07/04/2025
A Special 4th of July Message from Dr Mike & Growth Resources:
INDEPENDENCE INDEED!
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Unlike the freedom we celebrate as a nation every 4th of July, the assurance of freedom Jesus offers isn’t about external liberty, as wonderful as that is.
The freedom Jesus came to give us is a soul-deep release from the grip of sin, shame, and brokenness — because the gospel has the power to liberate us not only from sin but also from our broken psychology.
We live trapped in cycles of guilt, fear, anxiety, and people-pleasing. We're haunted by the belief than we are never enough... and never will be.
Self-help books tell us how we can construct our way out of these kinds of tortuous beliefs and experiences. But not likely with much success...
.. because they fail to take into account a pivotal truth — one so pivotal in fact that we might call it the gospel truth: personal freedom is not achieved... it is received.
Liberty of this kind, soul-deep liberation, is “the gift of God, not of works,” as Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us.
When we surrender to Christ and turn the reins of our life over to Him, we are not “improved” — we are made new! The Savior breaks the chains we often don’t even know we’re wearing because we’ve worn them so long.
And glorious freedom — He invites us to live from acceptance and not for it!
The presence of Christ within us anchors our worth, once-for-all established, and guides us into life abundant. Life liberated.
On this great day of celebration for our nation I would remind us all that a personal liberation is being offered us in Christ — right here, right now.
As A. W. Tozer put it, “All that Christ is, all that He has accomplished for us is available to us now if we obey and trust.”
Happy Independence Day!
