Fourth of July Freedom

Everyone is gearing up for the big Fourth of July fireworks tonight. It is on this day of celebration that we remember that by the middle of the 1700s, the 13 colonies that made up part of England's empire in the New World were finding it difficult to be ruled by a king 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. They were tired of the taxes and other rules imposed upon them. Our ancestors needed and wanted freedom. Freedom was hard to attain but worth the fight.

I started to think about the fight for freedom…we want freedom from so many things. From the time we are infants, we want freedom from the confines of our mother’s womb. We want freedom to walk, to talk, to eat by ourselves with our own spoon and fork…if any of you have a one year old you know what I’m talking about! As we continue through life our freedom becomes increasingly more important. Every teenager can hardly wait for the freedom to drive, to go away to college, to move out on their own…oh the freedom of youth! As adults the freedom to choose whom we marry, what we do for our livelihood, where we live, how we vote, and our freedom to worship where and if we want (or don’t want) has become our way of life. As I was going over all the freedom we encounter in our live one kept coming to mind…my freedom from the bondage of the Satan!

Our freedom from Satan is the most important freedom we can obtain. We receive this freedom by the death and power of our savior…”Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil. Hebrews 2:14. The sacrifice of our Lord enables us with and through His power to fight this our biggest and worst enemy. But that doesn’t keep Satan from attacking…”be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.  

Satan definitely doesn’t want us to be free from him and his sin but through the blood Jesus shed for us and under His authority we have freedom and power …”And the Lord said, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. Luke 10:19.

Tonight as you watch the night’s sky light up with one of the symbols of our nation’s freedom, the fireworks, rejoice also in our freedom from Satan, death, and sin.

Acts 26:18…”to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”