Freedom!

Happy 4th of July y'all! Today's joy is the freedom we have in this country. I've been watching a documentary on the Revolutionary War, and even though I know a lot of the story, I still love to hear how our country was born. Isn't it wonderful to live in a country where one can criticize the government without fear of persecution, one can worship God (or not) however one pleases, one has the right to not incriminate oneself. Unfortunately one historian interviewed in this documentary stated that the Declaration of Independence was created by man without God's intervention. Au contraire! I say. If you look at the odds we faced, a rag tag bunch of colonists against a mighty British empire, there's no way we should have beaten them. At some points during the war the Americans didn't have enough ammunition, not enough men, not even enough food or clothing. And yet, we beat the British and gained our independence. How is God not involved here?

While I'm on the subject of freedom, I'm glad of another freedom: freedom from sin offered by Christ. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it" (NLT) Now there's freedom in that! We have forgiveness from our sin and ourselves.We have beaten our "British empire" as it were, and have won our freedom from sin. Paul writes in Romans 6:6-7: "Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin." (NLT)

Happy Independence day again!