Freedom Is Not Free

In our darkest hours hero's show us how to face our fears!


It's difficult for a person to sacrifice for someone else.  But it's worth it to some for a good cause, like freedom for our country. Christ sacrificed his life when we were but yet in our sin. 


Memorial Day has become a vacation time to many of us.  In 1971 our government extended Memorial Day to a full weekend.  Most of us think about barbecues and swimming season more than we do what it really stands for.  A sacrifice without thankfulness is meaningless, and that's what it's become.


I had a very unique Memorial experience at my church this Memorial Sunday morning and I am going to try to write my Pastor's story in his own voice. A Vietnam Veteran, he describes what freedom and Memorial Day really stands for.  He spoke with humility and a depth of love few of us know, and at moments with great emotion.  These are his words.

Freedom is not free.  We saw that on 911.  America had been drawn into war.  People had the idea that a hero was some sports person, but 911 gave us a glimpse of who the real hero's in our nation are.  That day helped redefine our values again.

This was the first time we had seen an attack on our citizens on our own soil.  I'm glad that Americans had never had to see legs blown off and hand to hand combat or your fellowman being shot down. But that day we saw our children bloody and blown up. We saw a steel tower crumble and disintegrate into a thick cloud of dust.

Being a hero is not kicking a football or ringing a basketball into a goal.  It means doing something good for others in a crisis.  You can be a hero yourself by doing good, like being a friend to a needy child or an elderly person, or helping someone overcome something you've overcome.  Caring enough to make a difference in someones life is a hero.

This day is a day of remembrance.  Remembrance of those who made a difference.  It cost them something to give us our freedom.  Think of the millions who have served in the military.  It has been one and a half million people who have served in all the wars beginning with the Civil War.  Today is about those who lost their lives for our freedom.  It is fitting to honor them today.

On June 05, 1967, Randy Jack Glenn, my best friend died before my eyes in Vietnam.  He was going across a rice patty when 50 caliber rifles began shooting at him.  I was asked to escort his body home to his parents.  Randy was the oldest of four boys from his parents.  I'll never forget his father as he picked his son's body up and hugged him.  His son had paid the ultimate sacrifice.

On June 15, 1968, I was dug in a hole in Vietnam.  That day the Vietcong came out upon us.  They were pushing towards us from the left flank.  We were calling to command to give us permission to clear for an air strike. Something told me not to come out and go across that river.

I heard a voice in my head that day say, you are going to die today just like your buddy did.  Don't ever take it light what servicemen have to go through for your freedom.  Romans 13:7.  May God continue to bless the USA and give us a spiritual awakening; a spiritual Tsunami. The hour is late, and the Anti-Christ Spirit is sweeping across this nation.

Politicians have taken away our 10 commandments and undermining the principles our nation was built on.  We must have a spiritual awakening.  We must get back to the bible.

Our men and women are willing to put their lives on the line and a lot die for our cause.  They're are people who refuse to serve.  There's people who refuse to serve in the church for the Lord too.  They do it because they realize that freedom is not free. You have to give of yourself to make others free.  It's difficult to die for someone else.

The age of servicemen in Vietnam was 18 to 19 years old.  I was a sergeant and was 20 years old so I was old compared to most of those boys.  But they all knew that if we die it was for a good cause.  People sit in the church all the time and hear the word and yet never surrender to God.  Tomorrow is not promised to you.

Jesus died while we were yet still filthy in our sin.  Our servicemen sacrifice for a good cause, but Jesus willingly died for those that were not even good.  Why would God send his only son to die for that?  Because of his amazing grace.  Jesus' life was not given because we deserved it but because he loved us. He loves his own creation.

None of us deserve the right to be forgiven sin.  We could never do enough to earn it.  The bible is a story of God's love for his creation.  But because of man's disobedience it separated us from God.  Sin will always separate you from God.  God keeps reaching out to save man. He saved Enoch, he saved Noah, Abraham for his faith, and David, a man after God's own heart. Forty two generations later he gave us his son.  John 3:16.  Yet, we glaze over this most read scripture of its true meaning in our hearts.  It's a dangerous thing to turn away from God.

I was in Vietnam and I was unsaved.  I heard bullets zoom past me, came upon booby traps that blew body parts off of men.  I remember praying, God, if you will get me out of this mess, I'll serve you.  But 17 years later, I found myself in darkness and dying spiritually.  Vietnam had put a darkness in me.

One day God called me out and light clashed with darkness.  I have an urgent message for you today. God will change your life.  A relationship with God is not for a week.  It is forever and forever and will never end. Jesus did not die so you could be rich with material things, but so you could have eternal life.

I seen what the natural life can do.  I've seen fire strike and stop nature.  It was a massive ball of fire, so powerful that it sucked the oxygen from the air.  War is destructive.  War is hell.  But war is nothing compared to the hell fire of damnation.  It burns on forever, unceasing, unending torment.

The fires of hell will never be quenched.  A place where your memory will never forget.  A preacher's voice will echo over and over into your ears in hell.  You'll go over those sermons you wished you had paid attention to over and over.  2,000 years ago Christ purchased your freedom and gave you eternal life.  No country can do that for you.  Freedom is not free.  Christ spilled his blood for that freedom. Romans 5:7-11.

You can serve the God's of this world and keep sinning but you can't serve Christ and keep sinning.  Sin is an enemy to God.  I didn't say that, God's word says it.  He saved us from sin: meaning to let it go.  Christ didn't fight that battle so that sin could overtake you again.  If you produce sin you will die and go to hell. We don't fight a terrorist  for him to come back on our territory.  That's what Jesus saved us from when he went into the pits of hell and took the keys from Satan.

We don't have to keep what life handed us, because Christ will give us a new life when we make him Lord of our life.  He washes you and gives you power to live above sin.  You can't straddle the fence.  You won't make it.  It's a heart matter.

My heart desired to do what was right for my country, but no matter how good I was as a person, I was lost and had I died I would have gone to hell.  I can't tell you enough what war does to a heart.  It turns cold and unable to love, but the blood of Christ restores it all.

Pastor Jerry Nelson is man of character who has raised the standard in his church for Godly living. I never understood what had built such a strong, moral character in him, now I know.  He has a mind that Christ's blood regenerated, for with his history he would have been like so many Vietnam Veterans spending their days dealing with injuries from agent orange and a mind with post trauma. God had a purpose for him and he is one of the most thankful and pure hearts I know today in ministry.  

He knows he was bought with a price and when they asked him who he is he simply says, I am the redeemed.  He's a King David spirit and has never lost his dance and praise for the one who restored him. He often thanks the Lord for satisfying him with long life.  He has seen evil and he has been touched by the Master and is anointed by the Holy Spirit with the mind gifts and healing. 


I am thankful today that he did not die on that battle field because he has changed my life and many others that has gone on to be disciples of Christ under his leadership.  He knows who he is in Christ and many people have been healed by his anointing and he is a preacher that has a voice of command of stronghold by the devil.  He often says, sometimes I kick the door in just to see if Satan is behind it.  He runs a tight ship in his church and has zero tolerance for division, backstabbing or ill treatment of another saint.