I remember a hill beside our house in Edmonds, Washington where I lived when I was a boy of 10. The hill led to the woods, and it seemed like it was 100 feet high. Of course it wasn't, but it seemed that way when I was a boy. I can remember running with my bike as far up that hill as I could, then throwing myself and the bike down to keep it from tumbling backwards. Then I would crawl the rest of the way up the hill, dragging my bike behind me, until I reached the top.

That was the easy part!

Next I would sit on my bike at the crest of that hill, working up the courage to ride back down. When I finally did, the thrill of the ride was like nothing else, with pulse pounding and wind rushing into my face as I flew down that mountain. Those of you who remember such times know well that feeling:

It was the feeling of freedom!

I'm a little over a half of a century past those days, and I have watched with sadness as the freedoms of our great nation seem to be as distant as the memories of my childhood. Wicked men and women with a seemingly unquenchable lust for power and money have done everything the can to steal our freedoms and, at times, we have just sat and watched them do it. It's kind of sad when you really think about it, but what can we do?

I think we all have our own ideas as to that, but maybe the solution is much simpler than we think. Maybe the solution was given 2,000 years ago and we have just failed to pay attention. What is that solution, you may be wondering? It is simply this:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:31-32, NKJV

Do you see it? When a person believes in Christ Jesus, listens to what He says, and then continues to do what He says, that person begins to know the truth. And that truth will bring freedom, first in the most important area of our lives - the spiritual, but then also in the area that is also important to us - the physical.

The fact is that for too many years people have preferred and surrounded themselves with leaders who promise them "goodies". And we vote for these people and give them power over our lives in exchange for these goodies. And, in effect, we exchange our freedoms for things that really don't amount to a hill of beans, and then we wonder what happened. What happened is that we have forgotten the truth. As a result, we have lost our freedoms.

That would be bad enough, but we have sold not only our freedom, but also the freedom of our children and grandchildren.

So what can we do? Since we cannot return to the carefree days of our youth when we instinctively knew that there was nothing better than freedom, maybe we might want to consider returning to something even more important: The truth that those who believe in Christ and live in His ways will be free. It's not until we accept that most important truth that will surely set us free, that we can then go about figuring out how to take care of our physical bondage that has resulted from our abandoning God in the first place.

I don't know about you, but I am ready to start the process of regaining some of the precious freedoms that we have lost of late. That process of restoring freedom begins with the truth, and that truth can only be found within the Word of God! Are you willing to take the time and effort that it will take to learn those precious truths from God's Word? If not, don't be looking for freedom - it has never been an option for the lazy. But, if you are willing to begin the effort of reading the Bible, you will find the truth and that truth will set you free!