General Ulysses S. Grant
Like most Americans, I have never known the physical bondage of slavery. I don't know what it's like to wake up and know in my heart that someone else controls my destiny. I've never lived in a land where hopelessness abounds. In many regards, I'm pretty fortunate. However, for many people around the world freedoms call is nothing more than something they read in a book. If there is one thing we have learned from the immigration crisis we are facing as a nation is that freedom means different things to different people. For myself, freedom means a life lived without fear. For others, freedoms call means an end to oppression. For others, freedom is walking into a church without persecution. For over 400 years, the United States has been the shining beacon on a hill for those who yearned for a better life for themselves. My own grandparents fled from Finland just as it was invaded by Joseph Stalins red army. Others followed freedoms call from the only land they had ever known, making the often perilous journey to a new home. What is it within us that so often draws us to that place where we, not others, choose our own future. Like I said, I have never known the bondage of slavery, so I cannot relate that experience. However, what I have known is a life of decisions and choices made by myself. What I have known is a life which millions around the world have risked everything to enjoy. Despite what the American political left wing continually claims, we have it pretty good in America. If this nation was as bad as they tell us, why is it that millions continue to follow freedoms call to get here? The answer to that is easy, the United States, our United States, is the last outpost of freedom man has known. I'm proud to say that, because I know it's true. Not only that, those who live the struggle to follow freedoms call to our shores know it is true as well.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
~The New Collosus~
Emma Lazarus
It's not that difficult for me to equate the freedoms I experience into a christian context, because It's something I've experienced. For others, however, freedom of religion simply means worshipping as they wish. I speak not of freedom of religion, but freedom IN religion. Specifically, the freedom we have through Christ Jesus. How would you like to live a life free from sin? Well, it's definately possible when we realize the truth of what Jesus has accomplished in us. We're told that it is Christ who lives through us today {Galations 2:20}. When I claimed that I had never felt the physical bondage of slavery I was telling the truth. However, the bondage which I did struggle to be free from was my own bondage to sin. It is Jesus who has accomplished that in me. Sin is now dead in me {Romans 6:11}. I've heard many a institutional church thinker claim that God can never be in the presence of sin. Well, I no longer need to worry about that. The good news is, if you know Christ Jesus, then your own sins are a thing of the past as well. Think about it, Jesus died to take those away from you. Why continue to punish yourself over something Jesus has already taken care of for you? "But what about my sin?" Is it really sin? Perhaps, if you yourself fail to realize what Jesus has accomplished. Do I still sin? No, because sin is dead in me. I do, however, still follow the lead of my flesh at times. Our flesh is a wild card, able to be influeneced by all which is around us. When Jesus claimed "It is finished!" it truly was. So, what is it that you believe to be true? Do you believe in the freedom which Christ Jesus has accomplished in you? If so then you also realize that He has erased sin from your life...permanently. It is finished! When you hear Jesus whisper freedoms call unto your heart, you will never be the same.
1Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Galations 5: 1 NKJV
~Scott~
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