The Fourth of July is by no means a religious holiday. Christians can't complain, as they often do with Christmas and Easter, that this was a holy day somehow co-opted and taken over by a secular culture. The Fourth of July is a secular holiday, set aside by American citizens to remember and celebrate how this nation gained its independence and established the enduring principles of freedom, self-determination, and representative government.

So we will gather again with families and friends for the national holiday of Independence Day. Some will direct their thoughts to those early days of our nation's history, when the yearning for freedom caused patriots to overthrow tyranny imposed from afar. Others will simply gather to watch parades, devour far too many hot dogs and hamburgers, and crane their necks at exploding fireworks in the night sky. No, it's not a religious holiday by any means. But it is a day that none of us should observe without a deep sense of thanks and appreciation for the blessings that God has given us in this land.

We enjoy one kind of freedom that no political system can either guarantee or threaten. Jesus referred to it when he quoted the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners" (61:1). Jesus came to bring freedom, not from political oppression or the restriction of human rights but from the bondage of sin, death, and hell. Those who know Christ by faith enjoy that kind of freedom regardless of where they live or what political system governs them.

In the United States we have the special blessing of being free to worship the God who has given us true spiritual and eternal freedom in his Son. We can teach the truths of how Christ has set us free to our children without interference. And we can preach and proclaim that message of freedom publicly and openly with the full protection of our nation's laws and constitution.

Yet dozens of nations around the world not only restrict the freedoms of Christians, they criminalize Christianity. In many countries, Christians feel the full brunt of persecution—not the mild persecution of words and scorn that we sometimes feel from unbelievers, but the brutal and harsh persecution that results in prison, injury, suffering, and death. A Christian husband burned alive in Pakistan while his wife is forced to watch; Christian churches and homes destroyed in Indonesia; Christian women and children hacked to death by machetes in Nigeria. These are not rare stories. Incidents like these happen every day somewhere in the world.