It All Starts Here

Today is a RE word day: Remembering. Memorial Day is a unique American holiday for remembering how grateful we are for thousands upon thousands of people who gave and are giving themselves to the rest of us. The words ‘Thank you!’ are not sufficient. They gave so we could live a life of LIBERTY.  I cannot begin to imagine, to fathom any other life. We are so very blessed (Some days, it seems more like ‘very spoiled’.)

Liberty comes from the sacrifice of others. That is a reality that has been lost on most Americans. I am a Boomer and my way of life has always been pretty comfortable. We’ve not been under the power of another country, a dictator, or a country torn apart internally. I’ve always had the opportunity (and right) to complain, to choose leaders, to follow my heart. Can you imagine any of those opportunities being taken away? That’s LIBERTY:

“The condition of being free from restriction or control.”

“The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one’s own choosing.”

“The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.”

All because other people gave up their liberty.

See, it’s taken me this long to grasp the immensity of sacrifice. Thousands upon thousands gave up their freedom. My dad couldn’t see his firstborn for over a year. He longed to be home, but he gave that up because he chose to give himself, along with thousands more to fend off the wickedness of the Axis powers who wanted to destroy the freedom of the world. Today, my son-in-law has given up the choices that other 30-somethings take for granted. He hopes that his service, along with many, many others will continue to guard and protect our country.

LIBERTY takes on a very special meaning for me and all believers. Christ gave up who He was to give me freedom—freedom from separation from God and others; freedom from guilt; freedom from anxiety; freedom from fears that limit who I am.

The RE word that begins it all is REDEEM.

That’s where it all starts.

Being redeemed starts it all. It is at the beginning of all the other amazing RE words: reconciled, restored, refueled, renewed, rebuilt, refreshed, reborn. I know that some of you may not accept that you need redemption. I was once there. I wanted to redeem myself from my negative attitude, from my self-serving behavior, from my trying to prove myself equal or better than those around me. That just never worked. That’s not how God works. He came

quietly, patiently and turned me around. He helped me look into the mirror to see my REFLECTION. Redemption means nothing if you don’t think you need it.

“God’s plan to bring us back to him is teaching us that all liberty arises out of redemption. It arises out of the work of God in human affairs — cleansing and changing, forgiving and healing and restoring. If liberty doesn’t come from that, it can never be achieved. Liberty, God says, is being freed from inner bondage, inner shackles of guilt and fear and anxiety and hostility. It begins with redemption, with the atoning work of Jesus Christ. It is to get back what God intended you to have…to be able to be and act as God intended men to be and act when he made them in the beginning, to gain back all that was lost in the fall of Adam.” (Dr. Ray Stedman)

In the world of videos, games, TV, consumption, and the life of things most Americans have in this 21st century, we still can say “Thank you!” to the people who keep us safe, who have given up a lot to guard us. But our true security has come because God has blessed this country. It’s tough for me to see our country following the path away from how we started—a people believing in God’s promises. Being American has been synonymous with self-sufficiency. That will be our downfall. Ignoring the source of our blessings will entrap us, and we will not be free from ourselves. The gut reality is this: as long as we stay in the adequacy of ourselves, and deny that God is in offering us LIBERTY; that He is the one who keeps us free…we will continue to struggle with our nation’s illnesses.

“God makes a beautiful three-fold promise: security, prosperity, sufficiency. Once this American nation had strong glimpses of this truth. We even stamped it on our coins: “In God We Trust.” We wrote it on the Liberty Bell. But then we forgot it. We thought it all depended upon us. We no longer made any allowance for God to work. It isn’t its Declaration of Independence, nor its Constitution. It isn’t its Congress, nor its laws. It is…the reflection of our recognition of our need for God, worked out in our relationships with one another.” (Dr. Ray Stedman)

So on this day where many of us are reflecting on the LIBERTY we have in this wonderful, blessed land; and on the sacrifices being made to insure that LIBERTY—

Think about the amazing forever LIBERTY you have, or could have, as a REDEEMED child because of Christ’s sacrifice.

“God has purchased our freedom in Christ from the slavery of sin, delivered us from Satan’s power, and made us His own possession. We have been redeemed

from a useless life to a fruitful life;

from a life of bondage to a life of freedom;

from a life of guilt, condemnation, and judgment to a life of forgiveness, justification, and peace.” (Roy Lessin)

Job 19:25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.”