July 4: The Birth of a Nation, and Jeannie’s Second Birth

July 4, is always a cause for celebration at our house, and for another reason than you might imagine. While that day marks the announcement, or declaration of our nation’s independence from foreign rule, it also marks the day of Jeannie’s release from the bondage of sin and the beginning of a life of freedom in Christ.

The Declaration of Independence, released on July 4, 1776, was the official notice of action taken two days earlier by the Continental Congress. John Adams, in one of his frequent missives to his beloved wife, Abigail, wrote of the action taken by the Continental Congress on July 2, falsely assuming that it would become the day of celebration. His reference to God must not be overlooked.  ”The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

I find it interesting that  both the Declaration of Independence, and my wife’s conversion are dated in reference to Christ. History is truly His Story, as someone aptly said, and both the Birth of our Nation, and Jeannie’s conversion are worthy of genuine celebration. While Jeannie’s repentance of sin and open confession of faith occurred exactly 195 years after the release of the Declaration of Independence, it too celebrates the grace of God made public by the life, death and resurrection of Christ almost two thousand years earlier. You are familiar with the story of our Nation’s birth. Today, I want to share with you what Jeannie often tells others about her “second birth.”

I will forever be grateful to Jeannie’s father, Ray Thomas, for moving his family in 1950 from Burbank, California, where he was a production manager for Warner Brothers Motion Pictures, to Little Rock, Arkansas, because “movies were becoming to sexual.” Fifteen years later, while we were both students at Ouachita Baptist University, I literally fell head over heels in love with Jeannie, and we were married on August 20, 1966.

At the age of seven, Jeannie had “walked the aisle” of her home church, then the largest Baptist church in Arkansas, encouraged by a friend of hers had done the same. Her family lived just a few blocks from the church, and soon Jeannie epitomized what it meant to be a “good Christian girl,” involved in every possible activity. By the time she had reached college, she had “surrendered” to missions, and our first official date was at a church where she was participating as a sponsor in a young girls mission program. But there was a problem, one that we often discussed on our dates.

Jeannie often struggled with the thought that perhaps she was not genuinely “saved.” In our discussions, she would review past commitments and confess a long-term sense of unrest about her relationship with Christ. On my part, as a  young ministerial student, I would assure her that if she had “prayed the prayer” she was just bound to be saved. After all, doesn’t God keep His Word, and wasn’t she sincere when she prayed?

Our discussions about the authenticity of Jeannie’s salvation continued through the early years of our marriage, through seminary pastorates and the birth of our first two daughters. But on July 4, 1971, while living in Mansfield, Texas, where I was pastor of the First Baptist Church, everything changed. God was faithful in bringing Jeannie to a point of genuine conviction of sin, repentance,  and faith in Christ.  Jeannie saw the sufficiency of Christ’s death and resurrected life to bring forgiveness, cleansing and eternal life.

Until July 4, 1971, Jeannie had seen herself as someone who had committed some sins, but not a someone whose very nature was sinful, through and through. That Sunday afternoon, in repentance and faith, Jeannie cast herself upon Christ and took Him at His Word. And that very evening, to the surprise of our church, Jeannie was baptized as both my wife and now my sister in Christ, openly confessing to a new inward reality.

I can honestly declare that Jeannie’s life radically changed, July 4, 1971. God gave Jeannie a voracious appetite for His Word, and a compassion for the lost accompanied by a remarkable effectiveness in witnessing. The change was both breathtaking and challenging…and it continues to amaze me how powerfully God is at work within her, conforming her to the image of His dear Son, (Rom 8:29). But the single, greatest evidence of Jeannie’s conversion is what she would testify to be the constant witness of God’s Spirit with hers, the assurance that she is, indeed, His child.

Happy Birthday, Jeannie! This has been a tough year as you have battled through a recurrence of cancer. No husband is more blessed than I with a beautiful, Godly, vibrant, growing Christian wife. I love you!

Happy Birthday, USA! These are tough years for us all and its imperative for us to recapture our spiritual heritage. I love the USA!

As John Adams said, this is a day to be “commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”

Rejoice evermore!

Tom Elliff

2 Tim 1:12

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