ABSOLUTELY FREE! By Dr. Debbie Lanier here are things you may not know about me. For instance, I study dead people. For real! Reading about selfless individuals who dared to leave this world far better than they found it energizes me. The news cycle spends enough time discussing those who perpetrate evil. Why not focus on the ones who get it right?
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One of the “dead people” I enjoy studying is George Washington. I’ve read several biographies and traveled to his home three years in a row. I realize that sounds “stalker-ish.” I’m a geek like that! He’s such a fascinating individual. I know, I know, you’re envisioning the picture on your dollar bill thinking, “He’s fascinating?” (I feel confident he did not approve that photograph). As you study this principled hero, you inevitably learn a few things about freedom. “Freedom” . . . we feel better just saying it, don’t we? It causes us to stand a little taller. Funny thing about freedom, though – it feels free. It even sounds free and looks free by all accounts. But the one thing freedom is not . . . it’s NOT free! While it may have cost me nothing, someone paid an outrageously high price for it. Our nation’s soldiers and their families have sacrificed much more than we perceive from our vantage point. In fact, it cost some of them everything! It’s easy to live so comfortably in our liberties that we forget what it looks like to exist without this sacrificial gift. Daily I read of civilians being tortured to death for simply believing differently than their country’s regime. It’s difficult to comprehend that countless people throughout the world will never know what it’s like to be free. Want to know something even more heartbreaking? There are those who live among us who don’t know what it’s like to be free. They are surrounded by freedom and yet, internally, they are held captive. If we could peel back the layers of the soul, we would see precious friends so entangled with chains. Perhaps you’re one of them. Maybe you suffer with chains of regret that hound your heart. Possibly it’s shackles of pain that won’t allow the endless cycle of grief to subside. Maybe it’s fear that imprisons you. Whatever the reason, the constraints are heavy and tormenting. This is NOT how life is supposed to be! It’s in direct violation of everything your Creator dreamed for you. In fact, Jesus Himself said, “Let me set you free. And if I set you free, you are absolutely free through and through!” (John 8:36) That sounds emphatic! It sounds unequivocal! There are no restrictions here. In other words, it doesn’t matter what I did to cause the chains or how long I’ve suffered with them, I don’t have to live this way any longer! The madness has gone on long enough, don’t you think? I know what you’re thinking. “That sounds just lovely, but do you really expect me to believe this? It’s that easy? Besides, I’m not into all that ‘Jesus’ stuff!” I get it. It does sound easy – too easy. I’m just telling you what I know to be true. I have studied it backward and forward. I’ve experienced it personally, and now I believe it so fully that I’ve staked my whole life on it. Jesus has set me free! I am no longer captive to any pain, fear, regret, shame, disappointment . . . none of it has the power to own me any longer. I’m absolutely free through and through! Girls, we can enjoy the reality of our country’s freedom even if it didn’t cost us anything. Even more importantly, we can bask in the reality of our own individual freedom even when we didn’t personally pay the price. Someone else loves us too much to leave us in those debilitating shackles. He came to our rescue long before we realized we even needed His help. Oh, what a price He paid! It’s crazy love! Stop the madness and start living ABSOLUTELY FREE! It’s for real and it’s for YOU! For comments or prayer, please contact Dr. Lanier at www.hopecommunitychurch.tv.