The Believer’s DECLARATION of DEPENDENCE

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and based on the facts of God’s Word, I DECLARE myself to be FREE INDEED (John 8:36).

My liberty is seen in three realms: First, concerning the god of this age, to whom I once belonged, I have been DELIVERED from the power of darkness and have been translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col. 1:13), turned from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18).

Secondly, concerning my relationship to this world system, my Saviour gave Himself for me that He might deliver and rescue me from this present evil world (age), according to the will of God my Father (Gal. 1:4).

Thirdly, concerning the terrible slavery of sin, the Scriptures declare that though I once was the slave of sin, I am now the slave of God (Rom. 6:17-22) and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

The source of my liberty is found in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ in which I truly boast (Gal. 6:14). The cross is my Statue of Liberty, as it were. It was there that my soul was set free. In Christ’s death I died, and in Christ’s life I now live (Rom. 6:4).

Based on the unchanging facts of God’s Word, I joyfully declare myself to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Jesus Christ my Lord (Rom. 6:11). I am not free to live as I please or do as I want. I am free to serve Christ and do as He pleases, living unto the One who died and rose again for me (2 Cor. 5:15).

My Declaration was not written by men, but written by the living God. It was not signed by men, but signed by the Lord Himself and sealed with the blood of Christ. God has declared me to be FREE INDEED and I am to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free (Gal. 5:1).

My Declaration is not a Declaration of Independence, but rather a "Declaration of Dependence." I declare myself to be totally DEPENDENT upon my God. Of myself I cannot keep the law. I cannot measure up to God’s righteous standards. "How to perform that which is good I FIND NOT" (Rom. 7:18). The more I try in and of myself, the more I seem to fail, "for the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom. 7:19). I thus acknowledge that Jesus Christ is my only deliverance from my wretched self (Rom. 7:24-25).

The Lord Jesus Christ is MY VINE (John 15). He is my LIFE SOURCE. Apart from Him I can do nothing, because HE IS MY LIFE (Col. 3:3-4). The battle is the Lord’s! He shall fight for me. The life is the Lord’s! He shall live in me. "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). "For to me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). I can’t, but He can. Whenever I try, I fail; but whenever I trust, He succeeds. Thus, with a firm reliance upon my God I will claim the victory which He won and which He gives to me: "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:5-7).

The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!

GWZ I.F.

Printed with permission

Christian Quotes from John Adams

“We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”

“[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever."

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion (Biblical Christianity). Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious (Christian) people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

“The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.”

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence”

"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."

"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen."

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe."

"Let them revere nothing but religion (Christianity), morality and liberty."

"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

John Adams

Christian Quotes from George Washington

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible."

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained”

"Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do---then do it with all your strength."

“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.” "It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."

"The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."

"If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of God."

"No people can be bound to acknowledge the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency"

“I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.”

“Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”

"I earnestly pray that the Omnipotent Being who has not deserted the cause of America in the hour of its extremist hazard, will never yield so fair a heritage of freedom a prey to "Anarchy" or "Despotism"."

George Washington

INDEPENDENCE... FOR YOU??

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD...Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that FEAR HIM, upon them that hope in His Mercy" (Psalm 33:12,18).
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 "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10 as inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia)

INDEPENDENCE

. One of America's greatest historic foundational documents, The Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress and signed by John Hancock in the city of Philadelphia. George Washington said that The Declaration marked “an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good.” The independence in this American republic was to be free from foreign control, free to follow and to find its dependence upon God.


DEPENDENCE

. What we forget is that, in declaring independence from an earthly power, our forefathers made a forthright declaration of DEPENDENCE UPON ALMIGHTY GOD. The closing words of this historic document solemnly declare: “With a firm RELIANCE on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Fifty-six men placed their names beneath that pledge and they lived up to it. They personally paid a great price for the freedoms we now enjoy.

TRUE FREEDOM
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Our country was founded upon the basis of an idea — LIBERTY. It was not to be a FREEDOM FROM GOD which always leads to license and ultimate slavery but rather a FREEDOM BUILT UPON GOD AND HIS WORD. Freedom is not free but must be earned anew by each succeeding generation. “Liberty without obedience is confusion. Obedience without liberty is slavery” (William Penn). Rights without responsibility are the seeds of anarchy (disorder, violence). The issue is not freedom from want, war, etc. but the issue is freedom to work, worship, buy, sell, to succeed, to fail, etc.

TERRIBLE

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“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). America today is experiencing the effects of FORGETTING the God of our Fathers. We need to be reminded of a solemn warning that God gave to another great nation which had just been declared independent from bondage to another nation. Although written over 3,000 years ago it applies to modern America today: “What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou FORGET the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons...Then beware lest thou FORGET the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage...And it shall be, if thou do at all FORGET the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient into the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 4:8-9; 6:12; 8:19-20).

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but SIN is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). “For the WAGES of SIN is death; but the gift of God is eternal LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). “If the Son therefore shall make you FREE, ye shall be FREE INDEED” (John 8:36) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED" (Romans 10:9).

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

MBC I.F.