The Berthoud Bugle: 250 Years of One Nation under God
- berthoudfoursquare
- 4 days ago
- 13 min read
Volume 2026: Edition 50
Hello everyone. We thank you for your love and support for our Church and our family. Please continue to pray for our church, our pastor and his leadership, and our church leaders that we may continue to share the word of God. We are so blessed and grateful for the growth in our church, the ability to share our messages and newsletters with our viewers, and the strengthening of our church family and viewers as a congregation and as individuals. We strive to bring encouragement and connection through this newsletter, which we will continue to post every 1st of the month. So, we hope you will continue to learn and grow in God's word with us.
Welcome back and Happy Independence Day!
This weekend, we all get to celebrate the 250th birthday of America and spend time with family and friends. Be safe, everyone, and have a great holiday Weekend.
Before we get to our food for thought, we want to wish all the individuals who will be celebrating their birthdays this month, a big Happy Birthday to you all 👏🏽
Also, please continue to pray for one another, pray for our church, pray for our church leadership, pray for all the service members across this great country, and pray for our leaders and this great nation.
Food for Thought:
This month's “food for thought” is about remembering our great country and what a group of men wrote down and declared 250 years ago on July 4th, 1776.
We will let that simple letter of declaration take you back to remember how it all started and how blessed our great nation has been, and how God has shaped the men and women of the United States of America through that letter.
And with that:
Happy Birthday America
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Adoption of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
The Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, is one of the most beautiful and important political documents in history. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration not only proclaimed American independence from Great Britain, it also enshrined Americans’ natural rights as the cornerstone of our republic. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Jefferson masterfully wrote, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
As the British laid siege to the continent and landed large armed forces in Boston and New York, many colonists grew to believe the only sure path to freedom was through independence. The Declaration also increased foreign support for the colonies, particularly from the French, who were persuaded that the conflict was a clear break from Britain, not an internal civil war.
The Declaration’s preamble makes clear that the colonies were establishing their independence based upon the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The document also enumerates 27 grievances against King George III, rebuking his imposition of taxes without representation, the quartering of British soldiers in private homes, and the deprivation of trial by jury, among others. The signers conclude by pledging to each other, “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Copyrights whitehouse.Gov
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Massachusetts
John Hancock
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton
Psalm 33:10-22 NKJV -
0 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.
No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all. -1892
Allegiance
Francis Bellamy c. 1894Unknown Photographer
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy
In our country's 250 years, God has blessed this great nation with so many incredible men and women that helped shape this great country; To name a few would not be fair to the many…
From great leaders to innovators, this nation has been blessed with the freedom to continue to thrive and share with others around the world.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower amended the pledge to include "under God" because our nation was built on the freedoms and values of God. To show moral superiority over atheism and communism during WWII.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all. -1954
As our Lord says:
Luke 12:48 NKJV -
But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
So when we all gather together this weekend with family, friends, and our community to celebrate our great nation, remember who gave us everything. Remember the sacrifice made on a cross for all mankind. Remember our Lord reigns and lives forever. Remember, without Him, we are lost and will never be free. Give your life to the one who made you… To our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We end this newsletter with a reminder to thank and pray to our Lord. He gave us a cheat sheet just in case you don’t know how you should approach Him in prayer:
Matthew 6:4-13 NKJV
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen
Special Prayers:
Pray for Rachel's sister Elena that God will heal her body, and touch her heart and mind
Pray for Will's father Colby, for healing and a fast recovery
Pray for Kevin Allen for Gods healing and guidance
Pray for the men and women in the military and their families in this time of war.
Pray that God will protect them and be with them where they are as they serve overseas and give comfort to their families.
Pray also for the people in Iran and Isreal that God will be with them
Pray for our Newsletter that we can continue to write through the Holy Spirit
Pray for our Pastor and our church that we may be blessed to continue to grow and share the word of God
Weekly Devotional: "We never move on"
Begg, Alistair. Truth for Life- Daily Devotions
Verse(s) of the Month:
Announcements:
Sun's out, burritos out! We will be having Burrito Sales every other week, weather permitting. If you would like to participate in sales, please make 2 dozen burritos per family or baked goods to sell. Any help or support is also greatly appreciated.
Get Involved! There are many ways you can support our church inside and outside of service and help us reach out to our community here in Berthoud. You can help us with the newsletter, plan a fellowship meeting, lead a church activity, help keep the church clean, join in on decorating the church seasonally, design and build church floats in the winter and summer parade, play with and teach the little kids that come in, participate in bible studies, sing or play in worship, lead a bake/ craft sale, make burritos for our Burrito Sales, help maintain the church property, etc.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23)
Upcoming Events:
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