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The Creator Connection – July 2026

Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18

From the Pastor’s Desk

Coming Home to a Better Country

The Fourth of July invites many feelings at once: gratitude, memory, celebration, responsibility, and sometimes grief. For Christians, patriotism is not the worship of country. It is love of neighbor expressed through gratitude for home, care for the common good, and honest commitment to the liberty and dignity of all.

The appointed Collect for Independence Day asks God to grant “that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace.” That is a beautiful prayer because it knows liberty cannot maintain itself. Freedom is not only won once in the past. It must be practiced, guarded, corrected, expanded, and shared in righteousness and peace.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21 reminds us what righteousness looks like. The Lord “executes justice for the orphan and the widow” and “loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.” Then comes the command: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” God’s people remember their own story so they can make room for someone else. We come home by becoming people through whom others can find home.

Psalm 145 widens the vision even more: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.” God’s compassion is not narrow, tribal, or possessive. “The Lord is loving to everyone.” A Christian patriot can love this country deeply without pretending God belongs only to us. We can bless what is good, heal what is broken, tell the truth about what has wounded us, and give thanks for the grace that has carried us farther than we could have carried ourselves.

That is part of our hope behind The Clinton Center for Truth, Memory, and Healing. We are beginning to imagine a place and a practice where our community can remember honestly, listen generously, and seek healing that is deeper than politeness and stronger than blame. The Center is not being formed to assign inherited guilt. It is being formed to help us practice inherited responsibility for what we have received. We cannot change the whole past. But we can tell the truth about it. We can honor those whose stories were silenced. We can recognize the courage, pain, faith, and resilience that have shaped this place. And we can ask what kind of neighbors we are being called to become now.

Hebrews 11:8-16 gives us Abraham, who set out by faith “not knowing where he was going.” He lived as a stranger, trusting a promise he could see only from a distance. Scripture says he was seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” That does not make earthly homes unimportant. It makes them holy responsibilities. Because our final home is in God, we are free to love our earthly home as a “Foretaste of the Feast to Come” without making an idol of it. We can work for a more just, generous, truthful, and peaceful community because God’s kingdom is larger than every nation and yet near enough to shape every neighborhood.

Then in Matthew 5:43-48, we hear Jesus speak a hard word: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This is not sentimental. It is not weakness. It is the disciplined freedom of people who refuse to let fear, resentment, or contempt decide what kind of citizens they will become.

So perhaps our Christian practice for this Independence Day is: to give thanks without becoming prideful, to remember without becoming bitter, to celebrate without forgetting those in greater need than we are, and to love our country by loving the people God has placed within it.

Coming home, in Christ, means learning to live as people who already belong to God. And, belonging to God, we can practice patriotism shaped by Grace, Justice, Mercy, Truth, Memory, Healing, and Peace.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Bob

 

FINANCIAL STATUS  May: Income/$12,829.82– Expenses/11,382.83

 

FAITH IN ACTION

Help support the Clinton Christian Community Center (4C’s) and Mississippi College Student Food Bank with non-perishable food items each Sunday. Baskets are marked in the Narthex.

 

WELCOME THE STRANGER

This summer, the FIFA World Cup has brought visitors from around the globe to cities large and small across the United States. While they came for the matches, many have discovered something unexpected along the way. They’ve marveled at our city skylines, breathtaking national parks, laughed at the sheer size of Buc-ee’s and Bass Pro Shops, sampled barbecue and ranch dressing for the first time, and experienced the unique charm of America’s small towns, swamps, beaches, and open highways. These are the places that often become the most memorable parts of the journey.

But perhaps the greatest discovery has not been a place at all.

Again and again, visitors have shared stories of Americans offering directions, recommending favorite restaurants, handing out bottles of cold water, police celebrating alongside fans, towns learning a few words in another language to say, “Welcome,” and opening their communities—and their hearts—to people from around the world. In countless small ways, they have discovered an America where hospitality is not a slogan, but something lived one person at a time.

As Christians, that should not surprise us. Welcoming others has always been one of the simplest and most beautiful ways we reflect God’s love. Hospitality rarely requires grand gestures. More often, it begins with a smile, a helping hand, a shared conversation, or four simple words: “We’re glad you’re here.”

As our nation welcomes the world this summer, perhaps the greatest souvenir visitors will take home will not be a ticket stub or a photograph, but the memory of people who made them feel welcome and the reminder that hospitality still has the power to bridge cultures, languages, and nations. For in welcoming the stranger, we reflect the heart of Christ. – Beth Braley

 

 

PATRIOTIC BERRYFLAG CAKE

A simple Fourth of July dessert that’s festive, fresh, and fun!

You’ll Need:

  • 1 baked 9×13-inch white or yellow sheet cake (homemade or your favorite boxed mix)
  • 1 container vanilla frosting
  • Fresh blueberries
  • Fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Directions

Step 1: Bake your favorite 9×13-inch cake and let it cool completely.

Step 2: Spread the vanilla frosting evenly over the entire cake.

Step 3: In the upper left corner, arrange blueberries to create the “stars” section of the American flag.

Step 4: Slice the strawberries lengthwise and arrange them in neat rows across the cake to create the red stripes. Leave rows of white frosting between the strawberries for the white stripes.

Step 5: Chill until ready to serve, then enjoy with family and friends!

Happy 250 Independence Day!