Freedom - I am concerned

I am blessed to live in this country. The freedom, opportunity, and prosperity that we are privileged to are truly amazing. How many people around the globe dream of what are daily realities to us? I can still picture the Mom we encountered in Africa who wanted us to take her son with us so he could have a better life and future.However, like many I am concerned. As much as we are blessed by the convergence of national, political, religious, and individual freedoms embodied in the DNA of this great nation, we are falling victim to the temptations that come with them. This is nothing new, greed has been one of (if not the) flaws that has plagued the American experiment from the beginning. It has dug a deep divide between the rhetoric of exemplary freedom and daily reality.I am concerned because we are spurning the wisdom of God’s word, the Bible, choosing instead to lean on our own understanding. So much so that the opinions and philosophy of Ayn Rand are deemed wiser than the ageless wisdom of God, with disastrous results I might add. The following is an excerpt from Time Specials regarding Alan Greenspan, “The Federal Reserve chairman — an economist and a disciple of libertarian icon Ayn Rand — met his first major challenge in office by preventing the 1987 stock-market crash from spiraling into something much worse. Then, in the 1990s, he presided over a long economic and financial-market boom and attained the status of Washington's resident wizard. But the super-low interest rates Greenspan brought in the early 2000s and his long-standing disdain for regulation are now held up as leading causes of the mortgage crisis. The maestro admitted in an October congressional hearing that he had "made a mistake in presuming" that financial firms could regulate themselves.”¹ He presumed the idea of the basic goodness of man, which stands in stark oppositions of God’s declaration that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). One can quote the philosophies and opinions Ayn Rand, Hollywood and TV personalities, prominent business men and women, and most anyone with a PhD behind their name and somehow it has credibility, but dare to mention a scripture and immediately it becomes unprintable and illegitimate for discussion in the public square.Take deficit spending as an example. The Word of God discourages debt, borrowing, cosigning, and living beyond your means. Proverbs 22:7 sates, “…, the borrower is the lender’s slave.” As a nation, as a people daily we are voluntarily enslaving ourselves to a mountain of debt that is unfathomable and a curse to our children’s children and beyond. “No problem, we can make the payments,” is the refrain echoed from our houses of government and the mouths of millions.Godlessness, greed, and self-gratification, freedom does allow us to heed their siren call, but those who do will end up not being free at all. God encourages and warns us, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love” Galatians 5:13 (NIV). “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God” 1 Peter 2:16 (NASB). Freedom is a gift from God. At its core it allows us to chose Him and His wisdom and ways and reap His blessing. If we chose to use our freedoms to divorce ourselves from God we will deceive ourselves into thinking we are smarter, wiser, and better than we really are and be slaves to sin in all of its forms. “While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, …” 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NIV).I am concernedTo God be all glory, Pastor Hans

¹(25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis. The good intentions, bad managers and greed behind the meltdown– Alan Greenspan)