The Cost of Freedom

This is my article from the front page of the March 411:

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to go to Washington D.C. with Shauna Fleming’s family. The Department of Defense wanted to recognize Shauna and Orange Lutheran for the collection of 2.6 million letters of thanks. It was an incredible event. It was also the first time I had been to our nation’s capital.

One morning, Mr. Fleming took me on a tour of some of the sights around town. At the Korean war memorial there was a wall with the following words etched on it – “Freedom is not Free.” It was so powerful to see that for the first time and it has stayed with me ever since we have returned.

It has also caused me to think about something else. The freedom that is described in that phrase is an earthly freedom. That freedom does come with a price. Many times that cost is a person’s life.

There is another freedom that has an eternal value. That freedom comes when we believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ freed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. That freedom is free. That freedom is an eternity with God! There is nothing we can do to earn it. It comes totally by the grace of God. As Paul wrote in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Thank God for our soldiers who protect our earthly freedoms every day. Thank God for his Son, whose resurrection insures of an eternity of freedom.

And thank you for your prayers and support of this Orange Lutheran ministry. To Him be the glory alone.