.

Policemen who throw themselves into danger time and time again…
Fireman who throw themselves into the blaze to pull another out…
Medical people and emergency personnel that see lives destroyed and bodies mangled…
Counselors and pastors who give their hearts and all the wisdom they can muster for those who have lost their way…
Mothers and Fathers who spend sleepless nights in prayer and worry…
Teachers who give time for their students…
Service personnel who strive to make us as comfortable as possible…
Those who always dredge up a kind word regardless of how they feel themselves…

While the level of risk they take and the depths of the sacrifice they make vary, these are all soldiers. The list is long and many more can be added to it, but the message is simple.
We should be grateful for and to those around us.
Regardless of their reasons or whether they are very good at it, the people in our lives make sacrifices for our benefit. It does not matter if we deserve those sacrifices. We just need to be grateful that they are made and to the ones who make them. It is no small thing, and the meager sacrifice of our thanks to them is a small price for us to pay for what they give.

Now as important as that is there is one more who has sacrificed for us that I must tell you about.
I must tell you about a man who gave His life for us. He let Himself be abused and killed in a brutal, tortuous, and disgusting way because of what we have done.
He laid down His own life because the law that we have broken requires OUR lives.
Each and every one of us has broken the law. It is completely irrelevant whether we agree with the law, how small we think our offenses really are, or whether we think anyone was hurt by it.
Our violation of the law requires a death, and it is a death of both body and soul.
The choice we have is whether we pay that price ourselves or allow another to pay it on our behalf, but only someone who is willing to pay for us and who does not owe their own life can pay the price for us.
Only one person can pay the cost for all of us and He has done so. He sacrificed Himself because of His love for us. We can place our trust in Him and follow Him with our whole being or we can be fools and reject Him and what He has done for us.
There is only one way that we will be saved from the death that we have earned. We have to place our faith in Him and follow Him.

He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Alpha and Omega, our Savior and Redeemer.
His sacrifice is one that we can in no way repay, but He has already paid and only requires that we trust in and follow Him.
 
The choice we have is whether we pay that price ourselves or allow another to pay it on our behalf, but only someone who is willing to pay for us and who does not owe their own life can pay the price for us.
This thought inspires so much gratitude... to think that Jesus lived
in such a way as to be able to offer a sinless sacrifice. He did not
give His life for His own sin... but for fallen humanity's.
 
Today has no special title or recognition. It is simply another day of the week and like any other day we tend to go on about our business with little thought other than just getting done with it and getting to what we want to do.

We have forgotten the costs that give us the freedom to work and do things that we wish to do. We have forgotten that there freedom cannot exist where there is no one who has laid down their life for it.

We forget the soldiers on the frontlines who daily lay down their lives, their freedom, their peace of mind, and their health for us. We forget that not all soldiers are in the military and that the frontlines are not just on some distant battle field. We forget that these soldiers keep fighting in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. They keep fighting even in the face of our ingratitude and opposition. They know what needs to be done and that someone needs to do it. They throw themselves into the breach for our sakes.

Policemen who throw themselves into danger time and time again…
Fireman who throw themselves into the blaze to pull another out…
Medical people and emergency personnel that see lives destroyed and bodies mangled…
Counselors and pastors who give their hearts and all the wisdom they can muster for those who have lost their way…
Mothers and Fathers who spend sleepless nights in prayer and worry…
Teachers who give time for their students…
Service personnel who strive to make us as comfortable as possible…
Those who always dredge up a kind word regardless of how they feel themselves…

While the level of risk they take and the depths of the sacrifice they make vary, these are all soldiers. The list is long and many more can be added to it, but the message is simple.
We should be grateful for and to those around us.
Regardless of their reasons or whether they are very good at it, the people in our lives make sacrifices for our benefit. It does not matter if we deserve those sacrifices. We just need to be grateful that they are made and to the ones who make them. It is no small thing, and the meager sacrifice of our thanks to them is a small price for us to pay for what they give.

Now as important as that is there is one more who has sacrificed for us that I must tell you about.
I must tell you about a man who gave His life for us. He let Himself be abused and killed in a brutal, tortuous, and disgusting way because of what we have done.
He laid down His own life because the law that we have broken requires OUR lives.
Each and every one of us has broken the law. It is completely irrelevant whether we agree with the law, how small we think our offenses really are, or whether we think anyone was hurt by it.
Our violation of the law requires a death, and it is a death of both body and soul.
The choice we have is whether we pay that price ourselves or allow another to pay it on our behalf, but only someone who is willing to pay for us and who does not owe their own life can pay the price for us.
Only one person can pay the cost for all of us and He has done so. He sacrificed Himself because of His love for us. We can place our trust in Him and follow Him with our whole being or we can be fools and reject Him and what He has done for us.
There is only one way that we will be saved from the death that we have earned. We have to place our faith in Him and follow Him.

He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Alpha and Omega, our Savior and Redeemer.
His sacrifice is one that we can in no way repay, but He has already paid and only requires that we trust in and follow Him.

AMEN! Thank You Jesus
 
Thank you, @eric m williams! That's testing for me. Your title of 'No special day' reminds me of a remark of Mr James Taylor Senior's which I read a while ago, in reference to Ephesians 6:15. He said something like "We should always go about with our shoes on", meaning that we should never go about unshod with the glad tidings of peace.
I think that would connect with your thought:
We should be grateful for and to those around us.
I used to think being "shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace" would only be in connection with actively preaching the gospel to those in unbelief. I learned that it applies to wherever we go and whatever we do. We should always be ready to bring the good news into our circumstances and relationships - with our fellow believers as well as unbelievers. Things come up amongst the brethren, the devil tries to introduce division and strife. Being shod with the glad tidings of peace would prevent that. We would value those whom Christ has redeemed, those that are His, and tread carefully so as not to provide ground for a root of bitterness which would defile (Hebrews 12:15). Being grateful for those and to those around us is most definitely godly advice.
 
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