Whole books can be written about this as well, and I am not a theologian, so I’ll defer to other experts on this topic. I can, however, verify from experience the absolute truth of the statement.
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law. (NAS)
Jeremiah 29:11-13
‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me, when your search for me with all your heart.’ (NAS)
These verses in some ways encapsulate the 13 reasons to want freedom. God wants to give us hope, a joy-filled life of peace, plans for freedom, and purposeful tasks. He will hear us, and will respond to us so we can hear Him. We will find His presence and draw life from it. Security, acceptance, love, and happiness. All the things the world promises but fails completely to deliver.
The world tries with all its might to offer these things. Self-help books. Cable channels. Material wealth and style. Comfort. Health habits. Technology. And my favorite, education, which is often touted as the single best way to solve many problems. I’m a teacher, so I’m all for it. And yes, it can solve a lot of problems. I have just one question though. If education is all it’s cracked up to be, then why do the corporate criminals who bilked the nation out of billions of dollars so often come from Harvard, Yale, and the other supposedly preeminent universities? If these schools–and by implication, the education they offer–are so great, shouldn’t they be good enough to “teach” their students simple ethics about right and wrong?
Unless, as is actually the case, correct moral conduct cannot be taught in a classroom. It can be suggested, at best. Some will catch it, some won’t. But the world has no answer to the deep questions residing in the human heart. Why do you think so many movies have been made about the all the notorious serial killers of the past century? People want to understand evil, because they think they can educate it away. If we can just understand it, then we can do something about it.
This is one of the great delusions of our time. In Jurassic Park (1993), one of the great lines is that “life finds a way.” In spite of all their tampering with the genetic codes of dinosaur DNA and restrictions they placed on it, life found a way. Well, evil finds a way too. You can incinerate it, imprison it, commit it, educate and train it, medicate it, and even legalize it. But you can’t do away with it. It will find a new way to arise. Subtle or direct, obvious or imperceptible, it will sneak its way into our society and work its decaying force with an unbridled passion far greater than any inspirational teacher or politician or movie or song or community outreach center or charity or fundraiser or research center or invention can do anything about.
The only way to freedom from evil is through God’s word, which reveals to us the truth about good and evil. But we will miss the message, and become slogged in the ways of the world once again if we don’t learn how to walk and live in the freedom from sin promised to us in scripture.
What God offers far eclipses anything in the world. And this is true in this life as well as the next. Looking at the next life doesn’t do you any harm in the encouragement department, however, as we saw at the outset of this writing. Check out the last four chapters of Revelation for the most detailed glimpse given to us. Just reading it, especially chapter 21, lifts your spirit higher than anything here in the world. Remember, set your minds on “things above.”
Turning Worldviews In Today's Society 