Free To Believe

"The Lord said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.'  I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong." --[ 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10].


July 4, 2015 is Independence Day in the United States.

The Bill of Rights were written into the Constitution, to protect individual liberty.

The first Right reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ."  Thus,  Freedom of Religion is our very first liberty!

There are those in the United States who claim that there is no religious persecution in this country, today. I do not tend to agree.  Persecution in the United States is a matter of degree.

No, we do not witness daily beheadings of Christians, nor Jews being led off to concentration camps these days, nor Irish Catholics being systematically denied employment. For that, I am deeply grateful.

But, some parents still refuse to stand for their children at weddings, if their son or daughter is marrying outside their denomination. Non-believing parents shush their believing children, if the son or daughter dares to speak God's name. These non-believers tell their children NOT to go to church. These parents mock their children, and react angrily if the children profess belief in God, or in the sanctity of life. America has become largely a secular society, and plenty of Americans pressure people of Faith to keep their beliefs and practices to themselves.

It gets worse:  African American churches are still being burned by arsonists, a practice that began during the Civil War. Time Magazine reported, July 1, 2015, that 8 black churches have burned in the American South in the last ten days. Racism? Religious Persecution? --- Or both?

Racism and religious persecution are truly abhorrent. But what is even more frightening is the sense of complacency in America over our religious freedoms.

For one of my last assignments for Biblical School this spring, we had to write about which city in Revelation most closely resembled our parish today? The majority of students chose Laodicea, a place that was warned about the false comfort of its prosperity. Laodicea is chastised: "For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' You do not realize that you are [actually] wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.' " -[Revelation: 3: 17].

It is almost as if we believe, 'We have no physical wants. What could happen to us? Therefore, we do not need God.' We worship our own human achievements, and we praise our ability to build a wealthy society. We believe that from these individual achievements, that means we are strong. But how weak is our Soul?

In his book, "The Heavenly Man", Chinese preacher Brother Yun writes about his own vicious persecution, perpetrated by Chinese authorities -- all for owning a Bible, hosting home churches, preaching and speaking God's Word. He was imprisoned for many years, and suffered greatly.

He writes: "In China, I had been used to beatings, torture with electric batons, and all kinds of humiliation." When he finally escaped China, and entered the huge, elaborate cathedrals and churches in Western Europe, the churches were largely empty during worship services.

Brother Yun asked his translator about a nasty article that had been written about him in the Western press. His translator told him, "Brother Yun, these people don't want to know the Truth. In China, Christians are persecuted with beatings and imprisonment. In the West, Christians are persecuted by the words of other Christians."

Brother Yun writes, "Before I travelled to the West, I had absolutely no idea that so many churches were spiritually asleep. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God. In the West, many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state."

Brother Yun continues: "I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don't need any more church buildings. Just because you have a church building doesn't necessarily mean Jesus is with you. Many churches look beautiful on the outside, but are dead where it counts, inside."

Brother Yun concludes, "In the West, you have so much. You have insurance for everything. In a way, you don't need God."

THIS Independence Day, I ask you: How much are you willing to suffer and fight for the Right to own a Bible, recite Scripture, pray in public, wear a cross or other outward signs of your faith, attend church, gather in prayer groups, sing hymns aloud, take Sunday off as the Sabbath, assert your beliefs in the Almighty God, in His only Begotten Son, in the sanctity of the unborn life, explain and defend the Truth about Jesus and not the falsehoods about His mission . . . . ??

Because, the greatest threat to Faith in America is not persecution, or the lack of churches, but our pervasive indifference to the sacred . . . .

[Related Postings: "Independence Day", July 4, 2011; "Celebrating My Independence", July 3, 2102;
"For the Love of Freedom", June 29, 2103].

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2015.