The True Cost of Freedom

As I drove home late last night, I listened to a news report on the car radio. It was all about some legal aliens in California who were complaining that the process to become naturalized citizens was too slow. About a million of them had applied last year and they fully expected to get their citizenship in time for this year’s Presidential elections. Because of the sudden increase in the number of applicants, the bureaucracy was swamped. In order to cope with this, about three thousand new jobs with the INS has had to be created. And the price for the process has now been increased from $475 per person to $650.

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Applicants were told that it would take about a year before they would be contacted, so now they are protesting about the time involved, as well as the costs to become a citizen. They also feel as though they are being victimized because they will not get to vote in November. They are demanding that things be changed in their favor.

When our family decided to become American citizens, it was our way of saying “thank you” to the people and nation that had embraced us as legal immigrants. We knew that it would cost us a lot of money and we understood that it would take a great deal of time. We were just so happy to be given the privilege and special opportunity of doing this. We never took it for granted. We never demanded it as a right. And we certainly didn’t grumble about the amount of time it took.

Two years later, we stood in the local courthouse and proudly took our citizenship oaths. Friends from church were there to witness the event, and we felt very privileged to have received such an honor in our lives. It was a wonderful occasion and a remarkable threshold in our lives. It was not a decision that we have ever regretted, nor have we ever taken our liberties for granted since then.

Bible Verses of the Day
Numbers 11:4 - 6 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

Those protesting applicants in California must be very selfish people. They remind me of the grumbling Israelites in the wilderness. Everything was provided for them by God – their food, their survival, their deliverance – and yet the Hebrews still complained about their treatment, about how long they were traveling, and about how they longed for the good old days. God gave them everything they needed and yet they still wanted more.

The path to citizenship is worth every dollar spent and every day of waiting. It should never be an easy process and applicants should show more respect to the wonderful nation that is bestowing citizenship upon these legal aliens. Sometimes the best things in life are not free; sometimes we have to be patient before we receive them.

For us Christians, becoming a servant in the Kingdom of God is the same thing. The high cost of Christ’s sacrifice bought us an everlasting opportunity to be restored to God’s love. To get there, we need to surrender ourselves to Jesus and submit our lives to His Authority. We cannot take it for granted and we must not demand it as a right. It only comes to us when we yield our hearts, minds, and souls to Jesus, by accepting Him as our Savior, Lord, Judge, and King.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to give our lives to You in ways that will honor Your mission and glorify Your Father in Heaven. Prevent us from taking You for granted and keep us from misinterpreting Your sacred words. Help us to place our hearts into Your Hands, and our souls into Your Spirit. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Emerald Fields

Deuteronomy 11:11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

On each of the three Scottish coach tours that I have led, there came a time when someone said, “Everything is so green!” Scotland is covered with so many emerald hills and green fields that when you see them for the first time, it’s like being given eye candy. The richness of the colors is so beautiful that for many American tourists, it remains amongst the most vivid of their memories.

But why is everything so green? What causes the fields to brightly glisten like emerald patches across the landscape?

Rain. Lots and lots of rain. For most of the year Scotland drinks rain from the heavens; this in turn enriches the soil and allows grass to grow everywhere. Over here, we are so used to sprinkling our lawns in the height of summer to keep it growing. Over in Scotland, the rain constantly falls and so the land is blessed with an abundance of grassy meadows, fields, and hills. And that’s also why there are so many cattle and sheep in Scotland – there’s plenty of green grass to support the livestock.

To the ancient Israelites, God’s promises of a land overflowing with milk and honey, along with an abundance of rain, must have sounded like Paradise. They had spent 400 years working in the irrigated fields of the Nile, making bricks and growing feeble crops. God was not only taking them out of slavery, He was sending them to a fertile valley where they wouldn’t have to toil as hard to survive. Not only would He supply their needs, God was also willing to give them abundance beyond their wildest dreams. And that’s why it was called the Promised Land.

In our own lives, we go through some dry and empty times, when we can become discouraged and even depressed. That’s when we need to ‘stand on the promises of God,’ as the old hymn states. God never forsakes or abandons us to misery. He never lets go of us in the midst of despair. And He is able and willing to get us through desperate moments, in order to lead us to those promised times of abundance and everlasting love.

Prayer: Lord God, You act in mighty ways, leading nations from slavery and oppression into the light of abundance and prosperity. You also care deeply for Your people and Your promises are always fulfilled. Lord God, we look to You as the source of all our blessings and the sustainer of our lives. Bless us with Your abundant love and bring us to Your amazing place. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.