Tag: Freedom

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Bondage? Part 1

Have you ever had to write a compare and contrast essay? I’m sure we all, at some point in our educated lives, wrote or had to prepare to write a comparative essay. But stop and imagine what your write if you wrote a compare/contrast essay on your life? 

 

In 1887, George C. Stebbins penned words that distinctly reflect the appearance of a comparative and contrasted life. A life before, or without, Jesus and a life including Jesus. The differences could not be more stark. Verse 1 of this hymn goes as follows.

“Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus I come, Jesus I come; Into Thy freedom gladness and light, Jesus I come to Thee; Out of my sickness, into Thy health, out of my want and into Thy wealth, Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus I come to Thee.”

Stebbins does a beautiful job of capturing the sides of with and without Christ. Though, some may wonder ‘what bondage, sorrow and sickness is he talking about being caught up in?’, it’s just that. It’s the bondage of ignorance and the sorrow and sickness of a sin-infected world.

Now what about the other half of that verse? Freedom, Gladness, Wealth, Health…personally, I’d like to take all of the above! Do not be surprised that those things may not come in the form we would like them to or would even expect them to. Truly seeing and appreciating ‘freedom, gladness, wealth and health’ takes humility and a willingness to relinquish self-control. None of which will come easy because we are in bondage to the physical desires of this world.

 

Compare and Contrast Essays have always been fun for me. Picking a topic and writing about how, why and what makes it so individualistically different to something else is enlightening. If you were to do that with your life, what do you think you would see? The apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans talks about his, and, ultimately, our, struggle and fight with the sin that is constantly in our lives. He makes it clear in Romans 7:24 & 25 to whom we should be in bondage. He strongly reiterates this idea in Romans 8, saying, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” 

 

Bondage to sin is weighty, cumbersome and exhausting. Freedom in Christ is light, easy and full of relief. And each of us will choose between bondage and freedom. Compare and Contrast these two and make your choice…

 

Bondage or Freedom?

Written by Emili (Bruce) Todd
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Are We Still a Great Country?

This week the United States of America will celebrate Independence Day on Wednesday, July 4th.  A time in our country’s history that commemorates the independence of our nation.  This year the USA celebrates 226 years of freedom.  Personally, it wasn’t that long ago that I can remember celebrating the 200th Anniversary during the summer of 1976.  But if you look back even further in our country’s history, when our nation celebrated during its 100th Anniversary, Daniel Roberts wrote a poem to honor our country and it soon was given a tune with the title “National Hymn”.  It’s better known today as “God of Our Fathers”.

The United States of America celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 1876.  Any monumental occasion deserves a memorable celebration and Roberts was determined to provide that memory.  But to truly see the fullness of this ‘hymn’, you need to read the lines, word by word.   Notice the scripture reference and Biblical emphasis that our country was founded on and still strove to uphold 100 years later.  (What about today?  Do we still maintain this diligence?  If you live in America today, you might take pause and remember when…)

“God of our fathers, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds in splendor thru the skies, our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.
Thy love divine hath led us in the past; in this free land by Thee our lot is cast; be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay, Thy Word our law, Thy path our chosen way.
From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence, (the Civil War was a recent memory) be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense; Thy true religion in our hearts increase, Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way; lead us from night to never-ending day; fill all our lives with love and grace divine, and glory, laud and praise be thine.  AMEN”

Can we still have this devotion to God, calling on Him to be our “ruler, guardian, guide and stay”?  Why would we feel so self-reliant that we would believe our way is better than HIS path?  To be honest, we’re not much different than the Israelite nation as we read Judges 21:25.  “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Is there no standard of right and wrong?  Have we determined that morality is subject and best left to individual choice.  How do we know if there is a right or wrong…unless we follow a standard provided by one with absolute truth.  Our society and culture try to answer that too by saying, ‘there is no absolute truth’.  (Which by the very nature of the statement is an absolute!)

Our forefathers, with our new found independence, could have established any standard of governmental rule.  They could have ‘remade’ a system of government that mirrored the tyranny the fled (and bled) to escape.  They could have re-traced the steps of Roman rule (very powerful in the world during its day), but instead they sought a society that was governed by the people.  And if the people were to ‘rule’ the land, our founding fathers knew they would need a ‘guide’; an example to an new nation showing peace and providing ‘bounteous goodness’.  So you can see why it was important to hold up songs like this.

But what has happened to our country?  Did God abandon us like an unwanted puppy on the side of the road?  If you know anything about God and His nature, you know He would never abandon His children.  But as in life (and as some of you may have already experienced) the child can leave the teachings of the parent.  We, as a nation, have turned away from God’s Word, God’s Guidance and God’s Love.  How can we expect God to “Bless America” when America has denounced its God?  My objective, my aim, is to once again let His path be my chosen way.  To let His ‘true religion in my (our) heart increase’.  To seek His strong arm as my ‘ever sure defense’, and to constantly raise before His throne a ‘grateful song’.

If I can encourage my country men to do the same; if we will turn our hearts and minds back to God, then perhaps we can see fulfillment when God speaks to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14.  “…if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who call by My name HUMBLE THEMSELVES and PRAY and SEEK MY FACE and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  Can you be humble, pray, seek God, and turn from a life of sin?  When we do that we’ll be returning to the roots that made this country great!