Today is Veteran’s Day, so I would like to personally thank any of you reading this that have served, are serving, or have family members that are veterans. I know that it is a great sacrifice to serve in our military, regardless of the capacity of service. We are truly grateful for what you have done for our country. We are able to live freely, and more importantly, worship freely because of your service to our country.
All of this has me thinking about the idea of freedom and how easily we take it for granted. Holidays like Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and even the Fourth of July, help remind us of the costs of freedom, because we are quick to forget unless we are confronted with it on a regular basis.
We have become so accustomed to our freedoms that it is difficult for us to even define “freedom” without having something to contrast against it. You have to point to a country and say we are a free country because we’re not like that country. I believe that our inability to recognize and define freedom has led us to take our freedom for granted. It’s caused us to become complacent or to even feel entitled to that freedom.
This applies all the more to our spiritual lives. The longer you have been a believer, the easier it is to take our freedom in Christ for granted; to feel entitled to certain things that are a gift and not a right. When we forget the cost of our freedom, we view our freedom from the wrong perspective.
One of the greatest downfalls of the American church is the very thing that allows it to exist. The Lord has truly blessed us with great freedom in our wealth, our buildings, our education, and especially in our freedom from persecution. We can gather at any time, without fear of being arrested or killed. So, we should thank God for those things. But more often than not, the more we have of something, the less we value it and the less we appreciate it. It just becomes a part of our lives, and we don’t even recognize it anymore.
When it comes to our faith and the church, the freedom that we have to worship has been twisted into a choice that we make rather than a privilege that we treasure. Our American freedoms have bled into the church and has done a disservice to us. There are people around the world experiencing greater intimacy and dependence on the Lord because they are facing the threat of death for their beliefs.
Our “freedom” has become the “freedom” to choose whether or not we come to church each week, or to pray, or read our Bible. It’s up to us. But the freedom that we experience in our country is not the same freedom given to us by Christ. For one who has died has been set free from sin…and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness…and have become slaves of God (Romans 6:7, 18, 22).
In Christ, we are free from the bondage of sin and the condemnation of the Law. However, that does not mean that we are free to live however we want to. We are now slaves of God. But [his] yoke is easy and [his] burden is light (Matt 11:30). When we truly understand his sacrifice and his grace, we will desire to serve Him in any way that He calls. And we will gladly submit our “freedoms” to serve under Him.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16). How are you using your freedom?
-Kendall Harris
All of this has me thinking about the idea of freedom and how easily we take it for granted. Holidays like Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and even the Fourth of July, help remind us of the costs of freedom, because we are quick to forget unless we are confronted with it on a regular basis.
We have become so accustomed to our freedoms that it is difficult for us to even define “freedom” without having something to contrast against it. You have to point to a country and say we are a free country because we’re not like that country. I believe that our inability to recognize and define freedom has led us to take our freedom for granted. It’s caused us to become complacent or to even feel entitled to that freedom.
This applies all the more to our spiritual lives. The longer you have been a believer, the easier it is to take our freedom in Christ for granted; to feel entitled to certain things that are a gift and not a right. When we forget the cost of our freedom, we view our freedom from the wrong perspective.
One of the greatest downfalls of the American church is the very thing that allows it to exist. The Lord has truly blessed us with great freedom in our wealth, our buildings, our education, and especially in our freedom from persecution. We can gather at any time, without fear of being arrested or killed. So, we should thank God for those things. But more often than not, the more we have of something, the less we value it and the less we appreciate it. It just becomes a part of our lives, and we don’t even recognize it anymore.
When it comes to our faith and the church, the freedom that we have to worship has been twisted into a choice that we make rather than a privilege that we treasure. Our American freedoms have bled into the church and has done a disservice to us. There are people around the world experiencing greater intimacy and dependence on the Lord because they are facing the threat of death for their beliefs.
Our “freedom” has become the “freedom” to choose whether or not we come to church each week, or to pray, or read our Bible. It’s up to us. But the freedom that we experience in our country is not the same freedom given to us by Christ. For one who has died has been set free from sin…and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness…and have become slaves of God (Romans 6:7, 18, 22).
In Christ, we are free from the bondage of sin and the condemnation of the Law. However, that does not mean that we are free to live however we want to. We are now slaves of God. But [his] yoke is easy and [his] burden is light (Matt 11:30). When we truly understand his sacrifice and his grace, we will desire to serve Him in any way that He calls. And we will gladly submit our “freedoms” to serve under Him.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16). How are you using your freedom?
-Kendall Harris
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