LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

“For the Lord is the Spirit,
and wherever
the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.”
2 Corintians 3:17 NLT
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Tomorrow is the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the representatives of the original thirteen United States of America. Part of that Declaration declares, “We hold these truths to be self–evident, That all men are created equal, That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Our founding fathers did not say that government gives us the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, but rather that these rights are gifts from God, and they committed themselves to protect those rights for the people. But, in our time some of these right are in danger!

I don’t mean to belittle our national government- For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. However, I wish to call attention to a higher level of unalienable God given rights.

Spiritual life- To all who believed on his Son he gives the right to become children of God, reborn—not physically, but spiritually by the Holy Spirit who gives birth to spiritual life. Jesus promises all who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.

In the kingdom of God, spiritual freedom is guaranteed. Jesus assures us you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free - you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Paul says, For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Even creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

The pursuit of Happiness is not the right to acquiring material things or the ability to control what happens to us so everything works out the way we want it to. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.