God has really been speaking to me lately about what the true meaning of freedom is.  This world would define freedom as the ability to do whatever you want. But is this definition Biblical? God's Word teaches us that sin puts us in bondage and truth sets us free. So freedom isn't about doing whatever you want but is the result that comes from choosing to do what is right.  This definition also applies to civil government. When a country has citizens that govern themselves by choosing to do what's right then very little external government is required, but the opposite is true also- when the citizens don't choose to do what is right then more and more external government is needed which will restrict the citizens in more and more areas of their lifes. Our Founder's knew this well and that is why they felt that their was no better school text than the Bible for instructing children in righteousness to maintain a free nation. How far from this we have come! Bibles can't even be handed out on a public sidewalk near a school now- read here. How sad for all those children who are no longer hearing the Truth that will set them free!

In my new Book I just purchased that I mentioned in my last post I read a great quote by the Honorable Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-1894), Massachusetts orator and legislator:

"All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government the more they have of individual self-government.  The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint.  Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or the bayonet."