“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”
~John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America and Signer of the Declaration of Independence
There will come a day when those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ will see that Utopia. When the new heaven and new earth are unveiled, and we are its city set on a hill, gleaming as a trillion bright lights. When love is the banner and God is its King. And we’ll understand freedom on a whole new level.
The freedoms our Founding Fathers wanted to bring us in this country were only a shadow of the aching of every soul for spiritual freedom. As much as we want to bring heaven down to us, no matter how good we could make it, its always going to be less than our hearts desire.
But we have that freedom inside us now, purchased for us on another hill, the hill of Calvary.
And each of us carries the light of that freedom when we agree with Joshua and say
But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15b
Suppose we took those words of Joshua to heart and lived them out in all their righteous glory, and light the darkness around us in a spectacular display of God’s immeasurable love, grace and mercy.
We would allow the Holy Spirit to move us to love passionately, to give wholeheartedly, and to bring the greatest, most joyous message of freedom the world has ever known.
We would let the Word of God permeate our thoughts and actions and it, not the world, would dictate how we would change and who we would become.
We would fling open the gates of heaven into our lives with our prayer and obedience, dispelling all fear and flooding our lives with God’s boldness and power. And we would serve the Lord with as much dedication and courage and bravery as those who fought to purchase and keep our earthly freedoms, living out the greatest commission to “..go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20
We would live out the light of the glory of that future Paradise, right here and right now, and set the world around us on fire for Christ.
Oh, what a world that would be.
