Celebrate Freedom!

Today is the Fourth of July and we're celebrating with our family and friends. I can smell the barbecue shish-ka-bob now and my mouth is watering at the thought of corn on the cob ,sweet watermelon and cantaloupe. Hmm, hmm delicious. But tonight we celebrate with fireworks!! It's a family tradition and we dare not break tradition.

These are a few of the blessings we enjoy because of freedom. Family, friends, cookouts, great food, freedom of movement and gathering, fireworks, celebrations and traditions. Our freedom, like so many other countries, has come at a dear price -- the price of the lives of our children, fathers, brothers and sisters, mothers, aunts and uncles, grandfathers. We're celebrating their sacrifice and celebrate we should.

However, I'm also reminded that there are other freedoms that came at a very dear price -- the shame, beating, blood and life of one called Jesus. Spiritual freedom wasn't free either. How do we celebrate that freedom? Freedom from the power of sin.
Freedom from being a slave to addictions,
Freedom to make new choices out of our new nature.
Freedom to respond to God.
Freedom to live and breathe and have our being in Christ.
Freedom from captivity.
Freedom from the prison of spiritual darkness.
Freedom to see as God sees.
Freedom from the chains that bound us.
Freedom from the garment of heaviness to receive a spirit of praise.
Freedom to have an audience with God anytime or anywhere.
Freedom to pray with assurance in knowing that we have been heard.
Freedom to walk away from the identities of the past.

Freedom to receive and live out of a new identity in Christ.
Freedom from the ashes of rejection to receive a crown of beauty.
Freedom to be all that God has designed us to be.
Freedom to to fullfil His plan for our lives, His purpose and destiny.
Freedom! It's already been purchased; it's ours. Celebrate by walking in it. Celebrate by walking it out in our everyday lives.

Today I proclaim FREEDOM!!! (Isaiah 61:1-3) What freedoms are you thankful for?