THE COST OF FREEDOM
Jacob and his children went to Egypt because a famine broke out in the land and while in Egypt they were given the best of everything that Egypt had to offer. But, after many generations the Israelites had become slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. What happened that would make a free people, as they were at first, turn into slaves?
Slavery starts when we change our thinking. When you no longer look or depend on God, but look and depend on others to meet your needs. God always works through His people, as He did with Joseph when his father Jacob called on the Lord in his time of need. God led Jacob and his sons to Egypt where He had set up Joseph to meet their needs.
We must never substitute God for His ‘vessel’ of provision. When we depend on His vessels, we are not trusting in God but man. Vessels give out and break, but God remains the same.
Eventually the kindness and honor Israel was shown by the Pharaoh because of Joseph, gave out when Joseph died and a new Pharaoh came in. The journey to becoming slaves is slow and very subtle, and will spread like a disease. The Israelites went into slavery because they continued to depend on man instead of God.
The question I have for the Church is: What is our government giving to the churches that has made them dependent upon our government? What about their non-profit corporation status? If the church does not adhere to the conditions of the government they have the power to remove it from them and make them pay taxes on all the money that comes in. Does the loss of tax exemption bring fear to our church leaders? Do they think people will stop giving and fear how this could affect paychecks, programs and buildings if people are not given these tax deductions?
When someone or something can control how you think and live then you have become their slave. Their control over you is nothing more than intimidation to make you fearful. They want you to believe that they have the power to take back anything they have given you, or to re-distribute it the way they want in ways you do not have to agree with.
The power they have over you is like a person who sells drugs; the drug addict will do anything to have their drugs keep coming. The drug addict no longer knows how to live without drugs. He is enslaved.
Becoming a slave takes generations until the children born into slavery don’t know anything different. For the children of Israel it took the death of the ones that knew freedom. For people to accept slavery depends on how long it takes for those who keep freedom alive – to die out. Here in America we have freedom-fighters working against the government programs that are slowly enslaving us by making us dependent on them for all our needs. After the freedom-fighters are gone – who will carry on in their place and fight for American liberty? Whose responsibility is this, if not the Church?
The road to freedom requires you to look to God and not to man for all your needs. This road out of slavery is long and it will cost you. At times it will feel like a dry desert, but this is to teach us to call on the Lord for everything because our whole life is dependent upon Him.
Our forefathers knew slavery in England and came to this land to start a new life of liberty and dependency on God. They knew that eventually the threat of slavery would come again, so they made a monument to show us how to ward it off, and even come back and be a free people again. It is the “National Monument to the Forefathers.” Here are the words that are at the bottom of each statue on the monument, there are 5 statues.
The steps to freedom and how to stay a free people:
1. FAITH: in God alone. His written word is absolute truth.
2. MORALITY: you cannot have morality (godliness) without God and His truth. With morality come the prophet and evangelist to reveal immorality (wickedness).
3. LAW: following the laws of God, not the laws of man. With God’s laws come justice and mercy. Without God’s law you will have confusion, not knowing right from wrong.
4. EDUCATION: to teach the next generation the words and wisdom of God. Learning starts in the family unit with the parents and grandparents teaching their children.
5. LIBERTY: willing to fight tyranny to preserve liberty; knowing that peace comes out of liberty.
The road of liberty (freedom) starts with faith in the Word of God. The end result is peace. What is this world looking for and working towards? Peace! But, our leaders are going about it in the wrong way; they have shut God out and have begun to persecute those who teach and preach the Word of God. Their way enslaves people. Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free!” So what is the truth? It is every word that comes from the mouth of God, our CREATOR. Freedom requires us to stop depending on what our government says and go to God’s Word for how to think and live our lives.
History has shown us that in order to make a nation of slaves it will only take 3 generations of twisting the truth and pumping lies into the people. Every generation of Christians is responsible to keep God’s truth alive and public by first living it out personally and then going public with it.
The people who walk this road of freedom with the Lord will be men and women who will take on the intimidating giants; they will be over-comers. They will turn this world upside down for Jesus Christ who first started the freedom revolution with 12 faithful men. Our forefathers were freedom fighters, but over the generations we have seen a subtle cowering because of wanting temporal things more than eternal things.
What will the New Year of 2014 be like for you, and for our nation? Will you walk the road of freedom and see that your life is not based upon the things of this world? Ask yourself: Am I a slave or a freeman? The truth is that we are all slaves until we make Jesus Christ our Lord and Master. Since it is in our nature to be slaves, let us be a slave to the One who gave up His life so that we could live the life of true love and liberty; and have eternal life. Let us serve a Master like Him; one who works to defend and protect those who are defenseless, weak and tyrannized.
The road of freedom is a very narrow road; too narrow for most. It will require us to come out of dependency on worldly systems, and to depend upon God for everything. The power of God’s freedom is that with Him all things are possible for those who believe. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
The monument our forefathers built in Plymouth Massachusetts is a 150 feet tall. It faces northeast to Plymouth Harbor and sits in the center of a circular drive, which is accessed from Allerton Street from the east. The principal pedestal is octagonal with four small and four large faces.
From the small faces project four buttresses. On the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of “Faith” with her right hand pointing towards heaven and her left hand clutching the Bible. Upon the four buttresses also are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth, each having a symbol referring to the Bible that “Faith” possesses (in hand). Counter-clockwise from the feet of “Faith” are Morality, Law, Education, and Liberty. Each was carved from a solid block of granite, posed in the sitting position upon chairs with a high relief on either side of minor characteristics. Under “Morality” stand “Prophet” and “Evangelist.” Under “Law” stand “Justice” and “Mercy.” Under “Education” stand “Youth” (a child holding his mother’s hand and looking up to her) and “Wisdom.” Under “Liberty” stand “Tyranny Overthrown” (this man of victory holds a broken chain in one hand and over his shoulder is a lion’s skin and head of which he killed) and under it also stands “Peace.”
Upon the four faces of the main pedestal are large panels of records. The front panel is inscribed as follows: “National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty.” The right and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the Mayflower. The rear panel, which was not engraved until recently, contains a quote from Governor William Bradford’s famous history, of Plymouth Plantation:
“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all praise.”
What will it be freedom or slavery? The choice is ours. Remember, our future is as a bright as the promises of God!
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” (Quote from Gerald R. Ford)
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” (Quote from Ronald Reagan)
“The Bible is the rock on which this Republic rests.” (Quote from Andrew Jackson)
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” (Quote from Abraham Lincoln)
“Never, never, never give up.” (Quote from Winston Churchill)
Here’s the link I used on the “monument:”
http://historicaldigression.com/2012/01/31/forefathers-monument-in-plymouth-an-overlooked-colossus/