For Freedom's Sake

---

   I hope everyone had a restful Independence Day weekend. On the 4^th, I took advantage of the opportunity, along with some of the rest of my family, to do a very All-American thing. We attended a baseball game in Keizer and stayed to watch the fireworks afterward. Perhaps more than any other day in the year, July 4 gives us the chance to celebrate our freedoms we share with food, family, friends, and fun. I can't think of many other days where we can, as a country, set aside our differences and remember, just for a moment, who we are together.

   As I think of the word "freedom," I have to think of what the opposite of that is, "slavery." The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Jesus Christ left His Father's throne in heaven to take on a truly human nature, going so far as to take on the very nature of a slave (Philippians 2:7). He did this in order to free us from the power of sin by taking the punishment for our sin upon Himself. Jesus said in John 8:36, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Why, then, do we want to go back to doing those things that enslaved us? Paul writes later on in Galatians 5:13, "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

   As we think of the freedoms that we have in our country, freedoms that so many people around the world could only dream about, let us remember the even greater freedom that we have in Christ, freedom purchased at a much greater price. Let us strive to live in those freedoms day by day, not returning to the flesh-serving slavery that Christ redeemed us from. Instead, let us use our freedom to serve the body of Christ in love.