Freedom

Over this Memorial Day weekend we are reminded again of the sacrifices military men and women have made through out the years as they fought battles all around the world to help keep us free. Their time and energy, their family life, and in some cases their bodies and their very lives have been given up to protect our shores and our way of life.

I am so thankful for those who take up the challenge to put themselves in harm's way. There have been times when the call to arms was mandatory but other times as in this day, those who go, go willingly and voluntarily. So a very special debt of gratitude goes out to them.

But life even in America can be a life of slavery and a life devoid of freedom for those who do not surrender to Jesus Christ. Americans rant and rave about their rights...the right to choose abortion, the right to marry someone of the same sex, the right to push and shove their way to the top, the right to live any way they want to.

Our country was founded with a Bill of Rights for the people. But none of those makes a person free. The Bible says that those who "do their own thing" are actually living in slavery to lust and greed and a whole host of sins. Just because someone doesn't recognize their behavior as sin doesn't make it any less so. And sin entangles us in a web that we can't break out of on our own.

It is only in the cross of Christ and faith in Jesus that I find true freedom. Freedom to live life in the glow of God's love, knowing that the Creator of the universe is my daddy, my "Abba, Father." Freedom to have all the hurts and fears and emptiness and loneliness and greed and lust and anger and despair and...whatever bad thing has a grip on me, replaced with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.