to New Life Missionary Church!

We extend a heart-felt invitation to you to join with us in worship and fellowship at New Life Missionary Church.
	We pray that as you join with us, you will grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." (The Declaration of Independence)	"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." (The Constitution of the United States of America)
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." (Pledge of Allegiance)	"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (The New Colossus)
These are all calls to freedom. These words represent the ideals that we believe in and want our nation and government to be built on. Galatians 5:13-26 is also a call to freedom but of another sort. Paul writes to the Christians in Galatia: "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another."(5:13) Paul was facing people who wanted to enslave the new Gentile Christians to Jewish laws. In a sense in his letter Paul declares independence from that law. He proclaims that we have been set free from the tyranny of trying to make ourselves righteous. It is not we who make ourselves righteous but God through Christ who graciously forgives and cleanse us. He sums this new freedom up ironically in the term "servant," or "slave." We should use this freedom to serve others. We have been set free not to think of our own wants and desires. We have been set free from selfishness so that we can truly love our neighbor. Before Christ we were lost in our selfishness, but now we are free to participate in God's love for all people through our service.