Good morning,
History is fascinating stuff. Right now we are watching as Great Britain has decided to break away from the European Union for what they feel are very valid reasons. When we look back to July 4th, 1776, we see an upstart group of colonists who decided that they had the right to break away from Great Britain and form the United States of America. The most famous part of this Declaration of Independence is the statement that, 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. This statement, has over the years, taken on an authority that leaves the Creator out of the center of what these men were trying to say. The way people in our day see life is that they have a right to life their way, liberty from any other authority then their own, and the right to do whatever they think they need to feel happy and fulfilled. Now when modern people talk about being free, they are actually talking about license, which means, freedom to behave the way you want to behave. The sad part of all this is that the average church goer now has the same attitude as the world when it comes to talking about the freedom that God gives those who think of themselves as children of God.
This twist on the meaning of the words freedom and free is not a new problem. Our Enemy has always done his best to take God’s holy words and ideas and give them a meaning that leaves us, and not our Creator, in charge of our lives. Jesus faced this problem when he was talking to people who said that they believed in him. Jesus said, "You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”(John 8:31,32) The only source of genuine freedom that any human being will ever know here on this earth will happen when we agree to trust Jesus as the Savior and Lord of our lives, regardless of what we feel or are told by any other authority source here on earth. The words that God has given us in the Bible and the Holy Spirit he has given us to explain what those words mean, is the only trustworthy source of freedom that we will ever know. Paul pointed this out when he wrote, But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.(Rom.6:22,23) Trusting and obeying the Lord Jesus leads to a wonderful life change that was expensive to God but wonderfully free and freeing to us. We are free to serve our Savior with whole hearted commitment and we are free from the fear of death and free to begin living our eternal lives while we are still in time here on the earth. Dear Lord, thank you for the freedom you have given us in a world filled with people driven by fear and twisted truth.
John 8:31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, "You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Roy Wisner
