Giving thanks to God is always right—He is the source of every good gift! Giving thanks to God is our focus this weekend as we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy in the United States of America; specifically our religious freedom afforded by the First Amendment to the Constitution. These thoughts from our friends, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (www.BJConline.org) are helpful as we give thanks:

Religious liberty is a gift from God, not the result of any act of toleration or concession on the part of the state. It has to do with what we Baptists call “soul freedom”—the liberty of conscience that we all receive by virtue of how God created us and chose to relate to us.

God has made all of us free—free to say yes, free to say no, and free to make up our own minds about our spiritual destiny. Religious freedom goes to the heart of who God is and who we are. So, the fight for religious liberty for all is to ensure against government doing what even God will not do: to violate consciences or to coerce faith.

Baptists became champions of religious liberty and church-state separation in large measure because we are a people of the Book.  To Baptists, religious liberty is well-grounded in Scripture. Its taproot runs deep into the creation accounts in Genesis. The creation of human beings in God’s own image necessarily implies a freedom on our part to choose for or against a relationship with God, voluntarily and without coercion.

In the New Testament, Jesus speaks forcefully about freedom. Many would assert it was at the very foundation of his ministry. Reading from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus announces that he had been anointed “to proclaim release to the captives and . . . to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). Jesus liberated all who would choose to follow him from the slavery of their sins: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). The apostle Paul preached freedom, as well. To the Galatians he railed against the slavery of legalism. He boldly declared that “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). The Bible does not articulate a full-blown doctrine of the separation of church and state. Yet, its seeds are clearly present. Jesus at least foreshadowed the concept when he said “Give therefore to the emperor things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Jesus’ behavior was consistent with his words. He never took a coin from Caesar or sought the help of Herod in his ministry and mission.

Let’s express our gratitude to God for His gift of freedom; let’s live out our fortitude to ensure freedom for the peoples of the earth who don’t yet know Christ, who Alone makes us free.

I’m proud to be your pastor,

Jerry