Growing up in America means that on the Fourth of July we enjoy celebrating the day with fireworks, parades, parties, very creative displays of red, white, and blue food, and time to relax with friends. I love all of those things, and have a collection of memories from years past of how we spent the day with many wonderful people.
But the word freedom makes me think of something much deeper, and really has nothing to do with the United States of America. My most cherished thoughts of freedom are wrapped up in what Jesus Christ has done for me. It happened over 27 years ago, but I can still remember what it felt like to feel freedom from my sins for the first time. You can read a longer version of it here, but the short version is that I came to experience this:
"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13, 14)
The idea of freedom must involve a rescue from something, a deliverance from some oppression, or danger. It is exactly why Jesus came to earth. He came to set captives free from a life of slavery to sin. He is the one way out of that slavery. He offers that deliverance to everyone who will come to Him, putting all their hope in who He is and what He has done.
I am extremely thankful for the blessings of national freedom that we enjoy in our country. But the spiritual freedom that I have found in Jesus makes me pray that God will do something even more amazing in America than continue the legacy we have of national peace and prosperity. I'm praying that He will set people free from their slavery to sin, deliver them from the spiritual death that sin brings, and that many will come to embrace Jesus Christ as the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.
0 comments:
Post a Comment