Morning Devotional

July 2, 2004

"Celebrate Freedom (Part 1)"

by Don Emmitte

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But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. (Romans 1:18-24 NLT).

It’s the first week of July and I Probably should be writing about fireworks and picnics and the long lazy days of summer. However, these are difficult days. Even with the handing over of the government to Iraqi leaders, there is much left to be done before that country is truly free from tyranny. That has caused me to reflect back on the history of so many other countries that have seen their people suffer through oppression and war.

I have even wondered could war and the chaos that happens "over there" happen here, too? Could the mostly wonderful way of life and standard of living we enjoy here in North America unravel? After all, it hasn’t been so long ago when we felt immune from terrorist attacks. Now we have all become aware of the various warnings announced at times according to colors of severity in the threat.

The reports and pictures that have been pouring in lately detail in grisly vividness the atrocities of war. It has been the same in every war. We just see it in living “real-time” now. Peter Maass, an international correspondent for the Washington Post, reported on the war in Bosnia in 1996. He interviewed participants, prisoners and refugees, sometimes hearing tales of unbelievably gross atrocities. What Maas learned from villagers was very interesting. People reported that before the war, they had gotten along well across religious and ethnic lines for hundreds of years. Tensions surfaced from time to time, but people married across lines, were neighbors, had friends. But at the start of the war, one rumor developed that all of a certain group of women were going to be put into "harems." "This was ludicrous," Peter Maass wrote, and so he asked one woman why she believed the rumor. "It was on the radio," said the woman. "And you believed it?" Maass pressed on. "Why would the radio lie?" asked the woman. Maass goes on to say that her story was not isolated. He concludes that the answer to "How can genocide happen among neighbors?" is "There is a dark side in all of us, a story as old as the Bible, and it can be called out quite easily, or lured out by primal appeals to our fear or our prejudices."

Paul said, Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. They rejected the truth! Tomorrow I will deal more with this. Today, examine the truth of the Scripture. Look into your heart and see if it is there in the presence of the Holy Spirit. That is the place to begin. Only faith in Christ will banish the darkness of sin and evil from our lives and our world. That’s the beginning of freedom.