Independence Day

Today is the Fourth of July, an important day for all Americans wherever their feet may rest, for today is our Independence Day. Today we left Mother England and began to govern ourselves. Usually I'd be eating brats and waiting for the neighbors to shoot off illegal fireworks, but there's no Independence Day here, at least, not for the country itself. But every Christian has an Independence Day of his own.

Some of us declared the day when we were very small, some of us waited a very long time, but that doesn't make the day any less special. Every one us been given liberty through Christ. The entire book of Galatians was written to remind us of that liberty. Gal. 5:1 says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

We've been released from the bondage of season. Made free by the blood of lamb. But by becoming free we became bondslaves of Christ. (Rom. 6:18 "Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.") Some might wonder how you can call trading one slavery for another slavery, liberty. But in Jewish law a man might give himself as an eternal bondservant to his master. His ear was bored through with an awl and through his own choice become a slave. He became a trusted servant. Like Joseph in Potpher's house, the Christian may be a slave, but he has all the liberty and the power of his master behind him. (Rom. 6:22 "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting.") Without our Master we are nothing. With our Master we are everything. Our slavery becomes our liberty.

When America became a country we left a government behind, but we replaced it with a better government. We went from one master to a better master. When I became a Christian I left sin behind and was given a better Master. The day that happened is my Independence Day.

Do you have an Independence Day?

Go with God
-Mira