I grew up with bars on my windows and doors, under the protection of a bodyguard, and realizing the fatal danger of being on my own because I was an American. My dad was in the military, and we were stationed in Iran until I was almost seven. Because I had grown up in this environment, I thought the world was like this.
In 1970, we returned to the United States of America, and I discovered what it meant to be free in my environment. It was safe for me to be on my own in our yard. I could talk and sing and praise God without fearing for my life. Now, I knew what it felt like to be free.
After studying America’s history, I understood that the privileges of freedom, unity, and peace came with the ultimate price of thousands of lives throughout the years. To see Americans attacking the very heart of our democracy brought a sobering reality; one person can manipulate other people to do anything without stopping to count the cost for themselves and their families or the freedoms America provides them every day.
As a Native American, a resident of the United States, and a disciple of Christ,
- I am standing up and asking all people to realize that our freedom has responsibilities and legal and moral guidelines founded on God’s word to respect and love one another.
- I’m praying for people to see how they have let their beliefs and emotions lead them to bullying, abuse, and violence, which erodes our freedoms.
- I pray people will understand that freedom respects and allows others to have differing opinions and beliefs without using bullying, abuse, and violence.
Our freedoms do not allow us to hurt one another or break laws to get our own way. As I have been praying about this blog, I know there is NOTHING better than God’s truth in His Word, the Bible. I felt led to share these verses from The Living Bible, written by the apostle Paul, found in Galatians 5:1, 4-10, 13-26.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery (not enslaved to sin or to the laws of the Jewish customs) on you.
4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated (following laws alone to prove you are good) existence?
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Rise up disciples of Christ! Stand and pray with me as we speak and live our lives in Christ’s love, respect, responsibility, boundaries, accountability, and freedom. Let us be the hope, light, and love of Jesus as we encourage others and live a life worthy of his sacrifice every day!
Let this song remind you that the ultimate freedom the disciples of Christ have is all because of the amazing love and grace of Jesus! Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), by Christ Tomlin https://youtu.be/3MZgXXUW08Q
Understand more about all the aspects of Christ’s love by reading more of my blogs or by ordering Quest for Exceptional Love now! There is also a workbook available!
