Freedoms At A Cost

 I didn't discuss the 4th of July last week...as I was very overwhelmed with our VBS experience and the wonderful workers, I HAD to blog about those heroes!

But I didn't want to pass by the opportunity to talk about our independence day and celebrations. 

As with most things, I think things go to the more celebratory and the meaning of why we celebrate gets a bit lost. 

We became a nation to claim feeedoms...the founders of our country believed that we should have the right to be independent in our governance, finances, and religious choices.

It came at a great cost.

As believers in Christ we have a freedom that came at a great cost....One died in our place, took on the punishment for our crimes (sins),

📖 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! Romans 5:8-9

If we believe in what Jesus did for us, we have freedom from eternal condemnation and separation from Him

📖 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

There are many Christians around the world who risk, and even give, their lives to teach others about Jesus and His saving grace.

📖 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

We have the freedom to worship how we choose, when we choose....

People have the freedom to choose who and what to worship. 

We have to remember that some where in history that freedom to choose came at a price.

I personally choose to worship the One worthy,

📖 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; Psalm.96:4a

 the King of Kings, 

📖 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  1 Timothy 6:15b

the one Who calls me friend, 

📖 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  John 15:15

the one who laid down His life for the sins I would commit against His Father.

📖 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:10-11

And am grateful for that freedom and want to live worthy of that 

📖 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 4:1

🙏My prayer is the next few verses in Ephesians;

Lord may we be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as [we] were called to one hope when [we] were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Ephesians 4:2-7

❤️

📖 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1