Our Independence as a Christian People! Re: 4th of July
By Kelly Durant 7-5-20
John 8:36
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Gal 5:1
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
3. How did you celebrate the 4thof July? At home this year? Other countries celebrate at different times, Did you know that for Venezuela, it is today, July 5th? Did you know it is Biblical to remember when you as a people were liberated? In the Old Testament we see the clear example of the Jews remembering the Passover, the day that marked when they were set free.
4.That highlighted the day that pharaoh decided to let those enslaved people go with Moses to the Promised Land. Even today, the Passover is celebrated as a very holy day for the Jews. We should always reflect on the O.T. because it teaches us parallels to the life of Christ. We learn about oppression and freedom and how sin brings on oppression but holy living brings on freedom.
5. Easter for Christians marks our day of liberation! It’s our liberation from death, and do you recall it happened the next morning after Passover? Jesus resurrection brought freedom from death for all who believe in Him! The Jews then and even today still remember their freedom which was about 3,300 years ago. All people must remember their history and celebrate freedom as the Jews celebrate today their liberation of slavery in Egypt!
Christians everywhere celebrate obtaining their freedom from the slavery of sin and death at the same time the Jews got liberated from Egypt, which is a fulfillment of God’s parallelisms in prophecies! It is okay to be patriotic and share in the roots of the liberation of your people. After 14 years in South America, I am familiar with the history of Latinos. I am very glad that Mexico and South America did not remain under the domination of the Spanish. Spain freed them from the slavery of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans, but then Spain went on to make them slaves as well to mine their silver and gold. For thousands of years slavery was just the norm but thank God Simon Bolivar liberated them from Spain in the 1800s! But sadly Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries are again slaves under communism!
6. In English a famous saying is, “God and country!” and the supposition is that everyone reverences God first, then your country. That is a good ideology and it would make a more perfect world if every person reverenced the hierarchy in that order. We must remember these traditional phrases as they teach how things should be. But today some governing parties denounce and insult God and exalt their leaders as gods, and these leaders are horrible abusers and murderers. Without God the world’s people are heading for a new phase of slavery under a global anti-Christ system and it is all because people are distracted with sins, and deceived.
7. In the Salvation Army there were a few good men that after they got out of the service from WWI & WWII, they joined the Salvation Army. This shows how people have served country and then God, later and thank God for that. We are an Army of Salvation, and there exists two totally different organizations and ideologies here. Our fight is to free souls doing all the work we can to liberate spiritual captives and bring them salvation in Jesus. The soldiers of the world keep us free from outside oppressors. Was Jesus concerned for people in bondage? Let’s look up a part in the scripture where Jesus gives His very first message on his mission: to give people freedom!
8. Isaiah. Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
God and His son are very interested in the liberty and spiritual freedom of each of us! When you first repented and received Jesus that was your Independence Day of sin, and death, and it was your rebirth into the family of God with eternal life!
9. Apart from everyone knowing the date from which your country was liberated from the oppressors, do you recall the date you personally were liberated from the oppression of the devil who would have destroyed your soul?
My date is the same as my birthday on 3-24, because it was coincidently then when I was 21 that I began a training to go abroad with a Christian mission group, and I left 6 months later to serve the Lord in Brazil, and then in other countries for 14 years! I think God I did that instead of staying bound in the world of sin I was in!
So now let me hear yours! When were you saved? Let me hear some of you, when was your independence day? (Others should speak out loud their dates)
10.How many of you have read the history of countries that get free from oppressors? Liberation and independence is a gift from God!
But how many people do you know who could be free, remain captive?
How many of you have known of a young man or woman who wishes to escape the heavy abusive oppressing control of her father or mother, only to marry a person that does the same thing, that is, oppress, abuse, and dominate? Or have you seen a woman leave a marriage from a dictatorial man, and with her freedom rejoice she could start again only to see her end up with another man who dominates and beats her the same as the first one did? Do you see how we need God’s power in our life to not be a victim of oppression?
11. Why does that happen in life? Why can’t we just live out the verse we read in the beginning, how if the son makes us free, then we are free indeed? Why is it people will not turn to Jesus? He is the only one who can change things! Sometime we will do an in depth study into Galatians but what was happening here in 5:1, but what was happening was that the common people were being converted to being a Christian but they were being told by the Jewish Christians in control that they had to now submit to all the Jewish laws and customs. That was not freedom in Jesus, but slavery!
In other words, Jesus came to free each of us from sin and to fulfill the law, and we are to obey His commands to love God and our neighbor and preach the gospel and serve others, but we will never be made perfect by legalism, be it Jewish or from some aberrant church! With Jesus, for 2,000 years now being “the way” to heaven, communicates that there is no other way or rules that will save you!
12. In vain the church in Galatians was trying to obtain perfection by legalism, and what it turned out to be was a church full of oppression! How many of you have darkened the door of Christian churches that are full of oppression?
I have visited many of them and I have questioned this matter extensively, why do people choose to attend there if there most of what they offer is a dark, unloving, oppression, rules and regulations? Is it fear? Is it that the people are too weak to stand up and proclaim what is right? Do people, or do you read the scriptures to know wrong from right? Only Jesus words can give us the wisdom and power to be free!
13. My conclusion is this; many people live years under the fear and oppression of Satan. However, when they accept Christ they experience a new strange feeling, freedom!
This is true independence!
They feel freedom from fear, a clean conscious, and a warm strength within, but soon the Enemy comes back to tell them, this is too good to be true, this is uncomfortable, this is not normal! But security comes not from some domineering and controlling devil.
So since the devil often cannot persuade a person to stop believing in Christ, he persuades them to go to a church that is not a loving holiness Christian church, but rather a church where they will be dominated by fear and oppression! Those with false doctrines, those who are deceivers must be unmasked and shut down. Today we see apostacy everywhere! We see slavery in 2/3rds of the world due to oppressive religions and communist governments.
14. Remember our salvation and freedom does not come by the completion of heavy works or rules, (Ephesians 2:8,9) and it is not by deceptive feelings either! So if you feel uncomfortable that there is freedom in Christ that is a good thing! Get use to it! That is what Jesus came and died to do for you, to liberate forever!
Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and dozens of countries, were liberated in the past, but many are fell back into oppression, either from a Satanic government, or by the oppression of the rich mafia. Examine your own life well. Are you being oppressed? Jesus truth can free you!
Evil rules with dark illusive spiritual forces! Oppressions today are rampant coming from globalists manipulators, coworkers, family members, political groups, or even demons talking to you in your own mind! You can make your own self miserable when not fully transformed under the liberty of Jesus Christ! You can be your own cruel oppressor as in the case of addicts, those who allow in demons of destruction! Beware of the propagators of false religions, or instigators with enslaving political ideologies.
Freedom is not anarchy! In our church, we need organization, and rules, in order to function, but those are for everyone’s own protection and good, but the rules are not our main message. Our message is Jesus Christ’s liberation, love, and salvation! Amen?
Let’s pray now for you personally to be free in Christ! Free from oppression & fear! Free from the voices of the world that try to own you! Remember If Christ has made you free, you are free indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment