Christian Living
Will Liberty Prevail?
Leviticus 25:10 “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:”
The famous ‘Liberty Bell’ in Philadelphia has inspired millions for over two hundred years relative to the liberty we enjoy in the United States. It took us awhile to proclaim and procure the liberty to all the inhabitants, but our forefathers and succeeding patriots have paid for our continued liberty with their blood.
Each year during the month of July we celebrate the initial victory for liberty gained in the Revolutionary War and while doing this we pause and deeply ponder the awful cost. That we Americans have the Spirit of Liberty is undeniable.
That this Spirit of Liberty is closely aligned with the Spirit of Liberty taught in the Bible is also undeniable. Knowledgeable men and women know that a thing so precious as Liberty is not to be taken for granted, nor used to commit despicable acts against society.
That a certain vigilance is necessary for the preservation of Liberty is a tenant of all who love Liberty. Wendell Phillips said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty.” No one can deny the reality of this statement. There has been from day one and will be until the trumpet sounds and Jesus comes, those who steal Liberty from a good people, those who rob and rape freedom from the unconsenting yet unwilling to fight off the attacks of criminals often dressed in the garments of statesmen, yet all the while having the odor of the wolf.
In our day the love of ease, the graving for something for nothing has not only witnessed the rise of every scheme men can imagine, but also an apathy unprecedented in our history. The scripture speaks of such populations as ‘Lovers of themselves more than lovers of God.’ Writing along this line Samuel Adams wrote: "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
That Adams meant to inspire his readers to resist tyranny is a matter of record. Too often in the history of the world, Liberty has languished while those who benefited the most from her sweetness, loved the sweetness more than her. Love for a life of ease and security guarantees the loss of ease and security. Somerset Maugham wrote: "If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too."
The old typing drill, “It is time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” is apropos for the current malaise.
Please do not suppose that I am encouraging the silliness engaged in by some that wraps the flag around bodies devoid of sanity and proposes a soldier slain while serving at the command of the president is somehow responsible for the great problems facing our world. Far from it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote: “Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels, men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
To run around screaming about all the ills of the government without giving solutions to the problems and the problems are always more complex than most suspect is to demonstrate what sensible people would in another time, call ‘tomfoolery.’ For the life of me I cannot imagine any good coming from picking on grieving fathers, mothers and offspring at the entombment of a fallen warrior.
In whatever from it may take, by whatever means it is one, Liberty is a gift from God, and the recipients of this gift are charged with the keeping of it. The keeping of Liberty is not an easy task, and those poor souls with no stomach for confronting the evil of any given day will always, a little piece at a time, give it away and then have the last vestige of it ripped from their hearts and minds by the reigning tyrant of that era. A friend often calls early in the morning and we have ‘phone’ coffee, he never buys, but one of things we ask, “What type of windmill are you going to tilt today?” The tilting of windmills is a reference to The Man Of LaMancha so graphically created and revealed by the Spanish ex con, Miguel Cervantes. Having lost his freedom Cervantes intensely felt the loss and the frustration of standing against a huge tyrannical system. Yet he took his lick at it and his stories still stir the yearning to be free in human hearts.
"Liberty, is one of the most precious gifts heaven has bestowed upon Man. No treasures the earth contains or the sea conceals can be compared to it. For liberty one can rightfully risk one's life."
Much, but not enough, is being written about the erosion of Liberty in our fair land. We have grown so used to breathing the elixir of free air that we take it for granted and fail to become men and women of commitment, character and courage, three essentials for the maintenance of Liberty.
Every pastor, every leader, has been or if young will be faced with the near daunting task of mounting an army against evil that is made up of fair weather warriors at best. Commitment is sort of a dirty word as it has been known to interfere with leisure. I take encouragement from the history of Paul facing the same, and of Washington’s daily report of those weak minded souls who had under cover of darkness forsook their sworn duty.
Over the course of many years I have listened to every imaginable excuse given for the abandonment of commitment, and tragically the ‘reasons’ are all too often verbal testimony to the abandonment of character as well as commitment. In a vast majority of cases the leaving of others in the lurch due to failure to perform in areas of commitment is the visible testimony to a seriously flawed character. If you are not a person of character, your commitment is of little value. When the vast body of citizens of a society, be it The United States or the local church, are lacking in character, loss is not far away.
You, my faithful reader, know the bulk of truth the Bible teaches concerning freedom, liberty and the price thereof. Jesus said in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The problem with getting to know the truth is that in order to gain this freedom activating power you must study. Studying has been known to interfere with leisure.
The old Greek, Thucydides put it this way:
"The secret of happiness is freedom. And the secret of freedom is courage."
Wise men no longer pray for folks to have ‘the courage of their commitments’ but rather we have found we must first pray for men and women of character to make commitments. When men and women of true Christ character make commitments to the things of Christ which include Liberty, the courage will be theirs, for we are assured in the Word of God, Isaiah 30:15 “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.”
The scripture here is talking about the inner calm, the heart of courage resulting from trusting in the Lord. I am unaware of any gift of God that is given as a toy. I fervently pray that in a future time it will not be said of American Christians, “And ye would not.”
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