“The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
Happy 233rd B-Day United States of America! I don’t know if my patriotisms is on the rise thanks to my age or to CNN. I arrived in this country as a young boy 10 years old. Almost 42 years has passed since the day I flew from Cuba to Miami and I have come to consider the USA my country.
Through CNN and other networks we have recently seen the struggle in Iran. How those precious people protested the outcome of their election, how the young and the old, male and female, risked their lives to try to bring changes, seeking greater freedom from their current government. We saw the coup in Honduras, as ex-president Manuel Zelaya was accused of speaking and acting against the Constitution of Honduras. Now we see a Honduras divided with chaos on the streets; only God knows what will be the final outcome of this. I think of countries like North Korea, China and Cuba where the government oppresses its own people and I say to myself: “God, I love the USA!” I have often said it in private but today I am saying it in public: “the closest human thing to the Devil is any form of government that robs its people of their God given freedom.”
There are many other nations around the world where there is freedom, where there is peace, where the power is in the hands of the people, where their vote counts and they are free. Not seeking to brag or to make my nation as better than others, I reminisce of the wisdom of our founding Fathers as they drafted the Constitution of the United States of America. In just the First Amendment we have: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Petition. If you have not recently paused to think of ALL these Freedoms we have in the First Amendment alone, please do so. We have been given the right to believe or not, the right to express and write as one so chooses and, the right to meet and make a petition, without violating our laws.
I have not visited Cuba since I left in 1968 but, María, my wife, did a few years ago. It was a family visit; she accompanied her aged mother to see her uncle. Having lived in and visited poor countries, we have seen poverty. However, the greatest negative impact was “the lack of freedom”. Cuba is a nation where everything seems to be illegal. She tells me the story that while visiting with her uncle, all of a sudden, she was informed of the bad news; government agents were coming to arrest those that were selling illegal home baked items. One of the suspects; an elderly grandmother that baked cookies to sell to children in order to make a few pennies. Some other suspects; a couple of 15 years old girls baking a cake and selling pieces of that cake. What a pity! What a shame! What extreme oppression!
May our prayer be: God, thank you for Freedom, thank you for my Country and for all other countries around the world where Freedom reigns. God is the Ultimate Creator and Seeker of freedom: “We have freedom now, because Christ made us free” (Galatians 5:1).
Happy 233rd B-Day United States of America! I don’t know if my patriotisms is on the rise thanks to my age or to CNN. I arrived in this country as a young boy 10 years old. Almost 42 years has passed since the day I flew from Cuba to Miami and I have come to consider the USA my country.
Through CNN and other networks we have recently seen the struggle in Iran. How those precious people protested the outcome of their election, how the young and the old, male and female, risked their lives to try to bring changes, seeking greater freedom from their current government. We saw the coup in Honduras, as ex-president Manuel Zelaya was accused of speaking and acting against the Constitution of Honduras. Now we see a Honduras divided with chaos on the streets; only God knows what will be the final outcome of this. I think of countries like North Korea, China and Cuba where the government oppresses its own people and I say to myself: “God, I love the USA!” I have often said it in private but today I am saying it in public: “the closest human thing to the Devil is any form of government that robs its people of their God given freedom.”
There are many other nations around the world where there is freedom, where there is peace, where the power is in the hands of the people, where their vote counts and they are free. Not seeking to brag or to make my nation as better than others, I reminisce of the wisdom of our founding Fathers as they drafted the Constitution of the United States of America. In just the First Amendment we have: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Petition. If you have not recently paused to think of ALL these Freedoms we have in the First Amendment alone, please do so. We have been given the right to believe or not, the right to express and write as one so chooses and, the right to meet and make a petition, without violating our laws.
I have not visited Cuba since I left in 1968 but, María, my wife, did a few years ago. It was a family visit; she accompanied her aged mother to see her uncle. Having lived in and visited poor countries, we have seen poverty. However, the greatest negative impact was “the lack of freedom”. Cuba is a nation where everything seems to be illegal. She tells me the story that while visiting with her uncle, all of a sudden, she was informed of the bad news; government agents were coming to arrest those that were selling illegal home baked items. One of the suspects; an elderly grandmother that baked cookies to sell to children in order to make a few pennies. Some other suspects; a couple of 15 years old girls baking a cake and selling pieces of that cake. What a pity! What a shame! What extreme oppression!
May our prayer be: God, thank you for Freedom, thank you for my Country and for all other countries around the world where Freedom reigns. God is the Ultimate Creator and Seeker of freedom: “We have freedom now, because Christ made us free” (Galatians 5:1).
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