Pastor’s Corner | Freedom is costly

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot in the past few years about our freedoms here in the “good ole U.S.A.” and how it seems they are taken for granted or held in very little regard - it’s almost like we figure because we are born in the U.S.A. we have a God-given right to the freedoms we enjoy.

Take for instance, the Fourth of July, the day we call and choose to celebrate as “Independence Day.” Anymore, it seems it’s all about the fireworks displays and the like - how “big” of a show can we put on and if something happens to interrupt said display, well, you’d think someone had taken away from them their favorite toy - not a thought about what the day is actually all about or even the cost of how Independence Day came to be.

One of the things that troubles me the most about the attitude of having a God-given right to the freedoms we enjoy occurs when I begin to think about all the countries filled with our brothers and sisters in Christ that don’t enjoy the freedoms we do. Doesn’t God love them?

Or, is it like some people believe, that God loves us more than He does them?

After all, they’re only suffering for their rejection of God and His Word, right?

Hmmmm ... What was that about how the Word of God is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways and tells us “thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things?”

Perhaps we have it wrong - perhaps along with holding a “thank a vet” day on Veterans Day and “remembering those who have fallen” on Memorial Day, we should add the Fourth of July, Independence Day toremembering what it costs to remain a country that enjoys the freedoms we do - men and women willing to put it all on the line to protect the right of the attitudes of a great amount of people to think we have a “God-given right” to the freedoms we enjoy.

We have forgotten that true freedom and independence can only be found in Jesus and everything else is just a pale image of the truth.

If we listen to many who have a “voice,” we can quickly become afraid because they will tell us if we don’t “do this” or “do that” right now we are going to lose our God-given freedoms.

It hasn’t made me popular but I tell all who will listen: What God has given, man can’t take away. If laws are passed where we can’t pray in public, so what? Man didn’t take away my right to pray because man didn’t give me that right - God did. Being “against the law” didn’t stop Christianity in the first century church and it hasn’t stopped it in many countries of our time.

Man can pass all the laws to curtail religious freedom all man wants - what God has given, NO MAN can take away, but you can give them up. So, what is your choice? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord - regardless.

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Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, write in care of The Times at [email protected] or P.O. Box 25, Pea Ridge, AR 72751.

Church, Pages 2 on 08/18/2010