LIBERTY

I Was Just Thinking About – LIBERTY.

Galatians 5:1 (KJV) states: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” In the NLT: “So, Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” And, in the AMP Bible: “It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].” Jesus declared in John 8:36, “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Do we appreciate and conform to that Freedom and Liberty in The Lord Jesus Christ?

In historical retrospect, A brief review of how liberty, freedom and independence was formed for this nation and by those who sacrificed to form it. David McCullough wrote in The American Spirit: "When we were founded by those Americans of the 18th century none had any prior experience in revolutions or nation making. They were idealistic and young. George Washington, when he took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge in 1775, was 43, and he was the oldest of them. Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams was 40. Benjamin Rush was 30. They had no money, no navy, no real army.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on a portable writing desk without any books to draw upon because he wanted to say what everyone already knew. The object was "not to find out new principles, or new arguments but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent...Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment…it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper one and spirit called for by the occasion."

Fun trivia as we approach Independence Day: The entire population of the American colonies was 2,500,000. Philadelphia was the largest city with a population of 30,000. The same week the Continental Congress voted for independence, the British landed 32,000 troops on Staten Island - a force larger than the population of our largest city.

The Declaration of Independence contained these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The Freedom/Liberty you have in Jesus Christ – how much do you cherish it and live by its’ stipulations

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.