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Liberty means
responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
- George Bernard Shaw
Liberty of
thought is in itself a good; but it gives an opening to false
liberty.
John Henry Newman, Apologia
pro vita Sua, 1864
It is by the
goodness of God that in our country we have those three
unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of
conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
- Mark Twain
"Our
civilization cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed
spiritually. It can be saved only by becoming permeated with the
Spirit of Christ and being made free and happy by the practices
which spring out of that Spirit."
Woodrow Wilson
What we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives
everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon
its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an
article as Freedom should not be highly rated.
Thomas Paine, American
Revolution patriot and writer, writing about the price of freedom.
1776
Lord Jesus, thou
who art the way, the truth, and the life; hear us as we pray for
the truth that shall make all free. Teach us that liberty is not
only to be loved but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a
thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Help
us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but
the opportunity to please to do what is right.
- Peter Marshall, Before the
U.S. Senate
"We have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved
us in peace and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly
imagined that all things were produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have
become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.
Abraham Lincoln
"I have now
disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more
that I wish I could give to them That is the Christian religion.
If they had that and I had not given them one shilling, they would
have been rich; and if they had not that and I had given them the
world, they would be poor."
From the will of Patrick
Henry, who gave the famous speech on "Give me liberty or give
me death"
Jam 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you.(NKJ)
Satan is dedicated to destroying
man's soul. One technique he uses to entice us to sin is to give
sin a different name. When have you heard the news media use the
word "Sin"? You just don't hear it. Satan wants to draw
man's attention away from the fact that sin is a violation of
God's law and that sin seperates us from God. So Satan gives sin a
different name: A sin becomes a personal choice, an alternative
lifestyle, a matter of individual liberty. He gets christians to
tolerate one "pet" sin in their lives. If Satan can't
keep you out of the church, He will try to make you a divisive,
negative element within the church. 'Building is to hot, to cold,'
'sermon's to long,' 'songleaders to slow or too fast,' 'teacher
never studies what I want to study,' Etc . . . Instead of asking
"What can I do to help", Satan gets you to say "No
one around here does anything".
- Satan had a plan for Adam and
Eve - Eat the fruit and be like God (though he knew the truth,
"in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die").
- Satan had a plan for Job - Curse
God and die to be released from your physical and mental
suffering (and enter into eternal torment).
- Satan had a plan for Peter -
Sift you as wheat. Denied Christ (but later repented and
became a great servant for Him).
- Satan had a plan for Paul -
Thorn in flesh (by it he learned of the sufficiency of the
Gospel).
- Satan had a plan for:Jesus - Mt
4 - Worship me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the
world (he and Jesus both knew that he didn't have these to
offer, for God had already given them to Him).
- Satan had a plan for Judas -
Betray Christ for 30 pieces of silver (expose Jesus as an
imposter, except for one simple fact, Jesus wasn't an
imposter, he was and is who he claimed to be, the Son of God,
the Messiah).
SATAN LIED AND
SOUGHT TO DESTROY THEM ! ! ! Just as he lies to all men today.
LIBERTY IS NOT A
LICENSE TO SIN.
"My
God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they
are in possession of, and which no other people on earth
enjoy!" . . . "Can the liberties of a nation be secure,
when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the
gift of God?"
-Thomas Jefferson
Deut. 4:5-9 "Behold, I have taught
you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me,
that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep
therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all
these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath
God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that
we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath
statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set
before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul
diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have
seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy
life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;"
Psalm 33:12 "Blessed is the nation
whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his
own inheritance."
Proverbs 14:34 "Righteousness
exalteth a nation: but sin [is] a reproach to any people."
Deut 32:5-7 "They have corrupted
themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a
perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the LORD, O
foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you?
Has He not made you and established you? "Remember the days
of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father,
and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: (NKJ)
Ps 143:5 I remember the days of old; I
meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands.
(NKJ)
Ps 43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man! (NKJ)
Ps 119:1-11 Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who
keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! They also
do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to
keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to
keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into
all Your commandments. I will praise You with uprightness of
heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments. I will keep Your
statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly! How can a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my
whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your
commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might
not sin against You! (NKJ)
The Greatness of our nation is
based in Liberty and Freedom, these things have emerged as a
result of the foundation on which America was built; THAT
FOUNDATION IS GOD. All throughout the history of this great nation
the providential hand of God is unmistakably seen. America's
System, America's People, America's Land is a result of the hand
of God. America did not just happen by chance. The pilgrams, those
seeking religious liberty, and the oppressed, came here looking
for God and freedom,.. God granted their prayer!
