With yesterday being Independence Day, I thought I would share a devotional on freedom.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. - John 8:36
During the national observance of the one hundredth anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, I was struck by the great emphasis on the number of immigrants who had often left everything behind, coming to America with nothing but the clothes on their backs, risking their very lives for something they valued more highly than everything they had left behind: freedom.
This is a picture of what we must do when we come to Christ. We must forsake allegiance to the things of this world and all that this world has to offer and become immigrants in the Kingdom of God. His statue of liberty is in the form of the cross.
The statue in New York Harbor lifts her lamp “beside the golden door.”
The statue of liberty on that Golgotha hill lights the way into the eternal life. That light is ours if we will only come to God through the One who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12).
This light gives freedom to men and women in the darkest of prisons in nations that are intolerant of the preaching of the Gospel. One can have political freedom and still be a prisoner of sin, while one who is in a political prison and knows Christ can be freer than his jailers.
Freedom in Christ is the ultimate freedom to be celebrated not only on special days, but all year around.
Praise the LORD for the light that is shining in my life!