'Thank God for My Freedom'

'Christ has made us free...' Galatians 5:1 NKJV

History records dark chapters when godless tyrants ruled and religious dictators made it a crime to read the Bible or worship God according to the dictates of your conscience. In 1945, Martin Niemoeller said, 'When the Nazis came for the communists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. When they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the trade unionists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. When they came for the Catholics, I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for anybody.' On the top of the Capitol Dome in Washington DC is a statue of Lady Freedom. Her face is framed in a crest of stars and she's holding a shield of stars and stripes in her hand. She was shipped from Rome, and during a fierce storm the captain ordered some cargo thrown overboard. The sailors wanted to ditch Lady Freedom, but the captain is said to have refused, shouting above the wind, 'Never! We'll founder before we throw freedom away!' Benjamin Franklin said that those who give up liberty for safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety! Speaking to the believers in Galatia, Paul addresses the legalists who wanted to force them to go back and live under the impossible standards of the old law. He writes, '...Christ made us free. So stand strong. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law.' (Galatians 5:1 NCV) Today you need to stop, look up and say, 'Thank God for my freedom!'