Fading Freedom

Birthdays are special days in my household. The day starts off with me taking the birthday boy or girl out to an early breakfast at the restaurant of their choosing. We then spend a little time talking and walking hoping to stretch the morning out as long as possible before I have to take them back home and then head off to work. These are always special times for me and my children.

As I was thinking about having breakfast with my oldest son today, on his special morning, I began to reminisce about my own boyhood and some of the exciting adventures my brother and I went on (well, they were exciting to us anyway). We lived south of Houston, TX, a short bikes ride to the Gulf of Mexico. In the long, hot, sunny days of summer, my brother and I would hop on our Husky bikes with "mag" wheels and ride down to Kemah, the next city a few miles to the south. We would fish a little or, in many cases, our fishing poles would lay dormant while we just explored. We never caught much (actually, I'm not sure I ever caught anything, but I am sure my brother did - he always was and still is a better fisherman than I am), but I remember wading along the shore line and looking at rocks or shells or even picking up the occasional "baby" (non-stinging) jellyfish and marveling at how something that looked and felt like that could actually be alive. We also lived near a large field where my brother and I would spend the entire day chasing grasshoppers, playing army, making dirt bike trails, or when we were older, launching model rockets. Occationally, our parents would give us some lunch money and we would ride our bikes to the nearest Dairy Queen (again a mile or two away from home) and grab a "Hunger Buster Meal" and play a few video games while eating an ice cream sunday. Those were some of the best times of my childhood.

As I was thinking on these things, my joy quickly turned sorrowful as I realized that my children would not be able to explore their world with the same freedom. Why not? Because I would never allow them to travel several miles from home without supervision. Our country has changed a good deal since those days and even though it was not perfectly safe for a child to be out on his own, things have become much worse. Occurrences of all manner of violent crime has risen drastically, as have child abductions and exploitations. This past Sunday I spoke with a man who lived in California during his Junior High years. He told me that he and several of his friends would often hop the buss to the beach, explore the beach and the surf most of the day (again unsupervised) and then hop the buss back home. After telling me this with a smile on his face, the joy also left his eyes as he said he would never let his three boys do the same.

So what has happened to our country? That, I'm sure, is a question that would elicit a multitude of responses. But in reality it comes down to one simple thing: people in mass have rejected God and His Word. God is being systematically removed from the public and private sector whether that be government, business, school, the medical field, or whatever; people are being submerged in humanism, socialism and evolutionary thought. Our state schools are pumping these lies into our children, our modern media programs are building upon this foundation, and our American mega church mentality with their family dividing programs cannot combat it. As long as parents leave the raising and educating of their children to others (especially pagans), society will be lost (Don't believe me? Read this post!).

The "state of the Union"
Romans 1:25
"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

2 Timothy 4:3,4
"3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

The above two verses briefly outline the current "state of the Union." Mankind has turned away from God and worships himself. Thereby trusting in himself to save himself - which he can not do. Then can government save us? The answer of course is an emphatic "NO." Not even a godly form of government will save us. Even though I voted for Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party (and will continue to do so as long as the CP names the name of Jesus as King), his winning the election would not have solved America's problems. The change in our country (and every other country) has to come from the bottom up, not the top down. Righteousness can not be created through legislation. The hearts of the people must be changed.

When our country was founded, we had a godly form of government because we had a godly minded people who where, for the most part, self-governed. True self-government can only be accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit in a life which is totally surrendered to Jesus, the Christ. When this happens, fathers will turn their hearts to their children, children's hearts will turn to their fathers, wives will submit to their husbands, husbands will love their wives as Christ loved the church and churches will be filled with families who have a heart for God, for each other and for the lost. Those families will then, of their own accord, act as the fingers of their local church body, doing the work of evangelism and ministry "as they go" about their daily work:

Matt. 28:18-20a
"18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, as you go, disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you" (The ISV translation brings out the true meaning of the Greek here. Instead of "go" as most translations have it, it is "as you go").

These families can then affect their communities and then godly local governments can be formed - and then it spreads upward from there. But it all starts with surrendering your entire life to Jesus. Man has only on Savior and King, Jesus the Son of God. "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).