Has America, As A
Nation, Has Rejected God ? Are We Experiencing A Fatal Lapse of
Memory ?
- We have forgotten Godto the
extent that we have replaced Him with secular humanism,
self-centeredness and pride.
- Courts that once decided against
immorality have begun to allow every man "to
do that which right in his own eyes"
promoting rights without responsibility.
- Our eyes have become
"accustomed to the dark."
Consider some of the
"New Meanings" for old words -
- What God calls Murder - America
call a women's right, abortion.
- What God calls Drunkness -
America calls a social disease, alcoholism or drug dependancy.
- What God calls Sodomy - America
calls an alternate lifestyle, homosexuallity.
- What God calls Perversion -
America calls adult entertainment.
- What God calls Lying - America
calls accepable, if abnormal, social development.
- What God Calls Sin - America
seems to accept with open arms and embraces.
Everyone has the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or belief, either alone or
in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18. 1948
2 Pet 2:19-22 While they promise them
liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a
person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For
if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through
the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them
than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn
from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened
to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his
own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing
in the mire." (NKJ)
Satan' s promises are empty, his
ways are the way of death. He offers sin in the guise of personal
freedom and liberty, but those things he supplies as substitutes
for the way of God lead only to pain, suffering and misery. He
offers the option of changing and choosing your own religion
:"choose the church of your choice".
Israel of old was warned repeatedly
of the dangers of such attitudes and given instructions that we
would do well to heed today. Included in the instruction is
warning of the dire consequences of continuing on a sinful course.
Deut 6:6-15 "And these words which I
command you today shall be in your heart. "You shall teach
them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you
sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when you rise up. "You shall bind them as a sign on your
hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. "You
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
"So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the
land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not
build, "houses full of all good things, which you did not
fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive
trees which you did not plant-- when you have eaten and are full--
"then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. "You shall fear
the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.
"You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples
who are all around you 'for the LORD your God is a jealous God
among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against
you and destroy you from the face of the earth. (NKJ)
The theme of Psalm 43 answers the
question "What Should We Do To Turn Our Nation Back To
God?" through the example of king David . . .
- ASK GOD TO . . . "deliver
me from the deceitful and unjust men." (v.1)
- LEARN TO RELY UPON GOD FOR
STRENGTH . . . "For thou art the God of my strength . . .
why go I mourning because of the oppression of the
enemy?" (v.2)
- BE WILLING TO SUFFER UNTIL GOD'S
BLESSING RETURNS . . . "why dost thou cast me off?"
(v.2)
- REALIZE THAT AMERICA'S PROBLEM
IS A SPIRITUAL PROBLEM . . . (v.3). The only answer for
America's ills is "Thy light and Thy truth" ,
"Thy leading" , "Thy holy hill" ,
"Thy tebernacles."
- BE WILLING TO SACRIFICE UNTIL
GOD'S BLESSING COMES . . . "Then will I go unto the altar
of God, unto God my exceeding joy . . . I praise thee, O God
my God." (v.3)
- DON'T QUIT . . . "Why art
thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within
me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health
of my countenance, and my God." (v.5).
2 Tim 2:22-3:7 Flee also youthful lusts;
but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call
on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant
disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the
Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach,
patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if
God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the
truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare
of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. But
know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men
will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers
of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its
power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those
who creep into households and make captives of gullible women
loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (NKJ)
James 1:25 But he who looks into the
perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he
does. (NKJ)
James 2:12 So speak and so do as those
who will be judged by the law of liberty. (NKJ)
Gal 5:13-15 For you, brethren, have been
called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for
the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one
another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (NKJ)
1 Cor 8:9 Be careful, however, that the
exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the
weak. (NIV)
1 Pet 2:15-17 For this is the will of
God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men-- as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice,
but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (NKJ)
On July 4, 1776, King George III
wrote in his diary, "Nothing of importance happened
today." He, of course, had no way of knowing what had
occurred that day 3,000 miles away in the colonies, in
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in particular. We
today, like our forefathers may face a similar time . . .
-
When in
the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to
provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been
the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems
of Government.
Though this may
sound quite political, it was not designed to be so. It was simply
intended to discuss the way that we as "Americans" have
also changed the meaning of "liberty" to include a
multitude of evils. The builders and framers of our way of life
never intended it to be so and God most certainly never wanted it.
We need to learn from the history of God's people lest we like so
many before suffer the wrath of a righteous God. RDT
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