To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32, NIV
Read : John 8:31-47 for the full discussion
The left has now determined that freedom is dangerous. In Orwellian fashion, leftists claim that “freedom” is a code word used by evil people who want to overthrow the government. For example, the Canadian truckers, like the January 6 protestors in the US, are radical extremists that must be punished and controlled because of their cries for “Freedom.” I’m sure they will also apply it as a smear to the Peoples’ Convoy of truckers now crossing America.
While freedom is indeed dangerous to leftist governance, it is the guiding principle of conservative governance. The whole point of the U.S. Constitution and its famous Bill of Rights is to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
What is this freedom the right holds so dear and the left fears? Where does it come from?
It comes from God. This was self-evident to America’s founders and to billions of men, women, and children across the millennia. Each of us knows we have the freedom to make choices, including the choice to accept or reject God’s guidance in our lives. That choice, more than any other, has eternal consequences. It we choose to accept God on God’s terms, and all that that entails, our freedom expands. When we reject God, and God’s desires for us, our freedom diminishes.
God’s gift of freedom, like yeast that leavens a whole loaf of bread, has grown exponentially in the West where the life, death, resurrection, and teaching of Jesus Christ is accepted and followed. Why? Because Jesus taught God’s truth by what he said and did, and it is God’s truth that sets us free to become the people we were created to be.
As Christianity spread, the gift of freedom God granted to humanity has slowly expanded into all areas of human life. Through the followers of Jesus, freedom has worked its way from our hearts, through our families, into our culture and finally, within the last 700 years or so, into our governments.
This is the freedom we are on the very edge of losing. Why? Because we as a culture, as a nation, and ultimately as individuals are no longer adhering to what Jesus taught us about God, about human nature and about how best to live.
While I believe with all my being Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior, I strive to do more than believe. I FOLLOW Jesus, and as he said to that group of believing Jews, that means ‘holding’ to his teaching. Hold to it, abide in it, remain in it, do it! Let it be the guide for how you live.
It is not a mystery what Jesus taught. Love each other as God loves us. How do we do that? We can read about how in the Bible every day. We can see it lived out in those who follow Him. We can see it in the amazing world God created. We can learn it through opening our hearts to Him in prayer.
Here’s the challenge: If you want to be free, if you want to secure the blessings of liberty for your children and their children, seek God’s truth. Not your truth, not my truth, not the left’s truth, not the right’s truth – but THE truth.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Thank you for loving us. Teach us your truth. Help us live it! Help us cherish and preserve your gift of freedom to us, our country and Your world. Amen.
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32, NIV
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