Thou Shalt Be Free

Three thousand five hundred years ago God gave us his rules to live by from a mountain in the Sinai desert. These rules aren’t conditions of a relationship with God but a confirmation of one. The first four rules are about honouring God and putting Him centre of all. The next six are about honouring the people around us. It is about liberty and equality of all. Everybody is on an equal footing because we are all made in God's image.

In the final part of The Sinai Code series, Thou Shalt Be Free, Andy tells us that God took His people out of Egypt and at Sinai raised them up all on the same level. They were slaves no more. In God's nation He did not want any king to rule but with Him at the centre. This was a hard concept to understand for the ex-slaves and soon they begged God to allow them to have a king. They threw out equality to have what they thought is more liberty

In 1776, America tried to get back to what God had in mind at Sinai. I think America did a good job with liberty and equality under God but now they seem to have lost the plot and think they can go it alone without God. They are trying to weed out God from every aspect of daily life.

No God in schools.

No God in work.

No God in church.

Two other countries also changed the world with their throwing off the shackles of kings and queens. In 1789 saw the French Deists sweep away all authority and turned to the rights of the people under a supreme being. God had to step aside to liberty and equality. Closer to our time but still eons ago, saw the Gnostics change mother Russia in 1917 when they threw out God along with the Czar. Both countries were noble in their end view but with no God at the centre they too missed what God had in mind at Sinai.

America who is battling to have both liberty and equality at the same time surprised me at the inauguration of Barack Obama when Rick Warren prayed over the nation. But it doesn't surprise me when America cried foul when he used the name of Jesus in his prayer.

Almighty God
Our Father, everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one."
And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today, we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequalled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.
And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes – even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations, and all people, will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life – Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus – who taught us to pray:

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

Liberty and equality for all under one God is what God has in mind for us with our many problems and imperfections.

We shalt be free.