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July/August

As I write this, we are approaching the celebration of our nation's "birthday", the Fourth of July. It's all about freedom, right? We talk about freedom a lot in this country and it will be at the foundation of the political debates that will precede the elections of next year.

We all want freedom, but do we know what we are asking for when we demand it? What is it we are free from? What is it we are free for?

1 Peter: 2-16 says, "As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil." Paul says that we find our freedom in service to God. Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it: "Freedom through service?"

If we serve God, we are free from a lot of things that will oppress us. Worry, resentment, jealousy, prejudice, self pity or a sense of entitlement, the qualities of a self centered existence. There's one thing they have in common. All these things put a choke hold on our lives. When we try to "serve ourselves" these things will be the tyrants of our existence. God is the only one who can liberate us from them.

I believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. I believe that it will be an actual historical event. Unlike Harold Camping, I don't know when it is going to happen, but I do know this, if I put my trust in God who loves me that will be enough.

What is it that we are free for? William Hazlitt the English writer and philosopher put it this way, "The love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves."

The love of others doesn't mean we have to approve of what others do. The love of others doesn't mean we have to agree with what they say. The love of others doesn't require us to even like them! It means that the encouragement we give, the prayers that we offer in their behalf and the acts of service we perform have the potential to change their hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. All of those characteristics of self centeredness are the causes of every kind of tyranny and oppression that exist in this world. True liberty comes when we banish them all. Tyranny begins in the heart. Freedom does too and only through service through Christ will we experience the freedom God meant for us to have. Celebrate your freedom as servants of Jesus Christ. Happy Fourth…and every day thereafter.

Yours in Christ,