Ecclesiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.”
Philippians 1:27 “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel”
On this Veteran’s Day weekend, it is important to go back to the origins of this important day of remembrance. One hundred years ago, on November 11th, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson spoke the following on the one year anniversary of the end of World War I:
“A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.
With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.
Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.
To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.”
President Wilson made an important point about the earthly source of strength and victory that applies to nations today. It also applies to churches today and to Christians today. There is power when we are “acting together for high purposes.” No nation is an island, nor is any Christian an island. When we work together “in furtherance of the common interests of men” and set aside our “personal concerns,” then we can make great strides in statesmanship, fellowship, and discipleship.
PLEASE PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS TO ACT TOGETHER FOR HIGH PURPOSES. Partnership with other Christians can be “a decisive factor” as we serve Christ in this land today.
