CELEBRATE FREEDOM: LIVE FREE AND SHINE ON

The Fourth of July is only a little over a week away and the 250^th  anniversary of our nation’s freedom.  This country has been a light to those who are longing to be free.  The inscription on the Statue of Liberty proclaims one of the great aspirations of our freedom:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Long before 1875, when the Statue of Liberty was started (it was completed in 1886), the light of God’s freedom was shining for the tired, poor, huddled masses.  It is amazing how the Holy Spirit inspired our founding fathers to risk everything for the freedom of our country and inspired the documents that continue to guide it.  This is the purpose of our series Celebrate Freedom.  The light of freedom, despite its limited nature and historical fluctuations, is precious.  It reflects the power of God’s freedom found in Jesus Christ.  This week, our scripture is 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:10.  2 Corinthians 3:17 is often quoted to celebrate liberty: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (NIV) In order to understand the liberty that God’s Spirit seeks to share with us, we have to continue into chapter 4.  The Spirit doesn’t passively offer us freedom, but it empowers the light of freedom to shine in our hearts.  Paul is speaking from personal experience because this light has empowered his courage, his commitment, and his confidence.  We need more of this light for our lives and our nation.  Paul is encouraging the Corinthians and us to walk in this light.  Not only will it help us to leave the darkness, but it will reflect the transforming light of Christ from our hearts and into the darkness of our world.  As Paul shares the experience of his team, he acknowledges hardship, difficulty, and pain, but these could not extinguish the power of God’s liberating Spirit. We pray that you will experience this transforming power that will not allow you to be overwhelmed but enables you to overcome as you encounter the power of God’s Word in 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:10.

2 Corinthians 3:17-4:10: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ² Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (NIV)