“Yet their political slavery could not diminish the freedom they found in Jesus Christ.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2003-09-04) from his book, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul (Kindle Location 240). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

I understand the desire that we have to live in a free country. The USA came in existence because of a desire to have religious freedom and we will do all we can to keep it. It seems that some of those freedoms are slowly being taken away from us. But if you read the book in the New Testament called the Acts of the Apostles you will see that the church was born under the rule of the dominion of a pagan empire. That is what this thought by Erwin was talking about.

Now I said that to say that we need to be careful to live with an expectation of God to provide us with this freedom. We are no better than those Christians who live in the Peking Jerusalem Corridor who are under persecution every day. God loves them just as much as He loves us. We need to be thankful every day that we have this privilege but we also need to see that along with the privilege goes responsibility.

The church is growing in those areas but it isn’t in the USA. I would hate to say that we maybe need more persecution than we have so that we would have a greater dependency on God. We gripe about the government in power and but let any excuse keep us from going to church. " It’s raining, I have a headache, I’m tired, I need a break."

Somehow we need to see that our freedom is found in Jesus Christ and not Washington D C. People in China cannot worship God in public but it isn’t stopping them. They worship Him in their homes, in businesses, where ever they can and the church is alive and growing. People are dying for their faith all over the world but it isn’t stopping the church from growing. What really is stopping the church is not persecution, nor the government but misplaced priorities and apathy by Christians.

What matters to you more, your religious freedom or your freedom in Christ? Jesus came to set up His kingdom in our hearts not in Jerusalem. Let’s get back to basics, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto us. Let’s go seek the lost and give them the good news. That is where real freedom is found.

So are you really free?

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